‘Moonlight’ a breakout for newcomer Trevante Rhodes

A few years ago, Trevante Rhodes was running track at the University of Texas at Austin, where as a sprinter he ran the 100 meter dash in 10.33 seconds.

Last week, he was back in Austin, but he left his running shoes behind. He was there for a screening of director Barry Jenkins’ “Moonlight,” one of the year’s most affecting dramas, in which the 26-year-old actor has a breakout role. And now, his career is taking off quicker than a sprinter from the starting gate.

Like a runner, Rhodes is taking everything in stride.

Review: Bask in ‘Moonlight’ of one of the year’s best

“My mom’s biggest thing when I was growing up was ‘act like you’ve been there before,’ ” says Rhodes, on the phone last week the morning after showing “Moonlight” to an Austin audience. “Obviously, being in sports, when you score a touchdown or when you win a race, you celebrate. But she told me, ‘Stop it, act like you’ve been there before.’ So that’s engrained in me now.”

He’s appreciative of the attention and the accolades heading his way, “but if you want to do something, you have to understand that when you reach a little success, it’s supposed to be that way,” the Louisiana-born, Dallas-raised actor says. “You can’t let anything affect or taint your vision.”

Destiny, or at least being in the right place at the right time, has played a key role in Rhodes’ ascent. He had interned at an oil and gas company for seven years and was planning to become a petroleum land man after college, but one day during his senior year he was stopped by a casting agent while he was jogging on campus. She told him about an audition she thought he’d be a good fit for, and having taken a theater introduction class to fulfill a degree requirement, he gave it a shot.

Rhodes didn’t get the role, “but the fact that I didn’t get it made me want to pursue it even more,” he says. After graduation he moved to Los Angeles, knowing he could go back to the oil and gas company if things didn’t pan out.

He gave himself two years to try his hand at acting. That was three years ago.

Rhodes landed a role on Tyler Perry’s OWN series “If Loving You is Wrong,” and also worked on Terrence Malick’s “Weightless” before he knew working with Malick was a big deal.

But “Moonlight” marks his true arrival. The film follows Chiron, a boy in Miami, through three stages in his life, as a child, a high school student and as a young man. Rhodes plays the grown-up Chiron, and the scenes he shares with a childhood friend (André Holland) are some of the most poetic moments in any movie this year.

Rhodes auditioned for the part — he initially read for Holland’s role — and when he was cast, he spent three weeks getting inside the skin of his character, who is still coming to grips with his homosexuality and burying it beneath his tough exterior.

“I walked around L.A. with this weight, feeling as though I had a secret to hide from everyone,” Rhodes says. “I felt this disdain toward everyone, because I couldn’t find any love in myself, so I couldn’t display that to anyone else.

“When I would see people, little kids walking with their families, I hated them, because they found happiness and I could not find that within myself. I was really closing myself off to the world, and I lived with the weight of that on my chest, feeling like I really couldn’t breathe and be my truest self.”

Now the work is paying off. Rhodes is getting recognized by audiences, but more than that, he’s getting people telling him how much he and the film have touched their lives.

“It’s the most incredible sensation to have someone genuinely come up to you and be shaking when they extend their hand or reach for a hug and to have tears in their eyes and say, ‘Thank you,’ ” he says. “Yeah, you want to be a superhero and have people tell you, ‘Yeah, you’re really cool in that film.’ But when you have someone come up to you and tell you that you affected their life, that you’re telling their story, that is just incredible. Because I feel like you’re helping influence the world.”

Rhodes knew “Moonlight” was something special: On Jan. 14 he tweeted, “2017 Oscar Nom ‘Moonlight’: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Cinematography.”

Which begs the question: Is he the supporting actor choice he predicted?

“I cannot say that!” he says, letting out a hearty laugh.

But if he is, he’ll know to act like he’s been there before.

agraham@detroitnews.com

(313) 222-2284

Twitter: @grahamorama

‘Moonlight’

Rated R: for some sexuality, drug use, brief violence, and language throughout.

Running time: 110 minutes

Opens Friday

A path to success

Name: Trevante Rhodes

Age: 26

Born: Ponchatoula, Louisiana

Raised: Dallas

School: University of Texas at Austin

Previous projects: Fox’s “Gang Related,” OWN’s “If Loving You is Wrong,” HBO’s “Westworld”

Upcoming films: Terrence Malick’s “Weightless” (2017), “Horse Soldiers” with Chris Hemsworth and Michael Shannon (filming soon)

Off-screen: Rhodes was on the U.S. Pan Am Junior Championship team in 2009, helping his team to victory in the 4x100-meter relay