Nelson Estevez Talks His Role In ‘Acrimony’ And How Tyler Perry Helped Him As An Actor

A journey of self discovery led actor Nelson Estevez on the perfect path to a promising career in Hollywood. The New York native has gone from earning a business degree and working in the corporate world to mastering the craft as a mixed martial artist and is now utilizing everything he’s learned along the way to become a brilliant actor among the ranks of action stars like Jason Statham and Vin Diesel; whom he mentioned as actors he admires.

These days you can catch Nelson is a number of projects, but next week you’ll see him on the silver screen as Casey in Tyler Perry’s “Acrimony starring Taraji P. Henson. Glambergirlblog.com had the opportunity to chat with Nelson about his views on betrayal, his role in the Tyler Perry project, and how Perry helped him become a better actor.

Photo: Michael Roud

“The way Tyler [Perry] works, he has a set structure and he has a set system of how he operates,” Estevez shared. He first worked with Tyler Perry in the 2016 series Too Close to Home as Elm. Working with the writer/director forced Nelson to level help in his craft simply being around Perry and the standard he holds for his actors. Estevez said, “He also works with multi cam while you’re performing there’s five or six cameras pointing towards you and towards the scene so when you think you’re not on you actually are, so you have to come correct. You always have to bring your A game.”

Prior to working with Perry it wasn’t as easy to bang out three to four script pages while on set for Nelson but the “hands on” work ethic of Tyler Perry bettered the actor for the future. “I remember in the beginning I was very overwhelmed, so I did try to cut some corners and I didn’t do a lot of the work. I didn’t do my research on some of the scenes and he called me out on it. I remember we were in the middle of a scene and he [Perry] told me to come here. I looked at him like ‘OK,’ he sat me down next to him and said ‘where’s your script man.’ I said, ‘right here sir.’ I showed him the script and he called me out,” Estevez revealed to GGB, but it was in this moment where a shift was happening.

“He said, ‘where’s your notes, what’s your intentions, what’s your objectives, who are you speaking to, what’s your relationship, why don’t I see any of this written on your script?’ I started stuttering and said I needed to settle in. He expected better than that from me,” Nelson said. “I’m from the east coast so when you get called out you just say you know what you right and just move forward, but for me to see that through him that he expected more from me it just put a fire up my butt and I knocked that scene out. The next scene, it was my longest scene of the day, it was four pages, and I did it in one take. He said it was incredible and he came back to me and shook my hand and said that’s what I’m talking about. Even now he says I got a lot of potential but I got to get working on my craft.”

Photo by Chip Bergmann/ Lionsgate

Estevez had a second chance to show Tyler Perry how he’s been working on his craft for his role of Casey in “Acrimony.” The film stars Taraji P. Henson as Melinda, a scorned, faithful wife out to get everything she feel she’s deserved from her devious husband Robert, played by Lyriq Bent. Nelson’s character has a close connection to the family and Melinda. “He’s [Casey] known Melinda, who’s played by Taraji, for years. He’s always been supportive of that family. What I really loved about that character is that he’s an entrepreneur, him and one of his close friends that he knew from high school started their own moving company. He’s there to provide but he’s also there to protect. There’s a certain side of Melinda that will come out eventually because she feels scorned and it’s interesting to see how his character changes but then he realizes maybe I don’t know her as much as I think I did.”

With the film having a theme of cheating and the wrath that can come from that, Nelson shared his views on if raising hell is the only way to react to being betrayed in a relationship. He said, “No I do not think it’s the only way. I feel like as humans we’re all individuals and we all respond to it differently, but I do feel like there will be a point where we all will experience some kind of anger and deceit and afterwards it’s up to you whether you decide if you’re going to take some action in regards to it. Whether you’re going to take some action to move forward to grow from it and learn and just realize that sometimes things do come around for those type of people or if you’re going to take action into your own hands and say, ‘no he owes me. I’m going to do something to hurt him or I’m going to do something to get him back.’ That’s all depending on the person.”

Photo by Chip Bergmann/ Lionsgate

Despite the heavy mood on set at times given the subject matter of the movie, working with Taraji P. Henson was a dream for Nelson. “She’s so dope. [laughs] She is so dope. Even when I was not on set if I knew she was performing I would just be behind the scenes watching her. I was just like a sponge. Also Tyler, those two working together. Tyler is such a visionary. He sees everything. He has such a trained eye. Then Taraji, the way she just turns it on is so ridiculous. Her acting muscle is so fine tuned, so well-trained.” He recalls one time on set when the cast was cracking jokes in between scenes and as soon as Taraji heard action from Tyler she turned it right on. “I was just in shock, but lucky for me at that time that’s what my character had to do,” he joked. “I was just really impressed.”

And fans will be too once the film drops. Estevez thinks this is Tyler Perry’s best film to date. “He took a little bit more time artistically in my opinion and I can’t wait for it to come out and for everyone to see it.”

Outside of “Acrimony,” Nelson’s latest projects include lending a voice role for Aisha Tyler’s directorial debut “Axis” and be on the look out for his short film “Tubby Hook,” a passion project written, directed, produced, and starring Nelson himself.

Be sure to catch Nelson Estevez in Tyler Perry’s “Acrimony” in theaters Friday, March 30th and check out the official trailer below. In the meantime keep up with him on social media @NelsonEstevez  all across the board.

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Photo: Michael Roud