Bradenton native Troy D. Williams talks ‘The Watchman’s Edict.’ See it Monday at AMC 20 Bradenton.

Troy D. Williams graduated from Southeast High School in Bradenton, where he played on the varsity basketball team for three years. Now age 33, Williams has discovered a new passion: acting.

His first full-length film has a local premiere Monday night at AMC 20 Bradenton.

The film is titled “The Watchman’s Edict.” It is a political thriller about an investigative journalist digging into a government conspiracy.

Bryan Boykins, a graduate of Full Sail University in Orlando, wrote and directed the movie.

The Bradenton Herald spoke with Williams and Boykins about the making of movie, the Bradenton premiere and how they both discovered their passions.

Troy D. Williams

So you went to Southeast High School?

Yes. I played basketball, three years varsity. I got to play with Adrian McPherson my sophomore year, which was pretty cool.

Were you doing any acting or drama in high school or is that something that came later?

It’s something that came later. But I think where my first love for acting came from was a drama class that I was forced to take as an elective. I couldn’t get out of the class. I had a fear of public speaking so I really hated that class, it terrified me. We had to do improv and things like that in front of the class at least once a week and then a big play at the end of the semester. I think that’s where the foundation was laid. Although I was an athlete, that artsy side of me really came out. I kind of kept it to myself though. That was kind of the beginning.

When did you start thinking it was something you wanted to do?

When I was in college. I went on to college right after high school. In 2003 I went up to University of Central Florida up in Orlando. Right around my sophomore or junior year I started doing runway modeling. That’s actually where I met my wife as well. While I was doing that though I just got this love for being on stage and entertaining people. Allowing people to have a good time watching what you do on stage. That’s when I started thinking, “Hey, I want to get into this entertainment industry.” I really didn’t want to do a long-term career with modeling, but acting was kind of a perfect segue.

But it didn’t happen until years later. I got my degree in business in 2007. I got into the corporate world, and I’ve been in the corporate world since 2007. I got kind of burnt out chasing the dollar bill. I just said, You know what, for once in my life I want to follow my passion. This is something I’ve wanted to do for years and I’m just going to go after it. Let’s see what happens. I just dove in head first. I’ve been doing it for two and half years now. that was at the end of 2015.

How did you get your foot in the door?

Well the good thing is here in Orlando they shoot a lot of independent films, short films, things of that nature. And then they have Full Sail University, they do a lot of auditions there. Literally every Saturday they’ll hold auditions for films. I just contacted one of my buddies who is a photographer and got me a professional head shot done so I would have something to start going to market with. Then I just started going to auditions. I started auditioning like crazy. I didn’t book any roles in my first 15 or 20 auditions. There was a lot of doubt. You start thinking maybe I should stick to my day job.

But then I got a book. My sister-and-law actually got me a book called “Confessions of a Casting Director.” And then I read that book and got an understanding of what you should and should not do in an audition. I was too tense and tight, worried about being perfect at an audition instead of just performing the character and living in the moment.

So just kind of rolling with it?

Absolutely. When I started doing that my whole mentality changed. As oppose to going in there an trying to kiss up like you do in the corporate world. In acting and auditioning, they don’t want to hear about that stuff, they just want to be blown away by your performance.

Was there anything that was particularly challenging to you in improving your acting?

I think with acting, there’s so much going on. My biggest challenge is getting out of my own head. I’m a very analytical person, so sometimes I have that tendency to really overthink. When you do that, you find that your mind gets in there with the character. Then the character doesn’t come across as well— you can see it’s kind of a battle where it’s you in there and there and the character. Whereas when you fully become one with the character, you just live in the moment, your thoughts are pure, your emotions are pure based on that character and what’s going on in that scene. That’s when things are going to flow smoothly.

So is there a moment when you feel like you become the character?

Yes, it’s an amazing experience. I think that’s part of what’s drawn me to the craft and to do this long-term. When you’re able to do that and get it right and you’re able to fully become one with that character it’s an amazing experience. I’m learning about myself, about how deep you can go in a character and get different layers of depth. I think acting has really made me a more well-rounded person. I get to play all these different characters and see how other people think — people that are not like myself. They have different backgrounds, upbringings, relationships, values, morals than me. When you don’t judge the character and you fully commit to it, you see. We’re all very different, but we’re all similar in what we want in life.

Bryan Boykins

So you wrote and directed “The Watchman’s Edict.” What was the inspiration for the script?

The inspiration for the script was a story that we found. We had been reading articles about implanting micro-chips in animals to keep track of where they go. So people can find them if they get lost and things like that. I’m a bit of a conspiracy theorist, I’m not going to lie. When I started finding articles about chips being put inside of people for the same purpose it got a little interesting. We started talking about what the reasons would be for that, what it would take for something like that to happen and what the world would look like if that were the case. So naturally, we just got really really curious and wanted to put together a story that made people think about what we’re doing as a society.

I heard there was a little bit of a time crunch making the movie?

Yes. We had three days to shoot the entire film. It ultimately turned out to be 56 total hours of shooting. We did it virtually non-stop. On a Saturday we started at 6 in the morning and ended at 10 p.m. only to turn around and come back 5 in the morning the next day. It was definitely crazy. We went from one location to the next and finished over here while part of the crew started going to the next location. There was a lot of stuff in the script that logistically we wanted to do but without a big budget or the ability to blow up stuff or block off streets we couldn’t. We missed out on some car chases, but replaced them with foot chases.

Was this your first full length movie?

It was my first full-length. I’ve done full-length documentaries, but not a narrative piece before.

How would you describe the film to someone who hasn’t seen it?

It’s a fast-paced, real film. It’s about something that’s currently going on in front of our face and a lot of us don’t see it. Maybe because we don’t want to, but it’s definitely a real issue. It’s a fast-paced, in your face thriller.

What are you working on these days?

Right now we’re doing a series of theatrical runs with this film, but we’re also currently writing a screenplay that’s almost done called “For the Greater Good.” That’s going to be a feature film coming up later on.

What drew you to filmmaking?

Oh my god, my mom. There’s no way around that. My mom has more VHS tapes and DVDs than anyone. She has a whole wall like people have books — just movies and movies. That’s what she loves, that’s what we do when I go back home, just sit around and watch movies. It’s one of those of things where you see how much your mom loves movies and you see how much your mom loves you. I just put two and two together and said “Man if I could make movies my mom would love me even more.” It just became a wrap at that point. Now she’s my biggest fan.

It will be pretty cool to have a premiere in Troy’s hometown.

Yes. That’s what I was kind of blown away by. I’ve seen him as a lead man in several different films but I didn’t realize he hadn’t been the lead guy in a feature-length film before. I realized that it was a first for him at the November premiere when he was talking about what the film meant to him, and that he was just a kid from Bradenton trying to do something that other people weren’t. I understood exactly what he was saying, because nobody makes films where I’m from. I know what it meant for me the first time I had a film show at home. When he said he had never had one of his films shown at home, there was absolutely no way I was going to let that happen.

Details: See “The Watchman’s Edict” 7 p.m. Monday at AMC 20 Bradenton, 2507 53rd Ave. E., Bradenton. Tickets: $12. tugg.com/events/the-watchman-s-edict-1avj.

This story was originally published July 20, 2018 at 1:19 PM.