At the age of 25, Utah native Corbin Allred has become an inspirational figure — the elder statesman, perhaps — to other aspiring LDS actors.
After all, Allred has been working in the industry, and has been living in Hollywood — or at least Southern California — for more than a decade (that is, around the two years he spent in Australia serving an LDS mission).
Allred made his professional acting debut in 1992, when he was 13, with what was essentially a walk-on role — or dance-on role (he was a clogger) — in an episode of the now-defunct television series "California Dreams."
He then landed his first theatrical film, a bit part in Mel Brooks' 1993 spoof "Robin Hood: Men in Tights."
Since then, Allred has, of course, gone on to bigger things:
In 1999, he had a small role in "Anywhere But Here," with Natalie Portman and Susan Sarandon, and co-starred with Kirk Douglas and Dan Aykroyd in "Diamonds."
He has two sitcoms under his belt, both short-lived 1997 efforts, "Social Studies" and "Teen Angel."
And more recently, he has had guest-star roles in such popular TV dramas as "CSI," "Judging Amy," "Jag," "Monk," "Navy NCIS," "Seventh Heaven" and "ER."
But he says he's perhaps most proud of his work in the new World War II drama "Saints and Soldiers," which opens in local theaters today.
"It's not as if I regret any role I've ever taken," Allred said. "But this is really what it's all been about for me. This is the type of project that an actor dreams about making."
Allred stars as Nathan "Deacon" Greer, a U.S. Army sharpshooter and part of a quartet of American GIs who escape German captivity and flee into the Ardennes Forest (filmed in Alpine).
"It's a very sneaky movie," Allred said. "It's set during World War II, but the setting is used to explore issues of faith and redemption."
"Saints and Soldiers" has already played at nearly two dozen film festivals — winning awards from 13. And as Allred points out, half of those were audience-voted awards. "That was very important to us. It showed us that the movie was going over well with audiences. And these weren't LDS crowds, either. These were festivals across the country, in California and in the Midwest."
Which, Allred believes, speaks to the universal nature of the story. He said that even though his character in the film is LDS — with references to him having served a mission to Germany — the character's specific religion is deliberately vague. "I'm playing the character as if he is LDS, but that's really not that important. What it comes down to is his faith in God."
Allred said he and the filmmakers were mortified when "Saints and Soldiers" initially received an R rating from the MPAA's Classification and Ratings Administration. "I don't think any of us ever thought that would happen. I mean, we knew we made a war movie that wasn't soft, but war is ugly. War is violent. We didn't flinch away from that. But we certainly didn't think we went to R-rated extremes."
Eventually, after some editing, the film was re-submitted to the MPAA and earned the more desirable PG-13 rating. "It was extremely important that we get the PG-13, so as many people could see our film as possible," Allred said.
The editing changes consist mostly of "alternate camera angles," according to Allred. "If you don't know what you're looking for, you'd think you were watching the same exact film."
The rating-appeal process was not without its frustrations, he said. "We tried to get them to tell us what we needed to change. Larry (Bagby, a co-star in the film) and I basically called them every day or every other day."
Allred said that, as an actor who prides himself on living up to his strict LDS standards, he was a bit chagrined over the initial R rating. When he was making "Anywhere But Here," his character was supposed to have a love scene with Portman's character — but after he balked, the scene was cut.
"I've heard people say that it's hard to get acting work if you're LDS and faithful," Allred said, "but that's not true, at least from my experiences. People respect you if you're honest with them — if you make it clear about what you will and won't do."
He's tried to impress that upon his "Saints and Soldiers" co-star Kirby Heyborne. "We had some discussions, because his character in the film smokes, and Kirby would never do that in real life. But the ones he smokes in the film are not real, they're stage cigarettes. He knows he's going to hear about it from some audiences. I've been trying to prepare him for that."
In fact, Allred has been trying to mentor Heyborne, a long-time mainstay of LDS filmmaking who recently moved to Los Angeles to pursue acting full-time. "He's such a talented guy. I can't imagine that he'll have any trouble being successful in Hollywood."
Allred has similar praise for the "Saints and Soldiers" filmmakers, director Ryan Little and producer Adam Abel — even if they did make him audition for the film. "I think they wanted me to be in it all along, but wanted to see if I would jump through some hoops for them," Allred said with a laugh.
He also has a special attachment to the material. The "sweetheart" photo his character carries is actually a snapshot of his grandmother when she was young, a photo his grandfather carried with him during World War II. "I used it to get into character."
Allred said he has been concentrating most of his efforts for the past year or so on "Saints and Soldiers," but now that the film is finally in theaters, he has resumed auditioning in Los Angeles — although he says he would like to work with Little and Abel and his castmates again. "Ryan and Adam are so full of good ideas. It's hard not to be excited when you're working on something with them. And I think they've got lots of really great stories they can tell on film."
E-mail: jeff@desnews.com