Solomon Trimble Keeps His Possibilities Open

Born in Wichita, Kansas, Solomon Trimble started performing at a very early age. Apache and Lakota Indian, Trimble has studied dance, guitar and voice, and even has a Bachelor’s degree in mathematics. After trying his hand at acting for a few years, he was brought to the attention of mass audiences in the role of Sam Uley, in the vampire flick Twilight, one of the top-grossing films of 2008.

Although it is unknown if he will reprise his part in the sequel New Moon, Trimble had a great experience on Twilight and would love to continue to be involved with the production. The multi-talented artist recently spoke to MediaBlvd Magazine about fan encounters, writing poetry and being focused enough to keep all of his possibilities for the future open.

MediaBlvd Magazine> How did you get into performing, since you started so young?
Solomon Trimble> I’ve done cultural dancing and powwow dancing, since I can remember. I attribute my confidence to having been rooted in my cultural upbringing. I’ve been in a few plays, PSA’s, and whatnot, but my love for performing started in high school. I went to boarding school in New Mexico, where I found my love of poetry and was introduced to “slamming,” from a teacher named Mr. Pett. I’m glad I found slamming as an outlet because I hated when writing teachers would tear apart my work. Slamming allows for my voice to imprint inflections where I want to emphasize or pause to show true meaning of what I wrote. I’ve written a lot of poetry. I’ve even written at least 12 poems from my character’s perspective to his girlfriend Emily, and three to his ex. I ended up talking to Stephenie Meyer about it and she said, “Your character’s not really a poet.” Regardless, I sometimes post them on Facebook or MySpace.

[size=9]MediaBlvd> When did you decide to focus on acting?[/b]
Solomon> I tried really hard to get into film, from the age of 14 to around 20. I was in really small stuff. When I was 14, I was in a couple of public service announcements for Oregon Public Broadcasting, and I did a little short film, called Leo’s Wake-Up Call. The same guy that directed one of Michael Jackson’s videos did it. They needed an Indian and I was like, “I’ll be your savage.” But, small time doesn’t pay the bills, so even though it was what I loved to do, I just put it down. I didn’t give up, but I had to eat. I remember when I first told my mom I wanted to be a math major, she said “You know, that’s really hard. You’ve really got to go with your strengths.” I didn’t say anything because no one knew that I was good at math. I didn’t tell anyone. It was easy to take an academic break from performing. I never got any respect at the dinner table when it came to the family goin’ around, saying what they had planned for their lives. I remember one night, my dad asked everyone, “What are you going to do with your life?” My brother answered, “I’m gonna be a welder,” and my sister said, “I want to be a college professor in Indian Education.” And, when it got to me, I said, “Man, I want to be a rock star!,” and everyone laughed, although I was dead serious. At the next family event, when it came around to me again, I said, “I’m gonna be a mathematician!” That, sadly, got the same reaction. But, I was the first in my family to graduate from college, and I was cast as Sam in the same month. Now, I’m learning Quillute, working out like crazy, playing guitar, taking Master’s courses in statistics and on the weekends and performing poetry across America. I’m just a nerd who really loves the arts.

[size=9]MediaBlvd> What do you think makes you so focused?[/b]
Solomon> I get asked that more than I get asked about Twilight, believe it or not. I just remember my grandfather, Servando Trujillo, telling me his two mottos. One was, “Wash it, if it stinks,” and the other was, “If not you? Then it will not get done.” Also, I don’t drink or use any drugs, which is just a personal preference of mine, and not religious or cultural. I don’t think a man is a man unless he takes ownership of his mistakes. I also can’t discount the fact my parents are great. They had a way of showing me the truth of how the world works. I think I was too focused from 18 to 23, though. For example, I got really good at guitar, out of the blue. Within a year of my father giving me an old guitar that he fixed, I could play any song that I wanted. I spent eight hours a day, seven days a week, for two years, when I probably should have tried talking to girls. Then, I went through a real nerdy, dork phase and I got really into puzzles, like Saduko, Rubik’s cube, Tetris and Street Puzzle Fighter II Turbo. If you haven’t played Puzzle Fighter, you have not lived!

MediaBlvd> How did you originally get involved with Twilight?
Solomon> It was through Lana Veenker Casting in Portland. The most memorable gig I got from there, aside from Twilight, was getting cast as “the high-five guy” in an Intel training video. You’ve got to start low. And, there were a couple other things they helped me get. I was an extra in the Gus Van Sant movie Elephant, and some other tiny little things. I struggled, trying to get into the biz. But, I got a call from my little brother, who said, “Hey, there’s a casting call for Indians in Portland, and you live right by there.” At the time, I was living on the Portland State University campus. He said, “We’ve got to go to this thing.” But, I didn’t take him very seriously. He didn’t even ask me politely, now that I think of it. He just got on the train from Lummi, his reservation, and called me and said, “I’m here!,” and hung up. I was like, “Oh, crap, he must be serious.” I had already gotten an email from Lana Veenker Casting about the audition, but I had decided that I didn’t want to go because it was for 16- to 19-year-old Native American males, and I thought, “I’m 24. Forget it. I’m too old.” But, I agreed to take my brother down who asked, “Can you read, if I read?,” and I was like, “Yeah, dude, I’ll totally read.” I knew almost everything from the script, just because I read it so many damn times with him. He went in, and then came out and said, “I don’t know. I don’t think I did good.” Then, I went in and read the beach scene between Bella and Jacob, as Jacob, because everybody was reading as Jacob then. After I was finished, they said, “The director is here and we want you to read for her because you did really well.” The rest is history.

MediaBlvd> Did you get nervous about that at all?
Solomon> When they said “director,” I thought they meant casting director, so I was like, “Whatever!” I didn’t know it was going to be Catherine Hardwicke, the director of the film. I was totally relaxed and flirting shamelessly with everyone in the room, trying to schmooze my way into the film, and then Catherine walked in and said, “Alright, let’s do this!” So, I read again, still having no idea who she was. I had seen Thirteen before, and I loved that movie, but I didn’t get her name and I had never seen a picture of her before. She was like, “That was great! Let’s do improve.” Now, my background is really in slam poetry, and I’m constantly writing too much poetry, instead of actually living life, so I just spun out of control from a line in the script that consequently never made it into the film. The room went quiet, and then, when I was done with this crazy improved monologue, I finally looked up, and Catherine was staring at me with her eyes really wide. She was like, “You can do this!,” and I said, “Yeah, I can do this.” As I walked out, one of the head casting people said, “Wait for a call. We’re looking at you for Sam.” But, I heard everybody that came out of there say, “Oh, I didn’t do good, but they’re looking at me for Sam,” so I thought, “Oh, that’s their way of saying, ‘You tried.’” I figured I didn’t get it, and I left. Then, I got this phantom call saying, “Yeah, we have the script here and a book waiting for you, and things look pretty solid.” I was like, “Who is this?”

MediaBlvd> No hard feelings from your brother, for getting cast when he didn’t?
Solomon> No, my family is not like that.

MediaBlvd> Even though you had a small role in Twilight, did you do any research into Sam’s back-story?
Solomon> I did hard-core research. I already had connections to the Northwest customs, through my brother Marcus, who is Lummi. The biggest connection is with my aunt, Liz Sanchez, who teaches on the Quileute reservation. She connected me with a few fluent native speakers. I worked with wardrobe a lot, mostly trying to capture the authenticity of current native clothing. I had a whole lot of conversations with wardrobe about what the current-day Quileute on the reservation wore. We talked about how they dressed. One Quileute kid said “We’re somewhere between skater and gangster.”

MediaBlvd> What was it like to deal with the weather in Portland, while you were filming?
Solomon> On set, something in wardrobe was set aside for me that I disagreed with, so I went to Catherine and said, “Sam is 19, at this beach scene, according to the book, and he turned into a werewolf when he was 16. He shouldn’t wear pants. He should wear shorts and a tank top because their body temperature is higher, all the time. I already have a big jacket on, so couldn’t I just wear a tank top and shorts?” And, she was like, “Okay.” I regret saying that because it was so cold. I got sick and didn’t want to tell anybody. Catherine thought it would be too cold because it was snowing, so I had an extra hoody on, as well as the big jacket. I was glad, in the end, because I would have done my lines with my lips quivering. Taylor and Krys were bragging that they had hand warmers in every pocket, and shoved some in their boots. I remember some crew member saying, “Why is the Alpha shaking?”

MediaBlvd> What was it like to work with Taylor Lautner?
Solomon> Working with Taylor was great. I looked into all of the others actors before filming, and watched their movies and YouTube videos. I didn’t watch Shark Boy and Lava Girl, but I watched some of Taylor’s martial arts videos, and I was crazy impressed. He is a ninja.

MediaBlvd> What was Kristen Stewart like?
Solomon> Most of the cast was put in a huge van before my scene shot. We all got to chill while they were waiting for it to stop raining, so we got to talk. She was really cool. She was very level-headed and very modest. I sang a few contemporary native songs to make everybody laugh and lighten the mood. What I remember most, about talking to Kristen, is when I said “You did a really good job in Into the Wild. You have a good singing voice,” and with a surprised look on her face, she said, “You saw that? Thank you!”

MediaBlvd> You didn’t have any scenes with Robert Pattinson, but did you get to meet him at all?
Solomon> I didn’t have any scenes with Rob, but I saw some pre-production clips and knew that he was crazy talented. I met Rob twice, but every time we met, he had to pee. I saw him at lunch, one day, on set, and I extended my hand and said, “I’m Solomon. I’m playing Sam,” and he replied, “Sorry, I’ve got to piss.” Some crew member asked me “Did he just snub you?,” and I said, “No, the man has to pee.” The next time I got a chance to talk to him was after the premiere. I was hanging out with Catherine and her whole crew, up on the rooftop of some bar in L.A., and I saw Rob and he was like, “Damn, every time we meet, I’ve got to piss,” and he walked by me. Later that night, we traded phone numbers and I sent him a text saying, “This is Solomon/Sam.” Then, I memorized the number and took it out of my phone because I have a habit of losing my phone when I jog.

MediaBlvd> How has the whole fan experience been for you?
Solomon> I like meeting new people, fans or not. I do have a new strange fan encounter, though. There was this father-daughter pair starring at me, in a mall near my house. I was eating lunch there with my sister. They were nice and waited until we were finished eating to come and ask for an autograph. I was expecting to sign a Twilight shirt for the daughter, but the father hands me a XXL shirt and says, “Now all I need is Taylor’s signature!” I asked, “It’s for you sir?,” and he said, “Yes! I’m so excited!” I signed it, and the man skipped off, merrily. His daughter was trying to contain the same expression I was. All in all, I’m glad to see the fan base is expanding.

MediaBlvd> Now that you’ve studied dance, guitar, voice and acting, is there one thing that you want to focus on, or do you just want to keep doing everything?
Solomon> I really, really want to do gritty independent films. I want to play some strange characters. I admire John Malkovich, Sidney Poitier and Johnny Depp, and their film choices. I just joined a Native American-based production company, called Gold Mind Productions, based out of Warm Springs, Oregon. I’m ghost writing raps and playing guitar. It’s more of a Native American Motown, if you will. I’m also talking to a few directors that are interested in filming me, slamming all of my poetry and/or making a film based on it. For now, I’m just keeping my schedule open.

MediaBlvd> You mentioned having written poetry from your character, Sam, to his fiancée, Emily. Do you want to share any of those?
Solomon> I will be publishing these in June. I’ve written three books, so far, with the working titles of Lovey-Dovey Pillow Kisses and Other Crap That I’ve Written; Killing the Indian, Saving the Man; and the third title is too lewd to write here. I may even use a pen name for it, out of fear that someone in my family might read it and disown me.

Here is “Honey Rose”:
Her beauty has me
It nourishes the air enough
That roses grow in the wind
Without soil
I could scream sweet nothings in her ear
But they can’t be heard
Not over the volume at which I adore her face.
I thought I was so clever and keen
Dipping a rose in honey
And her the butterfly to suckle
I’m such a fool
Standing at the ebb of her iris
I realize how lucky I am to be reflecting
When she blinks I’ll be trapped in her moods forever
[This is a place I will call home
A place where roses grow from honeycomb.

The next one is called “Emily.” The thing about this poem is that I don’t normally write poems that rhyme the entire time. Every time I read this to a fellow poet, they say, “It rhymed! What the hell is wrong with you?” I’m totally against poems that rhyme, but rules are meant to be broken:
Dear Emily,[/size][/font]
I know you can’t read my mind like all the rest,
And that of two, you may doubt that I love you best,
So know that from time to time while lying on your chest,
I imagine playfully fighting our child over a chance at your breast,
And when he coos with smell of milk on his breath,
In that moment, you curb my appetite for death,
You save me from myself,
Your puppy dog Sam.

This last one I read aloud on a podcast. This best describes how I feel about the idea of Imprinting:
ImprintHer breath warms the brick. And somehow I am reminded that as her prisoner I can solely live off of bread-hers it seems is only broken for me. I’m so thirsty now . . . Although a fresh water stream has found its way through the mortar, I wait for her to fill my cup. I smile when the warden tells me that I am the last to be sentenced.

MediaBlvd> Are you hoping to play Sam again in New Moon?
Solomon> I would be honored to play Sam in New Moon.


Source: Media Blvd Magazine