Action, Set, Go with actor Vincent Vermignon

Vincent Vermignon is a native from the French Caribbean Island of Martinique. He has appeared in series like BBC’s Luther, CBC’s Random, he has an upcoming movie Beyond Existence and other films. His most current role is Staircase which is based on the Michael Peterson story who was convicted of murdering his wife in 2003. Vincent plays Jean-Xavier de Lestrade, a French director, writer and producer who filmed the documentary. Vincent is also fluent in English, Spanish, Creole and French.

Vincent started acting at the age of 28 he always wanted to act but when he was younger his parents did not consider acting as a job. “The way I was raised my parents didn’t see it as a proper job. When I turned 28 years old my mother told me where some amateur acting jobs go just to have fun on the weekends,” said Vincent. So, Vincent took his mother’s advice and went to the auditions not expecting it to turn into a full-time career for Vincent she didn’t realize she had awakened the sleeping monster of acting in him.

Vincent’s first acting job was in theater “it was my first time on stage, and I knew I belonged there. I felt so much pleasure being there,” said Vincent. At this point he knew this was what he wanted to do for a living. Even though there can be a lot of pressure when it comes to acting, Vincent has come too far to go back and continues to press forward in doing what he loves to do. “Sometimes your nerves can help you, they cause you to work harder because you don’t want to fail,” said Vincent.

Moving from the Caribbean Islands to the United States was a big transition for Vincent which he handled very well. “I came with the mentality that I was on a mission. I had a job to do. I was so focused and that helped me a lot,” said Vincent. He felt in his mind he was fulfilling a purpose and knew what he had to do. Moving to Atlanta made him feel at home due to the fact it’s predominantly black and filled with culture that reminded him of home. Vincent recalls a time when he first arrived in the United States, he was on set for the first time and very nervous he remembered the words of a guy on set “He looked at me in the eyes and said bro you got this,” said Vincent. Those simple words meant a lot to him and have stayed with him throughout the years giving him inspiration to succeed.

Vincent would like to become a film producer one day to be able to share unknown stories of refugees he believes people need to be more educated on what these people really go through. “Most of the refugees are young males crossing the sea and the fact they take this amount of risk to leave everything behind to arrive at a country where no one wants them but it’s so hard in their own country they are willing to risk everything to survive,” said Vincent. Vincent makes a valid point and I believe he will succeed in his endeavor to open the eyes of others to awaken the hearts of people to hear the cries of the ones less fortunate than ourselves. Be sure to watch him in “The Staircase”  which is already premiering on HBO. 

Written by Gloria Peebles