All About the First Actor with Down Syndrome to Lead an Action Movie: Race Eberhardt 'Has That It Factor'

Yahoo

29-01-2025

Race Eberhardt might soon be a household name!
The 37-year-old is the first actor with Down syndrome to ever lead an action movie, in the upcoming film Strait Undercover, produced by Fish & Crown Creative, according to the Today show.
"This is a story about an underdog USDA agent who dreams of doing something big with his career," a synopsis for the film reads. "He's the only one in his department with the guts to go undercover."
"His 'special ability' centers around his capacity to communicate with Earth's plants, a skill he takes for granted until it ultimately saves the day. 🎞️," it adds.
Fish & Crown President/Director Ben Gonyo, who directed Strait Undercover, spoke to Today in an interview that aired Wednesday, Jan. 29, where he said of Eberhardt, "He has that 'it' factor that when I see him on camera, I want to see more."
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Eberhardt plays Race Strait, the protagonist of the film. And as Gonyo explained on Today, "The goal was to create a character around the real-life Race."
The filmmaker continued, "It wasn't to try to push him into a box, to be something. So we took his real-life essence and then wrapped a story around it."
According to the synopsis "Strait Undercover stars an actor with Down syndrome, but takes a refreshing approach by not focusing on Race's disability, intentionally omitting any mention of Down syndrome throughout the film."
"We're breaking away from the tradition of forcing actors with special needs to identify with their special need on screen," it adds.
"For us, it was very important to not make the story about the disability," Gonyo continued in his interview with Today. "What we see traditionally in films is that the characters on screen are forced to identify with their disability, almost as the reason they're on screen. I feel like that's a way that it used to be done, and we want to look forward and do it in a new way."
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The director also told Today that Strait Undercover "is an example of artists doing it differently."
"And maybe that can inspire other people and they can see, 'If you can see it, you can be it.' You know, that saying? Maybe that they can take something from that," he added.
For Eberhardt — who began acting at age 10, including in local productions of Mary Poppins and Beauty and the Beast — he now counts Race Strait as a "new hero" among other big-name action stars and characters like Chuck Norris, Tom Cruise and Jason Bourne (Matt Damon).
As for Gonyo, "He is a dream-come-true guy," Eberhardt said on the Today show, to which the filmmaker replied, "Both of our dreams comin' true."
Strait Undercover is slated for a summer 2025 release, and is available for preorder now at straitundercover.com.
Read the original article on People