A Life of Lesure
/
Look past the Sin City setting, the elaborately flashy sets, the beautiful women, and the decadent grandeur that is NBC’s hit television drama "Las Vegas." Look closer and you’ll see him, James Lesure, the smooth-talking, laid back actor who plays surveillance team member Mike Cannon. Lesure, with multiple TV and film credits to his name, is now climbing the fame ladder faster than J. Lo can move from one husband to the next. Sure, working with James Caan—yes, that James Caan—might be all in a day’s work, and being voted one of the hottest guys on TV might be just another gold star on his performance chart, but don’t expect fame to go to his head. This guy won’t make any exorbitant paycheck demands, publicly jump around on couches declaring his love for a Venezuelan supermodel or trash a ritzy hotel room any time soon. James knows what he wants—Hollywood staying power and a larger minority influence and authority behind the camera. It seems as though he just might have what it takes to get it done.
Lesure grew up in Gardena, Calif., an ethnically diverse city about 20 minutes from downtown Los Angeles. His family was active in the neighborhood, and it wasn’t long before the neighborhood became his extended family.
“I had a great childhood,” Lesure recalled. “I remember the block I grew up on. It was filled with African Americans, white Americans and Asian Americans, all on one block. People would come to our house for block parties and what not.”
After a brief stint at the Air Force Academy (“It wasn’t the lifestyle that I wanted,” he said), Lesure enrolled in the theater program at the University of Southern California. He soon found the road to success to be an arduous path, but was willing to sacrifice a certain level of security to follow what he really wanted to do—act.
“My parents couldn’t afford to send me to college, but they wanted the best for me,” Lesure said. “They wanted me to stay in (the Air Force) because I would be taken care of. But I was like, that’s not my dream, that’s not my love. I had to do it on my own. I put myself through college. I have to listen to myself and trust in my inner voice, my muse.”
Since co-starring with Holly Robinson Peete on the popular series "For Your Love," Lesure now has two hit TV shows on his résumé. Does that mean he’s edging closer to becoming a member of that top echelon of actors? “To me, I don’t feel like I’m elite yet,” said Lesure. “I look at the Tom Cruise’s or the Brad Pitt’s, and these kids are on the elite level. Me, I’m still a hustler, and I’m still going to hustle.”
Goals are very important and private for Lesure. “I’m grateful for the blessings and opportunities that I’ve had, but I’m nowhere near the goals in my mind that I’ve actually written down on paper,” he said. When asked what those goals are, Lesure simply answers, slyly, “Those are personal goals—sort of like world domination.”
If James were to achieve world domination, there is one thing he would change: the lack of behind-the-scenes minority power in Hollywood. While strides have been made for the recognition of worthy black actors and actresses (look at Oscar wins for Halle Berry, Denzel Washington and Morgan Freeman as examples), people of color still lag behind in off-camera power.
“In terms of television, I would like to see more people of color, be they African American, Mexican American or Asian American, being the heads of networks and making decisions about what different types of programs will show,” Lesure ruminated. “I don’t think enough of the diverse stories are being told and are being given the chance on television.”
Would Lesure himself be interested in producing? “Yeah, I would, I would like to get some more power and control in this industry. I’d like to see a drama with a primarily African American cast,” he said. “The majority of African Americans are on sitcoms, which is fine, but I’d like to see good dramas with African American cast members. I’d like to see that from an Asian American and Mexican American point of view as well, on network, and not just cable.”
It’s fitting that the character Lesure plays on Las Vegas started out as a valet driver before moving up to join the surveillance team at the Montecito Resort and Casino. Lesure himself made a similar leap in his own life. When he struggled with the critics and the reality that acting might not pay the bills, he found his own inner strength. “There were times where I would get emotional, breaking down after getting so much rejection,” James said. For him, however, acting was the only choice. “At the end of the day, I love performing, I love acting, I love the way it feels, I love the way I feel when I do it. There’s not much of a choice for me.”
Check out Las Vegas, Mondays at 9pm, on NBC.
(No longer continued)
“I was struggling early on in my life and I was asking myself questions about what I wanted to do. It turned out to be acting, so I thought, I’m going to pursue it to the fullest and be courageous with it and take a chance. And now, I have to listen to myself and trust in my inner voice, my muse.”
Life: Life can be long, life can be short. I’ve been enjoying my life.
Love: I enjoy love. It’s like a gift of life, that loving vibrations feeling. I am grateful to have received that in this lifetime, and I hope to continue to experience love with family, with friends and with intimate relations.
Death: Death is a hard thing. Death is something that when you’re young you might not have to experience it, but if you live long enough you probably will experience losing somebody close, and it’s a hard thing. I don’t understand it.
If you like this article, subscribe to our magazine on Issuu.
Follow us: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn
This article was originally published in Flossin Magazine. This article is edited by Edna Waters. This article is optimized for web by Steven Christian (Artist | Author | Podcaster).
