Child's Play: LoPorto, 13, Acts Like a Pro

On the set, Carmen LoPorto is like most actors. He shows up early in the morning to get ready for his scenes, he practices his lines and he goes about his craft with the air of a professional.

Off the set, LoPorto is like most 13-year-olds. He plays video games with his friends, he takes out the garbage and he goes about his life with the air of a child.

Sure he's a child actor, but he's not a "child actor." His days aren't filled with tabloid-story drama or headline-making public episodes. They're filled with hanging out with his friends and playing sports, especially his favorite, football.

And that's perfectly fine with the Hopatcong resident and his parents.

"He doesn't talk about it or have a big head about it," said his father, Robert. "When he's home, he'll do his normal stuff. As soon as he's done [acting], he turns it off and he's a normal 13-year-old kid."

Well, as normal as any 13-year-old who's been on a soap opera for three years and stars in an upcoming horror movie. There are some perks to that, said Carmen, who's about to enter the eighth grade at Hopatcong Middle School this fall.

"I get to have all my friends say, 'Hey, look, Carmen's in a movie'," he said.

Perhaps Carmen is so low-key about all this because it's not something he has been trained to do all his life, like some actors and athletes are by their parents. His career started at age 7 as something of a lark. His mother, Lynn, heard about an open casting call on the radio and so they decided to go and see what happened.

"I just wanted to try it out and if I was good at it, I'd do it," Carmen said.

He was good at it and, so far, he has been in handful of films and television shows, with his most prominent role as that of Jack Manning on "One Life to Live." It is a semi-regular recurring role that has seen him shoot almost 70 episodes in the past three years.

That doesn't mean it's all been easy.

Carmen, like all actors, has gone on countless auditions and lost many parts, yet "he knows how to handle rejection," Lynn LoPorto said. "He doesn't dwell on it. You have to be tough-skinned about it."

While the days on the set can be long, Carmen said he enjoys the work and meeting other actors. He also enjoys that his character on the soap opera is "a bad boy and sometimes I have to be sneaky."

His latest character goes far beyond sneaky. Carmen is the lead role in the upcoming horror film "Torture Chamber." As the film's main villain, Jimmy Morgan, Carmen must project an image that's very different than the clean-cut, well-mannered young man he is in real life. It was a job the film's director, Dante Tomaselli, had faith his young star could pull off.

"As soon as I saw his image, I had a strong feeling," he said. "When I met Carmen on the first audition I knew he was Jimmy, I just knew it."

Tomaselli said Carmen is an extremely talented actor who was able to project both innocence and evil, sometimes at the same time.

"Playing possessed is never easy—there are many layers—and he nailed it," he said.

Carmen said he enjoyed the experience and the character, but found it tough to adjust to the heavy make-up and mask he had to wear for six or seven hours a day.

"It smelled like rotten eggs; it smelled really bad," he said.

Carmen said he's not sure if he will continue acting as an adult, saying right now he's "doing it for the experience." His intended career goal now, like many other 13-year-old boys, is to be either a policeman or in the military.

That's fine with his parents, who aren't pushing their son in any direction.

"We give him his choices," Robert LoPorto said. "I don't want him doing anything he's not comfortable with."

"We told him from day one that the day you want to stop doing this, you stop doing it," Lynn LoPorto added.

That non-stage parent approach was noticeable to Tomaselli, who said he was "blessed with their positivity."

"His mom and dad, they were there every step of the way; [they were] incredibly supportive," he said.

Carmen seems to understand that and appreciate his situation.

"I'm able to have a 13-year-old's life," he said. "I can go hang out with my friends, go to movies and parties."

That time with his friends is important to him. Carmen said his friends, most of which he's known since before he was an actor, also are supportive, and "they won't treat me special because I'm an actor."

Yet, he is a special actor, according to Tomaselli.

"He definitely stands out as the most professional child actor I've worked with," he said. "Carmen takes direction in the film incredibly well. He's a nice, likable, down-to-earth performer. What more can you ask for?"

Maybe, just maybe, not to have to be the one to take out the garbage?