He attended Caravel Academy during his elementary and middle school years. In high school, he explored lacrosse, where he “started trying to act like I didn’t like acting.” He realized that athletics just wasn’t for him and transferred to Elkton High School in neighboring Maryland. He went to Boston University, where he graduated two years ago.
Since college, he has worked closely with his manager, who provides him with audition suggestions. Manjerico auditioned for Beppo even though he didn’t exactly match Sony Pictures’ casting description.
“Funny thing is, the role description for the movie was ‘just real professional clowns’. Like, no actors. We just took a chance and I just lied and we’re walked into the room because of that, which was awesome,” he said.
“I lost my mind,” he said after stepping onto the set. “On the third day, Tom Hanks showed up and I was absolutely, you know, shaking. It was an out-of-body experience. But he was so, so nice on set. He was awesome.”
A particularly marked moment. “I was just waving. And then I like to tell him… ‘breath’. And he did. It was something amazing, where there were just two people interacting, playing and agreeing on what we think the scene should be.
