Bermudian actor Daren Herbert is scheduled to appear in a new hit movie to be released next month.Mr Herbert, 34, will play the role of Agent Bothwick in the movie ‘This Means War’ starring Chris Pines and Tom Hardy. The movie is about two CIA operatives battling with each other over the affections of the same woman. They assemble teams to spy on one another, and Agent Bothwick finds himself on one of the teams.“‘This Means War’ is an action comedy, somewhere along the lines of a mix between ‘Spy verses Spy’ and ‘True Lies’,” said Mr Herbert.“It is a James Bondish comedy action film. We shot it last winter. I have seen a pre-cut and I show up more frequently than I expected. Sometimes you do work and it is in the cut on the DVD in special features.”Mr Herbert is living with his wife, Joanne Darrell Herbert, in Vancouver, Canada. He is currently on the Island to lead acting and musical theatre workshops for Troika Bermuda.“I haven’t taught very much,” he said. “I am in a class right now and I am going to do my best to recreate the studio that I work out of. My class is taught by a Canadian actress and teacher Michele Lonsdale Smith.”He said living and working out of Canada has been a source of difficulty, because he is not an American citizen. Appearing in movies, television programmes or theatrical productions in the United States requires getting through a lot of red tape.“I can not just walk into the markets in those particular places, although I do throw my hat in as often as possible because my manager is based out of Los Angeles, California,” said Mr Herbert.He described one instance in 2006 where he was granted an O-1 visa, granted to people of extraordinary ability, to work on a theatrical production in the United States, only have him blocked by the Performers Union of the Theatre.“I had auditioned and booked the role,” he said. “The theatre union decided not to sign off on it. So I couldn’t do the gig. That was part of the reason I went and worked in Japan for a time. I got another gig there at the same time.”To perform with ‘This Means War’ he received an O-2 visa, from US authorities, which is granted to ‘people in service to people of extraordinary ability’, and as a result Mr Herbert’s O-2 visa was tied to British actor Tom Hardy, along with several other actors in the film. Mr Hardy will be playing the villain, Bane, in the next Batman movie ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ that comes out this year.Mr Herbert has also appeared in movies such as ‘Dream Girls’, (2010) ‘Hot Tub Time Machine’ (2010) and Patrick Street Productions musical ‘The Light In The Piazza’ (2011) in Vancouver, among many others. He has also acted in a few television programmes such as Fox Television’s ‘Human Target’ and A&E channel’s ‘Breakout Kings’ in Vancouver. He has another appearance scheduled for ‘Breakout Kings’ this year.“I enjoy working and being on set, but it (my movie career) is still on the way,” he said. “I am also working on my own movie. It has been a slow year in Vancouver so there haven’t been a ton of opportunities to get on screen. I have done a lot of stage work too. It takes more time and effort and I tend to put a lot more into the theatre.“I love going to rehearsals and figuring things out. You feel the vibe back from the audience live. It is more time consuming. I feel literally engaged for the whole period of the contract. Working on film and television is more time crunched. Sometimes you are working with people you have never met before.”He said he never dreamed of being an actor, growing up in Bermuda. He was more involved in dance productions and worked with Suzette Harvey of United Dance Productions.Herbert originally went to the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on a dance scholarship, but found he couldn’t take the bruising physical pressure of dancing all day, every day. He transferred to the musical theatre programme, and found his niche.“My perspective just exploded,” he said. “I used to go to the music library to listen to musicals on compact disc. ‘Porgy and Bess’ was the first one I listened to. I was sitting in the library crying. I’d just never been exposed to that level of theatre before.”He later obtained a Master’s degree in theatre from the University of California at Irvine.“My advice to other Bermudians thinking of going into acting is, first and foremost, if you are not committed, don’t do it,” he said. “It is not easy. It is not what you think. It is not the way it looks on reality television. It is not easy for me even now.“For every gig I get, there are probably a 100 more that I auditioned for that I didn’t get. I do my audition, give it my all and forget about it.“If they call back, fine. I refuse to sit and wait and obsess. You can get beat down by so much rejection, it is part of the job.”n The Troika acting and musical theatre workshops are being offered on January 7 and 8 at Berkeley Institute.They are also being instructed by Broadway actor Stanley Mathis of ‘The Lion King’, ‘Kiss Me Kate’, ‘Wonderful Town’ and ‘Oh Kay’. For more information, e-mail info[AT]troikabda.com or telephone 537-7590.