When Eriq La Salle got the script for his latest project, something hit home. In Hallmark Channel‘s Relative Stranger, he saw the opportunity to do more than just a feel-good film. It was a chance to connect with a complex issue that affects all of us, in some form or other: fear of failure.
In the film, La Salle plays Walter, a onetime star athlete and father of two who has been absent for six years, forsaking all contact with his family. When his father dies and he returns home for the reading of the will, his reappearance elicits mixed emotions from his family, from anger and hostility to warmth and wonder. But after all of this time, Walter isn’t sure if he has what it takes to rejoin them.
La Salle explains that for him, it’s a film about Walter’s fear of failure and how it affects his life. It’s a fear La Salle knows well, in nearly every vital aspect of his life. “Every person’s circumstances are different and unique,” he qualifies, “but I can say as an artist, the fear of failure affects me a certain way. As a man, the fear of failure affects me a certain way. As an African-American man … those are my specific circumstances, but that doesn’t mean that it’s not a universal theme that all people can relate to on certain levels.”
What’s important to La Salle is how he chooses to use that fear, to turn it to his advantage whenever possible. “I’m sure that the Donald Trumps of the world, to a degree, have a fear of failure and that motivates them. It’s really, do you let it beat you, or do you try to beat it? And I think that’s, a lot of the times, the difference between success and failure.
“If you’re fortunate, I think you learn to channel your fear in a positive way, in a positive direction,” he continues. “I use fear of failure to motivate me. I use fear of failure to help me to approach things from different angles and try to solve things, to be proactive, to be more creative, to be more imaginative, to be more resourceful. … That’s what I strive for.”
It hasn’t been a bad plan so far. La Salle’s acting career has been long and storied, and he’s now working on a new chapter for himself as a director — which, for him, constitutes his real return to ER, as he talks about the forthcoming end to the show that helped him to make his name in the industry. “The most important thing, for me, was going back as a director,” he explains. “That’s where my passion is, right now. I’m more attracted to that possibility, and it became a reality.”
It’s a mission he’s taking seriously, and one that ideally complements his return to ER, as he gladly accepts the responsibility for bringing one of TV’s most respected shows out on a pinnacle. “To see it coming to an end …” he reflects, “I’m proud of the work that we did on that show as an ensemble. As cliche as it sounds, it is somewhat like a child, something that you gave birth to and now you’re kind of seeing it graduate, or you’re at graduation and you see that child graduate with honors. … There’s a lot of energy now [on the set] — having been back and directed it — there’s a great commitment to making it the best show and going out on a very strong note. And those are the things that actually excite me, or the things that sort of solicit an emotional response from me.”
Relative Stranger premieres on Hallmark Channel March 14.