C.J. Valleroy knew he wanted to pursue acting when he saw the 2005 movie "Mr. & Mrs. Smith." Little did he know, his first big-screen credit would come under the direction of that film's star, Angelina Jolie.
"It was very surreal," Valleroy told Headlines & Global News about working with Jolie in the new movie "Unbroken." "I wasn't so much starstruck as amazed. I met the most wonderful woman."
The 15-year-old Valleroy plays the young Louis Zamperini in the film about the future Olympian (played by Jack O'Connell) who spent 47 days stranded in a lifeboat after his plane went down during World War II. He and two of his crew members were eventually rescued but by rebel Japanese forces that placed them in a brutal prisoner of war camp.
Valleroy had the chance to meet the real Zamperini a few weeks before his death on July 2, 2014. Valleroy found the part of playing a real person not so much intimidating, but more as an honor.
"When I found out about this guy and read his book, it was just an honor playing him," he said. "You know when you get a role and you think, "Oh, Batman would be cool or Superman would be cool.' It was an honor playing a real superhero, not like a fake superhero."
When he's not auditioning for his next big role, Valleroy volunteers his time making knitted caps for cancer patients in the hospital.
"The most rewarding thing is always seeing them smile," he said. "It's the most awesomeness thing in the world."
His older sister turned him onto the craft. The siblings originally started making the hats for their aunt who lost her own fight to cancer.
"Her dying wish for me was to do this for other people. [She said], 'If you can make me smile like I did for the last couple months through my pain then you can do it for other people,'" Valleroy said.
"Unbroken' opens on Christmas Day and Valleroy hopes audiences take away the message to never give up.
"No matter how hard something gets don't ever let it stop you from reaching your goals. If you want to be a doctor and you have to go to school for four years, don't stop and try to take an easier path. Stick to the hard path so you can tell everybody, 'I did this and I can do anything. I can do more and more and more.'"
