Marty Gordon
Contributing writer
Those who have been tuning in to “Unsolved: The Murders of Tupac and the Notorious B.I.G.,” a 10-episode series on the USA Network might have recognized one of the actors from his time at Christiansburg High School.
Mychal Thompson is a 1999 graduate and has stepped into the role of a suspect in the Tupac murder.
The series set the stage on whether members of the Los Angeles Police Department were involved in the crimes or had a hand in covering up the shootings. Thompson plays Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson, a Crips gang member.
“For the role of Orlando Anderson, I definitely did as much research as I possibly could, like I do with any character I play. The challenging thing for this character was that, there wasn’t much information on the guy. So, it made it a little difficult. There wasn’t even that much video footage of him,” said Richardson, who was still in high school when the murders took place.
On the night of Sept. 7, 1996, Tupac Shakur and his entourage were involved in a skirmish with Anderson inside the MGM hotel in Las Vegas. Approximately three hours later, Tupac was shot and killed.
During the investigation, police named Anderson a suspect, but he was never charged. Six months later, another rapper, Notorious B.I.G., was shot and killed in Los Angeles.
No one has ever been charged in that murder either, but the investigation stemmed around rumors of the ongoing battle of East and West Coast rappers. Anderson maintained his innocence in the Tupac shooting up until his death in 1998.
The murders of Tupac and Biggie Smalls remain unsolved.
“For me, in every character I play, they have to be humanized and that’s all I wanted to do with Orlando, be as truthful to the role as I can be with the short amount of time you see him on screen. So I watched what all his friends in interviews said about him and any family that I could find online, so I can get a sense of who he was, a lot of people look at him as just a thug/gangster and though those things may be true, he was also a very bright young man who went to a high school for the intellectually gifted. Unfortunately, it’s these kid’s environments that they grow up in that influences them in the wrong direction,” Thompson said.
He never intended to become an actor and never stepped on the stage while in high school or at Radford University where he earned a Bachelor’s of Science degree in information systems and technology.
“Honestly, I never even thought it was a legitimate job that people do. Coming from a small town like Christiansburg, it didn’t even enter my mind as a kid, because no one I knew of from our town did anything like that,” he said.
After taking a D.C. job associated with his major at RU, he was pushed by friends and co-workers toward acting.
“I researched how to get into acting and literally followed the instructions on a wikiHow page and called up the Shakespeare theatre in D.C and asked what classes I should take. They suggested Improv. I told myself before the class, ‘if I suck, I’m quitting.’ I took that first class and the teacher thought I was a natural and talented. So, I kept studying at that theatre, and moved around the DC/NY area. Basically, that was my start, I got some headshots and started going on auditions,” he said.
Thompson was then told to step out of his comfort zone and move to Los Angeles.
“The advice was simple: ‘If you want to be an actor, you need to be where there are actors, either NY or LA.’ So, with that said, I got hooked up with an agent in LA who said he wanted to represent me, so I put in my two weeks notice at my job at Booz Allen Hamilton, packed up my car with my suitcase and pillow, and hopes and a dreams and moved to LA,” he said.
Since then, Thompson has had roles in USA’s “Colony,” FOX’s “Lethal Weapon,” Showtimes “White Famous”, “MyMusic” which is a YouTube series, and some independent films.
His major break came as a cast member of a play called “Sons of the Prophet” which was a Pulitzer finalist.
“I got great reviews from the LA Times and other publications in LA and Hollywood (for the role in Sons of Prophet) and got a lot of attention from casting directors to some major TV shows and movies, which was a major boost in my career,” he said.
In the immediate future, he has a Christian film that will be coming out later this year that he’s really excited for people to see called “Keep the Faith.”
His faith is what keeps him going and part of the advice he would give to anyone else interested in getting into the acting business.
“Put God first. That’s my advice to anyone, this life is a drop in the bucket, but eternity is forever. Only how you live and what you do for Christ will last.”
He also would remind those who might follow in his footsteps to look up James Cagney, who was one of the biggest movie stars back in the 40’s and 50’s and now if you ask nine out of 10 people in this generation, they won’t even know who that is.
Thompson calls it perspective.
“So, with that being said, don’t take it to serious. Have fun. Accept the failures that may come at times. Learn from them and don’t give up. Decide what you are not willing to do and Stick to it. Get into theatre, get into acting classes, go to school, this business isn’t going anywhere. Make sure you’re getting into the business, because you love the art and not the fame and fortune. If you don’t, you won’t last long,” he said.
But for now, he hopes people back home in the New River Valley will just recognize him as the former Mychal Thompson who walked the halls of Christiansburg High School and the campus of Radford University.
