Martin Sensmeier, a 32-year-old actor from Yakutat, is co-starring in the major motion picture “The Magnificent Seven.”
In the film, Sensmeier shares the screen with Denzel Washington and Ethan Hawke.
The movie is a remake of the 1960 western version starring Yul Brynner, and also the 1954 Japanese film “Seven Samurai.”
On the phone from Los Angeles, Sensmeier said that riding horses was the most challenging part of the role.
“Being Tlingit and Athabascan, you know, I didn’t grow up on them, right?” Sensmeier said. “We traveled like a hundred miles every day. So they sent us to Louisiana a month before filming and we started training five days a week on horseback riding — about an hour and a half to two hours a day. And I was riding bareback in the movie — I’m the only one that didn’t have a saddle.”
Sensmeier grew up in Yakutat and enjoyed playing basketball and subsistence fishing and hunting.
As an adult, he worked on an oil rig at one point, and has lived between Los Angeles and Yakutat working as an actor and model.
Beyond doing cultural research, and having a Comanche cultural adviser on the set, Sensmeier said he could relate to his character.
“There’re similarities between all of us. Certain innate qualities we all share. We all have similar experiences in terms of what we went through — colonization, but also there’re a lot of similarities between the cultural values,” Sensmeier said. “Of course our rituals and ceremonies and stuff like that are different, but culturally, we connect. Hanging out with native people wherever I go, you feel that connection.”
That being said, Sensmeier does not pretend to speak for the Comanche.
“As few roles as there are for Native characters, it’s representative of our place in Hollywood in a way,” he said. “But as far as representing the Comanche people, I did the best I could with what I was given. And I hope they like it. But I am not going to sit here and tell you that this is the Comanche way because I am not a representative of that, right? I am not a part of their culture. I am not a part of their tribe. I’m an actor. You know? So, I act.”
When Sensmeier is not acting, he visits home often.
“If I could do what I do and live at home, I would definitely do that,” he said. “Unfortunately, I have to be down here. Not unfortunately, I am very blessed to be in this position, but I would much rather live at home in Yakutat than in Los Angeles.”
“I am not really a city boy. I like being in the village.”
The movie opens Sept 23 in theaters everywhere.
