We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Anton Clifford a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Anton, looking forward to learning from your journey. You’ve got an amazing story and before we dive into that, let’s start with an important building block. Where do you get your work ethic from?
Well, I come from military parents my mother was in the army and my father was in the Navy. That is actually how they met so I was raised to work hard I knew at an early age that you cannot achieve anything by sitting around and waiting on somebody else, so when I chose to get into acting I already knew that talent can only take you too far. I always hear the term from a lot of actors saying that they are naturally gifted, but I choose to work as if I have no talent because at the end of the day I would love continue to represent the disabled community in a good way, so I’m not gonna take my foot off the gas when it comes to acting training because in this industry, you always have to be ready and I just wanna continue to capitalize off the opportunities that I get
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
One thing that definitely shaped me into the person I am today is that I was a passenger in a car accident in Jamaica, at the age of 16 in which I became paralyzed It was a very, very tragic accident. Five on my cousins were in a car and my cousin who was 19 at the time who was sitting beside me in the backseat. Lost his life. So I’m going from being an athlete who played basketball and was a swimmer to someone who is officially paralyzed from the chest down and has to depend on a motorized wheelchair to get around and I don’t have that much independence. I have to have a caregiver help me with a lot of things from taking a shower to using the bathroom things that I took for granted at the age of 16, but I always try to see the positive in it and that keeps me motivated to keep pushing forward in life. I know I have a purpose. and everywhere I seem to go people always show me love so I can always feed off the positive energy.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
I think the best thing for me was actually going back to high school after I became paralyzed, I could’ve chose to do homeschool, but I think having the interaction with people again, especially my age group really gave me the confidence that I needed to push forward and I definitely think that I could not be doing what I am doing now if I don’t go back to high school at first, so I was kind of nervous how people would react to seeing me in a wheelchair but after I went back to school and started hanging out with my friends and going to the movies and stuff, I quickly got over it of course people still stare at me to this day, but it’s just one of those things that I honestly feel people are just curious how you got into the wheelchair I really don’t think they’re staring to be rude, and I understand some people from the disabled community. See it different but that’s just my view on it.
Who has been most helpful in helping you overcome challenges or build and develop the essential skills, qualities or knowledge you needed to be successful?
My favorite athlete and basketball player of all time is Kobe. Bryant and although he is no longer here with us, he left so many great interviews on YouTube that I still watch to this day that really motivates me. I respect his drive and work ethic. He’s someone I looked up to most of my life. and I hope I can use my platform as an actor to inspire people the same way.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm12495694/
- Instagram: anton xavier clifford
Image Credits
There’s one picture on the side of the takeover movie that’s coming out later this year me and quavo and Coach K and there’s another picture that I took on a pilot with NBC in which I was working with Shanola Hampton and the other picture is with my little brother in a blue suit, and one picture with me standing up was taken right before the accident with one of my cousins who was involved in the accident he survived his little brother didn’t make it
