Article from www.ttownmedia.com
As the stage for the halftime performance was being set up on the field at Levi’s Stadium on Sunday during Super Bowl LX, a Tracy youth was already stealing the show.
Brayon Cutrer, a fifth-grader at Hirsch School, dominates the screen as he shouts out the words: “Who am I? I am a champion!” and “Belief is my superpower!”
The 60-second ad, Champion, is the NFL’s tribute to youth football coaches, portrayed in the ad by actor Dushaun Thompson. Brayon, 10, represents the youths who take their inspirational messages to heart, memorizing the coach’s speech and repeating the words, intensity and passion to the characters in his bedroom.
He didn’t need a lot of rehearsal for his lines because the message they delivered was clear: “Never give up. Believe in yourself. And don’t let nobody bring you down,” Brayon said.
It isn’t Brayon’s first time appearing on the screen. About 4 years ago his mother, Takeya Cutrer, signed him up with Nyla Talent of Los Angeles, an agency that represents young performers seeking opportunities in music, movies, television, advertising and other media. Family members saw that Brayon had the confidence to express his outgoing character in front of audiences and the camera, so when Takeya asked him if he was interested in acting Brayon was all-in.
Zoom auditions led to MGMT Artists, another Los Angeles talent agency, taking an interest.
“So he got picked up from there, and then he just auditioned for jobs. This is not his first job. This is the biggest one,” she said, “He’s been on Disney. He’s been on Mo Willems Read Alouds! With Kids! He’s been on a documentary. He’s been on quite a few things.”
The NFL created the Champion ad with 72andSunny out of Los Angeles while MGMT and Dan Bell Casting had been working with Brayon. Brayon and his family were confident that important doors were about to open for him.
“We were just waiting for somebody to give us opportunity,” Brayon said. “While I was chilling up in the room up there my Mama called me and said ‘You got a football job.’ I said, ‘Okay, is it for the NFL?’”
They headed to Los Angeles in mid-January to meet with the production company. They brought Brayon through wardrobe fitting, rehearsals and then meeting Johnson and the other kids portraying the youth football team as well as celebrities like stage, movie and television star Glynn Turman. All along Brayon got plenty of positive feedback, with the production company assuring him that he did an excellent job as they wrapped up.
MGMT Artists was impressed too, sharing on Instagram: “Huge congrats to @brayoncutrer on booking the Super Bowl NFL commercial! You absolutely led that spot — a standout moment on the biggest stage in advertising!”