Meet Alfred E. Rutherford | Actor

We had the good fortune of connecting with Alfred E. Rutherford and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Alfred E., what do you attribute your success to?
I believe that my Faith is the most important factor behind my success. First my faith in GOD knowing that I’m a child of the most high and that I came here with a mission/purpose and that I am divinely guided and protected. That same faith allows me to have faith in myself, to keep preserving what I don’t see any evidence of the thing I’m trying to accomplish. I believe the great obstacles to anyone’s success is fear which leads to doubt especially when you are working toward something and you can’t physically see any evidence of its manifestation. It’s during those times your faith is tested can, you keep keeping on when fear has a hold of you and you begin to doubt yourself, doubt that maybe you were wrong and that maybe you aren’t as good as you thought. Faith is the ingredient that will make you move past the fear and the doubt and keep pushing through to your goal. Once you come out on the other side you feel ten feet tall and you have another level of confidence and another level of faith. So, my Faith is the most important Factor behind my success.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I could easily say it’s my Charisma and my naturalness on screen but as an actor it’s difficult to say what sets you apart. I feel like that is the job for the audience to say. I’m a huge fan of Al Pacino and as a fan, I can tell you the difference in my mind for him and say another great actor like Robert De Niro so I leave it up to the fans and haters Lol to say what separates me as an actor. What I’m most proud of is that fact that I never gave up. I think that being a professional artist is one of the most difficult undertakings you can take on as far a trying to make a career out of it. I mean you can go to school to become a doctor and then you do your residency at a hospital and then later on you become tenured, I’m not sure if it truly works that way and I’m not trying to minimize the difficulty of being a doctor but what I am saying is that there is a blue print and a series of steps that can be identified to become a doctor but an artist, there is no such blueprint. What worked for one person doesn’t work for another person and who one person thinks is talented may not be deemed talented by another person since art is quite subjective so, you have to find you lane and find out what your path to success is. I got to where I am today professionally by failing over and over and being rejected and yet never letting that rejection and failure crush my spirit, I just had faith, continued to work on my craft and kept trying, refusing to give up, refused to let my failures define who I was or stop me from being who I knew I was destined to be. It was not easy and I have a theory. Anything that is worth achieving will cause you pain and require you to suffer and sacrifice. This is why I believe GOD doesn’t allow you to know what your mission is until you are actively involved in it, because if you know and I mean really know the pain and sacrifices it would take to achieve something most people would say nah, I’m not going through that, I’ll just do this over here it’s easier and safer and that’s why a lot of people give in when things get hard. Some of the lessons I’ve learned along the way is that everyone is running their own race and the worst thing you can do is compare yourself to other people. For most artist that is often a source of frustration because they will often time compare themselves to other artist especially the ones they start out with. Sometimes you start out with a few people and it looks like you will be the one to cross the finish line first and then someone you know skyrockets and it could shake you. Other people around will add to this by saying ‘man I thought it would be you first’ but if you remember that it’s enough for everybody and that everyone has their own appointed time, you would just be happy for them and keep running your race and not compare yourself because it will on leave you feel depressed. What I would want the world to know about my story is that I am the walking embodiment of inspiration and perseverance. I want my life my success to inspire people to say, because he did it I could do it. That’s why I’m always open and honest about my past failures.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
So when I have friends visiting me I always take them hiking at Stone Mountain, this is one of my favorite things to do. To hang out, I would take them to Atlantic Station,The Battery Atlanta and the New Black Wall Street Market. As for eating I would take them for Brunch at Cultivate Food and Coffee and for Dinner it would be Delbar. Other places I would take them to eat would be BK Lobster, Flight Club and Alta Toro

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I would like to shoutout to my Mother who did the best she could to raise me, giving me everything she could put me on the road to my path, Thank You! To my wife Crystal, I’m a lucky to have found her in this lifetime. She has been with me from the beginning with my highs and lows, being my number one cheerleader and for that I give you the world. To my Ancestors, those who have paved the way for me, I am eternally grateful for the sacrifices you have made that I can be who I am doing what I do. Lastly to all of the downtrodden, the hopeless, the underdogs of the world as long as one of us got it, some got it! To anyone who has ever had a dream and you didn’t get the support you needed, felt left behind, any success I have is for you, because I know how it feels to be lonely and just wish you would be given a chance.

Website: www.alfrederutherford.com

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