Waiting for his big break
Greene County native appears in the movie ‘American Summer’
There are lots of young people hoping to get a big break in Manhattan, and Maximus Virgili is trying to make headway on two fronts.
First, he is working to promote his artificial intelligence business to hotels, restaurants and many other kinds of establishments. At the same time, he is trying to break through as an actor, and he hopes that his appearance in the upcoming movie “American Summer” will be the ticket to additional roles.
“We’re just auditioning diligently like we have been,” Virgili said by phone from New York this week.
A 21-year-old native of Waynesburg, an interest in the movies seemed baked in from the get-go, since he is named after the muscle-bound character Russell Crowe played in the 2000 epic “Gladiator.” Virgili has been fascinated by acting since he was about 12, and made the trek to Pittsburgh for acting classes. He graduated from a cyberschool one year early, and worked for his father’s construction company before auditioning to be in “American Summer” two years ago.
“I got the call that I got the part in late summer 2024,” Virgili explained.
Directed by Michael Gray, whose previous credits include producing the 2013 independent film “A Birder’s Guide to Everything,” “American Summer” stars Steve Guttenberg and Christie Brinkley and has Guttenberg’s character reminiscing about a particularly golden summer of his youth, when he got a job, met a girl and landed a spot on a baseball team. Gray has described “American Summer” as “a tale for a multi-generational audience to enjoy together.” It is set to be in theaters Sept. 4.
Virgili compared it to “The Notebook,” the 2004 romance based on the best-selling novel by Nicholas Sparks. Virgili plays Buck, a bully who antagonizes Guttenberg’s younger self. He’s not sure how much time he has on screen, because he has not yet seen “American Summer”‘s final cut.
What about being on a movie set was most surprising?
“I thought the set would be a very high-stress environment, and that’s not the way it was,” Virgili explained. It was made in northern New Jersey two years ago and during that process, he and the other actors “genuinely enjoyed seeing each other.”
Being a young actor means having to possess a tough hide and being able to absorb no small amount of rejection. According to Virgili, he has “heard ‘no’ more times than I can count” and has been a finalist for productions that were being made by the likes of Netflix, Warner Bros. and Disney+. Still, he hopes his appearance in “American Summer” is “one victory, with many more ahead.”
In the meantime, when he is not auditioning for parts, Virgili is nurturing his own enterprise, which he has dubbed Sentire Systems. The AI system answers calls and texts on a 24-hour basis and can make bookings and appointments.
Sentire “is an Italian word associated with the senses,” Virgili said. “I understand that AI can be a scary thing, and it’s not just a heartless, robotic thing.”