Alex Bentley was a kid in the ’90s who listened to entire baseball games on the radio with a request to not be disturbed, especially if the Padres were playing. When asked what he wanted to do as a grownup, he’d confidently declare he wanted to “play professional baseball or direct baseball movies.” When you ask him now, he says roughly the same thing.
Baseball has been a guiding light throughout most of Bentley’s life. It’s moved with him to Israel and back, where he played for Israel’s National Team, and he was determined to go pro until several broken wrists and multiple surgeries led him to hang up his cleats at age 19, despite several scholarship offers to keep playing. Instead, he shifted his focus and went to join the film and television program at San Diego City College.
Bentley’s entrance to the film world started behind the scenes– working as a crew member, editing, running a production company, and even interning as a cameraman for the San Diego Padres. He was heading home from LA one Friday when a response to one of his cold calls made him turn around and rush back. Someone wanted to meet for lunch that day. Despite the initial imminence of the meeting, it ended up being ambiguously postponed. Bentley, refusing to leave the city until he’d heard back and had the meeting, waited it out, sleeping in his father’s van. It went on for about four days, but the impact was well worth it. This lunch meeting ultimately landed him an assistant job for one of the co-producers on set of Blue Mountain State, and it’s during this time on set that Bentley’s hunger for creative input took charge and turned his interest to acting.
Turns out, acting and baseball have a lot in common. Like many who have dedicated their life to a craft from a young age, Bentley finds that the lessons and values gained from decades of training far exceed technical skill. He’s no stranger to repetition and technique, but more interestingly, the aftermath of not hearing back from an audition echoes the feeling of continuing play after a strikeout. While it is frustrating, it’s going to happen a lot, even when you’re doing your best. Resilience, adaptability, patience, and drive are essential for success.Ironically, Bentley’s first acting break came when he was offered a role as a San Diego Padres player on Fox’s new series Pitch in 2016. After five years of hustling, training, and auditioning, Bentley’s acting career is finally starting to take shape. He recently appeared in Universal’s new hitman-action film Beckman alongside Billy Baldwin, Brighton Sharbino, Burt Young, and David A.R. White. He can also be seen in the reboot of The Circuit, where he shares a scene with Academy Award Winner Eric Roberts and jumps into fight stunts for the first time. Coming up, he’ll be playing Sergeant Steve Smith in the WW2 action/romance film The Promise, which also stars Maya Stojan and Chris Connell. And amongst all of this, Bentley also managed to make a comeback as a baseball player.
After another wrist surgery and three years away from the sport, Bentley decided he wasn’t ready to let go of his dreams to play pro ball. Not long before his role on Pitch, he walked on at San Diego City College and quickly became the starting catcher. Throwing baseball back into the mix between acting classes, auditions, and gigs proved tricky to schedule– at one point he was benched for being late to practice because he was caught up on set shooting Pitch, not even ten minutes away at Petco Park, downtown San Diego. Bentley, however, still worked his way up the professional leagues in Mexico and Europe before hanging up his cleats for the second and final time. With this resurgence under his belt, he’s no longer losing sleep wondering what could have been on the ball field. He loves what he does and intends to continue to combine his paths in film and baseball, which is exactly what he’s doing.
His latest major undertaking is writing, producing, and acting in the new scripted drama series On Deck, which follows the story of Jaedin Hill, an aspiring professional baseball player who must redefine his sense of purpose when his dreams are ripped away from him. Set to feature a dazzling blend of acting and MLB stars, the current cast includes Don Benjamin, Xavier Jimenez (The Mandalorian), Trevor Wallace, Fernando Tatis Jr., Harold Reynolds, and sports agent Scott Boras. Directed by Ser’Darius Blain (Jumanji), the pilot is already in the works, and with Bentley’s spirit, it’s likely he will do whatever it takes for the show to find its home on a network.
As creator of the series, Bentley is fully living out his childhood dreams as his career paths continue to intertwine. Not only is he investing his creative interests into a show he loves, but he’s also getting the chance to audition for roles he once only dreamed of. When asked if he sees his future in acting or producing, Bentley said that the two go hand in hand for him– totally separate crafts that he’s equally in love with. “I honestly think it’s what keeps me sane,” he says. “I can dive into a character down to every tiny specific detail or put my producer hat on and be a part of the bigger project and carry [it] towards the finish line.” Full of gratitude, confidence, and determination, he shares, “I’m in this for the long run…I know some big breaks are inevitable. It’s only a matter of time.”
