Hugh Bish student gets a taste of the spotlight

Hugh Bish Elementary School fifth grader Felix Hernandez got a taste of stardom last summer.

And he liked it.

Hernandez was one of several members of the Comanche Tribe in Southwest Oklahoma who was chosen for roles in the TV series “1923” on Paramount+ when actor Moses Brings Plenty held a casting call at the Comanche Complex north of Lawton last summer.

Hernandez’s grandmother, Glenna Niedo, took him to the complex, but at first wasn’t going to let him submit a photo for the role. She was finally talked into it and was notified three weeks later that her 10-year-old grandson, who is one-fourth Comanche, had been chosen as an extra on the Western TV series.

“They were looking for little Comanche boys with long hair, so that is why they picked him,” Niedo said. “They wanted to get as many Comanche boys as they could.”

A few weeks after submitting the photo, Niedo was contacted and told to bring Hernandez to Austin, Texas, for a fitting because he had been chosen as an extra. Hernandez’s mother OK’d the venture and Niedo, her husband, and Hernandez set off for Austin. Niedo said Hernandez was outfitted in clothes depicting the 1920s, including suspenders, shirt, pants and a scarf. A few weeks after the fitting, the grandparents and grandson were off to Austin again for filming, which was held on several ranches in the Austin area.

Niedo said the first scene Hernandez is in, which aired Feb. 23, depicts a Comanche village. He is seen sitting on the ground outside next to an older man who is playing the part of his grandfather. Some men on horseback, who are looking for a girl who has run away from a boarding school, ride into the Comanche village and begin shooting.

“He had to run behind the tepee, him and some other boys,” Niedo said of Hernandez’s role in the scene.

In the second episode, which aired March 9, the character Hernandez plays gets shot in the shoulder. The scene required that Hernandez lie on a blanket on the ground with a bow and arrow until the crew was ready, then the blanket was removed.

“He had to be still because he is dead,” Niedo said, adding that the children were removed from the preceding scene due to the violence. Hernandez had a double for this scene, as another actor rode into the village on horseback.

Hernandez said it was “cool” that his character got killed, and that the fake blood was cold.

Niedo said it was so hot the day the shooting scene was filmed that crew members held umbrellas over the children to keep them cool, a task she also participated in.

Because of the subject matter in the first episode, Hernandez was only allowed to watch the scene he was in when the program aired.

“I liked it,” was his assessment of the scene.

What was the best part of the experience?

“I liked the food best, and it was free,” Hernandez said.

Is he considering an acting career?

“I want to play in the NFL,” said the youngster who enjoys playing football and basketball and gourd dancing.

Would he do it again?

“I would do it again if I got paid,” he said with a big smile.