He’s starring in J-Lo’s newest movie. Actor got his start in Fresno community theater

Brandon Delsid is having a moment.

It’s a specific kind of Hollywood moment that you get when you land a role opposite of Jennifer Lopez in a movie that also stars Ben Affleck. And Sofía Vergara, Jane Fonda, Keke Palmer, Trevor Noah, Post Malone and Neil deGrasse Tyson, among others.

On Tuesday night, the actor and Fresno native was at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles for the premier of “This Is Me … Now: A Love Story.” The movie (an Amazon Prime exclusive) is a musical imagining of Lopez’s life (and love) and the counter piece to her new album.

Both are out on Friday.

“I’d like to think I’ve been dreaming this up since I was 8 years old,” Delsid told The Bee in a phone interview in advance of the premier.

That was his age when his grandmother took him to see a production of “Oliver” at Fresno’s Cynthia Merrill School of Performing Arts.

“I was so transfixed,” Delsid says.

“I wanted to do that.”

A Good Company alumni

And so he did. Delsid started on what he calls the “Fresno track” of acting; performing in (and when he was old enough directing) productions for Good Company Players and Children’s Musical Theaterworks. By 15 or 16, he was being home-schooled so he could essentially act full time, splitting time between the community theater gigs and trying to land work in Los Angeles.

Locally, he stared in productions of “Spamalot” and “A Chorus Line” and “Smokey Joe’s Cafe.” Also, “Shrek the Musical.”

In the mid-2010s, he hosted “Basically Brandon,” a late night-style local theater talk show on CentralValleyTalk.com that aired 80-plus episodes.

Since then, the LGBTQ+, Latinx actor has landed gigs on television (on the NBC series “New Amsterdam” and Amazon’s “The Date Whisperer”) and off Broadway (he was Dajesh Koothrappali in “The Big Bang Theory” musical). But community theater remains an integral part of the actor that Delsid has become.

“That kind of became my school,” he says.

His first year in Los Angeles was spent learning to maneuver in what was essentially a new world. He became a professional auditioner. But his time in community theater — at Good Company Players and Children’s Musical Theaterworks specifically — gave him a strong discipline and attention to detail for the work of acting.

There is also a sense of playfulness in community theater, of being comfortable with whatever scenario you’re put into, which came in helpful while filming “This Is Me … Now: A Love Story,” he says.

A bonkers musical movie

Not that anything can really prepare you for landing this kind of role.

The movie is a passion project for Lopez, “a narrative-driven cinematic odyssey, steeped in mythological storytelling and personal healing,” according to its press synopsis. The trailer (which features Delsid around the 40-second mark) sells it as an epic singing/dancing extravaganza. The Daily Beast called it a “bonkers musical movie.”

Delsid portrays Lopez’s gay best friend, a character that offers advice and counsel, which put him in close contact to the actress/singer for the bulk of filming — a fact he had less than a week to process before he was on a giant sound stage in downtown Los Angeles making something that he says feels “historic.”

And that time was spent learning lines and getting fitted for costuming.

While this moment feels like 20 years of manifestation, Delsid says, contained within it has been the most insane experience of his life. “Nothing can prepare you to be on set with J-Lo in five days,” he says.

“At the snap of fingers, it was go. It was like the ultimate master class.”