Wesleyan grad stars in upcoming Lifetime movie
Oct. 19—TRIAD — Finally, Bo Yokely has landed the meaty role he's been waiting for.
True, the 34-year-old Kernersville actor, a 2006 graduate of Wesleyan Christian Academy in High Point, already appears in a couple of high-profile movies ... but not for long.
In the Marvel superhero flick "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2," Yokely plays a fighter pilot who — spoiler alert — gets killed. And in "Baywatch," he plays a hunky lifeguard working the beach with Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and Zac Efron, "but unfortunately, a lot of my footage got left on the cutting room floor," Yokely says with a chuckle.
Now, though, comes the new Lifetime original movie "Switched Before Birth," an emotional rollercoaster of a film in which Yokely has a leading role — not to mention way more footage on the screen than on the cutting room floor.
Yokely plays Brian Crawford, whose wife, Olivia (played by Skyler Samuels), becomes pregnant with twins after multiple miscarriages and failed IVF trials. Their ecstasy turns to agony, though, when they learn the babies are not really twins; one of the couples' fertilized eggs has been implanted in the wrong woman and should've been born to another couple, Anna and Gabe Ramirez (Justina Machado and Yancey Arias).
"As soon as I read the script, this felt like something I was ready to sink my teeth into," Yokely says during a telephone interview.
"I was about to have my first child with my wife, Olivia — the same name as my wife's name in the movie — and I was going to be playing a father in the movie, so I had a real emotional connection to the material. It was a juicy role just laid on a platter for me, with a great surrounding cast. It was an amazing opportunity."
Inspired by real stories, "Switched Before Birth" follows two couples whose lives intertwine as they undergo several in vitro fertilization, or IVF, trials in their attempts to have a baby. The two wives, in particular, become fast friends and bond with one another on their IVF journeys, until the ill-fated mixup that pits them against one another in an intense legal battle over the custody of a baby.
"It highlights the IVF procedure and how things can go wrong," Yokely says, "and it leads to the legal battle over the question, what makes a parent a parent? Is it blood? Is it who raised them? Is it who carried them? That's the big underlying question throughout the movie."
Yokely hopes and believes "Switched Before Birth" will help elevate his acting career to a new level. A lifelong soccer player who played on a state-championship team at Wesleyan — and who once dreamed of playing professionally — he says acting "never even crossed my mind" when he was at Wesleyan. He got into acting when he was a student at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, where he earned a bachelor's degree in communications with a minor in theater arts.
"I had started modeling, and the modeling and film worlds are very closely related," he says. "My print agent at the time was telling me, 'You really should think about getting into acting — I think you have what it takes to be an actor.' I decided to give it a try, and I took to it like a fish to water."
In addition to "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2," "Baywatch" and "Switched Before Birth," some of Yokely's other film credits include "Nappily Ever After," "Into the Forest" and "After the Storm." He has also completed filming for a couple of Christmas movies, "Christmas at the Grey Horse Inn" and "Country Roads Christmas."
According to Yokely, he has four additional film projects scheduled over the next year — two romantic comedies, a horror film and an action movie — in addition to serving as producer for a couple of television series.
"I think it's going to be a very busy year," he says. "And that's a good thing."
jtomlin@hpenews.com — 336-888-3579
