Coven's' Minotaur is New Orleans actor Ameer Baraka www.hockeyblac... is not to say it easy: Four hours in a makeup chair, then hours more sitting bolt upright and nearly naked on the freezing set to keep the anchoring gear for the prosthetic, radio controlled Minotaur head in place between takes makes for a long workday.

was excited to work with prosthetics, because I never really done it before, Baraka said. was very, very excited until around the second day.

was tough being in that suit. You're just dying to get it off, the head part. It's extremely hot in there because there no cooling system. There an electrical system that makes the ears move and everything. You constantly [url=http://www.hockeyblackhawksshop.com/patrick_sharp_jersey.html]www.hockeybla... hearing this You can hear anything outside, but inside the mask you hear that.

see why people like Eddie Murphy and Martin Lawrence get paid so much.

always wanted to play the role of a slave, Baraka said. was so enthralled because I felt how my people felt 200 years ago. Being a house slave, being under the control of this very mean and sadistic and unforgiving woman, made it all real for me. Everyone was dressed in their costumes. I was serving drinks, and I had to bow my head and not look them in the eyes. I said, God, I can imagine what my great great grandfather went through. It was a touching piece for me. came out of the foyer into the living room and she looked at me. It was just a powerful look. I knew I was in the presence of greatness when she gave me that look. Her delivery, she was amazing. I so grateful to work with her.

Baraka had once visualized just such a professional opportunity albeit minus the mythological bull head while spending time in a most unlikely setting for a would be actor: prison. Cooper Apartments, known locally as the Calliope Projects, Baraka had undiagnosed dyslexia that doomed him in school.

found a home in the streets, he said. found a home with drug dealers out of the Calliope Projects. I knew all the major drug dealers in the city as a [url=http://www.hockeyblackhawksshop.com/patrick_sharp_jersey.html]Cheap Patrick Sharp Jersey little boy.

Baraka would eventually come to know the inside of correctional institutions. A stay in California Cheap Patrick Kane Jersey between stretches in jail, and pickup work on a film crew there, provided a vision of a different life. Baraka said he worked on shoots that put him near both Tupac Shakur and NFL great Jim Brown.

never seen a black man living like that, Baraka said of Brown, a film star and activist in his football retirement. just didn't think that black people had money. I was in the projects. I was around poor people, so I had this mentality that we can't get over the tracks. I saw Jim Brown and I thought, got to get a life like this.

Baraka also studied the life of actor Charles S. Dutton, who came from an equally rough background to become a successful actor and director.

story sort of changed my life, Baraka said. I was still running really, really wild. and pictured the life he could lead when he got out.

would get up early in the morning before people got up, he said. would praise God. thank you for my acting career. I thank you for all the jobs I have. I was visualizing. That is the key. If you can see it, it will manifest.

It a lesson Baraka shares with the participants in various New Orleans youth programs he participates in, including NOLA for Life.

believe in the mayor vision for NOLA for Life, said Baraka, who also appeared at Hope Academy with Percy P Miller (another role model due to their shared Calliope history).

a physical guy, I knew what they were looking for, he said. did so much weird stuff to get this role. I didn know anything about Horror Story at all. They didn divulge anything to me. They just wanted me to act like this bull, or an angry lion or an angry bear. Fortunately enough, I was able to give them that.