Like a fairytale straight out of a Hollywood picture, aspiring actor Chris Ackerman suddenly quit his white-collar job and moved to the movie capital of the world to pursue a film career. Not long after, the risk paid off when he landed a role in Elektra, opposite Jennifer Garner.

“I came out here. I didn’t have a manager, didn’t have an agent. So I wrote a letter to one of the main casting directors at Twentieth Century Fox,” Ackerman recalled. “And he called me two months later and said: ‘Look, I got this great role for you in this new movie called Elektra, it’s with Jennifer Garner. So I went in and next thing I knew I was in Vancouver filming.”

In the movie, which debuted last January, Ackerman plays an evil assassin named Tattoo. He described his character as “this crazy eccentric guy with tattoos from the waist up. My body [was] adorned with many animals. I basically control[ed] the animals with my mind.”

The tattoos, he explained, came to life when he commanded them to and became the animals they represented, chasing the heroine throughout the movie.

Ackerman, is now poised to become the next Latino star and to fulfill his dream.

Along the way, however, he said experiences like filming Elektra have helped teach him what he needs to succeed.

“One of the major things for an actor is to be able to surrender. Surrender to the emotion to the characteristics of these, these people. These shoes that you jump into and then allowing that canvas to be painted on,” Ackerman said of his craft, adding that “Elektra taught me a lot because I got to see how the industry worked and it helped to inspire more of my own dreams inside of myself.”

American Latino Airs Late Night Sat. at 1:30AM on WBBM CBS 2.