Man of Moment Michael Zelniker Is Science’s Loss and Acting’s Gain

Michael Zelniker isn’t one for making plans.

“I am very much what is right in front of me,” says the actor who has received acclaim as trumpeter Red Rodney in Clint Eastwood’s “Bird” and as beat poet Martin in David Cronenberg’s “Naked Lunch.”

“I then stay out of trouble because I find when I spend too much time on the past or the future, I am not available for the present,” Zelniker explains. “There is a nice saying I heard somebody, use: All we have is the present and that is God’s present to us.”

Currently, Zelniker is appearing in two one-act plays featured in “The Punch Line’s ‘Best of the Fest’ in the West” at the Coast Playhouse in West Hollywood. The festival is presented by the renowned and recently defunct East Coast company the Manhattan Punch Line.

Though Zelniker’s been acting for more than 15 years, as a youngster he aspired to become a nuclear physicist.

“When I was young and in grade school, I was reading a lot of books on the Manhattan Project and just what nuclear energy had done in transforming how things were operated. I also excelled in science and math.”

Emotionally, Zelniker says, his science prowess brought him a lot of attention. “I think it compensated for the lack I was feeling in other areas,” he says.

The year he completed high school, Zelniker spent four months traveling around Europe. The trip changed his life. “I knew then I didn’t want to pursue science in school. I didn’t know what I wanted to do.”

Acting, though, was the furthest thing from his mind when he took a theater course in college because “it was an easy way to make a good grade.” Much to his surprise, he got bitten by the acting bug.

“I wasn’t very good when I began. I think maybe that was part of what encouraged my interest. I had to struggle to act.”