Stacae Caldwell lived what felt like a whole life — a marriage, three children, and a career as a pharmacy tech — before embarking on a new adventure: being a full-time homeschool teacher and acting coach for her youngest son, Bryson, who has been in numerous movies and TV shows.
“It’s definitely not what I thought I signed up for,” she said. “Just goes to show, when you have kids, you never know what’s going to happen.”
When Caldwell was in school at Dublin, her parents divorced and her mother moved to Florida. Caldwell would go visit every break she got, and on one visit she met and started dating her mother’s younger coworker.
Caldwell graduated from Dublin High School in 1990, and stayed in Stephenville for a year, where she got married and had her first child before moving to Ocala, Florida in 1991.
There, Caldwell worked at Sam’s Club in inventory control. “Sam’s was venturing out to open a pharmacy, so I started working in the pharmacy and I became the first Sam’s Club pharmacy tech to ever be certified and registered, they paid for all my schooling.”
She and her husband divorced in 2007, and Caldwell remarried in 2010 to Corey Caldwell, and transferred to a Sam’s Club in Orlando. Her youngest son, Bryson, was born in 2011.
By the time he was four, Bryson already had his heart set on acting. When someone mentioned Steven Spielberg, Bryson would say, “I’m going to work for him one day.”
Just for fun, Caldwell and her husband decided to take Bryson to an audition for a Spielberg film — and out of thousands of kids who auditioned, Bryson got a callback. “From then on, we started coaching him,” Caldwell said.
Pretty soon, Bryson started landing roles in commercials, and then in TV shows and movies. “He just got so busy that we were having to travel a lot, and I told my husband, ‘We’ve got to make a choice on what to do next,’” Caldwell said. “And my husband said, ‘You know what? You only live once, and Bryson is thriving. Let’s let him thrive.’ So I quit my job and took on Bryson’s career full force.”
Leaving a 24-year career hasn’t been easy for Caldwell. “It’s definitely a different lifestyle,” she said. “We’re just gonna continue until we see what doors open next.”
Pre-COVID, Caldwell and her son would live for two months in Los Angeles during pilot season. The rest of the year they would stay in Florida, but would always be ready to hop on a plane for a call-back. “We live five minutes from the airport, so we can be ready to go pretty much any time,” Caldwell said.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, Bryson has been doing more voiceovers and self-taped auditions and less in-person visits. “COVID hasn’t slowed us down,” Caldwell said. So far, he’s worked dozens of jobs, including “Christmas Comes Home,” which wil air on Lifetime Christmas 2021, and “Those Who Walk Away” with BooBoo Stewart.
Caldwell also has three other grown children from her first marriage. Her oldest son Dalhian Guest is in the military, and was recently assigned to Guam for three years. He and his wife have two young children. Caldwell’s son Britian Guest works in healthcare in Houston, and Camdian Guest lives in Ocala and works as a supervisor for one of Florida’s largest grocery stores, Publix.
“I am just as proud of my 3 older sons as my youngest,” Caldwell said. “I love to see them happy and thriving as young adults, sons, husband, men.”
Caldwell isn’t sure where she will end up in the next few years. “I don’t know that we will stay in Florida forever,” she said. “It has been very nice, growing up and raising my children in a very diverse city, but there’s not much keeping us here.”
When she’s not working with Bryson, Caldwell loves to read, meditate, and perfect her southern-style recipes passed down to her from family and friends. “My southern cooking is something I carry with me everywhere I go,” she said.
She also enjoys traveling, and is looking forward to post-COVID days where she can plan more trips. “I think it’s very nice to have something in life to look forward to these days,” she said. “Even just traveling to the beach, it’s just nice to make a plan and get away.”
The Caldwells try to visit Dublin every couple of years as well. “It’s really really nice,” she said. “I sit on my dad’s front porch on Post Oak, and just sit in his swing and drink out of a mason jar, a nice glass of sweet tea and lemon, and watch the hummingbirds and listen to my dad talking.”
Throughout her life, Caldwell has drawn inspiration from her father, James Sharp. “He has such wisdom,” she said. “He can take me out to his hunting place, which is around Proctor, and he knows every animal that has walked every inch of that land in the last 24 hours. And the things that he tells me about the flowers and the weeds and the fish — it seems such like a simple thing to him, but just driving with him and listening to his wisdom is so inspiring to me. He makes me slow down and appreciate just the small things in life.”
Caldwell’s advice to Dublin graduates is to appreciate the time they have in Dublin, and to work hard to cultivate the type of life they want. “I hope that every person that grows up and graduates from Dublin never sells themselves short,” she said. “If they feel like their family can’t afford this college or whatever, there’s always a way. I think you attract what you want in life, and if you surround yourself with positive people, there are no limits.”
Editor’s Note: This column chronicles what Dublin graduates have done since high school. If you have any suggestions for other graduates, email publisher@dublincitizen.com.