It Happens Here: Marshfield's Police Chief Brings Hollywood To Town
MARSHFIELD (CBS) -- Originally home to the Wampanoag Indians and settled by Mayflower Pilgrims in 1632, Marshfield has six separate zip codes and is home to a couple of famous Stevens (Tyler and Carell). But there's a third Hollywood star in town, their good friend and chief of police, Phil Tavares.
Tavares scored a speaking role on an FBI SWAT team in his very first movie, Ben Affleck's "The Town."
"I went from an extra with special abilities to an actor right then and there like that," Tavares told WBZ-TV.
But Tavares didn't set out to be on the big screen.
"Right around the time I turned 18 I had a series of negative interactions with the police that could have left a sour taste, but instead I chose to take the negative and turn it into a positive and started a career in law enforcement to try to make a difference," Tavares said.
He worked his way up from an animal control officer all to the way to police chief. Along the way, he graduated from the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia. While there, he met a retired FBI agent from Charlestown who was working as a law enforcement consultant on the set of "The Town."
Tavares's scenes included the standoff inside Fenway Park and a deadly shootout between him and Affleck's co-star, Jeremy Renner.
"Ben Affleck not only directing it but acting in it and working with him, I was sold," Tavares said. "We were shooting at them, they're shooting at us. It was an unbelievable experience. I killed Jeremy Renner."
From there, the roles kept coming. Working alongside Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy in "The Heat," and Denzel Washington in "Equalizer 2," those are just a few of the 14 movies Tavares has either appeared in or consulted for. While being Marshfield's chief of police is Tavares' main passion, it sounds like more cameos may be in his future.
"People tease me all the time and call me 'Hollywood.' It's just an ongoing joke amongst locals here," Tavares said. "I think when retirement gets close I will put more of a focus on it and really try to make it a priority. I'm waiting for Mark Wahlberg."
Tavares also shared this piece of advice for anyone looking to break into the acting biz.
"You have to memorize your lines. Memorizing not only your lines, but also the other person's lines so you know exactly how the flow is going to go back and forth what the cues are, it's a little more difficult than people think, and there's nothing worse than a fake Boston accent."