Colson Baker – known in the music industry as Machine Gun Kelly – is tired of being “made fun of” when it comes to his acting career. He hopes his new film, Bull, in which he stars alongside his fiancee Megan Fox, will force the studios to finally take him seriously as an actor.

“It’s my 14th or 15th film, but this film is really close to me. It’s about the last week that a musician is alive, and he’s just trying to fight between the good and the — trying just to find the good in itself. And that’s kind of how I feel, a lot of times. People always ask me what it’s like to be an acting musician, but I kind of feel like “Go to a toy store and look at a toy in a box. Like I don’t want to be in a box. I want you to take the toy out of the box and experience what the toy does,” said Baker to the crowd at the Balboa Bay Resort in Newport Beach, Calif., on Sunday after being honored at the Newport Beach Film Festival Honors Brunch hosted by Varietywhich also presented its annual 10 Actors to Watch event.

“There are roles that I say I want or dream scripts that when they drop I’m like, ‘Oh, I’d love that’ and I’m often laughed at because the director doesn’t. I don’t know who I am, or the studios don’t believe I can handle it. But this is a step to show them that I can,” he added. “Plus, I’m a guy. Who’s playing. I like, you know – big risk, big reward. So I want to thank…my manager Tim Sutton for coming to the blackjack table and betting everything on me. Winner winner chicken dinner, my mom.

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Colson Baker was joined by other Newport Beach Film Festival winners including Ron Howard, Keke Palmer, Patton Oswalt, Jonathan Majors and Filmmakerrecent cover star Aubrey Plaza. Receive Variety 10 players to watch the honors this year were Kerry Condon (Banshees of Inisherin), Joseph Quinn (stranger things), Stephanie Hsu (Everything everywhere all in one), Christine Jackson (Dedication), Ximena Lamadrid (Bardo, false chronicle of a handful of truths), Thuso Mbedu (The female king), Zen McGrath (The son), Amber Midthunder (Prey), Sam Nivola (White noise) and Jeremy Pope (inspection).

The Bull and Midnight in switchgrass star also told a funny story about the last time he visited Newport Beach.

“Thanks Variety and at the Newport Beach Film Festival. The last time I was in Newport Beach was about 10 years ago, I had just got off the plane from Cleveland — I’m from Cleveland. I was being escorted out of the lifeguard headquarters tower because I was so excited to be in California and had way too much to drink,” he told the audience. “So here I am in a three-piece suit, in a different situation. I grew up sharing a room with my dad. It was a pretty dark house, so I kind of found solace in movies and music. And you know I was a child – when I saw Superior gun, I thought, ‘I’m going to be in the Air Force.’ Or when I saw fight clubI was like, ‘I’m going to get abs.’ »

At least Baker achieved one of those goals.

Main image: Colson Baker in Bull