ROBERTSDALE, Alabama --- Ryan Patrick Williams has come a long way since getting “bitten” by the acting bug over 10 years ago.

“I find as I get older, I’ve been getting better and better roles,” he said, “especially since I am now an adult and I’m able to pursue my own roles.”

In fact, 2012 has been a pretty big year for the 20-year-old, a 2010 graduate of Robertsdale High School, the son of Sherri Killam-Williams and Tom Williams of Loxley.

His biggest role to date, a speaking part in the Warner Bros. film “Trouble With the Curve,” starring Clint Eastwood, Justin Timberlake and Amy Adams, opened nationwide Friday, Sept. 21.

“I got to meet and work with some really amazing people,” Williams said. “This experience has opened up so many doors for me and it’s just been an incredible experience to be able to work on a major motion picture.”

In April, Williams spent three weeks filming in Georgia for the movie, the first week filming in Dunwoody, Ga., just south of Atlanta; then in Jasper, Ga., one hour north of Atlanta, wrapping up filming at Young Harris College in Hiawassee, Ga., which is located near the Georgia-North Carolina Border.

“The film is supposed to be set in North Carolina, and being so close that last week, we were able to get a lot of footage with the mountains in the background, so that was good,” he said. “We had a lot of 8- to 10-hour days filming outside on baseball films, so a lot of my makeup time was spent putting on sunscreen.”

In addition to great experience for the young actor, who recently began his junior year at Troy University, Williams was able to come away with stories of close encounters with all three of the film’s stars.

He described Eastwood as “really friendly and really cool.”

“He is one person I’ve worked with who went out of his way to spend time with everyone on the set,” Williams said.

One day, while eating lunch, Williams took the opportunity to go over and introduce himself to the legendary star.

“We ate together and in the end he stood up, shook my hand and said, ‘I think I’m going to head over to the baseball field. Take care of yourself, kid.’ I was just stunned. All I could think was, ‘I just touched Dirty Harry Callahan’s hand. How cool is that!’”

He met Adams in the makeup room on set.

“I was in there getting my sunscreen put on when she came in and sat down next to me,” he said. “The first day, I didn’t even recognize her.”

It was Seth Meriwether, another of Williams’ co-stars in the film, who pointed Adams’ out to Williams.

“The next day, we met again back in the makeup room and she actually came up and introduced herself to me,” he said.

While Williams said he never formally met Timberlake, he did have an encounter with the pop sensation turned actor that he won’t soon forget.

“There were a lot of teen girls around the set as extras, so I guess they were afraid he would get mobbed,” Williams said. “So whenever he was done filming his scenes, he was always whisked off the set.”

But on the last day of filming, a wrap-up party was held for the cast.

“There was karaoke there. I got up and sang and thought I did pretty good,” he said. “Then Justin came up right after me and did like a six-song set, everything from Hank Williams to Radiohead.”

Timberlake was performing the song “Creep” from Radiohead when Williams and a group of people around him began singing along.

“I like the song and I know the words,” he said. “He must have heard us, because he walked right over, stuck the microphone between us and we began singing together. I am now telling everybody I sang with Justin Timberlake. How cool is that.”

Williams’ opportunities over the summer have extended beyond the acting field.

In June, Williams, an international studies major who is studying political science, received an opportunity to intern with Rep. Jo Bonner (R-Ala.) through his scholarship with the Bedsole Foundation.

“Every year they give students and opportunity to intern in their chosen field,” he said, “so I asked if I could intern with a senator or congressman.”

Williams worked in the Mobile field office, making copies, running errands, whatever needed to be done around the office.

“The best experience was getting to tag along to the Town Hall meetings, which were held in the area at the end of June,” he said. “It was the best experience getting out and being able to hear what’s important to the people in the area, including Silverhill, which is just a few miles down the road from my house.”

Growing up in a liberal household, Williams still considers himself a liberal and the experience of working for the conservative congressman was an eye-opening one.

“Now more than ever I think it showed that we need to work together to solve the country’s problems,” he said. “I still consider myself a liberal but I think I now have a better understanding of the conservative point of view, even though I don’t agree with it. They’re good people just like us and we have to work together to put this country back on its feet.”

And while Williams continues to pursue his education and could one day go into politics, acting will always be his first love.

“If I had to choose between acting and politics, acting would win hands-down,” he said.

Williams was a fifth grader when he saw a commercial on the Nickelodeon network, seeking the “Funniest Kid in America.”

“Essentially there were looking for another cast member on the popular show, ‘All That,’ he said. Auditions were held at various locations throughout the country, including one in relatively nearby Atlanta.

“I thought if I could just convince my parents to take me there that I had just as good a shot as anyone of being chosen,” he said.

“He begged and pleaded until I finally caved in,” said Sherri Killiam-Williams. “Actually he went online and did a lot of research to convince us to take him up there.”

When they got there, what they found was a massive “cattle call” audition for the show.

“There wasn’t enough room in the hotel where they had the auditions to hold everybody,” Ryan Williams said. “It took a really long time and I got my shot, thought I did pretty well.”

In the end, Williams wasn’t chosen for the role, but he did catch the eye of Shay Bentley-Griffin, one of the South’s top casting directors, who has worked on films such as Big Fish and Sweet Home Alabama, among others.

“She came out afterward and said she thought Ryan had star potential and wanted him to come back for one of her workshops,” said Killam-Williams. “We checked her out to make sure she was legitimate, then decided to go for it.”

A short time later, mother and son returned for the workshop with proud mom bringing along a head shot of their younger son, Andrew, who was just 2 years old at the time.

“She came out and said Ryan did really well and wanted to know if Andrew was with us too,” Killam-Williams said. “When she found out that we had left him at home, she said we should bring him with us next time.”

They did and acting has been a family affair ever since.

“(Bentley-Griffen) was a God-send for us,” Killam-Williams said. “She’s the one who said we needed to get them both an agent and got us another agent when we needed to make a change.”

She served as Ryan Andrews’ business manager for a time. Both sons now work with East Coast Talent and are eligible for membership in the Screen Actors Guild.

It was actually Andrew that got his first big break in acting, landing a role as one of Matthew McConaughey’s sons in the film “We Are Marshall.”

The younger Williams has also landed his first lead role in a film, playing opposite John Schneider in the indie film “Season of Miracles,” and has landed roles in other indie films such as “Eye of the Hurricane,” which has been a hit on the film festival circuit.

The two brothers acted together in the children’s film “Mandie and the Forgotten Christmas,” and will work together again filming in North Carolina in October.

The entire family has worked together in local theater, including Playhouse-in-the-Park in Mobile, Jitterbug Theatre in Daphne and the South Baldwin Community Theatre in Gulf Shores. Killam-Williams has even landed a few roles as an extra.

In 2007, Killiam-Williams took the two boys out to Hollywood, where they spent February and March auditioning and pursuing roles.

“It was a good experience,” said Killiam-Williams. “Andrew got to go on a couple of auditions and Ryan got one call-back. It’s definitely a tough business.”

Both Ryan and Andrew express and interest in continuing with their acting careers well into their adult years.

“I just want to follow in my brother’s footsteps,” said Andrew. “I think if he had been a football player, then I would have been a football player too.”