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Your online magazine Womentertain - in a few words, what is
it about?
Womentertain is a website that will feature opinions, interviews,
advice, and observations to and from powerful women who work in the
entertainment industry. What inspired you to launch the magazine, and
how did the whole project come into being?
I designed my own degree in college and used my senior project to
interview anyone and everyone that would talk to me that worked in LA.
After graduation I moved here to pursue acting - which I am still doing
successfully - and found that I was learning more from speaking to
professionals whom I could trust than I ever did in a college course.
After witnessing a couple of good friends move here and leave within the
year mixed with my own experiences - being a woman who is not taken
seriously on set - I decided to create a place where girls and women like
me could go to read others' stories, and feel like they were not alone.
Some of the
women and topics you plan to feature early on on Womentertain?
Women like Sarah Finn - casting director for all of the Marvel
movies and producer of the Oscar winning movie Crash;
Marni Rothman - producer for HBO's
Cathouse, MTV's
My Favorite Years, and I'm Going to College, and now
Long Island Medium on TLC, and others.
Topics will include industry news, opinion pieces on the state of
the industry, movies, plays, magazines, etc, how we are pushing
forward, and more interviews with different industry professionals and
entrepreneurs.
You
are first and foremost an actress of course, so what got you into writing,
and what can you tell us about your evolution as a writer? Writing
wasn't a focus of mine until I took a writing class while training at The
Second City Chicago, and a couple of my sketches got into our final show. I
now continue to write sketches with my Improv team and roommate, as well
as my articles for Womentertain. What
got you into acting to begin with, and did you receive any formal training
on the subject?
My mother likes to joke that I came cartwheeling out of the womb because
I've always loved performance. My grandfather on my mom's side was a stand-up comedian, my
dads side was a publicist for RKO, both of my
grandmothers where artists, and my mother took me to a lot of theater
when I was young. That said, it's kind of in my blood.
I went to an elementary school that had a heavy focus in the arts, a
middle school with a competitive show choir, a performing arts high
school where I double majored in acting, musical theater, and tap, performing arts camp every summer in NY.
When I got to college I decided to create my own major "The
Ontology of a Performer" at a school in CA where I could think
outside of the box, audition in LA, and not be limited when it came to
getting a theater degree. It also offered me a ton of study abroad
options - French and culture at the Sorbonne in Paris, Buddhist culture
in Nepal, German Expressionist Film in Salzburg, Austria, Physical
Theater in Arezzo, Italy, and of course a full semester in Comedy Studies
at The Second City Chicago.
I continue to take classes with UCB and Second City in LA, train with my
vocal and acting coaches, and take an occasional dance class.
What can you tell us about your earliest
experiences on stage? I was the kindergartner with all of
the costumes, playing with my parents' video camera and putting up fairy
tale plays in the backyard. Nowadays, you mostly play improv
comedy, right? So what can you tell us about the shows you're in, your
brand of humour, and the challenges and appeal of doing improv comedy?
I actually perform in just as many musicals and dramas as I do improv
shows. Each show is different and has something important to share with
the audience. I think that finding humor in situations without making
them dirty is impressive. If you can make me laugh without telling a sex
joke, you've won me over (though the occasional sex joke can be funny).
I also love situational humor.
I love comedy because it's easy to watch and fun to perform. Nobody
wants to watch someone on stage who is having a perfect time or someone
who is only depressed. Even in dramas there is always a comedic
character. I also feel that comedy comes from a deeper place (when it's
not slapstick) and audiences can relate to each other through the
situations they are witnessing on the comedy stage.
Over
the years, you have also been in a handful of movies. So please do talk
about those for a bit, and working on movies and performing on stage - how
do the two compare, and which do you prefer?
Theater will always be my first love, but after a couple of years in LA
I now love being on set just as much. A lot of the early films I was in
aren't up on IMDb because they were student films. The things I learned
working on them however really helped me navigate my way through the
bigger films and built me some killer connections. I got my first real
credit when I was 21 in a short film called Most Wanted, and
from there was invited to work on others.
My resume for film is still growing and is still much smaller than my
extensive theater resume. As I begin to produce my own material, write a
web series, and audition for bigger projects, I'm starting to love the
entire filming process and the incredible things we can do with
technology.
I get a rush from being on stage. Because there are no edits you are
forced to use your talent and cant rely on an editor. I love film for
the opposite reason. You do have to rely on talent but you get multiple
takes until the scene looks like the director's vision. Editing is like
putting a puzzle together and the end result is always up to the
builders discretion. I also love that you can reach a greater audience
through film.
Any future
projects you'd like to talk about? I have a lot of projects
in the works but none I can officially talk about. I'm about to star in a
web series and release my LA Video Diary once a week. Other
than those details, you'll just have to watch for my name on the IMDb. How would you
describe yourself as an actress, and what do you draw upon to bring your
characters to life? I'm a character actress through and
through and can play a wide variety of roles - depending on if my hair is
straight or curly. I try to bring a little bit of myself into the roles
that I play and think of the mannerisms and ticks the character may have.
I also try to envision what would have to happen in my life to get to the
point of the character I'm playing and the lines I'm saying. Actresses (or indeed actors) who
inspire you?
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The comedy legends of course - Tina Fey,
Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, etc, Jenna Fischer, Holly Hunter, and of
course, Jennifer Lawrence. And since this is a moviesite first and
foremost: Your favourite movies?
I love anything and
everything Judd Apatow. I hope to have the opportunity to work with him
someday. That and Labyrinth with David Bowie. ... and of course,
films you really deplore? Cabin
Fever and every other flesh
eating gory movie. Your website, Facebook,
whatever else?
Website: www.HallieJordan.com
Twitter: Hallielovesit
IMDB: imdb.me/halliejordan
and like my fan page on FB!
Anything else you are dying to mention
and I have merely forgotten to ask? Onward and upward! Thanks for the
interview!
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