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Your new movie Danny Boy
- in a few words, what is it about, and what can you tell us about your
character in it?
Danny Boy
has a few interesting layers. On the surface, the film is about a
robbery gone wrong. But it's also a character piece on two men who are
very different sides of the same coin. Two career criminals from very
different social and personal backgrounds. But ultimately, they share the
same fate.
What did you draw upon to bring your character to life, and how much Jett
Jansen can we find in Danny?
For
the character of Danny Boy I needed to keep him real and grounded. I
needed to stay away from anything too cliché. Just keeping him real was
the goal. I also needed to compliment Samuel Evan Horowitz’ performance [Samuel
Evan Horowitz interview - click here], similar to a
dance. You need to be the yin to someone’s yang. Sometimes it doesn't
work, but Sam is so great and luckily we have great onscreen chemistry
which helps.
How did you get involved with the project in the first place?
I
think the first time I heard of the project, there was talk of it being a
stage play. Which it totally still can be, by the way. But then it evolved
into a short film that would be one single shot. Just a 12-minute oner.
Then it evolved further to what it became, and we were all very happy with
how it turned out.
What
were the challenges of bringing Danny
Boy to the screen from a producer's
point of view?
Because
we were originally preparing to shoot the film all in one take, Sam and I
were pretty well-rehearsed. Our crew of guys was all dialed in as well.
We’ve all worked together on so many projects that there is a great
shorthand. It lets us move pretty quickly. In terms of producing, I feel
the most challenging aspects were on the marketing and distribution side
of things. The film tackles many sensitive and dark topics which can limit
how many places it can go. Luckily, for us the response has been very
positive.
What
can you tell us about Danny
Boy's director Cory DeMeyers [Cory
DeMeyers interview - click here], and what was your collaboration
like?
Cory and I have a long and wonderful history of
working together, which is amazing for me as an actor because I can trust
him. I don't have to worry about anything but my performance. I trust
Cory’s eye and if he says it's good then it's good. Or if we need
another one then we need another. He's experienced and knows what needs to
happen.
He’s
got a fantastic mind for directing. It just comes naturally to him. So
he’s great to work with. I expect big things from him in the future.
Do talk about the shoot as such, and the on-set
atmosphere!
The
filming of this project was a lot of fun. As I mentioned we were preparing
to do this thing in one take. So we get in there. Our amazing director of
photography Deangelo Harding (who is a master) lines up the shots and
mounts the cameras. He gets it all lit and ready. Sam and I are ready to
go. Cory yells "action" and it just starts to click. By the
fourth take, we had essentially gotten the whole oner. We got it ahead of
schedule. So we're standing out there on the streets of Los Angeles with
several fantastic cinematic cameras, an amazing DP, a badass director,
actors who had done the whole piece beginning to end in one take several
times, and pretty much all the time in the world to keep shooting. So we
said to hell with it and started shooting out the rest of the coverage. It
was really cool.
The
$64-question of course, where can Danny
Boy be seen?
We’re
going to have to wait and see on that one, but after the festival season
I'm sure there will be several ways to watch it.
Anything
you can tell us about audience and critical reception of Danny
Boy yet?
The
critical reception has been amazing and positive. We knew we had something
cool, but we didn't expect this overwhelmingly positive response. You just
never know in this business. But the nominations and awards and positive
reviews have all been very heartwarming for us and we really appreciate
and enjoy that people liked it.
Any future projects you'd like to share?
We
are always working on something, but I would definitely expect an original
feature film from us in the near future.
From
what I know, you entered the film world as an actor and stunt man - so do
talk about your early days, and what made you want to go into making
movies in the first place?
I started doing theater in middle school, then
in high school I did theater and musical theater. After graduating, I
worked in Miami, Florida doing theater professionally before ultimately
getting into the wild world of professional wrestling. Which then led down
the path
of working in stunts, then film production and everything in between. It's
been a very fun ride. Blessed is the man that chases his dreams.
What can you tell us about your filmwork prior to Danny
Boy, in whatever position?
Prior
to
Danny Boy
I worked on a very wide range of projects. Same as almost
everybody that worked on
Danny Boy. We’ve all worked on a lot of great
projects in many different capacities. Personally, I've directed,
produced, written, or starred in everything from professional wrestling
shows to comic books to commercials, feature films and virtual reality
projects. But what always stays the same is the desire to tell great and
interesting stories.
Actors, filmmakers, whoever else who inspire you? Acting-wise,
I borrow heavily from Al Pacino, and Nicholas Cage as well. Sam Neill and
Jeff Goldblum, just in terms of technique and how I approach a character
or a performance. I like to be as subtle as I can and naturalistic. From a
production standpoint I think the films of Sergio Leone and Kurosawa as
well as Spielberg and Tarantino have really left their thumbprint on me. Your
favourite movies?
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Well that depends on when you ask me. That can
change week to week but right now I'd say Groundhog Day, Back to the
Future, The Maltese
Falcon, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,
Sanjuro/Yojimbo
- I'm counting them as one. And probably Indiana Jones. But who knows,
next week I'm sure Pulp Fiction will make it into the list. ... and of course, films you really
deplore? I
hate those copycat films. Like when Hunger Games came out and did well, I
knew that for the next 6 years I was gonna have to get movies based off of
novels for young people. And sure enough, we got Maze Runner and
Divergent
and Ender's Game and it just went on and on. People do that in every
genre. Fast and Furious does well, so now we're doing car movies for the
rest of our lives. Any of those late-to-the-party copycat-type films
really piss me off. Unless they're good. All bets are off if you make a
good movie. Your/your movie's website, social media, whatever else?
My
Instagram is @Jettjansen
">Danny Boy's website is www.dannyboyshortfilm.com
Sam's
Instagram is @the_real_russian_concussion
Thanks
for the interview!
Thank
you very much!
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