Your new movie Anyone Home?
- in a few words, what is it about?
It's
about a single mother and her young son who are hired to live in a model
home in a housing development after the housing crash. It's taking
"house staging" to the next level. She is not what she appears
to be and her mental illness takes the audience on a crazy ride inside
her bi-polar mind.
What did you draw upon to bring your character to life, and how much Jasper
Cole can we find in Walker?
I
try to always bring some vulnerability to my roles if I can. I usually
play the more alpha roles and this time it may seem like Walker is the
aggressor, but the tables are turned and things go from bad to worse quickly. It was a very restrained performance with physical limitations.
You spend part of Anyone
Home? tied up in a rather grostesque way - so in what way has that
influenced your acting?
It
was a great exercise in really bringing what I was feeling and thinking
out through my eyes, They always say the "eyes are the key to the
soul" and "the camera doesn't lie" so I felt pressure to
make sure I was able to convey Walker's inner thoughts, fears etc.
How did you get involved in the
project in the first place? And to what extent could you actually identify
with Anyone Home?'s
brand of horror?
I
was lucky and grateful to get offered the role from a great caster
Kendra Patterson. I had auditioned for her for various TV series over
the years and she knew my work. That doesn't happen for me that often
these days as it seems we are all auditioning for any role we get. I
really love the style of the film because it could really happen and it's
not a "monster under the bed"-kind of horror film. It's more
of a psychological drama. Films like When a Stranger Calls scared me
more because it's a situation one could actually face in real life.
What can you tell us about Anyone
Home?'s director Patrick Cunningham, and what was your
collaboration like?
Patrick is amazing on
every level. It is his film directorial debut, and the passion and
excitement he brought to the set everyday was contagious. He's smart and
calm and very sure of what he wanted yet was open to collaborating with
all of us on the set. I look forward to working with him and
co-writer/producer Will Frank again. Do talk about the shoot as such, and
the on-set atmosphere?
This project was a long
journey from the beginning til now. We actually filmed originally in
2012 and then did several additional shoots, adding more footage for my
character "Walker", which was requested after test screenings
of the film early on. The team really took their time to make sure it
was creatively what they wanted and having a great company like Gravitas
Ventures distributing it is just icing on the cake.
Any future projects you'd like to
share?
I'm excited to have a new
film Captured releasing January 1, 2020. I play Shelly, a creepy
groundskeeper who may or may not hold the answers to lots of family
secrets. He is sort of a red herring in the film. I got to work with
another first time director, Joe Arias, and a young cast of actors who
star as rock singers who travel back to the lead singer's (Brittany
Curran) childhood home to shoot a music video. All HELL breaks
loose! What got you into acting in the first place, and
did you receive any formal training on the subject? I was a
"closet thespian", meaning I wanted to pursue acting early on but
it wasn't considered "cool" growing up, so I waited til I
graduated high school and started college. I then went to the Atlanta
Alliance Theatre School and studied playwrighting, acting, producing and
directing. I started in theatre and did over 30 plays. I have since
trained with John Kirby here in LA, the late Tracy Roberts and Lonny
Chapman at The Group Rep Theatre among others. I still feel the best
training is 'on the job" and working on sets and actually getting in
front of the camera as much as you can and never turn down any jobs when
first starting out. What
can you tell us about your filmwork prior to Anyone
Home? I
have done many films but much more TV work. In the past few years I did
the Saturday Night Live comedy MacGruber, The
Purge: Anarchy, Hansel & Gretel, Awaken the Shadowman,
Dark Sacrifice and just wrapped a cameo in the new
comedy Sallywood starring Golden Globe winner and Oscar nominee Sally
Kirkland. Having acted in both big budget and indie
films, and on TV, how do all these kinds of set compare, and which do you
prefer, actually, and why?
Jasper being awarded "Best Screen
Villain" at the 2019 Los Angeles Nollywood Film Awards |
The only real difference
are the accommodations and obviously the pay. As for the work, I
approach each one exactly the same. With big studio films you have lots
more time, but quite honestly I love the fast pace of indie films. I like
to work fast and I always feel I'm best in the first few takes anyway.
It may be my theatre training but I even like to film the rehearsals
because great stuff can happen. Over the years, you've become
known as a "screen villain" - so what are your thoughts about
this label?
It took me years to be
"typecast" or get on any list... so I'm thrilled. In TV/film
finding our lane as actors is a blessing. Theatre is the one medium
where actors can stretch a little more, but TV/film is all about
branding. We also have to talk about your talk show One
on One with Jasper Cole for a bit, and what's the idea behind it?
I started it 8 years ago
as On the Set with Jasper Cole for 4 years and now a more personal show
One on One with Jasper Cole for the past 4 years. It gives me a chance
to show more of my real self. I love pop culture and politics and social
issues. This past year I have really been focusing on the homeless
crisis in LA and the country. We do episodes called The Horrors &
Heroes of Homelessness. My show is live on Thursday nights 6 pm pst on
Blogtalk Radio and then archived on iTunes, iHeart Radio, Spotify, Spreaker and over 30 more platforms worldwide. How
would you describe yourself as an actor, and some of your techniques to
bring your characters to life?
I'm not one who thinks
that acting is brain surgery or curing cancer but I like to approach
acting from a place of just listening and reacting in the moment.
Keeping it real and accessible to an audience. I think we all bring
something unique and I try not to overthink it. Actors (and indeed
actresses) who inspire you?
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I love so many different
actors and actresses from the past and present. Montgomery Clift is one
of my all time favorite actors along with Daniel Day Lewis, Jeff Bridges
and Sam Elliott. Character actors who inspire me are Harry Dean Stanton,
Jackie Earl Haley and Mickey Rourke among others. I love Jessica Lange,
Jessica Chastain, Sarah Paulson, Angela Bassett, and the list goes on and
on. Your favourite movies?
Imitation of Life
starring Lana Turner, A Place in the Sun starring Montgomery
Clift,
Papillon starring Dustin Hoffman and Steve McQueen, Terms of
Endearment,
Ordinary People to name just a few. I like character-driven films.
...
and of course, films you really deplore? Lol... way too many to
list! Your website,
Facebook, whatever else?
www.jaspercole.com
Twitter:
@jaspercolesays @oneononejcole
Instagram: @jaspercolesays @oneononejcole
Facebook: Jasper Cole and One on One with Jasper Cole Anything else you're dying to
mention and I have merely forgotten to ask? Please VOTE in
2020 regardless of who it is, JUST VOTE! Thanks for
the interview!
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