LIVEMagazine #219 October 9, 2015

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Keep Showing Up!
LIVE Magazine
EXCLUSIVE by Levvy Carriker
A Chat with Jason Stuart
Thank you Jason for your time today! I have been hearing your name a lot lately and
then I went to do my research and I was like wow! Jason Stuart is one busy actor!
Levvy: Let me start with the film Tangerine, one of the interesting things about this film
is that it was shot entirely on Iphone5s. Tell us about that experience.
Jason: Well, Sean Baker is a director, whom I had worked with a year or two before.
And I had looked him up on IMDB (International Movie Data Base) and I saw that he
had directed a film that I loved called Prince of Broadway. I was so excited to be able to
work with him. And one day I got a call out of the blue asking if I wanted to be in this
film. And they didn’t say anything about it being shot on an Iphone. I showed up and
I looked around and I said, “Where is the camera?”. And we weren’t allowed to say
anything to anybody. Because that was the whole secret. We weren’t allowed to tell
anyone until Sundance. And it became one of the biggest hits at Sundance. Variety said
if there was only one film to watch at Sundance,
it’s Tangerine.
Levvy: Yes, there was a lot of buzz with that
film. And another show that I have seen getting
a lot of buzz on tv on different entertainment
shows is ‘Birth of a Nation’. How did you get
that show and what did you have to do to
prepare for that?
Jason: I have already done it. Have you heard about
it? I haven’t seen anything yet.
Levvy: I heard or saw something about it on
Entertainment Tonight or one of those shows,
probably.
Jason: Oh, really? Probably because Army
Hammer was in that movie. Where do I start
with that? About four or five years ago, I
realized that I was not going to get any good
parts in Los Angeles. So I thought I should try
to reach out to other regions where they are
shooting different films and there are not as
many actors to compete. I had an agent in New
Orleans. So I had met this director, Billy Clift at the
screening of a film that I was in. And he said to me that he had been a fan of mine for a
long time. He had done a film a couple of years earlier called, Baby Jane. And he offered
me the part of the doctor. And I said, I think David Milborn would be much better for that
part. And I would be better as the British journalist. He really wasn’t British, but I made
him British. He was affected! You will see. He is sort of the Perez Hilton of that time.
Levvy: You were cast in Nate Parkers new film, ‘Birth of a Nation’. It is already getting
HUGE buzz. How did you get that role and what are you doing to prepare for it?
Jason: It is about Black Abolitionist, Nat Turner. It is about exactly what is going on right
now in this country, with Black Lives Matter.
Levvy: That is why I think this film is so important right now. It is about timing.
Jason: To me, just as a human being, as a man, and as a Jew, this is probably the most
important film I have done. So I get a note that I [should send an audition tape] to
get this role playing a White, Hetero, Christian slave owner. I said right off the bat that
there is no way I am going to get this one. I put myself on tape and sent it. So after I
auditioned I got a call back and they wanted to see me in Savannah....And I thought for
what? I never thought that I would get this! You know, that could be the name of this
interview: Just Show Up! And I see that Roger Guenveur Smith is in this movie. I had
worked with him before and I asked him to put a good word in for me. He did. He calls
me back and says that the director likes me. I went in and auditioned. I just thought I
probably would not get this. It is just a far cry from things. I forgot about it. Then my
agent called and said I got the part! I literally started to cry! I just couldn’t believe it.
Levvy: I thought this could be a break-out part for you. It is just so far out of your realm
and the show is so timely. And I am sure it will be done well. It is just really good news.
You have to pinch yourself!
Jason: I am still not feeling it yet. I am still in dis-belief. Just that fact that you are asking
about it. I am saying to myself, “Am I making this up? Did it really happen?” It was one
of the best experiences I ever had. I have had some really great parts. Most of them
never got released, or they were very remote. In this film I have the supporting lead. I
had seven scenes. I play a plantation owner in 1831. I don’t want to be a spoiler and tell
you the movie, but my role plays an important in why they fight back.
Ruth Hardy Park
Registration begins at 7:30 am
Health & Wellness Village opens at 8 am
Walk steps off at 9:30 am
Register at desertAIDSwalk.org
or call 760.992.0442
Presented by
Sponsors
Special Performance by
David Hernandez
American singer, songwriter
and actor best known as
a finalist on the seventh
season of American Idol
in 2008.
Levvy: On a final note but a very important one is that you are National Co-Chairman
for the SAG/AFTRA LGBT Committee. Tell us about this committee.
Jason: I did it with Duncan Crabtree Ireland. And I created it because I wanted to
support other openly Gay actors, singers and comedians on being Out. So that being
Out is more commonplace. So we would have the same....
Levvy: Opportunities!
Jason: Wow, so you have read everything about me!
Levvy: Well, I have lived that part of your life!
Jeson: Are you also Gay I am guessing?
Levvy: I am. And I have been pushed out and fired from things for that same reason.
Jason: Right! You are not really... a part. And people think it is okay!
Levvy: Our publication is Gay and Straight. It is hard to tell what it is. But we don’t have any
bad news. There are no hard pictures or anything erotic hardly ever. It is more of an upscale
actors and charity piece, mixed with a local social almanac...But I still can’t put them in some
banks and places like that here in town. It is just shunned. Everybody else is in here!!
Jason: That is just how it is. Recently there was a part with Straight guys who dress up in
drag and they said, “Oh, there is no way that Jason could
play a Straight guy!”. That is just the way it is.
Don’t miss Jason Stuart in Palm Springs,
Saturday, October 10, 2015 at Purple Room
Tickets:
www.jasonstuart.bpt.me or call -800-838-3006