Jeremy Foley, Filmmaker/Actor/Screenwriter: Actors,
we're surfers. We're just catching the wave. But the filmmakers and the writers and the producers,
you've got to build the wave so the actors can catch it and surf.
Film Courage: When did you stop being an actor Jeremy and go
from in front of the camera to behind the camera as a writer/director?
Jeremy: I had continued my acting career all throughout my teen years up through my early
20's and I think the last film I did as an actor I was probably 25 so over 10 years ago
and and before that though I'd still sort of been acting a few times for for friends
for projects where for instance actually the last two films I did as an actor were really
personal connections people that I knew who were gonna be making a feature film
and they were like listen we need one last actor for this one last part and we think you
can do it and I'd go in and these were again these were friends and I would read for them
and they'd be like great you're it and we'd go off and we'd make the film so those
that's actually my last two experiences as an actor and then so that was through my
early twenties and I think even during that I'd been sort of experimenting with my friends and
we had been sort of like still wasn't really getting into it I was still kind of an actor
but like little by little we had started writing we had started filming like small webisodes we
had really been just just sort of practicing I feel like people sort of like at least for me
I had kind of grown up on sets and so I'd seen people doing it but
I hadn't done it myself and so these were my first sort of like little experiments at like trying to
do that myself shooting it myself and editing it myself and writing it myself and sometimes
acting in it myself and sometimes my friends would be acting in it and and so I think it was
around that time so really my early twenties were when I stopped being an actor full-time
and started doing my filmmaking and producing full-time and I started out small with web series
webisodes sketches and at that time there was like a lot of stuff you could do like funny
or die or these places where you could submit your comedy sketches or your webisode sketches
and and hopefully you could kind of find an audience or build an audience that way
and that's kind of what we started doing and then as I sort of progressed and I think a lot
of people do that do it this way where they you kind of get a little bit better and then you make
the next one and it's just a little bit better and then the next one's better until finally you're
at a place and this is this is where I was and where I was with my my friends at that time where
we were like okay all of this stuff that we've done has been fun but I think now it's like
there's a there's always I feel like a like a a a switch or like you're you're ready to like
go to the next level there's that evolution of like this was everything I was doing and
now I'm going to one-up it and at that time my friends and I started to make a web series
and one of my friends one of my collaborators still my one of my collaborators to this day
which is why I'm talking about relationships too is that the people that you meet
and your friends and the people that you work with are who and it's about knowing people right
but one of my friends had this great idea for a kind of a comedic web series
and we could serialize it and break it into many different parts and his ideas were about these
mobsters from the east coast who have to come out to the west coast and it's this sort of fish
out of water comedy story and we were like great that's a great idea let's go with that and that
became sort of the first real web series we did called mobsters and I know it's still available
out there on funny or die or I'm sure I'm sure people if they're interested can look it up
but it was a lot of fun in and I want to say that was the first time we really decided to
step it up or really up our game and go to that next level and really take it seriously
and it really worked out well we had an amazing experience with mobsters and
we still like that idea to this day they're your ideas are always they're always there
in the back of your head even if you're not actively working on something now I feel like
nothing ever really goes away it's always there so we we've always kind of got it in the wings but
that was a great experience a great web series we learned a lot we worked with a lot of excellent
actors along the way if people want to look it up they I mean we had excellent guest stars in some
of these episodes we went to some excellent film festivals with some of these webisodes
and I think that was really eye opening to all of us especially me to be like wow like
we could actually make some really excellent stuff if we just put our mind to it
did you ever regret stepping away from acting what was part of the allure of making your own stuff
not having to go on auditions it's an interesting question stepping away from acting for me
i kind of explained that like when I was younger and when I was getting into acting
for me it was the actors were the people that I could see when you're a kid you're watching film
or you're watching television and you see the actors so I immediately thought well i've got
to be an actor if I want to be in in movies and it was this really interesting thing happened where
when you're on set for instance using dante's peak as an example you're on set
and it was like a light bulb went off I mean it really was like
oh my gosh like I get it it's that there are the actors and I'm one of those actors
in this situation but then there's a director and then there's camera operators and there's
costumers and there's grips and there's all of these people making these movies that I love
and that the television shows that I love and it was like oh whoa I get it like I'm i'm starting to
realize like you don't just have to be an actor if you love film or television there are many
ways to do this so for me I think I being an actor was sort of
almost a means to an end it sort of got me involved in what I wanted to do but it
wasn't necessarily the only thing I wanted to do and I continued like that for years
being an actor and so all throughout my teen years again up into my early 20s I'd done
numerous television shows guest spots I was series regular on a show that ran for seasons I had done
independent films starred in independent films but that whole time you're watching and you're
learning and you're observing and you're seeing like all this different stuff happen and all
these different jobs that people are doing and and and for me stepping away from acting was
you know I loved acting and still to this day I love actors and I love what actors do and
it's very easy for me because of my background directing and producing and writing now it's very
easy for me to relate to actors because I know what they're going through but but I kind of see
it as all just I always think of myself as just a filmmaker and that can be producing and that
can be writing and that can be directing that can even be acting I don't think specifically there's
one category or I have to fit only one thing so stepping away from acting was
it just felt like a natural progression because what I wanted to do was actually
more storytelling focused and but still to this day I love acting I love actors who knows maybe
one day maybe i'll go back to it I don't know why is being an actor easier than being a filmmaker
I don't gosh I don't know if I don't know being an actor is easier than being a filmmaker
actors are really the talent that actors have is so special it's really an amazing thing because
for actors and and I think I can say this I think i've got enough sort of acting cred behind me that
and i've worked with some amazing actors I really have but the talent that they have is so
special it's a it's it's there's this incredible focus and presence
for an actor that they are just so in it they have to be just so so right right there what I
mean their mind can't be wandering and it can't be thinking about something else and I think
for for filmmakers I think it's it's sort of a different mind where your mind does have
to sort of be able to focus on multiple things at the same time whereas I think
acting you really have to be focused on one thing so I wouldn't say it's any easier to do one or
the other I just think that it's it's a completely different sort of discipline and mindset and focus
that each one needs but but also it can really depend now that because I have been both an actor
and I have worked as a filmmaker and I gotta say they're both tricky I mean they're both difficult
like being an actor is is its own thing you really have to get used to auditioning you have to like
auditioning you have to really feel comfortable doing it as a filmmaker you have to get used to
pitching you have to get used to there's a lot of like personal meeting people you have to get
used to calling people on the phone and like really being sort of tenacious with that too um
but I also see like moving ahead as a filmmaker or getting a project off
the ground as a filmmaker is also extremely difficult I know this because i've tried it and
i've had so many projects that are almost there and and don't quite for whatever reason
all the come to fruition the way I'd I would like them to and that same thing can happen to an actor
where you can almo you can you can get the callback the third callback the fourth callback
and you're so close and that doesn't really happen so I just think they're completely different
disciplines I think but I think both of them are have have their own challenges do you ever breathe
a sigh of relief and say oh now I don't have to wait to be picked on I can I can be the picker
you know I do breathe a sigh of relief sometimes that I don't have to wait to be cast in something
that I can just go out and make it myself and and I will say that that that freedom
is something that is so amazing about being a filmmaker is that you can just go out and do it
you write it you put the crew together you produce it you find the locations you cast the actors
you can you can work with the editor or you can edit it yourself but yes absolutely having the
freedom to just go out and create is wonderful and I think but I think on the same same token
you're seeing a lot of actors now getting more into that themselves I think a lot of actors are
sort of taking the reins for themselves and shooting scenes for themselves or doing
self-taping for themselves or even like i've seen a lot of like sketches and stuff on like youtube
or things like that where it's just an actor with their phone and they're kind of shooting
both both parts of the scene or they're shooting over the shoulders and they're shooting they're
making it look like they're two different people so I think actors are starting to
get into that indie filmmaker spirit
but but yeah it is it's an amazing freedom to be able to just go out and start making stuff and
it's funny because I the last short film that my wife and I made was called the faceless man and
I remember speaking to our actors and one of our actors just saying actors we're we're surfers
we're just catching the wave but the filmmakers and the writers and the producers you've got to
build the wave so the actors can catch it and surf so I think they one hand needs the other
one doesn't exist without the other but it's it is nice to to just go out and do what you want.