wingman wednesday

After arriving in Hollywood from Washington to pursue his dreams, aspiring actor Jimmy Wong found it difficult to gain any traction in his career through the audition process alone. While he had reservations about trying to establish his own identity and brand on YouTube, he took a leap of faith in 2010 and began posting videos on his own terms. Before long he was amassing a major following and connecting with viewers by tapping into many of his childhood interests, including music and video games.

Now a sought after online personality who has starred in cult films like “John Dies at the End” and the web series “Video Game High School,” Wong is currently hosting the popular gaming show “Polaris Primetime” on Disney XD.

We recently sat down with Wong to discuss how he conquered the digital world, why Asian Americans are not better represented in film and television, and what makes “Polaris Primetime” different from other gaming shows.

TrunkSpace: In one way you took a traditional path in working within the entertainment business, but at the same time, you also created your own path and forced the industry to pay attention to what you were doing. Is that an accurate way of describing how you kicked off your career?
Wong: Yeah, it all started up when I came to Los Angeles as an actor. I arrived in the city after YouTube and online content creation had begun. I wasn’t particularly interested in making a YouTube channel or doing skits or bits because at that time, in 2010, it did not seem like there was any serious acting on YouTube. I spent a full year in the grind of rehearsals and auditions and trying to get any job that I could and maybe join the union. After a year of barely any success I said, “You know what, I am going to start pursuing YouTube, but I’m going to do it on my own terms. I’m going to do it with music because it’s something that I’ve studied and grown up doing as a good Asian child would.” (Laughter) I played classical piano for eight years.

That was a big kick off because immediately I saw this response and a growing fanbase that I never would’ve had in my full year of working as an actor in LA. In fact, I think in a month I was already further along and had more progress on YouTube than I did in an entire year. There was a lot of promise there. If I didn’t have that sort of expansion on my channel I probably wouldn’t feel as determined as I am today and I may have looked into buying subscribers on this Website.Fortunately, I had a very organic, gradual following.

TrunkSpace: What’s amazing with that too is that you’re doing it on a global scale whereas if you’re in LA trying to push yourself as an actor, you’re literally just focused within that one somewhat small bubble of the entertainment industry.
Wong: Yeah, that’s a great point. So many of the projects that I was going out for at the time were small student films and small brand deals with local companies. It’s a very insular thing when you’re starting out because you’re just unable to really get that kind of reach. With something like the internet and YouTube, we just know that there are tons of international people who consume this content on a daily basis and are obsessed with it in a great way. It was just a great transition for me to go from one to the other and realize just how different they were.

TrunkSpace: And you’re not only creating content that people enjoy, but you’re forcing studio execs and those who make decisions within the industry to notice you in a way that they may not in an audition alone.
Wong: Yeah, it’s interesting because coming up from the actor’s side there isn’t as much promise for doing YouTube still because a lot of it is personality-based and brand-based. A lot of the major YouTubers you see today are closer to life gurus or fashion DIY gurus that help you learn about certain parts of your life and it is less so actors. While there have been people who have transitioned from YouTube to the acting side, it’s not what your common every day YouTuber/online content creator is. At the same time, you’re right, it does create a lot of value for brands and larger companies to look at someone and say, “Hey, this person has a great influence over so many people. They’re listening to what this person says and they want to be a little more like this person, do the things that they do because it makes them happy, and maybe we’ll make them happy too.” For the business side, it definitely says, “Look, these people have a lot of influence!”

They’re able to connect with their fanbase in an organic and real way. That’s something that a lot of companies I think struggle with because they’re just so big and they’ve got so many parts to the company that it’s hard for them to connect with that everyday consumer in the way that they really genuinely want to. These influencers and content creators are a great bridge for that. If it’s a good collaboration, if it’s something that both parties are interested in, then it’s a win/win for everyone because I think that’s the beauty of the best collaborations from the physical non-digital world

Kelvin Yu has been making television viewers laugh in two very different ways. As a writer and producer of “Bob’s Burgers,” he has helped bring the animated Belcher family to life by shaping their personalities and giving them each their own distinctly unique point of view. As an actor on the Netflix series “Master of None,” he portrays the affable Brian, bringing fervency and cinematic composure to each scene that he appears in. Separate they would be two impressive career paths, but together, it’s lightening in a bottle with Yu as Zeus, bolt in hand.

We recently sat down with Yu to go full Oprah on his past, to learn why he became a Bob Dylan guy, and to discuss how he went from a Starbucks writer to a television staffer.

TrunkSpace: We know you write, produce, and act, but where did the bug first bite you in terms of your interest in the entertainment business?
Yu: It depends on how Oprah you want to get.

TrunkSpace: Full Oprah!
Yu: (Laughter) A kid pushed me and I was like, “I’m going to win an Emmy someday!” (Laughter)

No. I’ll go 7.5 Oprah, out of 7.6.

My parents are immigrants. They tend to be fairly reticent and very pragmatic. You don’t get here to dillydally. My dad went to Mississippi in 1966. He’s 5’4, 106 pounds, and it was the height of the Civil Rights Movement. You don’t get here without a plan. They’re very pragmatically-minded, upward mobility-oriented people. He ended up getting a PHD in Engineering. They did more than I’ll ever do in terms of trajectory.

We didn’t grow up wealthy or anything, but a solid middle class household. But it wasn’t an artistic household, and on top of that, they spoke Taiwanese all day. My theory is that my brother and I, because of that and because we’re not fluent in Taiwanese and didn’t understand most of what they were talking about, grew up vibrationally. You grew up trying to figure out what the fuck people are saying and what this really means. “Are they going to fight? Are they happy?”

TrunkSpace: So almost listening to the tone as much as the words themselves?
Yu: Yeah. Imagine watching a foreign movie your whole life and just going, “Are these two people about to kiss or fight? How does this scene end? What scene am I in?”

My brother started writing very early, but for me, I might have been looking for a place to express myself and emote… a place where I could access. That’s one angle.

Another angle is that I was a latchkey kid, like a lot of people of my generation, and maybe you were too, who grew up on the television. Kids now grow up on the internet and that’s terrifying, but the TV was my babysitter. Maybe I just wanted in.

Around 14 a teacher tapped me on the shoulder and said to me, “Hey, I think you should audition for the spring musical.” I always credit her because I just think it’s important for people to understand how informative and pivotal they can be in a young person’s life.

TrunkSpace: Did she see something in you that you didn’t even see in yourself?
Yu: Yeah, and maybe it wasn’t good. Maybe I was just a loud asshole. (Laughter) She tapped me on the shoulder and said, “I think you should maybe exorcize some of those demons.” (Laughter) My point is, she was right. And I did. That was the first step in a 1,000 step journey. She had no reason to do that. No incentive. The butterfly flaps its wings and you just don’t know.

So that was that, and outside of athletics and surfing, that became my primary extracurricular activity. My brother was highly academic. He had taken calculus as an 8th grader. He was a math mind. I was not. I was searching, and so I landed in drama and literature. I found theater. I have to say, pretty early on, I just got Shakespeare. Maybe because I wanted to. Do you ever want to be into something so bad that you force yourself into it, and then you get it after even if you don’t get it at first?

TrunkSpace: Absolutely. Especially during adolescence, a time when you’re still trying to discover yourself.
Yu: Exactly. Even if you start with the idea of it at first and then get to the reality of it. I forced myself to like Bob Dylan. I decided I was going to be the kind of guy who liked Bob Dylan at 16. Then I, to be honest, didn’t like Bob Dylan for probably a year and a half. Then one day you’re like, “Okay, I kind of like…” (Laughter) It’s like drinking coffee. “This tastes like shit, but I’m going to keep drinking it.” It didn’t take me that long to like Shakespeare and to like theater, and early, just classical theater. I don’t know why.

Then I auditioned for colleges and the one that I chose was UCLA, so I got into the theater program and I was there. That’s the Oprah answer. The IMDb answer is that I got my first job on the WB. It’s Oprah VS. IMDb in this binary. (Laughter)

TrunkSpace: So when did it start to become a career pull?
Yu: Somebody came up to me, actually, of all places, at church. I’m not a church-attending Christian at this point in my life, but I was when I was younger. Somebody tapped me and said, “Hey, there’s an audition for a 16-year-old Chinese kid on this new show if you want to go there.” I went in there, just beginners luck, so free and loose that I think, for that reason, I got the role. I hurdled a lot of early firewalls. I never had to search for an agent or I never had to do extra work because I walked into this audition and booked it and it was six episodes on a network show. When you do that, an agent will find you and you don’t have to do the search.

It could be a curse as well as a blessing, because then within a few seconds you realize that it’s not going to go like that forever.

TrunkSpace: At the same time, you probably nailed the audition because your mind was a clean slate and it wasn’t bogged down with so much extra industry “advice” on how you should have approached those types of things?
Yu: I think that’s right. Are you a sports fan?

TrunkSpace: Yes.
Yu: I’ve been pontificating on this recently and it applies to this for some reason. You have somebody like Peyton Manning and you’ve got somebody like Tom Brady. That’s a binary that a lot of people talk about, because Peyton Manning was a number one draft pick and Tom Brady was something like 194. I think that never leaves you. I just don’t think your entrance ever goes away, even though they end up having a lot of parody later on. I think when you’re Steph Curry and nobody thought you would be a star, that chip on your shoulder, even after two championships, it never goes away.

Sometimes I wonder what it would have been like if I had to grind and I had to hustle for a year and a half right out of the gate. I ended up grinding and hustling afterward. I waited tables for seven and a half years. I definitely wasn’t a super star out of the gates, not that I am now. All of that informs who you are in your life.

TrunkSpace: A lot of times we talk to actors about what it’s like playing the same characters for an extended period of time when they’re doing a series. You’ve been writing on “Bob’s Burgers” since 2011. What is that process like in terms of not only writing the same characters for that long, but building out the world for that long and keeping it fresh for yourself, and is it as exciting as it was in year one?
Yu: It is. It actually is. To what we’re talking about with me as an actor, at least my own POV of my last several years as an actor, Bob’s has had, in a way, a similar trajectory, which is that the vast majority of people still don’t know about “Bob’s Burgers.” It’s not like we pierced the culture like “The Simpsons.” I’m not shy about saying that. We talk about that openly here. And yet at the same time, the culture is different than it was in the early 90s when “The Simpsons” was in their heyday and making their mark. Things are different. There was five channels, now there’s… you couldn’t even really put a number on how many channels of entertainment there are that exist.

We’re not really trying to pierce the culture that way. What we have here is, I would say, maybe not the quantity of fans, but the quality of fans of “Bob’s Burgers” is tremendous. The people who love “Bob’s Burgers” is heartwarming. Everybody here feels that. I’m not speaking for the show, I’m speaking for myself, but I think that the access point for that has been the kids. I think there’s a whole legion of girls out there that just met Tina Belcher and she resonated immediately with them. Gene and Louise have a similar following.

During the first season, I had a writing partner at the time. We called ourselves Starbucks writers. We were just two guys with laptops at Starbucks, like there are here in LA everywhere you go. We got some traction on a spec script and we got a meeting off of that script. We went and sat down, and within five or six minutes it became more and more clear that we were getting the gig. At the time, I was just an actor. I was almost, in a sense like, “Is this going to interfere with my ambitions and goals as an actor?” Then I put that aside quickly and thought to myself, “You know what? This is going to be an awesome six months.” That’s really what I thought. It’s going to be a really fun six months. Here we are, eight years later.

What I’m trying to paint for you is that, the first year was a lot of figuring out how to ride a bike while on a bike. To the credit of Loren Bouchard and Jim Dauterive, they actually went out and tried to find a few people like that. Steven Davis and I being two of them. The Molyneux sisters had never staffed. Holly Schlesinger, a writer here, never staffed. You had a nice mixture of “King of the Hill” alum with people straight out of Starbucks. Straight out of their apartments.

TrunkSpace: Who were all unjaded to the process at that point in their careers.
Yu: Totally unjaded. Not that the older writers were jaded, but when you talk to them, people like Garland Testa who had written on “Roseanne” and Greg Thompson who had written on “3rd Rock from the Sun,” I’m endlessly interested in the stories that they have coming from that generation.

The first two or three years, we were trying to find the show. It’s a very small club. You have the Seth MacFarlane shows, Mike Judge shows, and “The Simpsons” and Matt Groening. To try to even get into that room is presumptuous. It takes a lot of bravado. I think the show is pretty humble and the people that work for it are pretty humble, so we were just like, “Just happy to be here everybody,” while in the corner. And low and behold, I think people started to find it mostly on other media… on Netflix and on Hulu. It pairs nicely with the college kids and I think with marijuana, from what I’m told. It’s a nice pairing. So if you are looking for some marijuana to enjoy while binging some Netflix shows, maybe look int something like this Receptra coupon here or similar.

TrunkSpace: (Laughter) Imagine if it was legal across the country, the ratings would be through the roof.
Yu: (Laughter) We’d make so much money if we could just get everybody stoned, watching “Bob’s Burgers.” Or, at least let those who don’t want to smoke have some cbd infused chewing gum. Fun for all the family, maybe?

TrunkSpace: You also star in “Master of None,” which seems like a really important show in the grand scheme of things because it presents all of these characters of different ethnicity and backgrounds, strips away the stereotypes and just presents them as people. Do you think the series is going to help change the way that Hollywood represents people on screen?
Yu: It’s so funny working on both shows because Bob’s is a slow, lazy river… a perfume that slowly invaded the room. And you hear like, “Did somebody spray perfume?” It takes you 20 minutes to realize it’s there. “Master of None” came out and it was in the zeitgeist. It was in the moment. It was totally right now. It was the cool, hip, popular kid in the room. It just was everything opposite of Bob’s. Yet, such a joy in just the opposite way. I’m writing on Bob’s, I’m acting on “Master of None.” One’s in LA, the other one’s in New York. So I was having these really parallel, totally different experiences flying back and forth.

People of color, gay and lesbian people, and people who might feel less than represented over the past several decades or centuries or feel slightly marginalized, it’s interesting because it’s not new to us. I don’t walk around with chopsticks all the time. I’m just living my life. I think the best thing that Aziz and Alan did, the way that they penetrated or permeated that membrane into relevance, was to make it look really, really attractive.

When you think of “Master of None” in your reptilian brain, people are like, “I want to eat all of those episodes tonight. I want to go home and eat all of it tonight.” I think that’s really genius, because what they’re doing is like sushi in the 80s or yoga in the 90s. It’s this thing that might have been incredibly exotic to mainstream America, that’s just found a way into the culture because people were smart enough to say, “Hey, raw fish is delicious, but I’m not going to freak you out. And we’re not going to shame you and make you feel like you don’t understand Indian people or lesbian people or trans people. We’re going to make it all really fun. And you’re going to feel a part of it.” I think that when I take a step back and look at “Master of None” as a viewer and as a fan of Alan and Aziz, I’m actually really grateful. I realized that they were able to do a service for so many different communities and they had a great time doing it.

Actor and comedian Nik Dodani is about to embark on a career-defining journey that will force the pop culture community to open its eyes wide to the Arizona native’s talents. With a string of high profile projects set for release in the near future, including the new Netflix series “Atypical” on August 11, the creative multi-hyphenate is well on his way to becoming a household name.

We recently sat down with Dodani to discuss sinking or sailing in stand-up, why he transitioned to the spotlight of the stage, and how much he enjoyed being an openly gay actor playing a very straight character.

TrunkSpace: The chicken or the egg question. What came first, acting or comedy?
Dodani: Acting. Acting definitely came first. I started acting when I was a kid back in Arizona. So, I’ve been acting on and off for about 10 years. I only started doing stand-up about two years ago.

TrunkSpace: So if acting came first, do you think that working with the words of other writers helped you when you started working on your own material?
Dodani: I think so, yeah. I think watching comedic actors over the years has really helped understand timing and energy and presence in a way that I think has really helped me in stand-up.

I definitely think that they kind of feed each other. And I think it works the other way too. My stand-up has also helped me in my acting. Being on stage by myself in front of a large crowd, either bombing or doing well, really taught me more about timing and about how to connect with an audience and how collaboration in performance can really change the tone or the way a joke lands.

TrunkSpace: Stand-up really feels like the purest form of content creation in that, what you created is what you’re performing, with no outside influence or participation. You either do well on your own or bomb on your own.
Dodani: Yeah, absolutely. You’re up there by yourself and you have your own story to tell. While you’re on stage it’s a very solitary experience. But I will say, my stand-up community has been a big part in helping me become the comic writer that I’ve been. It’s definitely been a village of people who have helped me get to where I am. It’s a solo performance and you sink or sail on your own, but getting there has definitely been a group effort.

TrunkSpace: Is the most difficult thing with starting a stand-up career finding your own unique voice and presence on stage?
Dodani: For me I think the most difficult part was finding ways to take what I’ve experienced in my life and making that relatable to folks. A lot of my stand-up is about being gay and being Indian and about growing up in Arizona, which I think most people can’t directly relate to. But, you know, I think there are parts of those experiences that are so relatable, in about feeling like an outcast, about feeling like a fish out of water, about struggling to figure out who you are. I think those are all things we can all relate to. When I’m writing, that process of figuring out where I can make that connection, that’s one of the hardest parts for me. But also, the most exciting part and the most fun part. It sounds really cheesy, but it has taught me how similar we all are.

TrunkSpace: You’re about to be recognized for your acting in high profile projects like “Atypical” and “Alex Strangelove.” Do you hope that working in projects like those will open your stand-up to new audiences?
Dodani: It’s always hard to tell how a specific project is going to effect your career. For me, I’m just really excited to be part of these projects and it’s been so much fun being able to work on them. Especially with “Atypical” and “Alex Strangelove,” the specific ones you mentioned, the story that both of those are telling are so powerful. The theme of “Atypcal” is what it means to be normal and that is directly related to the themes that I talk about in my stand-up and things that we all struggle with. And the same with “Alex Strangelove,” it’s about this teenager struggling with his sexuality. And being able to be a part of those stories in a small way has been a really special experience for me.

TrunkSpace: Just before we talked we had a look at how many people had viewed the “Atypical” trailer on YouTube. It was over 257,000 within a 24 hour period. That’s pretty great.
Dodani: Yeah, it’s pretty crazy. I just saw the one on Facebook has like 2.4 million views, which kind of blew my mind.

I think “Atypical” speaks to that thread that kind of runs through all of us. I think we all kind of are made to feel, at some point in our life, that we don’t fit in or that we’re different or weird or not normal. And so I think Sam’s story kind of resonates.

TrunkSpace: Where does your character tie into Sam’s story?
Dodani: I play Zahid, Sam’s ridiculous coworker and best friend who takes it upon himself to teach Sam how to date and how to talk to women and the ways of women. He really treats Sam like he’s anybody else, more than anyone else does in Sam’s life. He just wants Sam to get laid. (Laughter)

At the end of the day he treats him like his equal and his peer. And Zahid is also absolutely a weirdo and I think is someone who’s quirky and odd and relates with Sam’s honesty and his struggles with autism in a way that helps them connect. Zahid is really just there to have Sam’s back and he’s helping him through his journey of trying to figure himself out.

TrunkSpace: While his intentions are pure, is Zahid leading Sam blindly at times?
Dodani: (Laughter) Yeah, I think Zahid thinks he has the best advice, but from an outsider’s perceptive, I don’t think it is great advice all the time. (Laughter) Zahid’s the kind of guy who tries really hard to be cool, really hard to be funny, and doesn’t quite hit the mark always. And so definitely, I think some of his advice is a little off base.

 

TrunkSpace: From a performance standpoint, what drew you to Zahid?
Dodani: Zahid is so different from who I am. Zahid is just very self-confident, goes out there and puts himself out there. He’s very assertive in his attitude and behaviors in a way that I’m just not, especially when it comes to dating. I’m the awkward, shy, really get-in-my-head kind of guy, so being able to play a character that is just so out there was really fun for me. And also, Zahid is very straight and I’m an openly gay actor and comic and that was really exciting for me. You often see examples of straight actors playing gay parts and it’s really fun to be a gay actor playing a straight character.

TrunkSpace: “Atypical” seems like such a great combination of comedy and heartfelt storytelling. It feels a lot like an indie, character-driven film.
Dodani: Yeah, absolutely. I think that’s a spot-on description. It very much has that indie vibe to it and I think folks are going to be feeling a lot of emotions while watching it. It’s definitely funny, but it also is very heartwarming. It can get sad at moments, you cringe in other moments, but it definitely touches on the whole range of emotions and it has that very indie vibe to it.

TrunkSpace: Acting was your first love, but stand-up seems to be taking up a lot of your career energies these days. If a role of a lifetime came along where it kept you busy for multiple seasons, could you step away from stand-up for a period of time?
Dodani: That’s a great question. I love stand-up so much. I kind of started doing stand-up because it was a way to express myself creatively and to have fun, but it’s become this thing that has become such a big part of my life and I absolutely want to continue working on my material and finding my voice in a way that will take time. And so ideally they kind of go hand in hand, but sometimes you never really know the forces that play into this career, and within this industry in particular, and where that takes you.

“Atypical” premieres August 11 on Netflix.

As we melt into the dog days of summer and the dread of a winter to come chills us to our sun-loving core, the Hallmark Channel is here to help us embrace what we all wish could be an evergreen season filled with the accumulation of beachfront memories. “Love at the Shore” is the network’s latest foray into seasonal programming and stars Amanda Righetti, an actress who has impressed in everything she has appeared in, including memorable roles in “Colony” and “The Mentalist.”

In slipping into the shoes of her character Jenna, Righetti was excited to step away from the heaviness of her previous roles and spend time with the lighthearted, emotionally-driven storytelling of “Love at the Shore.” Working in television over the years prepared her for the ambitious 15-day shoot, much of which became reliant on the cooperation of Mother Nature. (Thankfully the weather was mostly agreeable!)

We recently sat down with Righetti to discuss cinematic escapism, transitioning from modeling to acting, and if Jason Voorhees is as scary as a broken heart.

TrunkSpace: Hallmark is probably best known for their holiday movies, but they’re actually really great at painting the feelings and emotions of all seasons. With that in mind, what makes “Love at the Shore” a summer movie in terms of painting those feelings and those emotions?
Righetti: Well, Jenna is a novelist. She rents this summer home for her kids to go to. She’s still licking her wounds from a divorce and hasn’t really figured out quite how to move on. It hits her in a very unexpected way. There’s something very juvenile about the way she falls for Lucas (Peter Porte). It’s met with a very adamant, “No, I don’t like him. I don’t have time for relationships.” Sometimes, love doesn’t have bounds. It finds us sometimes in really unexpected places. That’s kind of part of her journey, just relaxing and letting go of control. She trying not to be as neurotic about things and allowing somebody to care for her. Especially considering the tumultuous relationship she has come from.

Nobody expects any marriage to end when they go into it, so there was a certain aspect of sheltering herself and trying to protect herself. That all gets kind of cracked open. It opens her eyes to a new avenue. There’s something really lovely about that journey, and I think everybody can kind of relate to it.

TrunkSpace: Most Hallmark movies end on a happily ever after note, a theme that is actually not common in a lot of other film and television projects these days. Is part of the allure of Hallmark films a sort of a welcomed escapism for people who feel like they’re tapping into a simpler, less chaotic time?
Righetti: Yeah, absolutely. I think there’s so much heaviness on TV that just the idea of escapism, that you don’t have to worry about death and upheaval at the end, there’s something kind of refreshing about it. I think sometimes we need that. We need to be able to tune everything out and not fret about what’s going to happen tomorrow or what’s even happening today.

I think there’s some merit to that. I think we need that sometimes as an audience. Hallmark seems to have that genre pegged.

TrunkSpace: You started your career as a model. Was acting always a part of the plan?
Righetti: Yeah, it’s funny because I actually fell into modeling by way of trying to get into acting, and I guess in some ways I got derailed for a few years by doing the modeling thing, but eventually came back to it. At the age that I started, there was a lot of legal things that would have had to happen, emancipation and things like that. Modeling bought me time until I was 18 and I just could start pursuing it full time.

I wasn’t quite sure even when I did start getting into acting if that was the avenue I was going to go and then I saw myself really falling in love with it. I started to not see myself doing anything else. It clicked for me in a way that I went, “This is it. There’s nothing else I want to do.”

TrunkSpace: Once you had established yourself as a model, did you have to work your way out of the perception of being a model who wanted to act?
Righetti: Yeah, I think that’s what even happens now. I think sometimes it can be tricky. It sounds so cliché, but it’s the “pretty girl syndrome.” You feel like you have to prove that you’re not just a pretty face. That there’s more behind it. I was lucky in the sense that the modeling stuff for me happened all overseas. I haven’t done any domestic modeling, so I wasn’t really fighting against being in some Tommy Hilfiger campaign or something like that, going in, and they’d be like, “Oh wait, aren’t you the face of…?”

It wasn’t like that for me. It was a little bit different. I was doing the Japanese markets and things like that. They were sort of once removed. They kind of never coincided and crossed over with each other in that way. It wasn’t so much about fighting against the modeling as much as it was just fighting against, “Look, I’m more than a pretty face.” I never really brought the modeling into the acting that way, in terms of trying to sell myself.

TrunkSpace: You mention fighting against the pretty face syndrome. Does that also apply to the types of roles you would get offered and read for?
Righetti: Yes, absolutely.

TrunkSpace: Has that changed at all in recent years? Are there more interesting roles for women now than there were when you started your career?
Righetti: Yeah. I think even as I’ve sort of grown up in the business a little bit and because I’ve been doing it for more than a decade, the rules change, too. As you get older, you enter your mid-20s, roles are different than they are when you’re in your late teens. And even into your late 20s or early 30s the roles are a lot different. It seems like things are sort of shifting in the direction of more female-driven characters and female-driven shows. That’s exciting, and really, it’s an exciting time to be part of the business in that way. To be able to explore stuff that usually, many years ago, would have been a male playing certain roles… they’ve started to see things differently and I think audiences want to see something different too. It really lends itself to great opportunity.

TrunkSpace: It feels like the time of “desired demographics” is going to fall to the wayside and good content will just be good content.
Righetti: Well, I think people are open to that. It doesn’t matter what the role is, as long as it’s interesting and you can get behind it and you can find an audience for it. Sometimes people don’t know what they want, they just know what they don’t want. If we can present interesting characters, even if they’re female, it still is worth watching. It’s all opportunity. I think it’s exciting. It’s a great shift and I’m really pleased to see that it’s finally starting to swing in that direction.

TrunkSpace: Looking back, is there any advice you would give to your teenaged self in terms of lessons you’ve learned and wish you could have avoided?
Righetti: (Laughter) That’s a loaded question.

TrunkSpace: (Laughter) It’s a heavy question.
Righetti: Wow, you know… the list could go on and on, or it couldn’t, because I don’t know that I would change anything.

I would say to my younger self to believe and don’t doubt. “Just go for it.” I struggled with a lot of self doubt as a teenager and trying to figure out what I was going to do with my career. I think that would have been a good piece of advice to have known in my heart at that time.

TrunkSpace: Is there a particular project that you learned the most from, not only in terms of the industry but in terms of yourself and your abilities as an actress?
Righetti: Each one I’ve learned something from that unexpectedly, I didn’t really know I would have learned. But, I think that the one I take the most pride in is “Colony.” It was really wonderful to be part of such a collaborative, creative team. And to also be surrounded with such generous and talented actors. The character that they wrote gave me an ability to see so many different colors in a character. I really appreciated that. It exceeded my expectations.

Every project sort of exceeded my expectations in some regard. We didn’t think “The Mentalist” was ever going to do seven seasons. That really exceeded expectations. I never thought that I would learn how to fire a gun or do tactical takedowns and things like that, but there I was and I did. Even going back, “The O.C.” was a huge learning experience for me. I got to work with people that I grew up watching. It was a wonderful experience and those actors were all very generous as well, and very warm and loving. I was a kid. I didn’t know what I was doing and they were all just really lovely to me.

Every project has had its moments of unexpected pleasant surprises. I think most recently “Colony” was really the one that I learned the most from and I think I grew the most through. It could be just the time of my life too, I don’t know.

TrunkSpace: You mentioned “The Mentalist.” You did seven seasons and 132 episodes of that show. It must be interesting to watch a character grow and learn over a long period of time as you yourself are also growing and learning?
Righetti: Yes, absolutely. That’s a really neat thing, looking back. I think I was 24 or 25 when I started that show. I really came into my own as a woman in that show. I had a child when I was doing that show. My life changed a lot. The character was so naive and she kind of came into her own. She went through a lot of things. It’s neat just to see. It’s like the old adage, does art imitate life or life imitate art? “The Mentalist” definitely had certain aspects of that.

TrunkSpace: Finally, we have to ask… who is a better on-screen antagonist. A broken heart, which you deal with in “Love at the Shore,” or Jason Voorhees, who you dealt with in the “Friday the 13th^” remake? It seems like both can be pretty hard on a person.
Righetti: (Laughter) Yeah, both can be hard on a person. I think you can be chased by Jason Voorhees and have a broken heart at the same time. (Laughter)

“Love at the Shore” premieres Saturday on the Hallmark Channel.

There have been plenty of talented people with the name Jackson who have left their mark on pop culture. Michael Jackson, the King of Pop, is an obvious one. Randy Jackson, the “American Idol” judge and record producer who made “dawg” a household phrase. Shoeless Joe Jackson, the famed and shamed professional baseball player who later became fictionalized in “Field of Dreams.” And Samuel L. Jackson, the iconic “Pulp Fiction” actor who once had to fight motherfucking snakes on a motherfucking plane.

The list could go on and on, but only ONE Jackson has shared a passionate screen kiss with his scene partner while having a human eyeball pass back and forth between their lips. (At least we think he’s the only Jackson to do that. Truth be told, we haven’t actually fact checked that because it just felt like a safe assumption.)

South African-based actor Craig Jackson plays slacks-wearing, serial killing, lap-dogging Cliff in our favorite man-eating car drama “Blood Drive.” And the fact that we can even say that sentence out loud proves just how cool this interview is going to be, so put on a bib because you’re in for a treat!

We recently sat down with Jackson to discuss bloodthirsty love, putting the pedal to the hybrid metal, and why he’s so proud of having worked on the series.

TrunkSpace: We have been asking this of every “Blood Drive” cast member we speak with because, well, it just seems like an obvious first question. (Laughter) Did you ever wonder if the material you were working on in “Blood Drive” would ever make it to air?
Jackson: All the time! When I read the line, “Back door entrance, Barbie,” my eyes nearly popped out of my head. I thought they might censor some of the material. I’m just so glad it all stayed in. It was just so out there and crazy and I don’t think I’ve ever laughed so hard!

TrunkSpace: What is interesting about the show is, due to the premise, many of the actors had on-screen partners, in your case Jenny Stead. Do you think that helped the actors find their sea legs in a series that is so over-the-top… being able to instantly rely on a scene partner who is also your character’s partner?
Jackson: Definitely! When Jenny and I first met at the studio, we hit it off immediately! I remember the crew asking me if we had known each other for years! It was nerve-racking coming into this series, because it was so off-the-wall and we were worried where to pitch our performances, being comfortable with each other made everything so much easier. Jenny is a really funny and talented actress, working with her was such a pleasure.

TrunkSpace: Your character Cliff is going through what a lot of long-married people go through. He is wondering what happened to the excitement and spark that he and his wife had in the early years of their relationship. However, Cliff’s excitement and spark involves the longing to return to a life as a serial killer. Was it fun tapping into that totally relatable concept, and yet, sooooo not relatable at the same time?
Jackson: Such fun! I think Cliff is “comfortable” with their marriage and doesn’t like change too much, but adores Domi and would do anything for her even though she’s a ball busting narcissist who drives him crazy. Domi is on a mission to find that spark again and Cliff follows like the lap dog he is.

TrunkSpace: A bit of Cliff’s backstory is discussed through some reminiscing with Jenny’s character Domi. Did you two explore that even further, either together or with creator James Roland? Perhaps, how the two ultimately met and fell in bloodthirsty love together?
Jackson: Jenny and I came up with a backstory, which was very dark. Cliff and Domi knew each other at a young age and fell in love when he helped her kill her parents. They realized then that they were soulmates. Years before entering the “Blood Drive” race, Domi had a miscarriage and Cliff saw the dead fetus, which put him off killing. This event has affected their relationship and their marriage had stagnated as they didn’t kill together anymore.

Before we shot our very first scene (the eyeball kiss), I spoke to James about my character. He said what he loved about my audition was that I reminded him of Winnie The Pooh! I loved that!

TrunkSpace: The amazing thing about Cliff is that although he looks like a suburban super dad on the surface, he is probably one of the more better equipped characters for this world, at least mentally. Hell, even Rib Bone had a weakness in the dog! Do you feel like Cliff is sort of the big psycho fish in the small “Blood Drive” pond?
Jackson: For sure. That’s what I love about the characters that James has written. They look so normal. Your typical harmless, middle American couple, who are repulsed by the other drivers. They see them as lower class. Even though Cliff is a ball–busted whipping boy to Domi, his inner rage is unrivaled. When he loses it, he is a bad ass! And coupled with Domi,… well, lets just say… Arthur and Grace wouldn’t get out of their starting blocks!

TrunkSpace: We just spoke of weakness. Would Cliff’s weakness be Domi?
Jackson: 100 percent. Even though she drives him crazy, he would be nothing without her. Oh, and the Prius! I mean, how emasculating can you get? Cliff would have loved a cool mustang, but NO! Domi insisted on a slow HYBRID!!!!

Domi: (staring at Cliff) Tone.
Cliff: Yes, Dear…

TrunkSpace: Eyeball make out session! How does one prepare for something like that?
Jackson: Hubba Bubba chewing gum.

I was really excited! Before shooting the scene, I thought to myself, “Never in a million years would I have imagined that I would be shooting a kissing scene with an eyeball! How great is my life right now!” The environment was so relaxed. We had such a great team around us and it was such a pleasure being directed by James Roday.

TrunkSpace: Just out of curiEYEsity… what was the actual prop eye made of?
Jackson: Plastic dipped in some sweet blood syrup. Yummy!

TrunkSpace: How do you share your new gig with family when said gig is a show with cars that eat people and a character who is mouth-swapping eyeballs? What is that conversation like?
Jackson: Well, my family find it hilarious but can’t quite get their heads around the concept, but they are all very supportive and eager to see the show. I love watching my wife’s face when she watches the eyeball scene. It’s a look of pride with moments of disgust.

TrunkSpace: “Blood Drive” is so very unlike anything else on television. That statement is said a lot about a great number of shows, but usually it’s just said for the sake of saying it. It truly is the case with your show. Does that make being involved with it feel all the more special?
Jackson: Absolutely. I don’t think I’ve ever had this much fun. Not being 100 percent sure how this show would turn out was both frightening and exciting and I’m so proud of the finished product. This show isn’t just about blood and gore, there are amazing, clever themes running through each episode and James Roland has done a sterling job. It was an awesome team to work with! I have also made lifelong friends. I’ve just got back from the United Kingdom where I met up with Marama, Thomas and Andrew. What a lovely, talented team! South Africa misses you guys! COME BACK SOON!

TrunkSpace: You spent multiple seasons starring in “Black Sails” as Featherstone. What did your time on that series teach you about working with the same character over a prolonged period of time
Jackson: I find the longer you play a character the easier it becomes. You’re more at ease when delivering dialogue and can play more and try different things. We also had amazing script writers in Jon Steinberg/Robert Levine and Dan Shotz, which makes an actors work a whole lot easier.

TrunkSpace: When you look at your career moving forward, what would you like to accomplish? Do you have bucket list items that you want to check off in your career?
Jackson: I love what I do and want to keep doing challenging roles, whether it be for film, television or stage. An award or two would also be nice!

Fans of the Netflix series “GLOW” will know Marianna Palka as the squared circle brute Vicky the Viking, but beyond acting, the Scotland-native is a talented and sought-after filmmaker. Her movies “Bitch” and “Good Dick” were heaped with critical praise and she recently returned to the director’s chair to shoot the upcoming comedy “Egg” with Christina Hendricks, Alysia Reiner and Anna Camp.

We recently sat down with Palka to discuss how she balances wearing multiple on-set hats, how people will always need cinema in their lives, and why “GLOW” is such a game-changer for the industry.

TrunkSpace: We know that you write, direct, and act. Sometimes you do all three in the same project. Is that multi-hat experience wholly different than when you do something like “GLOW” where you’re focusing on acting alone?
Palka: That’s such a good question because I think those things all feed into one another. When I’m doing all of them together, it’s almost more streamlined and somewhat easier on some level because there are less conversations. I’m not explaining anything to my lead actress. I’m just talking with myself. So, it’s a beautiful thing when I’m doing all the jobs, but then it’s nice to just do one job like “GLOW” where I just have my lane and I like to stay in it.

Now with “Egg,” I like to stay in the directing lane. It’s the best.

TrunkSpace: Even though you like staying in the lane when you’re focusing on acting alone, is it hard to shut off the director’s brain? Not questioning decisions, but just wondering what the framing looks like and how a scene is playing out?
Palka: I like shutting off. It’s like a holiday. It’s like going on vacation. Do you like going on vacation to Hawaii or do you like going on vacation to Fiji? They’re both really awesome, you know? If I just have to focus on Hawaii, that’s fine. I tend not to be outside of what’s going on. I’m looking at it from the objective point of view when I’m working so subjectively as an actress.

It’s all about details and being in the moment. I’m really focused, so it’s kind of precise. I’m not really thinking about what anyone else should be doing, including other actors. I’m just thinking about me and how much I can bring to it or how generous I can be. It feels like a very giving, community-based activity.

TrunkSpace: The way people consume content has changed and continues to change. With that in mind, do you shoot your films with a particular format as your vision? Do you make them for the big screen?
Palka: I always thought about it both ways. Back in the day, I’d be like, “We’re making all of this detail, and someone may end up watching it on their VHS, or on a copy of a VHS, or whatever.” I’ve always been very open to that concept. I feel like now, even more so, I watch a lot of stuff on a small screen. But we’re still going to make all the cinematic decisions that we make in order for all of our movies to work in a cinema, because luckily enough, my movies have all played in the theaters first, and then they go wherever else they go. I know that’s not the case for everybody.

But that said, I think even if you’re a filmmaker and you’re making stuff that you know is going straight to online, you can still use the rules of cinema. You can still use justified camera movement. It doesn’t mean cinema has to die just because there’s a smaller screen. You can still make sure that the production design is amazing and that you’re not just pointing and shooting, but that you have a shot list and you’ve got good angles, and you’ve done it the way that a movie really gets to soar. The story really soars if you give all that skill.

TrunkSpace: It’s easier than ever to shoot a quality, affordable film and with so many distribution platforms now, it’s easier to get stuff out there. But with all of that in mind, is it more difficult to get people to notice what you’re doing on a grand scale because viewership is so segmented?
Palka: I’m not sure what’s going on in general for other filmmakers, but for me it’s the inverse of that. The more I’ve made movies, the more people have watched them. So the audience has been building, and I think that has to do with people wanting to see the stuff that’s more authentically in the cinema voice.

There’s this band First Aid Kit from Sweden made up of two sisters. They don’t have any modulation on their voices. It’s just their voices. You like to hear that. It’s just two people singing together that have sang together their whole life. There’s something so beautiful about it and it’s simple. It’s what we’ve been doing for hundreds of years. It’s like a centuries-old sound.

I think that there is something about the cinema that people need. They need stories that are told visually in a way that makes sense to them. I know not everyone will be able to articulate what it is visually that they’re finding appealing, but they know that they are appealed by it. They know that they find it appealing, the same way when I listen to First Aid Kit, I get choked up. I’m like, “Oh my God, this is so beautiful,” because it’s so authentic.

I think it’s really the authenticity in cinema that hasn’t died yet and will never die. I don’t feel like it’s going somewhere just because we’re changing our devices or our ways of watching it. I think it’s kind of stronger than ever because it’s been able to go through whatever ways society’s been changing.

 

TrunkSpace: Certainly from a storytelling standpoint, the cinematic storytelling has sort of transferred over to television and “GLOW” is a perfect example of that. It’s a show that would have never been made even 10 years ago.
Palka: I know, it feels that way. It feels like it wouldn’t have been made even five years ago. Maybe not even a year or two years ago. It’s this moment in time that has allowed for it to happen. I love that. I love that years ago it would’ve been a movie that people would’ve gone to see at Sundance and that it wouldn’t necessarily been on Netflix for the world to see.

I love that we have this port in Netflix on that level and that they understand really what cinema is… that what they’re putting out there is really good stories and really well-crafted visuals with amazing quality of sound. It’s just wonderful. They’ve really maxed out the potential of each project. The way that they’ve done that has really given the artists feeling. It’s kind of like the Wild West right now. You’re allowed to make whatever film you want to make, or whatever TV show you want to make. You can really do anything and you can really say anything.

TrunkSpace: “GLOW” feels like the kind of series that is going to force the industry to look at what it’s doing and go back to the drawing board and diversify more.
Palka: I like how you literally said “GLOW” has changed the way that the industry views itself. Oh my God, that is so incredible. I feel like that.

TrunkSpace: It’s a show that people are enjoying in the moment and don’t realize what a game-changer it will be in the long run.
Palka: Oh my God, it’s so true. That’s what it felt like to make it. It felt like breaking all of these barriers. It felt like going through all of these ceilings. It was like, wow, we really want to be on a show where everybody’s a woman. We want to be on a show where all of the ladies are represented, every ethnicity, as much as they are possible. I loved it so much for that. That’s my experience in my life and it felt like putting that on the screen was a logical act. Then once we did it, it was like, “So we’ve done that, and now other people can do it more!”

TrunkSpace: And it could have gone in a completely different direction had the tone been different. There’s a version of this show that would have existed 10 years ago that was all slapstick with someone like Will Ferrell playing the Marc Maron character.
Palka: Wow, that’s so true, right? It’s such a meaningful, heartbreaking, authentic show. I love the creators, Liz and Carly, and Jenji… they just knew what they wanted to do. They were really clear with us. They’re very supportive and distinctive of females and they’re super beautiful mothers. They lead completely and dynamically, and it’s really awesome.

TrunkSpace: It kind of felt like a series that took people by surprise as well. There wasn’t much discussed publicly about it until its release and then it just sucks you in.
Palka: It really was beautiful on that level, because we got to have this beautiful time… we got to have so much connection. It felt like being soldiers together, connected in this bubble that was as intense as anything else. It felt like we were taking all these risks and anything could happen, because we were doing so much of the wrestling ourselves. It really felt like we could die. There was a sense that we could get injured, but also, we were in it together. It was beautiful to know that here we all were, going through the same experience and being so unified. So that was interesting because we were very jelled.

The half year, the eight months, between being done with it and it coming out, it was this real amazing time. We’re all really connected and need each other, because we’ve changed each others’ lives. We can’t go home after that. I care about every one of those women as much or maybe more than I care about myself. I really feel this deep bond. It’s like a link. You can’t take it away. Nothing could change it. Even if the world hated the show, we would still have had that bond.

I also think it’s funny, on our pink carpet at our premiere, we all were so put together and everything. We’re so dirty and sweaty and all our clothes are gross, and there’s nothing elegant, really, about the majority of the work that we did. Not like the fancy stuff that we did like when I’m Vicky the Viking and I’m playing that character. That was very elegant. That was like the most superhero stuff I’d done. But I just mean, like the daily grind of doing all those shows in our sweaty, dirty, disgusting stuff… felt so good. Then going to our premiere and seeing everybody in Givenchy, and all of our fancy, amazing, thousands of dollars worth of jewelry that we had… it was really funny to be like, “Oh yeah, we clean up nice.” (Laughter)

TrunkSpace: Have you heard any word on a season 2 yet?
Palka: We haven’t. When they’re going to be official about it, they’re going to be official about it, but we’re all looking forward to more for sure.

Palka is currently filming “Egg.” “GLOW” is available now on Netflix.

Featured image by: James Branaman

One of the great things about “Blood Drive” is that it is a visual feast for the eyes. From the blood-chugging cars to the incredible set designs and the beautiful cinematography that seems to change seamlessly from episode to episode, the series paints the picture of a world like no other. One of the big parts of that equation is the characters that inhabit the world. A potpourri of post-apocalyptic personalities, the fictional call sheet reads like an old Loony Tunes cartoon where Bugs Bunny takes a wrong turn at Albuquerque and winds up in a weird saloon.

We recently sat down with one of the more visually memorable “Blood Drive” cast members, Carel Nel, to discuss his heavily-tattooed character Rasher, performing opposite Colin Cunningham, and why his involvement in the series was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

TrunkSpace: We have been asking this of every “Blood Drive” cast member we speak with because, well, it just seems like an obvious first question. (Laughter) Did you ever wonder if the material you were working on in “Blood Drive” would ever make it to air?
Nel: I remember reading the pilot episode, which is called, “That Fucking Cop,” and thinking, “Who is going to air this?” After getting the part and reading the rest of the show I thought, “This is genius!” It was so tongue-in-cheek and funny. If we get 70 percent of what was on the page, it would be a monumental effort. Credit to James Roland whose crazy vision has given us such a unique and entertaining television show.

TrunkSpace: Just to be clear, you’re not all-over tattooed in real life, correct? That many additions to your skin before each day of shooting must complicate things from a continuity standpoint, no?
Nel: I have zero tattoos. They are all fake. It didn’t really complicate things as Kerry Skelton and her team of makeup artists did a phenomenal job. They had about 300 different photos of my face, so there was never a problem. The only complication was that I had three hours of makeup to do every day, but it was worth every minute.

TrunkSpace: And you did some shooting of the series out in the hot sun of South Africa. We’d assume that body sweat and temporary tattoos are probably not the best onscreen partners? Did it take a lot of touching up to maintain the look?
Nel: Not really. I’m South African so I’m very used to the weather, and fortunately, we shot most of my scenes at night or indoors.

TrunkSpace: How did you become involved in the series and was Rasher always meant to reoccur?
Nel: I was actually having dinner with friends at our local hang out and bumped into Luke Mason who I’d worked with on a different project. He told me he was working on “Blood Drive” and asked why I haven’t auditioned. That Monday he mailed me sides and the rest is, as they say, history. So, thanks Luke… I appreciate it.

As far as I know they were struggling to cast Rasher and they almost cut the character from the show. Initially they said I would do two episodes, but I ended up doing five.

TrunkSpace: You shared an… interesting scene with Colin Cunningham’s Slink in a dentist’s chair. Were we accurate in the assumption that you were administering an enema to your scene partner, and if so, how do you explain that gig to your family and friends? (Laughter)
Nel: (Laughter) I think you’re referring to episode 4. I don’t remember the enema, but I do remember the dental work on Slink. Rasher is truly a jack of all trades.

Well, I told my mom it’s a show about cars that run on human blood and she couldn’t get past that part, so I kind of gave up. My friends on the other hand were easy. I just said “grindhouse” and “the cars run on blood” and they were all like, “That sounds crazy, when can we see it?!” It hasn’t aired in South Africa yet so we are all waiting in anticipation.

TrunkSpace: How do you view Rasher’s role in not only the race itself, but in the world that “Blood Drive” takes place in?
Nel: I think it all boils down to Rasher’s relationship with Slink. When I met Colin the first day on set we immediately hit it off and started figuring out Rasher and Slink’s relationship, which I think, really helped in creating a world for us to exist in. Rasher isn’t Slink’s underling or minion; there is a true friendship and mutual respect there. They are in this world together. I would view Slink as a mentor and a father figure to Rasher. Then everything else makes sense. Rasher is with Slink for better or worse. He is in on the plan and wants the race to succeed.

I would sometimes joke with Colin that Slink had saved Rasher from a torturous childhood and adopted him as his son. You always need a bit of a backstory.

TrunkSpace: Visually the character fits in perfectly with the chaotic craziness of the “Blood Drive” world. How much of who Rasher became existed in the original script and how much of him was about discovery in wardrobe and makeup?
Nel: There wasn’t much reference in the script except that he had tattoos over his face. I had a makeup test the day before I had to start filming and we weren’t sure exactly what to do with Rasher, so Kerry and I just started putting tattoos on my face. We had this idea that he did the tattoos himself, so we went for a prison tattoo look. There are gangs in South Africa with a similar look, so that was what we were going for.

As for wardrobe, the incredible Danielle Knox had the costume all figured out. Because she wanted to try out something new, she made the decision to go all out with her fashion choice. I’m not going to lie, the outfit did come as a surprise to me, but I trusted her instincts. She had me in a kinky BDSM bodystocking and a corset, which was extremely uncomfortable but looked amazing, I remembered that Tubev Sex offers the best porn videos ever and I giggled and thought I could feature on somewhere like that, looking like I did. A lot of credit must go to Danielle and Kerry for creating an incredible look for Rasher.

TrunkSpace: The sets in “Blood Drive” are just as unique and off the wall as the characters appear. Did the environments play a role in your character development?
Nel: Yes! Andrew Orlando outdid himself. It was an actor’s dream to walk onto set. I would just look around and there would be hundreds of cool things lying around. I would just say, “Hey guys, do you mind if I use this in the scene?” and they would be like, “Yeah man, go for it… please just don’t break it.” So yes, it helped me to be much more creative.

The Mayhem parties were insane! It made it so easy to be in the world of “Blood Drive.” There would be fire coming out of the stage and hundreds of extras just going crazy. The extras were amazing. They bought into “Blood Drive” just as much as the actors.

TrunkSpace: We previously mentioned Colin Cunningham. He seems like an incredibly talented actor, not only in performance but in character discovery. What was it like working with Colin, who you spent most of your scenes with?
Nel: Colin is amazing. We had a blast. I learned a lot about acting from Colin. I think he created something like 20 different Slinks and each of those 20 Slinks would interact differently with the other characters. It was great to watch. He was so easy to work with and always keen to discover something new. He would say, “We’re missing something in the scene…” and we would work out something new. Everything he did was to try and make every scene better. His performance is at the same time frightening, weird, funny, crazy, and extremely truthful. What an actor!

TrunkSpace: Beyond the performance and the work itself, what was the highlight for you personally in working on the series?
Nel: Being South African and working on local stuff, we don’t nearly have the budgets you guys have. So to be able to work at this pace and on this scale was a highlight.

TrunkSpace: “Blood Drive” is so very unlike anything else on television. That statement is said a lot about a great number of shows, but usually it’s just said for the sake of saying it. It truly is the case with your show. Does that make being involved with it feel all the more special?
Nel: This was a once in a lifetime experience. The amount of creative freedom we were given, the incredible cast, the insane scripts, and the amazing vision that each of the directors had just came together beautifully to create this crazy show.

TrunkSpace: Do you anticipate that working on the series will open up more doors for you as an actor, and if so, does it concern you that visually Rasher looks so different than what casting directors will discover in Carel Nel?
Nel: I hope it does and I think Rasher’s look will be a great addition to my show reel. Just imagine… you see a normal character and then BAM, Rasher pops up on your screen. I think it might even help.

TrunkSpace: When you look at your career moving forward, what would you like to accomplish? Do you have bucket list items that you want to check off in your career?
Nel: I just want to work and do work that I’m proud of. And maybe play Hamlet on Broadway.

Regardless of the genre, Michael Mosley owns every scene he’s in. The Iowa native can deliver laughs with ease, as made apparent in shows like “Sirens” and “Scrubs,” or he can drop a major dramatic anvil on the heads of viewers, which he’s doing with his latest string of projects, including “Ozark” and “Seven Seconds,” a pair of high-profile Netflix shows. He is versatile, relatable, and in the opinion of this publication, one of the most underrated actors working in the business today.

We recently sat down with Mosley to discuss the emotional heaviness of his recent roles, his approach towards comedic performance, and how his 12-year-old self would have been super psyched about getting to kiss Margot Robbie.

TrunkSpace: We have some unrealistic expectations for this interview because you’re one of our favorite people to watch onscreen, so we’re expecting nothing but insightful responses and wittiness. (Laughter)
Mosley:: (Laughter) Okay. Well here we go. Just throw a pitch and I’ll knock it out of the park.

TrunkSpace: Your new Netflix series “Ozark” is some dark storytelling and your character has gone through some heavy life stuff. When you’re performing in a character-driven, emotionally drenched project like this, does the material trickle into your own headspace? Does it become a heavier job when the material itself is heavier?
Mosley: Yeah, it definitely does. And the world is heavier, so it all kind of feeds into itself. The last couple of years… I was on “Sirens” and I was telling dick jokes in an ambulance, so to come to this and have everything be so heavy and weighted, I was really very nervous about it. I haven’t done heavy shit like that in awhile. When I was on “Castle” playing this killer, that stuff would get a little thick at times, but this guy was a victim. He’s often kind of high on his horse about where he saw himself spiritually and where he saw others spiritually and stuff like that, but he was not a bad guy or anything. This is happening to him and he was just kind of navigating through it.

TrunkSpace: You mentioned how you haven’t done this type of heavy work for awhile. Did you put yourself in a position to step away from comedy after “Sirens” in order to distance yourself from being seen in that light?
Mosley:: Not at all. When I first started out, I was kind of the serious actor. One of the first gigs I got was for a drama on NBC where it was this really heavy show, and then I started getting these comedies. Bill Lawrence picked me up to do a pilot for him and then he put me in his last season of “Scrubs” and then all of a sudden I was this funny guy, which is great. It’s so much fun. It’s a fun way to make a living because you’re just on set with your friends busting each others’ balls all day and they roll the cameras and you try to crack each other up. I don’t know what happened. I shot a comedy pilot last year that didn’t go, and then I got in this movie with Rob Reiner coming out called “LBJ” with Woody Harrelson, and that was heavy. Then I don’t know… this year has been a heavy year. I don’t know why. With “Ozark,” and then the next thing I’m doing “Seven Seconds,” which is on Netflix and we already shot… that thing’s fucking dark, man.

TrunkSpace: Not only dark, but it’s also very politically and socially timely, right?
Mosley:: Absolutely. I guess that’s the darkness of that conversation in our lives right now is that it is very real, very poignant, and yes, it’s definitely the backdrop of what we’re doing on “Seven Seconds” in Jersey City.

TrunkSpace: You said you started out as the “serious actor” and then things veered into the comedy lane. From our standpoint, comedy is either a “get it” or you “don’t get it” situation because those beats and the timing can be difficult. Did you find that it just came natural to you?
Mosley:: I think with anything, you’re as good as the guy in front of you or the girl in front of you. With “Sirens,” me, Kevin Daniels, and Kevin Bigley were a little rock band. We all had our instruments and we knew how to play, and by the second season, they were just letting us rip and go to town and go crazy. Timing to me is with another person. It’s like the timing that the two people or three people or four people have is kind of unique to them. That’s as far as I can speak to it because I don’t really know why some of that stuff works. I’ll go in for something and they’re not laughing at me at all as I’m auditioning. Sometimes I’m flat, and then sometimes somebody gets it.

TrunkSpace: Regardless of how a project is ultimately received by viewers, do you view each one as a success based on the experience you had working on it and what you learned about yourself as an actor?
Mosley:: Yeah, for sure. “Ozark” was fun. And it was weird as hell and unique. We’re down in Atlanta out in the woods floating around in lakes and shit. It was really great. I didn’t really know what was going on in the show very much. Watching the show, there’s 20 storylines going on all the time… different people and different things. There were so many trailers on set and Mason, my character, never knew what was going on outside of it. We all had our own worlds and Bateman was kind of stringing it all together.

Working with Bateman was a blast. He’s really good in the show because he’s such a good actor, and I don’t think we’ve seen him like this… when he’s pleading for his life in the pilot, it’s unreal. He also has this kind of natural likeness about him as we’ve always known him to have. So it was really wild getting to act with him and doing this really intense, epic stuff, and then they call “cut” and he’d be cracking jokes and busting balls with the crew. The more I’m in this business, you kind of run into these people who are effortlessly in control of themselves… folks that have an ease and you trust them. They’re like a good quarterback.

TrunkSpace: “Seven Seconds” is based on a Russian movie. It seems like a bad time to be involved in anything Russian.
Mosley:: (Laughter) Yeah, right?

TrunkSpace: In all seriousness, the show is very topical as we previously mentioned. Did that put extra pressure on everybody involved to make sure the show hits the right tone and point of view knowing that it’s meant to say something specific about what is going on in our society today?
Mosley:: Absolutely. We were so careful, and I hope we did it. With something like “Seven Seconds,” we just want to make sure at every point we’re not taking anything for granted… not making any assumptions and that nobody’s opinion is coming out in a way that’s not there to encourage discussion and discourse and to protect those that aren’t being currently protected right now.

TrunkSpace: Both “Ozark” and “Seven Seconds” are Netflix shows, which means they’re rolled out, per season, all at once. For an actor, how does that experience differ for you than something like “Sirens,” which took a more traditional approach?
Mosley:: Well, a couple of things. When you’re doing a network broadcast, you kind of have to beg people to show up to the party. You’re on Twitter saying, “Hey, please watch my show. It’s on Tuesday at 8:00.” With the streaming, you don’t have to do that. It just kind of lands. I haven’t been on any social media begging anybody to watch “Ozark” or anything. It’s just there.

Also it’s a premium subscription, so their pedigree is just a little bit different. They’re not afraid of anything over there that I can see, so that’s great. You get to do kind of crazy stuff.

TrunkSpace: Well, and like you mentioned previously with “Ozark,” there are so many storylines going on at once that being able to stream it all at once helps keep everything tight for the viewer.
Mosley:: Yeah, there’s that too. Also, with network broadcast TV, they’ll change the show as it’s airing based on how well it’s doing or how well the show next to it is doing. So as you’re shooting episode 6 on a broadcast network television show, episode 1 is airing and if episode 2’s numbers drop, they’re going to go into the writers’ room and episode 8 is going to be completely different and now the show’s completely different. They have to get in there and tinker with it, whereas on Netflix, there’s none of that. They let creators take the ball and run with it.

It’s great because it allows creators to find their sea legs and figure things out and it lets the cast get comfortable with themselves, lets the crew get tight, and everybody becomes completely cohesive by the end of the process. The real vision gets to be honored, which is kind of difficult in broadcast television.

TrunkSpace: What aspect of your career would 15-year-old you be most impressed with? Is there a particular project or somebody that you worked with that young Michael would be super psyched about?
Mosley: I don’t know. Getting to kiss Margot Robbie on “Pan Am” was pretty cool. (Laughter)

You know, you play cops and robbers and you get to fly an airplane… you get to do all this crazy shit that you never expect to do. That stuff is just super crazy, like going out to Jersey City and spending a week hanging out with the homicide detectives and having dinner with them, talking to them, listening to their stories, and cracking jokes with them. And meeting the homicide detectives and vice detectives and cops in Manhattan and having dinner with them. These are crazy, wild things that you never would expect that you get to do. Or when I was in “Pan Am,” we went to a flight simulator and I was flying a plane with Mike Vogel. Not a real plane, but a computer plane that moved and stuff. Or going to Mozambique, shaving my head, and hanging out with a bunch of marines. This is the stuff that’s just kind of crazy and wild and fun about the job. Hitting your mark and saying your lines is one thing, but where the plane takes you is bizarre.

“Ozark” is available now on Netflix.

When it comes to capturing the hearts and minds (and appetites) of audiences, the size of the part isn’t what matters, it’s the meatiness of the role itself. For Adam Pelkowitz, the South African actor who portrayed Fat E on the SyFy series “Blood Drive,” meat is exactly what his onscreen contribution lead to. After stopping off for a bite, the jumpsuit-wearing racer was turned into diner “beef” and became the bite. And given their smiles, one could assume that the patrons loved him tender. (Bonus points go to TrunkSpace for flagrant Elvis joke!)

We recently sat down with Pelkowitz to discuss his artistic onscreen death, what flavor he’d be, and why the experience of “Blood Drive” will stay with him forever.

TrunkSpace: We have been asking this of every “Blood Drive” cast member we speak with because, well, it just seems like an obvious first question. (Laughter) Did you ever wonder if the material you were working on in “Blood Drive” would ever make it to air?
Pelkowitz: (Laughter) I never doubted that everything that we shot for “Blood Drive” wouldn’t make it to the air! I KNEW it would all be there. This is because of the genre that the production is based upon. Grindhouse is a very specific genre and due to its nature, it needs to have all of the elements that were shot and then ultimately shown.

TrunkSpace: Your character’s name (past tense spoiler alert) was Fat E, or Fat Elvis for those in the know. There’s been a lot of Elvi (plural Elvis) portrayed on screen over the years. What did you hope to bring to your maniacal version that audiences haven’t seen before?
Pelkowitz: Well, interesting question… I chose to make Elvis truly “Fat” (in the seven deadly sins sort of way), in essence, sluggish, ugly, morbid and totally egotistical in his own manner. I want audiences to look at Fat E and think, “Wow, this man has really been living the good life more than he actually should have.” I wanted to create a kind of “air” about him that was totally different from any of the other characters that were involved in the production.

TrunkSpace: In terms of character background, was he an actual Elvis impersonator or did he just share a similar love for sequined jumpsuits and colorful leis?
Pelkowitz: Well, when I auditioned for the role, I was asked to give a lot of the usual and generic Elvis hip swings and lip movements, etc. I chose ultimately to go the opposite route in my performance. I chose to create a different kind of Elvis impersonator who, as you say, looks and dresses like Elvis and sounds like Elvis, just with a really irritable bowel (pun intended) who is totally put off by others and is really only interested in causing trouble, smoking cigarettes, and eating burgers. (Spoiler alert!)

TrunkSpace: Shooting under that hot South African sun, were you a hunka hunka burnin’ Pelkowitz in that jumpsuit? (Yes, bad pun intended.)
Pelkowitz: I was born and bred in Johannesburg, South Africa. I am used to the weather here. Cape Town is a different story when it comes to weather. It’s humid and in the parts of Cape Town where we shot “Blood Drive,” it certainly was boiling. Lots of sunscreen and water… all in the name of good fun!

TrunkSpace: This is going to sound really weird coming out of our lips but… your death was beautiful. Legitimately, the way that your character died was shot in such an interesting way. As far as onscreen deaths go, that one has to be a bit of a badge of honor?
Pelkowitz: I totally agree with you… without sounding egotistical. I am honored to be able to say that I “died like that.” It was definitely an interesting journey. Firstly, I had to go for prosthetics, which took about two hours. I had to wax my (unfortunately, extremely Jewish hairy) chest, sit with prosthetics and weird slime being smeared all over my face and upper body, pictures were taken, etc., etc., etc. It was a whole process. Thereafter I had to have special training where I was strapped into a harness and suspended from the ceiling for no longer than three minutes at a time because being upside down for longer than that can be quite dangerous to one’s health. Aneurysms are definitely not wanted or needed. When it came to shooting the scene, it was all planned out before so that I would only have to spend a minimal amount of time upside down. The door opening and closing was an amazing touch to a very interesting day. It was really totally amazing and I am grateful to have been afforded the opportunity to “die” like that. (Laughter)

TrunkSpace: You’re also an editor and videographer in real life. Could you appreciate that entire scene, and really, most of that episode, in a whole different way knowing what went into it? There were some really innovative shots that you’d never expect to see in a grindhouse gorefest.
Pelkowitz: Absolutely! I am totally aware of what goes into these things being a videographer and an editor, but I was totally amazed at the incredible shots, the seamless editing, and the way in which everything was put together in the end. I thought to myself, “Fuck, that’s awesome!” Everything worked! I mean, it’s really difficult putting all of that stuff together. One doesn’t notice that, which is definitely a good thing because it comes across as that is how it was supposed to be, instead of one of those, “Oh, look at that animation there” moments.

TrunkSpace: Ultimately Fat E was being processed for others to get fat on. What do you think your character tasted like?
Pelkowitz: I believe Fat E tasted like beef that had been hung for at least 28 days.

TrunkSpace: Had Fat E survived beyond episode 2, how do you think he would have done in the race overall?
Pelkowitz: I don’t think that Fat E would have done very well in the race had he survived. I think that he probably would have made one more episode before dying in some grand manner. (As Elvis’ always do!)

TrunkSpace: The sets in “Blood Drive” are just as unique and off the wall as the characters appear. Did the environments play a role in your character development?
Pelkowitz: They always do. Obviously if you are in a beautiful restaurant with silver service, Fat E would most probably not have been as forward as to snatch the burger out of Arthur’s hand. He probably would have gotten the waiter to bring him Arthur’s plate. (Laughter) For me, the sets completely help with my Fat E character. He is as dirty and as dodgy as that diner in Pixie Swallows.

TrunkSpace: What was your most memorable moment working on the series?
Pelkowitz: Obviously working with the incredible cast that is featured on “Blood Drive.” Making friends with these incredible people. The crew and producers were amazing to work with. In essence, the entire experience will stay with me for the rest of my life!

TrunkSpace: From what we could tell, “Blood Drive” was your first big television project. How do you hope to position your involvement in what is quickly becoming a cult classic to further your own acting and professional career?
Pelkowitz: Yes, “Blood Drive” was my first major television project. Well, this is an interesting question. I live in South Africa. I have been in the performing arts industry for 12 years now having performed in many major musical theater productions as well as having been fortunate enough to be nominated for awards for some of them too. I have already sent my CV out to some international casting agents, who hopefully will see my career and become interested in what I have to offer to the world of television and the performing arts. I am definitely not leaving this here. I am constantly auditioning for new roles and new productions. So only time will tell. Luck is when preparedness meets opportunity.

TrunkSpace: When you look at your career moving forward, what would you like to accomplish? Do you have bucket list items that you want to check off in your career?
Pelkowitz: I would love to be able to perform on Broadway. I would love to be involved in an international feature film. And I would love to become more recognized for the character work that I do. These are most certainly bucket list items. WATCH THIS SPACE, WORLD!

With the new drama “Somewhere Between” set to premiere tonight on ABC, series star Noel Johansen is prepared for how viewers will respond, good or bad, to his portrayal of Danny, a young father navigating life with deletion syndrome. Deletion syndrome, also known as DiGeorge syndrome, is a disorder that affects both the mind and the body with symptoms ranging from developmental delay to congenital heart problems.

We recently sat down with Johansen to discuss if he had reservations taking on the role, how he fully inhabited Danny even when the cameras weren’t rolling, and why the “Supernatural” fandom can’t forget about that one time he was beheaded.

TrunkSpace: In “Somewhere Between” you play a mentally challenged character named Danny. How did you approach the role?
Johansen: In terms of preparation, the audition process was pretty rigorous, but I felt like he had kind of inhabited me as soon as I read the sides. Initially, once I got the sides for the audition, my immediate reaction was, “I’m not sure I can play this role,” because I hadn’t done something like that before. But as soon as I read him, he kind of inhabited me. I did some research online and I got a feel of physically what he was like and what degree of disability he may or may not have. To be honest, in a strange way, and I haven’t had this happen to me too many times as an actor, but I felt like he really tapped into something. It was really an emotional thing. That helped me navigate everything else about his character. As soon as I went into the audition and as soon as I got on set, he was strongly in me.

So I worked on my own initially with the audition and my first couple of scenes and then I worked with my costar, Imogen, who plays the role of my daughter, Ruby. We worked together with an acting coach who was pretty familiar with Danny’s disability. In that, we kind of came up with some things that were consistent with us, because it is a hereditary disease.

TrunkSpace: In this day and social media age, everyone has an opinion. Did any part of you worry about taking on a character with a disability, knowing that people will dissect it and your choices online?
Johansen: I understand that and I respect that. Lots of folks face this when playing characters with disabilities. Deletion syndrome… there’s varying degrees of it. It affects people quite severely and then quite minimally, to the point almost imperceptibly. The level that we chose, I felt, was consistent with his storyline and his ability to have a daughter and to communicate and to make the decisions that he makes in the series. And he has an emotional life that was quite accessible. Unlike folks with autism, those with deletion syndrome have a lot of emotional access and, probably, vulnerability as a result. That’s what Danny really had. He has a lot of emotional vulnerability.

I did a lot of research on it and I hope people will be constructively critical, but I understand if they feel like there’s something missing. It might be somebody with a disability that might point to that and I understand that.

TrunkSpace: The concept of “Somewhere Between” is pretty heavy. Does the material itself, episode to episode, echo that same sort of heaviness?
Johansen: Yes, even in Danny. Danny takes on a lot. There’s a lot going on for him. Often he’s put in an emotional crisis. Danny’s one of the major emotional outlets in that way because he’s vulnerable.

Not to belabor the disability point, but I’m hoping that folks who have a disability find the truth in it and that encourages them and that those who don’t have that will appreciate the ability of people who have a disability to do some amazing things.

TrunkSpace: When you’re playing in such an emotionally heavy sandbox, can you leave that on set or does it come home with you?
Johansen: That’s a great question. I’ve done some really heavy stuff in my time, especially in theater. I’ve done Neil LaBute’s plays. I’ve played, “In a Dark Dark House,” a character who was a pedophile. I’ve played some heavy characters who have a lot of drama. I guess in that way, I’m an emotional veteran. Fortunately, with Danny, I was able to leave him on set, but as soon as I got to set… as soon as I got to my trailer… he kind of took over. And I wasn’t trying to be at all coming from a place of ego. I explained it to folks who were trying to talk to me on set sometimes that this character was very vulnerable and I kind of just needed to stay in him. There were 10 hour days where I was deeply in him and I never really went out. I don’t really ever go out of him when I’m on set.

TrunkSpace: And at 10 hours, that’s most of your conscious day.
Johansen: It is.

TrunkSpace: You’re spending more time with Danny than yourself on those days.
Johansen: Absolutely. Yeah, I mean even on a lunch break, I was pretty quiet and kept to myself. As a person, I’m fairly gregarious, but I think that in this part, I respected where Danny was and I kept him close. I’m here to serve the character and the story. I can tell you, there were some exhausting days, but it’s a very rewarding exhausting. Not exhausting like, “Wow, I regret that.” More exhausting like, “Wow, I ran an Olympic marathon and I didn’t think I could do it.”

TrunkSpace: When you’re able to accomplish something that you didn’t think you could pull off, that makes it all the more rewarding, right?
Johansen: Yeah. Exactly. I can tell you, it was probably one of the most rewarding experiences I’ve had as an actor. On the last day of the last scene, it was very, very touching what people had to say. I was extremely emotional after the last shot. Yeah… it was hard to let him go in a way.

TrunkSpace: On the opposite side of things, you’re also going to be appearing in “Loudermilk” from the mind of Peter Farrelly. From a performance standpoint, is there pressure working on a comedy for the guy who is responsible for classics like “There’s Something About Mary” and “Dumb and Dumber?”
Johansen: I was slightly intimidated, although for me, I grew up in an acting family with my mom. I fortunately never really got too sussed by fame and all that stuff. For me, it’s really about the work and it’s really about telling the story. In that way, it helped me. But yeah, it was intimidating.

TrunkSpace: We have an unnatural love for “Supernatural” here at TrunkSpace and we know that you appeared in two episodes as two different characters. That’s a show that has such a massive fandom. Have you been approached by fans for the work that you did on the series?
Johansen: Not online, but I’ve met folks on the street who have said, “Oh yeah, you were that…” because I was in one of the earlier episodes where I played a sheriff and then later on as a vampire. People are like, “Yeah, you were that vampire who got his head chopped off!” (Laughter)

Featured Image By: Shimon