Speaker 1: It's nine O G ONEG with Jenny Garth and Tory Spelling.
Speaker 2: Today on another episode of nine oh two one on one.
Speaker 2: Yeah you like that title? Oh I love it. We
Speaker 2: have bo Jesse Christopher, who played Andy in four episodes
Speaker 2: of nine O two one. Oh.
Speaker 3: Let's talk to them.
Speaker 4: Oh hi, O MG.
Speaker 2: Hi here you are.
Speaker 4: Oh my gosh, Wow, what a treat.
Speaker 3: This is a blast from your past.
Speaker 4: This is my honor.
Speaker 2: Oh you're so sweet. Look at you.
Speaker 3: You look great.
Speaker 4: Thank you for saying that, Jenny, I really appreciate you.
Speaker 4: Guys are so beautiful life force energies. I'm so thrilled
Speaker 4: and honored to be here with you both.
Speaker 2: We're so happy to have you. I mean, this is
Speaker 2: crazy because we are in season four and we're just
Speaker 2: watching you. Your character is like a drug pusher guy.
Speaker 4: He's not a great guy.
Speaker 3: Is he very the opposite of you?
Speaker 4: Yeah, you know what, You're exactly right. And the craziest thing,
Speaker 4: just very quickly is like, you know, Brian Austin Green
Speaker 4: was one of my best friends prior to the show,
Speaker 4: So being able to work with Brian in these scenes
Speaker 4: as mister Andy opposite David Silver was like such a treat.
Speaker 2: How did you know Brian before?
Speaker 4: So I moved to LA in nineteen eighty eight, straight
Speaker 4: out of high school, you know, to do the acting thing.
Speaker 4: I wanted to be on twenty one Jump Street. That
Speaker 4: was like Fox's Big Show. So it all ties in, right,
Speaker 4: Like I wanted to be Depp, everyone.
Speaker 2: Wanted everyone wanted to be dep me too, right like.
Speaker 4: He did Everyboddy's thing. So for me, right out of
Speaker 4: high school, moved to LA and then one of my
Speaker 4: my first friends was David.
Speaker 2: Faustino from Brian was children.
Speaker 4: Brian and Brian and David were very close, and so
Speaker 4: I got sort of jumped into that crew very quickly
Speaker 4: when I got to LA, and Brian and I just
Speaker 4: hit it off and we were like, you know, best buds,
Speaker 4: hanging out every day. And there's so many related stories
Speaker 4: to this that lead to nine oh two one oh,
Speaker 4: so many things I want to talk about, I know
Speaker 4: no at the beginning.
Speaker 5: So wait, Jen and I were talking about this last week.
Speaker 5: Were we remembering there was a club called Ballistics, right?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 3: Yeah, okay, and all three of you were involved, right yeah?
Speaker 4: So there was Rainbow remember Rainbow? Yes?
Speaker 3: Oh my god?
Speaker 4: So there was there was big Bow and then little Bow. Okay, okay,
Speaker 4: so big Bow was bow, Jesse, little Bow was Rainbow.
Speaker 4: So it was really like Rainbow David Faustino, Brian Austin Green,
Speaker 4: and then like Nick Adler and a few other people
Speaker 4: kind of related to that. Yeah, but that but I'm
Speaker 4: sure you were there a few times. I'm sure. I'm
Speaker 4: sure that Brian got you there.
Speaker 3: Tried to you know, so for sure I went there. Den,
Speaker 3: do you remember going there?
Speaker 4: No, I don't think Jenny would have gone. That would
Speaker 4: have been like Brian would have tried to talk you
Speaker 4: into going, Tori.
Speaker 3: But like it was like one of those things. It
Speaker 3: wasn't like every night.
Speaker 5: It was like a takeover each week at somewhere else, right, Yeah,
Speaker 5: it was.
Speaker 4: Like at the Roxy. I think it started the Roxy night. Yeah,
Speaker 4: but at that point, so at that point, just just
Speaker 4: so I can pivot, because this will lead up to
Speaker 4: the mister. Okay, so at that point, so really quickly.
Speaker 4: So Brian Austin Green, our boy, Brian David Silver, for
Speaker 4: those who are listening, we love still one of my closest,
Speaker 4: hearest friends. I love him so much. I'm so proud
Speaker 4: of him, and he's his life as beautiful. I love
Speaker 4: him as I looked too, of you, his sisters and
Speaker 4: you know, forever just in my heart, top of my mind.
Speaker 4: So thank you for that. Brian had an audition for
Speaker 4: this thing called Point Break, which was my big sort
Speaker 4: of entry point into the business, right.
Speaker 3: Brian an audition for that part too.
Speaker 4: Well, it was his audition. He said, hey, bo, you
Speaker 4: drive me to this audition because you're a surfer. You
Speaker 4: know this whole lexicon, you know this surfing. I got
Speaker 4: this audition at the end of the day, when you
Speaker 4: drive me kind of warm me up for the thing.
Speaker 4: He was the last audition, went in, came out, and
Speaker 4: you know Brian, when Brian gets a little nervous, he
Speaker 4: bites his nails. But you know Brian, he does that
Speaker 4: whole Remember young Brian biting his.
Speaker 5: Nail, so he still he has no nails to the same.
Speaker 4: You know, Brian came out. I could tell he kind
Speaker 4: of maybe bombed the audition. I stuff in my head
Speaker 4: and I remember the casting director came out and said
Speaker 4: are you next? And I said no, and he goes,
Speaker 4: are you an actor? I said yeah, and he goes,
Speaker 4: you're next. So I had Brian's keys in my pocket.
Speaker 4: I just walked by Brian and probably was so pissed,
Speaker 4: you know, he was sting. I walked right by him,
Speaker 4: went into the room. Rick Bagana, who was a casting director,
Speaker 4: hand me some sides and said, let's give it a shot.
Speaker 4: I said, I think I got it underneath the size,
Speaker 4: and he goes, oh, you got it. Okay, let's see
Speaker 4: what you got. So I stood on a chair, did
Speaker 4: my thing. He goes, hold on a second, went down
Speaker 4: the hall, came back Catherin Bigelow, the director, and said
Speaker 4: do that again. So I did it, and she in
Speaker 4: the room said you got the job. I walked out
Speaker 4: of the audition. Brian's like, come on, dude, what's going on?
Speaker 4: You got my hijack my audition? So I booked Point Break.
Speaker 4: There's more to that story, but it's not about Point Break.
Speaker 4: It's about nine o two and oh. So I come
Speaker 4: out and Brian's super angry and mad, and I said, hey, man,
Speaker 4: you just did this pilot. You're fine, because he had
Speaker 4: just shot the pilot for nine oh two one oh
Speaker 4: and I think you guys sat for a little bit
Speaker 4: before they picked the show up right and got back
Speaker 4: into the season. I want to say, was a little
Speaker 4: bit of time before the pilot and maybe jumping into
Speaker 4: the season or the season one getting picked up.
Speaker 3: You remember more than I were.
Speaker 4: Like why, I'll tell you why, because I wanted so
Speaker 4: bad to be on the show. So anyway, I did
Speaker 4: Point Break and Brian was a little you know, kind
Speaker 4: of like, dude, that was that was you know, that
Speaker 4: wasn't cool what you did. So Brian was holding a
Speaker 4: little bit of a grudge, and I said, Brian, you're fine.
Speaker 4: He got this pilot, it's probably gonna get picked up.
Speaker 4: You're going to be good. I went away did Point Break.
Speaker 4: They started realistics that club. Right after that the season
Speaker 4: season one got picked up and you guys went into
Speaker 4: production on episode two. I was waiting for Point Break
Speaker 4: to come out. I had originally auditioned for the role
Speaker 4: Steve the Iron zero, and I remember right before I
Speaker 4: hijacked Brian's audition for Point Break, and I went and
Speaker 4: did Point Break for almost a year. This movie that
Speaker 4: kind of launched my acting career. I had auditioned for
Speaker 4: for nine to two and l got close, didn't get it,
Speaker 4: and then I was hurting for money, and so I
Speaker 4: did background work on the pilot and I remember day
Speaker 4: one and I think it was it was Iron driving
Speaker 4: that red Corvette or they had that red car with
Speaker 4: a flashy car on the pilot. He drove up to
Speaker 4: the school and got out, and like Steve, it was
Speaker 4: like the establishing Steve character, I think, and I think
Speaker 4: I remember seeing Jenny and Iron day one. I just
Speaker 4: was like, I really want to be in the show,
Speaker 4: you know. And then I went and did Point Break,
Speaker 4: came back and it took four seasons of me auditioning
Speaker 4: for nine oh two one zero for getting really close
Speaker 4: to find mister Andy in season four Full Circle. But
Speaker 4: I got to work with my buddy Brian, you know,
Speaker 4: a lovely tree.
Speaker 2: Was he still pissed at you at that point? He
Speaker 2: holds grudges? Are you sure?
Speaker 4: No, Brian's super, Let's call.
Speaker 3: Him right now.
Speaker 5: You think he still holds a grudge. No, wait, I
Speaker 5: want to hear about Point Break though.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Hello, for those of you who don't know you
Speaker 2: were in Point Brank, tell us about your character. It's
Speaker 2: a very important character.
Speaker 4: I appreciate you saying that.
Speaker 2: Love that movie.
Speaker 4: So I was Gromet slash LBJ, I was the ex president.
Speaker 4: I was Lyndon Johnson was my ex president. I was
Speaker 4: Patrick Swayzey's younger brother. I was part of this crew
Speaker 4: that robbed banks to finance our Endless Summer. This film
Speaker 4: was executive produced by James Cameron. It was directed by
Speaker 4: Catherine Bigelow. It starred Patrick Swayzey and Keanu Reeves and
Speaker 4: a handful of wonderful people like Gary Busey, Petty Row,
Speaker 4: John philbn Bo, Jesse, Christopher tom Seize, a lot of people.
Speaker 4: Big movie because it was like one of those movies, Yeah,
Speaker 4: that was written at the end of the eighties ushering
Speaker 4: in the nineties. So it's kind of one of those
Speaker 4: things that you point to when you look at like
Speaker 4: the end of a really interesting cinematic generation and how
Speaker 4: it sort of turned the corner and ushered in something
Speaker 4: really interestingly new in terms of how movies were made
Speaker 4: going forward into the nineties. So it's a really interesting
Speaker 4: opportunity for me because I was on that movie, booked
Speaker 4: for twelve weeks and then worked nine months on that film.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, they held me for a while. It felt
Speaker 4: like I was on a show. It was like a series,
Speaker 4: but it's.
Speaker 2: A crazy long shoot.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Yeah, and it was great because by the time
Speaker 4: I got off it, you know, then I just kind
Speaker 4: of hit the audition circuit and I was trying to
Speaker 4: figure out what was next. And ultimately, you guys, like
Speaker 4: ultimately I really wanted to be a series regular on
Speaker 4: a TV show, and like nine oh two and zero
Speaker 4: was the show that I really wanted to be on,
Speaker 4: and so it was so great to finally kind of
Speaker 4: land on it, even though it was like a guest
Speaker 4: star thing and extended a couple episodes, Like, felt so
Speaker 4: good to finally be on the show. I'm great.
Speaker 2: Oh I love that story.
Speaker 4: Yeah too.
Speaker 5: I wish you had been like a bigger character though, Yeah,
Speaker 5: I just I mean from my memories, you were just
Speaker 5: always we were friends, and you were always with us.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so that was around, Yes, you were.
Speaker 5: So it's wild to rewatch it and think, like your character,
Speaker 5: this was your character was small.
Speaker 3: I remembered it differently.
Speaker 4: I guess, Well, I really appreciate you saying that. You know,
Speaker 4: there was a couple of times when your father tried
Speaker 4: to make some things work for me, which I really appreciated, because,
Speaker 4: you know, boy, did I admire him, you know in
Speaker 4: my heart, you know, Aaron, So I don't know if
Speaker 4: you two were in the room, but he brought me
Speaker 4: in for the billy character for melrose Place, and I
Speaker 4: tested and I came into the room to like a
Speaker 4: network thing, and I feel like you guys might have
Speaker 4: been in that room, because it was like it felt
Speaker 4: like thirty forty people in the room at your house,
Speaker 4: in that massive room that maybe like some of those
Speaker 4: auditions were.
Speaker 2: Held has often.
Speaker 4: The bell airhouse. I think the giant it's.
Speaker 2: Not a living room though.
Speaker 3: Oh you're right, you're right where you had to read through.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, and I just yeah, I remember he really
Speaker 4: wanted to try to make that work for me, and
Speaker 4: you know, I had a deal on the table for
Speaker 4: the for the role, and you know, I just bombed.
Speaker 4: I had it was I was so over prepared. And
Speaker 4: so I had a new kid. I had a two
Speaker 4: year old son, and I was, you know, a single father,
Speaker 4: and I was young and like twenty years old and
Speaker 4: just trying to like get it all together. And all
Speaker 4: I really wanted to do was be a series regular
Speaker 4: on a show. It was like to be on an
Speaker 4: Aaron Spelling thing, and you know, it's all my friends
Speaker 4: were on the show, and this new thing was coming out,
Speaker 4: and I remember I walked into that room just very
Speaker 4: quickly because the listeners will appreciate this and you might
Speaker 4: understand where I'm coming from and empathize a little bit.
Speaker 4: But Courtney Thorne Smith was in the room and she
Speaker 4: was going to read opposite me, and were you know,
Speaker 4: we were going to It was like a chemistry read
Speaker 4: in front of the network and everyone. And I had
Speaker 4: never experienced that before. I'd never had a series regular
Speaker 4: deal on the table. That was something that was brand new.
Speaker 4: I always wanted it. I was chipping the way as
Speaker 4: a journeyman actors and young actor guest starring, and point
Speaker 4: break was out and Aaron had he had seen this
Speaker 4: interview in Esquire magazine. It's called the New James Deans
Speaker 4: and it was me, Dana Ashbrook, Jamie Walters, Jason Priestley,
Speaker 4: Luke Perry. Oh my gosh, remember your father said, I
Speaker 4: know all these guys except this guy, bo Jesse. Who
Speaker 4: is that? Get him in here now for the billy thing.
Speaker 4: And I was like, wow, this is cool. He's an advocate. Basically,
Speaker 4: it felt like it was mine to lose, and ultimately,
Speaker 4: I think I got in my head about it and
Speaker 4: I walked in that room, and I remember Courtney looking
Speaker 4: at me, Courtney thorn Smith, and she looked out and
Speaker 4: she goes because she could see I was in trouble.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and she's all been there, yeah.
Speaker 4: And then I just kind of looked at her, just
Speaker 4: face to face, actor to actor, and I was just
Speaker 4: like I had it also memorized and personalized and inflow,
Speaker 4: and and then I just looked at her and I
Speaker 4: just I just dropped out. I was I couldn't do it.
Speaker 4: And I literally couldn't even do the audition, so I
Speaker 4: had left. It's a basic thing. Yeah, I mean I
Speaker 4: tucked and rolled. That had never happened to me before,
Speaker 4: has never happened to me after that. But it's an
Speaker 4: important lesson that I share with a lot of a
Speaker 4: lot of people who were emerging and up and coming.
Speaker 4: And it didn't feel good. In fact, the Fox executives
Speaker 4: called my reps and said, what's going on with this guy?
Speaker 6: You know?
Speaker 4: And there wasn't anything going on. I was just, you know,
Speaker 4: I needed that so badly. It felt like that I
Speaker 4: let that get in the way of just painting moment
Speaker 4: with some beautiful truth.
Speaker 2: Wait, you said you were a single dad, you had
Speaker 2: a two year old. How old were you when you
Speaker 2: had your first child?
Speaker 4: Yeah? So I had Jesse, my oldest son, who's twenty nine.
Speaker 4: Now I love children, so you know, relate, it's beautiful. Congratulations. Yeah,
Speaker 4: so he was born in nineteen ninety three, so like
Speaker 4: I think, it was like I had a one year
Speaker 4: old when I was doing Mister Andy, and I remember
Speaker 4: I brought him to set a couple of times. Actually,
Speaker 4: funny thing is there's one scene I think where after
Speaker 4: they arrest me, the FBI comes in and they cap
Speaker 4: by the campus or whatever. I had my co parent
Speaker 4: at the time come in and hold Jesse, who's one,
Speaker 4: as they handcuffed be and walked me out. That was
Speaker 4: just have to watch, you know.
Speaker 2: It was like great memories for him, I'm sure.
Speaker 4: Yeah, crazy anyway, I could go on and on and on.
Speaker 2: Yeah, is that your only son? You only have? Do
Speaker 2: you have more children?
Speaker 4: I've got some other kids. So I've got Atticus, who's
Speaker 4: my fifteen year old teenage son, who's great, awesome kid.
Speaker 4: He's everything that I would want a child to be,
Speaker 4: and so much more. As you know, our kids, they
Speaker 4: surprise us each and every day. It's beautiful. And then
Speaker 4: I've got a daughter who's thirteen tallula it's incredible, loves
Speaker 4: to ride horses, and I'm so blessed, been grateful.
Speaker 2: Yeah, good for you. You got a girl you're in trouble.
Speaker 4: Yeah, well mother nature. Yeah, surrendered to the truth, whatever
Speaker 4: it is, whatever.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Wow. So so point break was first. Then nine
Speaker 2: O two one zero.
Speaker 4: Basically I had done some stuff before Point break, but
Speaker 4: I was just chipping away, some guest star stuff and
Speaker 4: just you know, a couple of lines here, maybe a
Speaker 4: small thing here. And then point Break was my big break.
Speaker 4: And then I came back and got on the audition
Speaker 4: circuit and I sort of like, you know, I felt
Speaker 4: like I got really set up for success because people
Speaker 4: were talking about this film that was coming out with
Speaker 4: Patrick Swayze with the time was the biggest movie star
Speaker 4: in the world because Ghost was in the theaters and
Speaker 4: if you remember, Ghost was a really meaningful film.
Speaker 1: Yeah, one of my favorite same so so wonderful, and
Speaker 1: so you know, working with with Swayze in that moment,
Speaker 1: and then Keanu was basically just being thrown into the
Speaker 1: studio system for the first time, all these cool indie
Speaker 1: films and then you know, this was kind of his.
Speaker 4: First like like dual billing two hand or kind of
Speaker 4: thing with Swasey and watching that dynamic and being right
Speaker 4: in the middle on a daily basis for nine months
Speaker 4: with those two guys and becoming friends was just magic.
Speaker 4: But I got kind of thrown into the audition circuit
Speaker 4: and had so many wonderful opportunities to audition for all
Speaker 4: the things that like in retrospect we could tell stories
Speaker 4: about right, we're not good and bad, but then I
Speaker 4: know two and I was one of those things. It
Speaker 4: was like, that's a feather in my cap. I need
Speaker 4: to be on that show. That is something that I
Speaker 4: have to accomplish. And I think it was Diane Young,
Speaker 4: who is one of the directors. They could join the
Speaker 4: ray cast the pilot, and I think Diane Young was
Speaker 4: took over and she was such an advocate, you know,
Speaker 4: she was like, Okay, I think this is the one.
Speaker 4: Bo I think this is the one, and we would
Speaker 4: get close, but it wouldn't work out for various different reasons.
Speaker 4: And then this just really dark kind of character, which
Speaker 4: I love to because if you think about the nine
Speaker 4: and you think about ninety four, which I think season
Speaker 4: four is four. You know, it was kind of cutting
Speaker 4: edge television. There was a lot of really interesting narrative
Speaker 4: being written into the show, so to have like mister Andy,
Speaker 4: who was the campus drug dealer, getting Brian Silver hooked
Speaker 4: on crystal mess still meth. Yeah, it was kind of heavy.
Speaker 2: You know, Oh, it really was. We were watching it,
Speaker 2: We're like, what is happening? I guess this is when
Speaker 2: the show really started to tackle some stuff.
Speaker 5: I don't even remember him getting into drugs, like until
Speaker 5: we start watching it rewatching anything, right.
Speaker 2: I thought it was much quicker than that.
Speaker 5: Yeah, because sometimes nine on two and zero we have
Speaker 5: seen so far rewatching it as a tendency to wrap
Speaker 5: things up with the bow in like one or two episodes,
Speaker 5: so we appreciate that it's going and yeah, ebbs and blows,
Speaker 5: but it.
Speaker 2: Got real, real dark in that dorm room. You took
Speaker 2: off your shoes, you were getting the business.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, No, It's interesting because for the audition I
Speaker 4: always had like a flip thing, like I always hated
Speaker 4: my feet, so like I was like, oh, I got
Speaker 4: a mission, and like take my shoes off, and so
Speaker 4: I did it, and I was just used it. I'll
Speaker 4: just use it. You know that whole like actor thing
Speaker 4: where you know, it's just it's a feeling I can use.
Speaker 4: It feels off, and so it was just strange because
Speaker 4: I wasn't aware that you could you could you could
Speaker 4: do this, administer this stuff between the toes, and that
Speaker 4: was effective. But I think more importantly what it did,
Speaker 4: I think for the audience was just kind of bring
Speaker 4: the narrative in that may or may not have been
Speaker 4: something that people were dealing with in their lives. And
Speaker 4: so I liked the idea that you can kind of
Speaker 4: push back against what feels safe in terms of written narrative, uh,
Speaker 4: primetime television. And you know, it was really great to
Speaker 4: be part of that in that sort of nefarious way,
Speaker 4: like someone's got to be the bad guy, someone's got
Speaker 4: you know, why not me? And so I loved approaching
Speaker 4: character work on TV where you know, you don't often
Speaker 4: get to play these embellished characters on television because you know,
Speaker 4: generally primetime television is relatively safe. It's like four quadrant,
Speaker 4: you know, it appeals to all four quadrant demographics. So
Speaker 4: it's really one of those things that you know, as
Speaker 4: you mentioned, needs to be wrapped up and feel good
Speaker 4: at the end of a show, and so it was
Speaker 4: kind of interesting to have this this through line that
Speaker 4: ran before my character was introduced, but then a couple
Speaker 4: episodes of what was going on, and then there was
Speaker 4: a residual effect on David Silver's narrative. And I think
Speaker 4: Luke's character came in, dil came in. I think was
Speaker 4: there to support that.
Speaker 2: I believe he was there to help him through it.
Speaker 4: And that's important, that's meaningful. And I love as a
Speaker 4: utilitarian actor, as a journeyman actor, being able to come
Speaker 4: in for a couple episodes and support a meaningful narrative.
Speaker 2: Right, It's more fun to be the bad guy anyway.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I always think it's it's a lot more fun
Speaker 4: to be the guest star. I mean, look, we all
Speaker 4: want we all want the regular work for sure, don't
Speaker 4: get me wrong.
Speaker 2: Regular paycheck is nice.
Speaker 4: Absolutely, But to be a guest star, recurrent guest star
Speaker 4: or whatever, you get to come in. You get to
Speaker 4: shake it up, you get to have some fun, you
Speaker 4: get to take some chances, you get to be experimental,
Speaker 4: you get to be a little bit more avant garde
Speaker 4: in a space that's generally safe for the actor to
Speaker 4: sort of be yourself and walk into a design, but
Speaker 4: not really play with the design now and so as
Speaker 4: a guest star, I can rattle the cage a little
Speaker 4: bit creat conflict, you know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, We've talked to a lot of guest stars and
Speaker 2: it's an interesting in. You know, people always have their
Speaker 2: stories and their perception of the cast, like.
Speaker 3: What was your first impression?
Speaker 2: But tell us a fun story of the people that
Speaker 2: you didn't know, right.
Speaker 4: So how I approached the character or just how I
Speaker 4: felt being there.
Speaker 2: As I felt being there like with the other cast members.
Speaker 4: Sure, well, okay, first off, I have to say that
Speaker 4: you know Jason Priestley one of my dear friends. Luke Perry,
Speaker 4: one of my dear friends. Miss him every day, breaks
Speaker 4: my heart. But also he's with us. We know that.
Speaker 4: You know, Brian one of my closest friends forever, my
Speaker 4: brother forever. So you know, I and I talked to
Speaker 4: you once in a while. You gals in my heart,
Speaker 4: top of my mind, watching you from a close you know,
Speaker 4: far like I love it. So for me being there,
Speaker 4: it felt it felt great. It felt like I was home,
Speaker 4: and you know, I wanted to do more. Although I
Speaker 4: always had this wonderful approach for me that like when
Speaker 4: I'm on television and when I'm the guest star, that
Speaker 4: I really loved the idea that I wanted to be
Speaker 4: as much of that guy, even in between shots as possible,
Speaker 4: because it really helped me create the conflict. And especially
Speaker 4: when I was working with Brian, because Brian's my friend,
Speaker 4: I wanted him to have to deal with me. So
Speaker 4: I created a little bit of distance between he and I,
Speaker 4: and I kind of, you know, antagonized a little bit energetically,
Speaker 4: just energetically, not in an unhealthy way to create this tension.
Speaker 4: So when we showed up on camera, it felt like
Speaker 4: we were actually feeding off something fun and interesting for
Speaker 4: he and I because we were friends. So I generally
Speaker 4: stated myself and get inside what I call the circle
Speaker 4: of my creative consciousness.
Speaker 2: Okay, so wait, you're talking about like your how your
Speaker 2: process runs as an actor, and is this something that
Speaker 2: you also teach your students now because you are an
Speaker 2: acting teacher.
Speaker 4: Now, yeah, I appreciate that segue. Yeah, No, for sure,
Speaker 4: I love I'm just interested. I appreciate it one hundred percent. Yeah. No,
Speaker 4: for me, So I always came into the business and
Speaker 4: got really lucky meeting some really wonderful craftsmen. I met
Speaker 4: Stella Adler herself like she was a family funding and
Speaker 4: she was the first person that I met in the
Speaker 4: creative arts space in the form of acting and studied
Speaker 4: with her. And then I met Shelley Winters, who then
Speaker 4: kind of mentored you. Yes, she there's great stories. I
Speaker 4: know we don't have a lot of times all summrise,
Speaker 4: but basically I've defected Stella went to Shelley. Shelley was
Speaker 4: my personal mentor at the Actor's studio until she passed away.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah. And so I've always been really in love
Speaker 4: with the art form and I love the idea of
Speaker 4: the cathartic, creative therapeutic sort of release, of being able
Speaker 4: to sit at the edge of an opportunity, lean into
Speaker 4: the way that feels, catch that beautiful life wind and
Speaker 4: fly while the cameras record beautiful truth.
Speaker 2: That's nice.
Speaker 4: So I'm nott hang in the air for a half second,
Speaker 4: because that's important. You know, we are yet why we
Speaker 4: want to be an actor and sort of you know,
Speaker 4: I always returned to the heart wants what the heart wants,
Speaker 4: and that's a great place to sit and to begin
Speaker 4: to express yourself in the deepest meaningful way. So I've
Speaker 4: always been I've always tried to approach all the work,
Speaker 4: even when I was a young person in this business,
Speaker 4: from the heart's core, and maybe to my advantage and
Speaker 4: often probably to my disadvantage, because maybe it wasn't what
Speaker 4: you know people needed, They needed maybe more of just
Speaker 4: to just jump in and just follow the pattern of
Speaker 4: the writing and let the camera record whatever it records.
Speaker 4: I pushed back and always wanted to find something deeper
Speaker 4: and more interesting, and so the mister Andy character was
Speaker 4: that opportunity for me. Coming back to that, but certainly
Speaker 4: it's the way I look at coaching actors to their
Speaker 4: true potential today, right.
Speaker 2: Because you have the bo Jesse Christopher acting studio that's
Speaker 2: still that's been up since twenty eighteen. I'm reading, and
Speaker 2: that's so awesome that you're you love what you do
Speaker 2: and you're teaching other people to How old are the
Speaker 2: people that you normally work.
Speaker 4: With, so generally twenty somethings, thirty somethings, but I coach
Speaker 4: all ages. So like in my weekly groups, I probably
Speaker 4: have people in their twenties to their sixties, but primarily
Speaker 4: twenties to thirties and that kind of target demo, and
Speaker 4: then I started this thing called Truth Be Told Acting
Speaker 4: Collective in twenty twelve because I got sort of reinvigorated
Speaker 4: with the craft and had this Prior to that, I
Speaker 4: had this sort of like I maxed out and I
Speaker 4: just sort of lost a sense of self and didn't
Speaker 4: have an art form and kind of removed myself from
Speaker 4: the business and you know, raised my first kid and
Speaker 4: did other things to make money. And then I had
Speaker 4: this return to craft in this this reawakening, this juvenation,
Speaker 4: and so this collective helped me kind of pulled all
Speaker 4: together to find myself at work. And then in twenty
Speaker 4: eighteen I kind of honed that in and created the
Speaker 4: studio and been really really grateful and humbled by the
Speaker 4: turnout that shows up once a week. I had this
Speaker 4: sort of critical mass thing happening once a week. And
Speaker 4: then I do a lot of on set coaching in
Speaker 4: private one on ones, and I'll fly places to coach
Speaker 4: different people, and I'll do zooms and I'll do Google meets,
Speaker 4: and I'll do in my studio and it's great because
Speaker 4: I don't have that desperation that I think I would
Speaker 4: have had if I wasn't in the practice every day
Speaker 4: as an actor, and so when I'm auditioning for stuff,
Speaker 4: because I'm currently on the circuit, chipping away at it,
Speaker 4: doing the thing. You know, the.
Speaker 5: Tapes we were just talking about that we just miss.
Speaker 5: I mean, while it's nice the pressure is off of you,
Speaker 5: we miss being in the room and getting that like
Speaker 5: response totally.
Speaker 2: I don't miss it, Jenny, No, Yeah, I get it.
Speaker 4: I get it. There's there's two. There's two. There's two
Speaker 4: thoughts there, you know. So I love the convenience of
Speaker 4: being able to kind of, you know, create my own
Speaker 4: version of what this looks and feels like for a
Speaker 4: team of creators who want a energy match.
Speaker 2: Design, collaborate.
Speaker 4: Yeah. But also I love and I love the convenience
Speaker 4: of being able to do it and then not worrying
Speaker 4: about it. If I want to adjust, I can. But
Speaker 4: I do love Torri going into the room and managing
Speaker 4: the anxiety, managing the performance adrenaline, seeing other people that
Speaker 4: may or may not be right for it, getting out
Speaker 4: of my head, yeah, my body, hitting a mark, connecting
Speaker 4: with a human being, getting some feedback. Yeah, laying that
Speaker 4: thing down one or two takes and then getting od there.
Speaker 4: So there's you know, I do I do miss it.
Speaker 4: I actually do miss it.
Speaker 3: There are any of your kids in the business, they're not.
Speaker 4: They're not. I mean, if they, if they decide they
Speaker 4: want to be, I certainly encourage it. I think I
Speaker 4: tried with my oldest guy, and he's in music, so
Speaker 4: he's in music. Yeah, but my younger kids couldn't care less,
Speaker 4: they couldn't be bothered whatever, you know.
Speaker 2: Maybe maybe later.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 5: You have the most amazing and vivid memory and way
Speaker 5: of telling stories, like I could listen to you all day.
Speaker 4: My gosh, I really appreciate that.
Speaker 3: You Your memory is unbelievable.
Speaker 4: Thank you, Thanks, Thanks.
Speaker 2: It's like great.
Speaker 5: I want to ask you so many questions about our
Speaker 5: lives that you'll probably have answers to that we don't remember.
Speaker 4: Yeah. Yeah, I can tell you stories about you know,
Speaker 4: Jason and Luke. I could give you some great stories.
Speaker 3: I tell story.
Speaker 4: Okay, So the last time I saw Luke, my boy
Speaker 4: Jesse was too and we were and Luke was a
Speaker 4: good friend. Luke would come over to the house and
Speaker 4: he would visit. He'd drop in because Jason lived up
Speaker 4: the street in Beechwood Canyon, so he would come by
Speaker 4: and see Jason before he would go to see Jace,
Speaker 4: drop by and see me. And I lived with Alexis Arccat,
Speaker 4: who's no longer with us also, and Alexis and I
Speaker 4: were best friends, and we rented this like really cool
Speaker 4: Italian villain Beachwood Canyon. It was very artsy, fartsy and bohemian.
Speaker 4: And I was a single dad and had a two
Speaker 4: year old kid, Jesse, and I remember I was trying
Speaker 4: to get Jesse down to go to sleep and Luke
Speaker 4: pop by, and I remember it was dark in the
Speaker 4: room and he opened.
Speaker 6: Up the door and he goes, hey, boh, it's Luke
Speaker 6: Luke Berry. He goes, hey, man, I don't want to interrupt.
Speaker 6: I just want to tell you I love you, and
Speaker 6: then he kind of closed the door.
Speaker 1: Last time I saw him, right, yeah.
Speaker 4: I love you. It is what he said to me,
Speaker 4: really really beautiful. Thank you Luke Jason one time. It's
Speaker 4: funny thing. I think the last time I saw I
Speaker 4: saw Jason was down the street at the market and
Speaker 4: I was, you know, a young young dad around the
Speaker 4: same time, and I didn't have much money. I was
Speaker 4: chipping away as in between acting jobs. And I was
Speaker 4: just trying to scrape together enough to feed Jesse and
Speaker 4: I for the day. And I was at I think
Speaker 4: it was Gelson's on the corner Canyon Drive where we
Speaker 4: all lived, and I ran into Jason that is, you know,
Speaker 4: one of his awesome convertible stingrays or what I use
Speaker 4: race cars, right, I forget what he has, like cherry
Speaker 4: red something I don't know, and he goes anyway, Bo, Jesse,
Speaker 4: what's up man? How are you? What's going on? Bought
Speaker 4: me a bag of groceries, Get in my car. I'll
Speaker 4: take you back to the house. Brought me in Jesse
Speaker 4: back to the house, loaded up my fridge, hung out
Speaker 4: with us, and then drove up the hill to his house.
Speaker 4: That's just the kind of guy Jason was, right, Brothers. Yeah,
Speaker 4: so that was the last time I saw Jay and
Speaker 4: love and it was so long ago.
Speaker 2: So long ago. I remember that house up in Beechwood.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Shares, you know, these are these are good people.
Speaker 4: This is family. This this show, you know, family. It's
Speaker 4: a really beautiful thing to be part of it. And
Speaker 4: I'm really honored.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I want to be sure to let people know
Speaker 2: how to get a hold of you. If they need
Speaker 2: you because we might be contacting you. I love for
Speaker 2: acting advice.
Speaker 4: Well, well, thank you both first for having you on
Speaker 4: the show. So yeah, anybody can find me at Jesse
Speaker 4: Christopher dot com. You know, I'm on I'm on the Gram,
Speaker 4: I'm on ig so Instagram.
Speaker 2: What's your gram?
Speaker 4: Oh, Jesse Christopher.
Speaker 2: Oh, Jesse Christopher. Nice.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so please follow, like shared, do the whole thing.
Speaker 4: But I'm here for you, stay honest, discipline and inspire.
Speaker 4: Heart hugs to you and everyone listening.
Speaker 3: Oh you're amazing.
Speaker 5: Oh my gosh, it's such It's so interesting when you're young,
Speaker 5: you have such a different perspective of someone and then
Speaker 5: you get to reconnect with them later in life, and
Speaker 5: it's just I don't know when you were young, I
Speaker 5: was younger and you were just like always Brian's friend
Speaker 5: and you were like the young hot guy and I
Speaker 5: was intimidated probably, And now just listening to you speak,
Speaker 5: I'm like, oh my gosh, everything it's just so beautiful.
Speaker 3: So so thank you.
Speaker 4: Thank you for the fall of and also just thank
Speaker 4: you for what was said. Can we please stay in touch?
Speaker 1: Yes?
Speaker 2: Please?
Speaker 3: Okay, I'm gonna d M you right now too. I'm
Speaker 3: gonna slide. Wait, what is it?
Speaker 2: Slip slide?
Speaker 4: No, yes, Christopher, slip and slag. Yeah, it's all good.
Speaker 2: Thank you for being with us. It's so good to
Speaker 2: see you.
Speaker 3: Thank you, I love you.
Speaker 4: Bye bye you guys,