Today we’d like to introduce you to Jeff Torres.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
Like a lot of people who got into filmmaking or theatre, I started acting in high school. I didn’t know much about how to pursue a career in acting so I went to UC, Riverside where my mentor, Eric Barr, gave me my foundation as a professional actor and artist. While there I studied abroad in the immersion program in Mexico City UNAM (National Autonomous University of Mexico). I moved to LA shortly after that and have been pursuing acting ever since.
After years of just doing acting with the occasional directing job, During the pandemic I shot/directed/wrote/edited an award winning short film called ONCE. After that I decided to more actively pursue writing and directing – storytelling has become my passion. So today, between acting jobs, I work on producing, writing, and directing. I think what got me into acting was the idea of performing honestly and what has turned me into a filmmaker is my want to tell stories honestly and create authentic characters that reflect the beauty and resilience I have seen throughout my life.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
(chortle). Smooth? Has my road been smooth? Ehhh, I don’t know many people who get into being an artist, especially in the film industry who could say the road has been smooth. It has been a wild ride and I am very grateful for the rockiness along the way. The biggest struggle as someone who came into this industry with zero connection to it was the idea of who I am and what I do. Any artist encounters this dilemma of honing the craft you dedicate yourself to and realizing that honing the craft doesn’t necessarily help you discover your voice. For any artist that’s a base challenge, as an actor everyone wants to put on you what you should be based on what THEY think. They say “you should go out for X, Y, Z roles!” But often times what they’re saying is “if I were you I would monetize myself as X, Y, Z” without any regard for what you want to use your art for in the first place.
As a Mexican-American actor that doesn’t fit the 100 year Hollywood stereotypes of what I’m supposed to look like or sound like, there has been an entire other layer added to that artist dilemma. Suddenly I’m not just having a fun time becoming a character or telling a story, I’m sometimes asked to audition for roles that actively harm my community and anyone that is of Latin-American descent. So the struggle becomes, “I’ve dedicated my life to this craft, and as a craftsman, I am a hired gun. I show up and tell THEIR stories about me, I dress up how THEY want to see me.” And that is a struggle that has pushed me towards becoming a storyteller myself. John Ortiz is an incredible actor and he founded the theatre company Labyrinth in New York for similar reasons. In order to change stories and the face of representation you need to be open to the idea that you might have to become your own storyteller and be your own hired gun in order to tell new stories and uplift the people around you.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I’m probably most known for my role as Mateo in the comedy The Donor Party, starring Malin Akerman, Rob Corddry, Jerry O’Connell, and Erinn Hayes, written and directed by my good friend Thom Harp. I was also in a really funny Superbowl Geico commercial where I played Tarzan and I argue about directions in the jungle with Jane (Jessica Makinson). I love doing comedy and I’m actually really proud of my work in both of these roles. As for my proudest work? That’s hard to narrow down, but recently I did a short play at Playground LA called Every Blow written by Summer Broyhill that was possibly my best acting work. Being able to tell a grounded, honest, and TIMELY story is so incredibly rare, no matter what level you’re at as an actor or artist, and I’m so grateful to have been a part of it.
After years of being an artist, I no longer want to perform or tell “cool” stories. I have found throughout my journey that I want to tell stories that reflect humanity back at the viewer – stuff that educates, and hopefully elevates us as well. I’ve really worked hard through years of therapy and constantly taking inventory of my life and art, to throw my ego aside. I don’t know that I ever had a crazy ego to begin with, but I know that my ego isn’t gonna help me tell the stories I want to tell. I know that the stories I carry with me from my upbringing by a single immigrant mother, the intersection of multiple cultures, the people I’ve met along the way – all of it – THEY inform and shape my lens. That lens is what sets us all apart. The Artist’s Lens is ours. You can tell 1000 people to tell a story about the same thing and though there will be similarities, the infinite choices along the way to create it will give an indication of each artist’s point of view. But that lens is covered in all kinds of crap. Pre-conceived notions of self, the world around us, others’ expectations of us or our art, trauma, ego, insecurity – the list goes on. Our job is to excavate it. When you really start to peel that stuff away, you dust off that lens and you can see clearly your vision: who you are and what you want others to see. My Artist Lens (TM) is what sets me apart.
We’d love to hear about how you think about risk taking?
I think no one ever really understands what risks are involved in the things we do. When we take a swing we have no idea where the ball is gonna go. When you hit a homerun you remember that, when you strike out you remember that too. I think we all hear a ton of stories of The Greats taking massive risks as artists and we only hear the jack pots and homeruns, which can really skew the data and our perception of what kinda risks we should be taking. Being an actor is like signing up for the lottery already and requires a certain level of high risks playing, I think maybe work on your craft, hone your skills, and reduce the degen (read as: degenerate) impulses of risk taking for the sake of risk taking. Listen to your gut, your root self, and make some educated risks after you measure them against the possible reward.
That being said: sometimes you gotta risk it to win the biscuit. Know the risk and know the bisc. Act accordingly.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://imdb.me/jefftorres
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iamjefftorres
Image Credits
Sela Shiloni
Jill Petracek
Mackenzie Lenora Photography
