Conversations with Jack Kennedy

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jack Kennedy.

Hi Jack, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I was born in Ohio, moved around the Midwest and eventually to Alabama. I always knew I wanted to be an actor and a writer but never really thought I would. My junior year in high school I performed a heartwarming turn as the Mock Turtle in the local production of Alice in Wonderland and I was hooked. I knew I wanted to be in Hollywood, so I did the exact opposite of what I should have done: I accepted an appointment to West Point and signed up for life as an Army Officer. But the Universe had other plans and gave me a medical discharge after getting injured while jumping out of perfectly good airplanes. Still, I attempted to do what most people with an engineering degree and military experience would do: get a good paying job and build a responsible life. I accepted a job in Atlanta but had an epiphany the night before I was supposed to start—I knew I wanted to be an actor and that it was now or never. If I took a job and started making good money, I’d never go to Hollywood. So I called my boss to be, quit the job, got in my car and drove from Atlanta to LA. That was in October of 1996. The journey to success has been just as circuitous as my journey to get here. I spent 2 years in LA, moved to NYC for a year, then did another about face and moved to Chicago to work a corporate job and see if the grass really was greener on the other side. After two years in Chicago I realized my heart was not going to give up the Hollywood dream so I once again quit my job and moved to LA for good. So here I am, making my first feature film, hopefully about to become a 30 year overnight success.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
One of my biggest struggles has been chronic pain due to my Army injuries—I’ve had surgery on both feet, a back fusion, and 3 hip replacements. So that has always been a struggle. But the real struggle is the nature of the Hollywood game–it’s about rejection, perseverance, and being lucky enough to find some luck along the way. One of the tough things to do is find the right job that allows you to pursue your passion. I did many jobs but being a doorman/bouncer at Hollywood night clubs became my things, and also a huge distraction to pursuing my acting career. So in 2012 I quit my job and decided I was not going to work as anything other than an actor. After a couple of months I ran out of money so I put all my stuff into storage and moved into my Jeep with my dog Larry. We lived there for 9 months, sleeping on the side of Mulholland Drive and other places. But it put my back against the wall and I started working as an actor. I booked 2 episodes of Castle, a national commercial, and an episode of Community. That allowed me to find a real home again and I really thought the career would take off. But I discovered I was being typecast. I’m the bouncer, the cop, the big thug. So there was a frustration for the past decade, knowing that I am a damn good actor but not being able to audition for meaty roles, just the 5 line generic roles that fit my look as a big, bald dude. It was around that time that I wrote the feature we are currently filming, You Are Here. I knew I had to make my own luck, force Hollywood to notice me. Alas, making a feature is even harder than succeeding on the acting side. My script was a semifinalist for the Academy Nicholls Fellowhship, people loved it. But multiple producers, in the own way, said, “Jack, I love this script but I can’t make money off of it.” I decided I would produce it myself and I did an IndieGoGo campaign in 2014. I was trying to film in Texas so I did a road-trip/funding campaign through Texas and eventually raised $42,000 for the film. Not bad, but no nearly enough. But I attached a couple of Executive Producers who wanted to invest and could raise the rest of the funds. But that fell through. I then hired another producer and made some progress with her, spent a lot of development money, only to have that fall through as well. I then got the script to Judd Nelson in 2015. He loved it, signed on to play the lead role of Ray. Shortly after that I had back surgery, wound up on life support, and miraculously came back from the dead. The first thing I did when I came back to life was email Judd and tell him that the thing I would have regretted most about dying was not having made this film. It was basically the first thought I had when I regained consciousness. That cemented that I would find a way to make this. In 2020 I did a staged reading at the American Legion in Hollywood. It was very successful. Two producers came up to me afterward and said, “This has to be made, call me.” But COVID called instead. Less than a week after the reading Hollywood shut down. The dream seemingly died once again. During this time I also got married and had 3 kids, making is seem even more impossible. But fortunately, The Universe was just waiting for all the right pieces to be in place, starting with my wife. She has always wanted to be a director. In September of 2024 I decided we were going to make this film in 2025, no matter what. And that my wife would direct and we would use all of our money if we had to. So I scrapped and scraped of the past year trying to get this into production. I started bringing people on board, like a production designer and a line producer. And people started falling by the way side as it became clear they weren’t the right fit, like that production designer and line producer. But we kept plowing forward. Then in July, when I called Judd Nelson and said the time has come to go into production, he told me he wasn’t going to play the lead role, that I needed to play the role of Ray, that this was my Billy Bob Thorton Slingblade moment. At first it felt like yet another huge blow, then I realized that The Universe had made me wait this long because I was finally the right age to play the role, and I had finally gained enough experience that I would be capable of carrying a movie. Every single obstacle has been for a reason and has led to a better path for this film. And the obstacle have kept coming, such as having to fire an actress on the 4th day of filming, which led to losing 4 actors and cost us money that we don’t really have. After all, EVERYONE has told me I cannot make a feature film that has 13 locations and 16 actors for $300k. We were attempting the impossible and the obstacles arising were doing their best to make sure it would remain impossible. But we continued to adapt and overcome. And we got even better actors to replace the ones we lost, the obstacles became blessings. And here we are…

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I am an actor, writer, and now producer (by default). I’m known mostly for dying on screen—by axe, by bullet to the head, hatchet to the back, claws to my throat, etc…I even got eaten by a sand shark while blowing it up at the same time. The acting job I am most proud of is a night I did on stage with Martin Short and Jason Alexander. I got to do a few skits for a fundraiser and one of them involved me dressed in a kilt, holding Martin Short in my arms while he sucked on my thumb and pretended to play me like the bagpipes. Yes weird. But who else can say they’ve mollycoddled Martin Short while he sucked on their thumb? I wouldn’t say I specialize in anything though. I’m a jack of all trades and I am willing to do whatever it takes to build a successful career. That’s one of the things that sets me apart from others. I will do anything to succeed. I will take the necessary risks, such as putting all of our money into this passion project even though we have 3 very young kids. All the actors I cast in this film are working actors with extensive resumes. But I saw first hand how most actors are—they were very needy and complained about comforts on set or about working too late or about having to sit around on set too long when filming took longer than we thought. I have never been like that on set. I once shot a scene for Agents of SHIELD where I was still on crutches post hip surgery. But I couldn’t have crutches on set. And the scene involved me getting my throat slashed and having to fall to the ground several times. I was in an insane amount of pain but I love acting so I pushed through. I guess that’s what sets me apart as well—most actors will not push through discomfort or do what it takes to succeed.

Let’s talk about our city – what do you love? What do you not love?
I love the architecture of LA. That we don’t have tract homes or one style. There are so many incredible neighborhoods where houses are all different architectural styles, unique, and really cool. What I hate most about this city right now is that it doesn’t seem to want to support the film business anymore. We are allowing Hollywood to move East toward Austin, Nashville, and Atlanta and Hollywood will no longer be Hollywood in the very near future, because LA is not trying to keep the business here.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.thecowwholosthermoo.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thecowwholosther/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61550267955827
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-kennedy-a896978/