Conversations with Jacob Hayman

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jacob Hayman.

Hi Jacob, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
Growing up in the San Fernando Valley, my parents were very good about shuttling my sister and I all over Los Angeles and up and down the wider coast, camping, and visiting as many landmarks and museums as we’d let them. My father worked for non-profits, and my mother in education. As such, a very strong priority was placed on immersing us in various arts and cultures with a deep appreciation for history. Couched firmly within a wider Jewish ethos, which emphasized the pursuit of justice, charity, and kindness to others, I was off to a great start.

It got rocky though, pretty quickly, and for quite some time.

With lifelong diagnoses of ADHD and Autism, I was a shy yet excitable kid who had absolutely no interest in formal education, let alone a higher one. After I graduated from senior high, knowing full well that I wanted to work in film to some degree, I ended up a projectionist at Laemmle Theatres, where I slowly developed the notion of a seed of a plan.

While working at the Laemmle, I dabbled in film criticism for an online nerd/culture site, also securing internships as a script reader and as an agent assistant.

In the midst of all that, two very important things happened:

One was meeting my hero of heroes, Roger Corman, after a panel at Comic-Con. As we walked to the convention floor together, I asked him a barrage of questions and thanked him for everything. Upon parting he said if I was ever looking for work, I should call him…

The second happened years later when I secured a meeting with Fred Roos, producer of Coppolas. I’d written him a nice letter and was invited to his office, where we spoke for an hour. He urged me to start “at the bottom”, as a PA, while I figured it all out. So, I finally called Corman about that work. His secretary claimed “he tells that to everyone”, to which I responded “But how many actually call?”

With that, I got my first job on set.

After some time freelancing I longed for a steadier paycheck, more creative input, and some sort of path to producing. Figuring it’s where Fred Roos started, I pounded the pavement for months, dropping my resume off to every casting office I could find an address for. Eventually, I landed in the hands of Jan Glaser, a frequent collaborator of Corman’s.

I got the job and stayed for two years before once again dropping back into the wilds of freelancing, to mixed results.

It was time for another steady gig, but my poor body language, lack of eye contact, and a refusal to be upfront about my divergence did me no favors in the ensuing parade of interviews, so in 2019, crestfallen, I left LA and moved to Detroit.

It was a strange and wonderful time, but the film work there had dried up, so it was back to LA where I joined up with Endorse Management Group, serving as an assistant once more just in time for the pandemic to hit, eventually co-creating an acting workshop and signing two clients to the roster before parting ways due to a lack of work.

Seizing my moment, I fulfilled a lifelong dream of moving to New York, a city I’m often accused of being from. In my nine months there, I was fortunate to land a mentorship through the Casting Society of America while simultaneously casting my second feature, “Trust”, whose filming would drag me back to Los Angeles…

Last year, as “Trust” was readying its Cinequest premiere (where it eventually won ‘Best Drama’), I hopped onto a Zoom with Mark Myers of Citizen Skull, told him everything I just laid out here, submitted a package of writing talent, and was invited to join the team as a Literary Manager.

Since then, I‘ve produced a short (“Fudgie Freddie”) and am shopping two feature projects while also repping folks for writing and directing.

Finally, the future doesn’t look quite so rocky, but it’s a long haul and I feel I’m ready for it.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Bouncing in and out of freelancing and further jobs with fixed locations, money was never really a certainty, and I felt more often than not like some stereotypical starving artist-type while simultaneously bolstering all the nakedly neglected statistics and hardships that being neurodivergent and/or having no college degree affords one in a land of typically-abled nepo babies, Ivy leaguers, skilled craftfolk, and dumb silly luck.

More and more, the answer had been revealing itself; that I might simply be better off seeking further mentors and operating on my own terms. Without being beholden to various gatekeepers, I could then impress them in my own way, on my own timeline.

In retrospect, I’d simply view everything thus far as immensely silly and as noted above, far from smooth.

That said, I never went about anything without securing a nice runway, which I feel has been my saving grace throughout it all.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work? What separates you from other people?
I find the notion of separating myself from others in that regard a bit jarring, as I feel everyone has something they bring to the table of offering and there’s no single path for any of us.

However, if I had to pinpoint the thing that’s helped me most, it’s that I’m rather adept at identifying and enlisting the strengths of others while actively enjoying the building and traversing of networks.

In 2020, when I finally put those inherent skills into words, my path suddenly snapped a bit more into focus, and I gotta admit, it’s done wonders for my career and self-esteem.

Since then, I’ve been rather clear-headed in my approach, harnessing honest curiosity through simple initiation and follow-through, while also knowing full well that failure is inevitable and that it’s more about how you pick yourself up rather than how you fall down.

Lacking any true cognizance of the way I come off to others (re: that Autism thing), I’ve found that… for better or worse… being true to myself, and utilizing radical candor, and while establishing boundaries, setting expectations, and taking people at their word… has really helped me hone in on the folks I do want to work with, while also affording others the chance to pursue their needs outside of myself, which is always best for everyone, and their art.

So maybe we end on discussing what matters most to you and why?
Community and the pursuit of contentment.

Because nobody is capable of doing everything for or by themselves, I feel in every stage and sector of my life, I have been striving for a strong sense of the former. With growing uncertainty all around us in an already chaotic world, amid failing systems and new opportunities, the only way forward is hand-in-hand, marching lockstep towards a better tomorrow.

Of course once you have that, you have to nurture it, and in doing so I hope to find the latter.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.jacobhayman.com
• Instagram: @xoxo.jacobhayman
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacobhayman/
• Other: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm5336581/

Image Credits
1. ‘Fudgie Freddie’ (Dominic Lopez), 2. ‘This Is Your Song’ (Peggy Peralta), 3. ‘Trust’ (Sten Olson), 4. ‘Wine Club’ (Carter Ross), 5. personal photo