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Interviews from the world of music!

Keb’ Mo’ – Storyteller

By: Michael D. McClellan | The blues was born at the turn of the twentieth century, in the Mississippi Delta and other regions of the Deep South, a reminder of hard times brought on by the burdens of slavery, the Great Depression, and just being black. Those who played the blues did so from a place of pain and suffering, of 30-cent days spent working from sun up to sun down, of sharecropping for a plantation owner who deducted nearly every dime from pittance wages and paid the rest in barrels of flour, lard and molasses. People forget that now. They don’t know or seem to care that the music they listen to today – be it R&B, soul, jazz, rock and roll, or hip hop – can be traced back to those Saturday afternoons when the blacks would gather at the local commissary, dancing on the parched earth out front while Charley Patton thumped the paint off his old guitar, or while Sonny Boy Williamson sat on the porch, going to town on his trusty harmonica. The blues back then was an elixir, a tonic for the troubled and afflicted, its message springing up from the hellish, hardscrabble existences of the economically and socially oppressed. Where Bach and Beethoven composed concertos for kings, bluesmen like Willie Foster and Blind Blake Booker played for those who turned the plow in the unbearable Mississippi heat – slaves, ex-slaves, and the descendants of slaves who sang as they toiled their lives away in the sharecropper’s cotton and vegetable fields.

The blues has been compared to the sound of a sinner on revival day, its message visceral, cathartic, and starkly emotional. Those who do it best are those who plumb their own hurt and hard times, despite being generations removed from the plantation juke joints where so many of the early blues musicians entertained. The lineage has seen artists like Muddy Waters and B.B. King take blues music to new heights, their contributions raising the bar for the rest who have followed. Diversity has also played its part; Stevie Ray Vaughan, Eric Clapton, Carlos Santana, and others have broadened the audience in their own ways, drawing in new fans while nudging the blues closer to the mainstream, which is ironic given that blues music underpins nearly everything being played on the radio today. The grit behind Tupac’s thug life? The angst in Morrissey’s lyrics? The braggadocio that drives an Usher track? You can trace it all back to the early pioneers like Bo Carter and Isaac Watts, many of them poor, uneducated, and obscure artists who played their music to soothe the soul, not sell tickets.

**Keb’ Mo’ and blues legend B.B. King, two giants of the genre**

Today, blues music has splintered and fractured into a broad spectrum of sub-genres, with everything from country blues to punk blues available for download. And while there are flavors for every taste, the ability to tap into raw emotions, both lyrically and musically, set the great storytellers apart from the rest of the crowd. As Otis Rush once said, “Them pains, when blues pains grab you, you’ll sing the blues right.”

Kevin Moore – better known to the music world as Keb’ Mo’ – has been singing the blues right since the early 70s, earning five Grammy Awards and universal acclaim, all while proving that the blues can be moved forward without being fueled by the one-two punch of unrelenting oppression and abject poverty. His is an impressive résumé certainly, but success didn’t just drop in Keb’ Mo’s lap – in fact, it came about as stubbornly as freedom comes to a man doing hard time in prison, with a decade spent scratching out a living as a backup musician, followed by a lost decade with little in the way of acclaim, twenty-plus years of wandering, virtually unnoticed, across a fickle musical landscape. How many artists break through after twenty years on the fringes? How many give up? Keb’ Mo’ has paid his dues – perhaps not in the same way as Robert Johnson, who burst on the scene only to die mysteriously at age 27, spurring the Faustian myth that he sold his soul at a crossroads to achieve success – and he’s carved out his own path while chopping down the large stalks of resistance standing in his way. After twenty years of struggle it’s okay to call him a bluesman. Just don’t try pigeonholing him in the genre where he’s had the most success.

“Getting tagged as a blues artist — that’s just a consequence of people not actually hearing me,” Keb’ Mo’ says, smiling. “They’ve just heard about me.”

He has a point. Growing up in Compton to parents with Southern roots, an impressionable Kevin Moore was exposed to gospel music at an earlier age. He also got a taste of R&B, which had a strong influence in shaping his future. This was pre-NWA Compton, decades before the Big Bang explosion of gangsta rap and the stars it would produce – Easy-E, Ice Cube, and Dr. Dre among them. He listened to everything back then, his musical interests stretching from the Beatles to Willie Nelson to Motown and back again. More than anything he was intrigued by the stories within the songs, the arrangement of the words, and the emotions and imagery they evoked.

Moore’s first exposure to playing music came when he was ten years old. He was recruited into his school’s band, playing trumpet and instantly feeling a connection to the notes. From there he went on to try steel drums and whatever else he could get his hands on. It was only when he picked up the guitar that Moore found himself hooked, setting in motion a chain of events that would eventually lead not only to stardom, but to Gibson releasing a Keb’ Mo’ Bluesmaster acoustic guitar, starting price $2,000. Not that he could have envisioned an honor like that as a preteen. Back then he simply wanted to play.

“It didn’t really matter at that point, I would have played the triangle or an oboe if they let me.”

Moore practiced tirelessly and paid his dues. He played in a number of cover bands after high school, performing Top 40 hits and oldies, adding layers to the artistic strata that would ultimately shape him as a musician. In 1973, he joined a blues-rock group headed by Papa John Creach, the former vocalist for Jefferson Starship and Hot Tuna. Three years and three albums later, Moore had the role of backup musician down pat. He’d toured. He’d spent time in studio. It helped lay the foundation. By the end of the ’70s he’d opened for jazz and rock artists such as the Mahavishnu Orchestra, Jefferson Starship, and Loggins & Messina.

Propelled by these apprenticeships, Moore ventured out to explore his place in the musical universe. In 1980 he signed a deal with Casablanca and cut an R&B-based solo album, Rainmaker, which garnered little notice. Casablanca promptly folded, and Moore slipped into the abyss. Survival became the order of the day. Moore played wherever he could find a job, and in 1983 he joined the house band at a Los Angeles nightclub, Marla’s Memory Lane. There he met blues saxophonist Monk Higgins, the bandleader who he later credited as “probably the most important element in developing my understanding of the blues.” He also met guitarist Charles Charlie “Tuna” Dennis, who played rhythm six-string behind B.B. King. The legacies left behind by legendary blues artists Robert Johnson and “Big” Bill Broonzy also provided an influence, and over the next decade Moore incorporated elements of each to lay the foundation of his own unique style.

As Moore’s struggles continued, there was little hint that a transformative decade loomed on the horizon. By 1990 he’d resigned himself to grinding out a career as a lower tier musician, toiling away in obscurity, taking gigs wherever he could find work. He was 39, and he had nothing of substance to show for nearly twenty years in the business. It wore on him. Moore’s luck changed when the casting director for Rabbit Foot, a theater production in Los Angeles, needed an actor who could play a Delta blues musician. Moore took the plunge. He found a freedom he hadn’t expected, a chance to let go, an opportunity to cleanse his pallet and reinvent himself as an artist. So successful was his performance that Moore was cast a bluesman in the stage production of Spunk. Then he played Robert Johnson in a docudrama entitled Can’t You Hear the Wind Howl? Ironically, the recognition that came from playing blues musicians on stage brought him a popularity that had been lacking in his twenty-plus years as an actual blues performer.

“The response was incredible,” he says. “I didn’t envision it broadening my audience the way that it did, but it turned out to be much more than a detour from my main gig. In a lot of respects, it was definitely a turning point.”

The roles also presented Moore with a long-awaited shot at redemption; fifteen years after watching his first album flop, Epic Records reached out with a record deal. To signify this transformative new chapter in his life, Moore embraced a new name – Keb’ Mo’ – an African-American version of his given name, which he felt would better reflect his emerging blues persona. The new name was first coined by a friend, drummer Quentin Dennard, who had started using the name during sessions at Los Angeles nightclubs when Moore would sit in with house musicians. It proved to be the capstone of his musical transformation.

The self-titled record brought with it a deluge of positive reviews, as The New York Times hailed Keb’ Mo’ as “an important new voice with both authentic blues roots and a contemporary sound.” After more than two decades on the fringes, the 39 year-old Keb’ Mo’ was suddenly an overnight success. He soon found himself opening for stars such as Jeff Beck, Carlos Santana, Buddy Guy, Joe Cocker, and George Clinton. Then, Mo’ released his third album, Just Like You (1996), stretching himself by working with a full band and tackling several rock-based songs. Just Like You won the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Blues Album, a feat he duplicated in 1998 with his next release, Slow Down.

Mo’ caught fire in 1998, his music played on TV’s Touched By an Angel and The Promised Land, and featured on film soundtracks such as One Fine Day, Tin Cup, and Down in the Delta. Onstage, Mo’ shared star billing with such performers as Bonnie Raitt and Celine Dion. In the studio, he collaborated with talents such as Amy Grant to Solomon Burke. In-between, he performed the theme song for the smash sit-com Mike & Molly, while everyone from Joe Cocker (Has Anybody Seen My Girl) to the immortal B. B. King (Dangerous Mood) covered his songs.

**LIGHTNING IN A BOTTLE, Keb’ Mo’, Bonnie Raitt, 2004, (c) Sony Pictures Classics**

Mo’ released two new albums on 2000, both garnering Grammy nominations: The Door and Big Wide Grin, the latter a children’s album featuring many songs from his childhood. In support of Big Wide Grin, Mo’ appeared on Sesame Street alongside Kermit the Frog and a host of other muppets, performing the song Everybody Be Yo’self. Keep It Simple (2004) delivered a third Grammy, again for Best Contemporary Blues Album, and featured an eclectic array of guests that included bluegrass mandolinist Sam Bush and the husband/wife duo of Vince Gill and Amy Grant. This period also offered Mo’ the chance to flex his political muscle, as he plunged headlong into the Vote for Change campaign aimed at defeating President George W. Bush. In addition to fulfilling the need for political activism ,the project allowed Mo’ to share the with some of the top names in the music business, including Bonnie Raitt and Bruce Springsteen.

When not producing albums, Mo’ continued to take unconventional risks. He recorded a cover of the Hank Williams hit I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry, for a tribute album honoring the great country-western star. He followed this by straying even farther from his blues roots, offering his rendition in song of Shakespeare’s Sonnet 35 for a Royal Academy of Dramatic Art benefit recording,When Love Speaks: Sonnets of Shakespeare. Released in 2002, the recording includes performances by such disparate artists as Joseph Fiennes, Sir John Gielgud, Alan Rickman, Kenneth Branagh, Fiona Shaw, Des’ree, Annie Lennox, and Ladysmith Black Mambazo.

**Keb’ Mo’ and Taj Mahal**
**2017 Grammy for Best Contemporary Blues Album**

Three more Grammy nominations would follow: Suitcase (2006), The Reflection (2011), and BLUESAmericana (2014). Then, in 2017, Mo’ struck Grammy gold with TajMo (2017), a collaboration album with the legendary Taj Mahal. A fifth Grammy, this time for the spellbinding Oklahoma (2019), served notice that Keb’ Mo’ is as hungry as ever, and reminding us all that his slow rise to stardom was well worth the wait.

You got your start in music at ten years old. How easily did it come to you?

When I picked up a guitar the first time, that was it. Within a couple of weeks I knew four, five chords. I could strum. I had to learn, but I enjoyed it so it wasn’t something that I considered work. Trust me, I was ready to rock.

I understand that your mother instilled a love of music in you at an early age.

My father wasn’t all that into music when I was growing up, but my mother was a singer. She sang in church and loved jazz records. We didn’t have much money growing up, so we didn’t own a lot of records. Albums were kind of a luxury. When we got a record it was kind of a big deal, because they were expensive, about four or five dollars. I would listen to her albums and I remember especially Jimmy Smith’s Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Wolf and The Incredible Jimmy Smith. My mother also had the greatest hits of Johnny Mathis. She adored a singer called Gloria Lynne, and was always playing her 1963 album Gloria Lynne At The Las Vegas Thunderbird (With The Herman Foster Trio).

You seem like a storyteller at heart.

My roots are in songwriting. That’s where I got my start, and I still spend a lot of time crafting songs. I came up in Los Angeles, and I listened to a lot of country songs during the 1970s. It’s just crazy how well-written those songs were. I learned a lot from the songwriters of that era. Those were important years for me as a songwriter. By the mid-70s I was writing in Papa John Creach’s band and I was hooked on the songwriting. I understood the importance of storytelling, and I knew I that I would be writing songs for as long as I was going to play music.

Who were some of your early influences?

There were many influences early on. Television, Top 40 radio, and the music being played in the 1960s…those were all an important part of my adolescence. James Taylor left an imprint. These were all positive influences, but they weren’t necessarily the means to an end. I was still figuring myself out, still trying to find the authenticity that I lacked at that point in my career. It wasn’t a linear journey to discovery. There were many detours and offshoots along the way. Charlie Dennis taught me that there are all kinds of blues: Delta blues, Texas blues, Chicago blues, soul-blues. So many flavors. It had a profound effect on my thinking. It shaped me. I started opening my mind and learning how deep the blues was.

Let’s talk about the blues. How has the blue music changed since its beginnings?

Blues music is a part of the legacy of the plantations in the South, along with the Underground Railroad, gospel music, and jazz. That’s really the beginning of African-American culture in America, because we came to this continent with no culture – our culture was stolen from us. Today, it’s a crazy new world. Now the blues is much more diversified. Color doesn’t matter. I know a lot of white guys that can sing the shit out of some blues. It still connects. The old, hard, black audience – which we don’t have anymore – wouldn’t get hung up on what color you were. To them, the blues was the blues. That was the only color that mattered.

What does it take to write a good blues song?

Blues storytelling comes out of the soil, from the hearts of hardworking men and women, you know. It’s real, organic. There isn’t a shiny veneer involved, even if the finished product is more slickly produced today than the blues albums from years past. I’m proud of the songs that I’ve written, I’m proud of the realness in them, and that they don’t feel as if they belong in a Hollywood production or a Broadway play. Blues comes from the people, so I stay true to that. I want it to be for the people.

Most people associate you with blues music, but that hasn’t always been the case.

I never set out to be a “blues guy.” Why would I put limits on myself? I didn’t gravitate to the blues until I was in my 30s. I was playing popular music, stuff that I thought was cool. Later on, I realized I was empty inside. I didn’t have anything to say. And then I started listening to the blues and I discovered it a message. It’s deep and powerful. I saw a realism I hadn’t found in anything else. It fit. It gave my music the identity that I’d been searching for from the very beginning. Blues is very powerful and fuels what I do. It’s a big part of who I am.

As a musician, what effect did the blues have on your career?

The blues added the realness that had been missing. It added a truth, and extra dimension. Until then, I was just trying to mix music and make something that sounded good. The results felt like hollow knockoffs of real music, but when I really paid attention to blues, I was like, “Wait a minute. This is what’s been missing out of my experience. It’s been right under my nose my whole life.” It was right there, you know, a true epiphany waiting to happen. I just didn’t really think about it until then. It changed everything.

You have your own unique style of playing the blues.

I trust my instincts and go with them. I understand the importance of respecting the great blues players who have come before me, and I try to do my best to uphold the tradition and culture, but I think it’s just as important for me to do my own thing.

For the longest time you struggled to make your mark. Did you ever doubt yourself?

There were a lot of times when I was convinced my career was over. It got so bad that I felt that I’d be luck to play blues gigs for $40 or $50 a night…if I was lucky. I was living out my own personal version of the blues, even if I didn’t realize it at the time, but I think that was an important part of my growth.

Rabbit Foot turned out to be seriously good luck. How did you land your role?

I lied. I said I could play the part [laughs]. Then a funny thing happened…I really got drawn into the role. It was hard work. I’ve done other acting since then, and while I enjoy it, I understand how incredibly difficult it is to play a character and do so with authenticity. In some respects it mirrors music in that same way; those who do it best are those who are true to themselves. Vince Gill, Bonnie Raitt, Bob Dylan…they trust who they are, and they follow their own internal compass.

Ironically, success seemed to find you the moment you stopped looking for it.

I didn’t really care anymore. I just wanted to play music. I honestly didn’t care if I was successful or not. I didn’t care if I was living out of a box downtown. I didn’t concern myself with how others perceived my career. I just wanted to perform. When all had failed, when I felt that I had had every chance to make it and hadn’t made it, I decided to just do what I wanted to do. It was liberating. And when I finally did achieve a certain level of fame and success, I think it really helped me take the newfound attention and put it in the proper perspective. I just reminded myself that I’d always been a good storyteller. I didn’t become one just because I was suddenly getting all of this attention.

You’ve written and performed on 5 Grammy-winning albums. What’s your secret?

For me, writing it’s always been about the journey – making music and telling truths. A record is like a stop along the way in that journey, you know? How I’m looking at that particular moment. What’s going on with the relationships in my world. My thoughts on politics and anything else I’m experiencing on the journey of life. The fact that I’ve been nominated on seven other occasions is pretty special, too. I’m as proud of the nominations as I am when I win a Grammy. I think nominations tend to get swept under the rug and forgotten about, even more so in today’s culture. Just having your work recognized in that way puts it up there with the best. To me, that’s a reason to celebrate.

You’re an artist that isn’t afraid to take risks. Big Wide Grin is a great example.

I like having definition but not being defined. That was the case with the material that ended up on Big Wide Grin. The creative energy just kind of took over and I just went with the flow. I stopped everything to work on that record, which wasn’t my original plan going in. I thought I’d show up in the studio, and then get back to my real work, and then I got hooked, you know? It was a way to celebrate the many different forms that families take, from the intact nuclear unit to extended and blended families. It was also a vehicle to expand awareness about adults’ responsibility to younger generations. It was an important work from that standpoint; we’re wielding this great power of thought and mind and deed, and sometimes we use it carelessly.

**Street Cred: Keb Mo and his good friend Vince Gill perform during the premier of *Music Voyager* episode about Middle Tennessee at the Franklin Theatre in Franklin, Tenn. February 15, 2012.**

Let’s talk political activism. In 2004, you were part of the Vote for Change tour.

There was more to what we were doing than simply trying to replace a president. The concert series was about rethinking our place in the global landscape; you know, the United States as the ultimate policeman…as judge, jury and executioner…those things just didn’t fit anymore. So, it was more about trying to defeat outdated policies and philosophies. Closed-minded, heavy-handed politics just don’t work today. We no longer need to play the role of the world’s big, bad wolf. I think we’ve come a long way since then, so the effort wasn’t in vain.

You’ve been a frequent performer Eric Clapton’s Crossroads Guitar Festival.

Crossroads is a hell of a lot of fun. There are so many talented guitar players that you almost have to pinch yourself. I enjoy it. It’s not really a competition. Of course, people in the audience have their favorite performers, and that’s fine. For me, it’s about showing up and contributing whatever I can to help make it a success.

In 2017, TajMo won the Grammy for Best Contemporary Blues Album. How did you end up collaborating with one of your idols, Taj Mahal?

It was in about 2014 in Atlanta, Georgia when Taj suggested that we do something together. He probably meant get together to write a song, but I took it all the way [laughs]. I went crazy and we made a whole album. You can’t blame him for that … I’m probably to blame for that. He was probably just wanting to get together and jam or something like that. I said, ‘OK.’ And then we made a record.

You first saw Taj Mahal at a high school concert.

I really didn’t know just how important Taj would be to me when I first heard him. I was 17 when I first heard Taj Mahal at my high school. Then, like a year-and-a-half later, a friend of mine gave me a copy of his 1968 album, The Natch’l Blues, which was a quintessential record, with great musicians such as Jesse Ed Davis on guitar and piano, and Chris Blackwell on drums. I wore that one out. I listened to that steady for about two years, riding around in my car. And then, I went along my way making music and Giant Steps came out (in 1969) and we all started listening to that thing, me and all my friends did. Any chance to see his shows I would go and check him out. He was mentoring me without knowing it. I got to know Taj Mahal in the early 90s. It took a while to really become friends, because he was doing his thing, but we’d chat at festivals in the States and Europe when I ran into him.

**Keb’ Mo’ and Taj Mahal jam at Eric Clapton’s Crossroads Festival**

Oklahoma is a masterpiece, and earned you your fifth Grammy. What was it like recording with Rosanne Cash, who was a guest vocalist on Put a Woman In Charge?

Rosanne was incredible. Her presence on my album is so perfect, but it came about by chance. I had written the song and wanted a female voice on it. I phoned a friend of mine, an attorney in New York who is a kind of music aficionado, and asked his advice. He called me back and said, “I can ask Rosanne Cash.” I thought, ‘Oh, that would be some statement.’ She agreed, and is just so amazing.

Bonnie Raitt is another strong female who has had a tremendous impact on you.

Bonnie Raitt has been a really huge person to me. She supported me so much in the beginning. She let me open for her shows. She was really, really helpful. She did more for me than anyone. She sang on my records and did a cameo appearance on “Just Like You.” She is just the most gracious woman – ever. She is always about the cause, justice and social activism. She treats everyone with total respect. When I grow up I want to be like her.

Final Question: Do you think that there’s a place for the blues in today’s musical landscape?

The blues is something that always comes back. For the big music to survive, they have to sell a lot of records to teenagers. You need pop stars like Taylor Swift and Katy Perry to sell a lot of records and to keep the music industry financially sound. Blues was never mainstream in that sense. I don’t think it was ever meant to be mainstream. It was somewhat popular in the ’50s and ’60s, but it’s true significance lies in it being a part of all other popular music. It’s foundational. Turn on the radio and listen to anything Top 40. The blues is in there, just below the surface. The blues is that powerful. It nurtures us in a way that new stuff can’t. It’s always going to have a seat at the table.

FifteenMinutesWith.Com 09.06.2015

Film & TV, Music, Q and A

Gerald Webb – From Scratch

Written By: Michael D. McClellan | Gerald Webb arrived in Hollywood the way you might expect, landing in Playa del Rey with the same dreams that others have packed into well-worn suitcases countless times before him, the odds stacked overwhelmingly against his outsized ambition, an unforgiving film industry primed to grind him up and spit the tiny bits and pieces cross country, spitting him back from whence he came. Happens every day. Tinseltown has teeth, sharp and jagged, and they’ve pierced the armor of even the most resilient souls. Surely, Gerald Webb would be next. He might as well have tried his hand at pulling Excalibur from that goddamned stone, because claiming sword from rock is easier than launching a Hollywood career and making it stick. Certainly he’d be forgotten in a blink, crash landing in his old neighborhood, left to explain his demise to empathetic ears while plenty of mouths threw shade the moment he walked away. I told you he’d be back. I knew he couldn’t cut it. He doesn’t have what it takes…

But Gerald Webb is from Philly, and certainly that counts for something. He’s also a blue collar, lunch pail type-of-dude with great instincts and a supreme work ethic. Webb’s parents always shot straight and set good examples, and his hyperactive imagination was there from the jump. Oddly, acting wasn’t his raison d’être as a youth. Music came first. Growing up in the ‘80s meant being there when an entire industry shifted from vinyl to digital, records replaced by compact discs on their ultimate journey to the cloud. Webb was fascinated with this new platform. An early adopter who recognized its paradigm-shifting potential, he couldn’t help but tinker with the technology. Could a CD player be used to scratch the same way that DJs scratched on vinyl?

**WATCH GERALD’S DIRECTORIAL DEBUT FILM**

Webb figured out how to pull off that little trick. By then he was a DJ with a regional reputation, and his innovation not only caught the attention of Pioneer executives, it led to a chance encounter – and close personal friendship – with Jason William Mizell, better known by his stage name Jam Master Jay. Soon the world’s first digital turntablist was opening shows for the flashy, founding member of Run-D.M.C. Webb’s acting bug? He’d grown up with that thought in the back of his mind, but it remained parked there while he scratched his way through clubs all over the East Coast. Only in those quiet moments did he allow for an honest assessment of his career arc. The DJ money was good. The events were a blast. Problem was, the DJing scene fed the ego but not the soul. Webb wasn’t fulfilled.

Serendipitously, the urge to act intersected with a class offered by Philadelphia casting director Mike Lemon, best known for his work on The Sixth Sense. Webb soaked it up like a sponge. He dipped his toes in the local acting pool, auditioning for parts in commercials and industrial films. The experience pushed Hollywood closer to the forefront of his mind, where an army of doubt and indecision waited to slap it down. You’ll try and fail. Hollywood is a Tom Cruise town, a Sylvester Stallone town, not a town for someone who looks like you.

**Gerald Webb and Kel Mitchell – ‘Battle of Los Angeles’**
Photo Courtesy Gerald Webb

Webb took a class from famed life coach Tony Robbins, and followed that up by diving headlong into The Landmark Forum, a 3-day personal development course grounded in a model of transformative learning – a way of learning that gives people an awareness of the basic structures in which they know, think, and act. Webb emerged with a fresh perspective on his life. The fear that was holding him back? Still there – but no longer capable of wielding the same power. He laid out his plan, trusted his gut, and moved to Los Angeles twelve months later.

~ ~ ~

Even armed to the teeth with a new way of thinking and plenty of street cred in the DJ universe, Gerald Webb was starting from scratch in a city designed to pay him no mind. He was just another would-be actor in a town teeming with them. He arrived in enthusiastic beginner mode, smitten with the beautiful weather and the equally beautiful people hooping and biking and running on Venice Beach. This was a far cry from the bleak February he’d left behind in Philly. He set out to score auditions but had no real clue how to pull it off. Like Rocky Balboa going up against Clubber Lang, Webb was throwing roundhouse punches and hoping to connect, a brutish approach with no refinement or sophistication. Barely six weeks in, Gerald Webb was disillusioned. And then his support system split town. He was alone, on his own, and he could feel those Tinseltown teeth bearing down.

**Gerald Webb – ‘Framed by My Fiance’**
Photo Courtesy Gerald Webb

Again, Webb got still and quiet. He listened to his inner voice, and he took the necessary steps to be taken seriously. Check the DJing at the door. Identify what you don’t know and come up with a fresh plan to do something about it. Get out there, find and create some genuine allies.

Gerald Webb soon landed his first audition. And then another. Baby steps, but Hollywood began to take notice. Soon he was booking jobs and building his reel. Then another door opened and Webb was casting movies for The Asylum, the independent movie studio that gave the world Sharknado. Webb’s keen eye for talent led him to an executive position within the company, and then, ultimately, partnering with Christopher Ray to form DeInstitutionalized Films, where he’s produced more than 25 films for respected partners such as Netflix, Reel One Entertainment, MarVista Entertainment, Lifetime Network, ION Television and Cinedigm.

Against long odds, Webb was quickly creating a name for himself in this city.

~ ~ ~

Gerald Webb still acts. He’s shared the screen with Danny DeVito, Chevy Chase, Ving Rhames, and Malcolm McDowell. How he pulls this off with everything else on his plate is anyone’s guess, but the man with the indefatigable work ethic also has a bushelful of talent. Witness the accolades which continue to roll in, a 2019 Daytime Emmy award nomination for “Outstanding Daytime Digital Series” as a producer on Amazon’s The Bay, and seven Telly Awards for his production of Circus Kane among them.

~ ~ ~

The coronavirus pandemic has shut down global economies, shuttering the entertainment industry along the way. What it hasn’t done is extinguish the creative light burning bright inside Gerald Webb. His response? $TACK$, a seven-minute short film that he produced and directed, followed closely by the COVID-relative music video Dropping Deuces. Clearly, Webb has his finger on the pulse of a public in desperate need of a diversion from the 21^st Century’s first omnipotent pandemic. He can also add director to his ever-expanding resumé.

Not bad for a Philly guy that Hollywood was primed to spit out in bits and pieces.

**WATCH GERALD’S COVID-19 PARODY MUSIC VIDEO**

Please take me back to your childhood in Philly. Did you always have a creative side?

I was born in Philadelphia. We lived there until I was about two years old, and then moved across the bridge, to a little town in South Jersey called Sicklerville. Even as a kid I was always involved in creative things. My dad was a TV repairman, so we always had technology around the house. When VCRs came out we were one of the first families to get one. Dad had a reel-to-reel, and he would hook up a microphone and record me telling stories, so that was probably the beginning of it. When I got a little older I’d watch the news and pretend to be Peter Jennings. I did a school report on Walter Cronkite when I was a young, and I’d watch Alex Trebek on Jeopardy!, and that kind of intrigued me. When I got a little older I got into breakdancing and popping, so the performer in me has always been pretty close to the surface.

**Old School: Gerald Webb and his sisters back in the day**
Photo Courtesy Gerald Webb

You’re known in the business for a tireless work ethic. Did you get that from your parents?

My father worked for someone for many years in Philadelphia, and then he started two shops of his own when I got a little older. I would see him go to work in the morning, and he would come back after what felt like a long day later, and then he would dutifully get up and do it all over again. Every once in a while he would go to work on a Saturday. He stressed doing things the right way, taking time to get it right, and focusing on the task at hand. The lessons he imparted and the values he instilled, I used those every day in my life.

My mother ran a daycare center out of our house, which she still does to this day. She wakes up at 5:30 every morning, is downstairs and ready when kids are being dropped off an hour later, and works until the last kids are picked up at 6:30 at night. She puts in those 12-hour days and never complains, doesn’t take off many holidays, and will only occasionally go on vacation. She’s raised three-quarters of Sicklerville over the years [laughs]. Everybody calls her Mommy Webb. If you know my mother, and if you saw her with those kids, you could tell that she’s clearly doing what she loves. I think that’s what keeps her young.

You worked as a DJ before you started in film and television. This was during a period of rapid change in the industry.

Yeah, everyone has seen DJs scratch on vinyl records, but the technology started to change with the arrival of the compact disc. I recognized early on that CDs were the wave of the future. Pioneer made a CD player that could loop a section of the song, which at the time was revolutionary. They had a spin-off in 1998, and I took their CD player and an effects processor with me. I was able recreate the sound of a record scratching, and the engineers from Pioneer went crazy. They wanted me to show them how I did it, and I was able to leverage that into a job with them. I consulted on product design, marketing, and a bunch of things for Pioneer for the better part of four years. Then I moved on to work for a company named American Audio, and then for Technics, which is a division of Panasonic and Matsushita. Even Hewlett Packard came calling about consulting, though we never closed a deal.

**School’s in Session: Gerald Webb and Jam Master Jay**
Photo Courtesy Gerald Webb

As a DJ, you were very much in demand.

I started touring and going to all of these trade shows. There were also all of these articles written about me, and before long I had a national reputation as the world’s first digital turntablist. Then Jim Tremayne, who was the editor of DJ Times magazine, came to me and said, “We’re having a DJ convention in San Francisco, and we want you to compete in the first ever CD-versus-vinyl scratch-off. Would you be interested?” I was like, “Yeah, I’m in!” Jim explained that he had DJ Qbert – the best scratch turntablist all time – lined up for the scratch battle. CD technology wasn’t quite there yet, so I knew that I was bringing a knife to a gunfight [laughs], but Qbert was cool as heck. There were people in the audience yelling, “Kill the CD DJ!” Qbert kept it loose. He was like, “We’re going to go back and forth, and we’re going to have fun.” Qbert understood that though not quite ready at that point, innovation wasn’t necessarily the enemy. It was really an honor to be on that platform with such a legend.

I’ve read where you met the legendary Jam Master Jay at the same convention.

Jay was there promoting his new Scratch DJ Academy, and he was in the back of the room during our battle. The next day, Pioneer had a booth at the show and I’m giving a tutorial on how to do these scratch techniques on a CD player. Jam Master Jay is walking by the booth and stops, but there’s about twenty people in front of me watching the tutorial. He looks over for a minute, and then he walks away. Afterwards, I’m hanging out in the booth and he walks back around the corner. He’s like, “Hey, can you show me what you are doing?” I still have the picture someone took of me and Jay in that moment, and in it I’m teaching the person who most inspired me to become a DJ. Jay is one of the greatest DJs of all time, so I totally geeked out. It was definitely a bucket list moment.

Jam Master Jay became not only a friend, but a mentor. Please take me through the genesis of your relationship with Jay.

When we got done talking he introduced me to his assistant, Lydia, instructed me to give her my number, and said that he’d be in touch. Well, months passed and I didn’t hear anything from Jay, and then out of the blue I get a call from him. He’s like, “Hey man, you still in Philly? I have an event going on in New York on Saturday, and I want you to open up for me.” The next thing you know I’m opening up for Jay at this party at S.O.B.’s [Sounds of Brazil] where he was DJing. He gave me his number afterwards, and we started keeping in touch. He’d call and say he was going to do a show somewhere and he wanted me to open for him. We started to pal around, and he took a genuine interest in my life and career. He saw what I was doing and recognized the obstacles in my way. He helped because he genuinely cared. That is so typical of how amazing of a person he was.

**Run-DMC**
Photo Courtesy David Redfern/Redferns

Jay got his started playing at parks, and faced his own challenges on the way up.

He told me the story about when Run-DMC did their first European tour. They were already a hit in the U.S. when they arrive at the first venue where they’re going to play. Jay has his turntables, and just as they are ready to do a soundcheck, the people at the venue go, “Where is your band at? You can’t do a concert without a band.” Jay said Run and D were like “Jay IS the band.” That lack of understanding followed him throughout that entire European tour.

You actually worked with Jam Master Jay at Scratch DJ Academy.

He was doing a documentary called Slipmat Studies, and he asked me to be in it. He also asked me to be one of the founding professors for Scratch DJ Academy. It’s still hard to believe.

You have a great story about DJing Jay’s anniversary party.

Jay and his wife rented a boat to tour around New York Harbor for their ten-year wedding anniversary. This is Jam Master Jay, and he could have had any DJ on the planet DJ this party, but he asked me to do it. When everybody got ready to start the dancing, Jay walks up and leans in front of the booth beside my little turntable and goes, “Gerald, crank it up. Get these guys going. Show off.” You have to realize, it’s a Who’s Who of hip-hop in New York on the boat. Russell Simmons, the co-founder of Def-Jam, is there. So I start doing my little trick to make this noise and get everybody’s attention and get the party started. The next thing you know, big-time DJs like DJ Hurricane come running over to the table with their jaws on the floor. A few minutes earlier they were all looking at me like, “I can’t believe that Jay got a CD DJ. This is gonna be whack.” Jay was just standing there in his all-white tuxedo with Adidas Superstars and the biggest smile on his face, looking like the cat that had swallowed the canary. He was like, “Yo, y’all check out my DJ.” That’s who this guy was. He took a chance on a kid from Sicklerville, and not only introduced him to a new audience, but also put him on a different platform. He’s a part of me and will be for the rest of my life. I am just so fortunate to learn from him. His example of humility and serving others is something that I carry with me every day.

**Gerald Webb – NetflixFYSEE**
Photo Courtesy Gerald Webb

Jay died tragically, and I’m sure it hit you hard.

It was devastating. I couldn’t even talk about it for a long time. Jay was the humblest guy in the room every time I was with him, even though he was arguably the biggest star in the room. I still have a video of Jay talking about his opinion of me as a DJ, and there could be no higher praise. Not long after he passed, I won the American Disc Jockey Association ‘Nightclub DJ of the Year Award.’ I dedicated that to him, and I got to show the footage at the award presentation.

Jay’s murder reminded me that life is precious. Ironically, I was also a victim of an assault with a deadly weapon. I was driving down the highway in LA and somebody shot my car up. Two bullets hit me. If you saw my car, a bullet was inches away from killing me. The mental and physical recovery took months and was one of the most difficult times of my life. But somehow, I felt like Jay was there guiding me through it the whole time. People are going to think that this is insane to say, but I don’t wish it didn’t happen. Who I am now is totally different because of that shooting and the fight to recover and reclaim my life in its aftermath. I don’t know who I would be had that not happened. It was one of the biggest tests I’ve ever faced and it prepared me for many of the professional and personal tests I have faced since.

You’re at the top of your profession as a DJ when you make the jump to film and TV.

I was still living in Philly at the time. I’d always wanted to pursue acting when I was younger, but I veered off into the DJ world. In hindsight, it was a Band-Aid for me, an easy way for me to get into performing without really taking that next step into the film and acting world. I later took an acting class from Mike Lemon, who was the casting director for The Sixth Sense and some other big movies in Philadelphia. During an open call with Mike I did a Hawkeye Pierce monologue from M*A*S*H, and afterwards I told him I was torn about pursing acting. He asked why, and I explained that when I looked at TV and movies, I didn’t see a lot of people who looked like me playing roles like Maverick in Top Gun. Mike assured me that the industry was changing and that there would be plenty of roles for me. Thanks in part to his encouragement, I got an agent in Philly and started going to auditions.

You paid your dues, working your way up by doing industrial films and commercials.

Early on in Philly, I did a commercial for a company called Stratford Academy, and I did some stuff for Waste Management, which really started me working in industrials. You get the auditions that you get, and trust me, it’s a thrill when you book a role. They can tell you that you’ve booked Bystander Number 1, and that you have 1 line, but it doesn’t matter. You’ve booked it. There’s an excitement that comes with it. You can’t help but think, “They like me, they want me, I’m a professional.”

**Gerald Webb – UPS Commercial**
Photo Courtesy Gerald Webb

What are the auditions like?

To me, every audition is a form of training. You have to do your best to represent yourself as a professional, and all of it helps you get better. You prepare properly and do the best you can, and then you let the chips fall where they may. But it is all on you. You have to go in prepared having fully embodied a character with a unique perspective and life experience. You won’t land every role, and it won’t always be your fault, but you know when you haven’t performed at your best. In those cases you take a lesson from it and move forward. In fact, the audition I bombed the worst is probably the one I grew the most from. Failing feels terrible but we grow so much more from having experienced failure if we get up and continue taking shots.

Now that you’re in LA, do you still audition for commercials?

Yes, but now I have more of a choice. I took a break from commercials for about four or five years because I was focused on TV and film acting, and the rest of my free time was dedicated to producing. Now I’ve come full circle and have chosen to audition for commercials again, so I’m back in that mix.

Tell me about that jump to LA in 2006. Was it an easy decision to make?

It took years and was not easy at all until… I learned that you need to be both quiet and still in order to make the right decision, because there is a lot of noise that can get in the way – and not just negative noise. Even people who love and care about you will give you advice that is not designed around what you want to create out of your life. It’s designed for you to be safe. And while that is meant with love, it’s not necessarily conducive with you having a fulfilled and happy life. Truthfully, I think it took me at least ten years to get quiet and still enough to move to LA. There was a lot of noise – going to LA isn’t sensible, you probably won’t make it out there anyway, you’ll fail and bounce back to Philly, and on and on – but, once I got quiet and still enough, I didn’t allow myself to become discouraged, and I was able to make a choice that had been essentially speaking to me since I was a small child.

It was hard to let go, but I had been doing some soul-searching for years. I was enjoying DJing. I looked happy and fulfilled, because touring with rock bands and hip-hop artists was cool and a lot of fun…but it wasn’t fulfilling me on a base level. I knew it wasn’t what I wanted to do for the next twenty years. Still, I was holding onto it with both hands as tight as I could. Once I figured out what I really wanted, I realized the only way I could ever attain it was by letting go. That’s when it dawned on me: I was holding onto this my DJing success like it was the most important thing in the world to me. While DJing is and always will be a huge part of me, it wasn’t even really what I wanted for my life and career. If I had to do it all over again, I would’ve jumped to LA straight out of high school.

**Gerald Webb – ‘Battle of Los Angeles’**
Photo Courtesy Gerald Webb

Many dream of pursuing a career in Hollywood, but few actually make that leap.

Fear never goes away, it just transitions to another set of challenges – auditioning for a role, casting a film, or whatever the case may be. Some people like to claim that they’re fearless, but that’s garbage. Everybody has fears. You sometimes act in the face of those fears and create courage along the way. I took a course called The Landmark Forum, which is a personal development course that really helped me understand and acknowledge my fear and create my future despite my fears. It opened up my thinking. Almost immediately I made the decision to move to Los Angeles and one year later I touched down at LAX with two suitcases and a backpack.

What were those early days like in LA?

The beginning of 2006 was a dream. I was living in Playa del Rey, a block from Venice Beach. I’m riding my bike to the beach every day and playing basketball in February like it’s summertime. For a Philly boy, this is amazing…at least for a few weeks. Then one of my friends moved to Vegas, and the other left for Thailand to help with the tsunami recovery effort there. A month-and-a-half went by, and I wasn’t having any luck as an actor. I thought I knew what I was doing. I had headshots, but when I look back they were terrible. I was getting this newspaper called Backstage, which came out a couple times a week, and I’d read it and send my headshots to all these casting offices. I even went in person to a couple of them and I quickly learned that they don’t want you dropping in. They were like, “There’s a box on the corner, there’s a box outside, leave your headshot in the box and get out.” It was almost that rude [laughs].

So I’m waking up every day and nothing is happening with my career. I’m sleeping in more, I’m feeling a little lonely, and I started to realize that I’m even a little bit depressed. I start to question myself. Maybe coming out here had been the wrong choice after all. Then I thought: You took a decade to decide to come out here. You got rid of your company. You changed up your whole life. And now, after a month-and-a-half, you want to pack up and move back? That’s when I said to myself, “Your DJing career isn’t going to get you into an audition rooms here in Los Angeles. Nobody cares. Get over your ego, humble yourself, and start this new job like you know nothing.” I said it direct and forceful enough – with a few curse words thrown in – that I went, “Okay, I’ll try another approach but you don’t have to be a jerk about it, Gerald.” [Laughs].

**Gerald Webb and Mark Dacascos**
Photo Courtesy Gerald Webb

The ultimate come-to-Gerald moment [laughs].

I did two things. First, I took a piece of paper and split it in half. On the left-hand side of the paper I wrote down everything that I thought I needed to do to help my acting career. On the right-hand side I wrote down everything that I knew I needed to do, but had no clue how or exactly what to do. For example, on the left-hand side it was like, ‘Get new headshot.’ On the right-hand side it was like, ‘Which photographer?’ ‘What do I wear?’ ‘Where do I have them printed?’ The next one was like, ‘Get an agent.’ On the right-hand side, it was ‘Make phone calls.’ ‘Send emails.’ The list on the left was about half a page, and the list on the right was about four pages long. It was overwhelming, so I made myself a promise, and that was to get up every day and take action on one thing on left-hand side of the list, no matter how big or how small.

The second thing that I did was make a list of the few people that I knew who were either in LA, or who were in LA at some point in their lives. I called each one of them and I said, “Listen, I need a favor. I’m really lost, and this is what I want to do with my life. Do you have any advice, or do you know anybody that is in this industry that would take a five-minute phone call from me?”

One of the people I called was my buddy, Mike Hines, who is a singer/songwriter from Delaware. He’d moved to L.A. briefly to pursue his career, and he said, “I took a class from a guy named Mike Pointer. He talks about mindset, and I think you’ll like him. You can audit his class for free.” I immediately Googled this guy and sent him an email, and he replied almost as quickly. The next night I audited his class and was blown away. It probably knocked off a page of the stuff on the right-hand side that I didn’t know. I was like, “So this is what a headshot should look like; this is where you should have them printed; these are some of the photographers that you should look at; this is how you get an agent; this is how you get into an audition.” It was a great class for anyone new to L.A. and the business.

I called another friend, Eugene, who said, “My buddy Mark has been a series regular on four shows. Give him a call, tell him you are my friend, and he will talk to you.” It turns out Mark is Mark Christopher Lawrence, a character actor who has been in movies like Terminator 2: Judgment Day, The Pursuit of Happyness, and the series Chuck. His advice was simple. Get a job so that I have some money coming in, and then get in a class. He showed an amazing amount of grace by taking that cold call and giving me advice. He’s since acted in a bunch of movies that I’ve produced and is in my directorial debut film, $TACK$.

**Gerald Webb – On the set of ‘Assault on VA-33’**
Photo Courtesy Gerald Webb

Did things start to click?

I went from 0-to-60. I started auditioning in March, and in April I booked my first feature film. The timing wasn’t good though – I’d already agreed to go on tour with Sammy Hagar starting in May, so I didn’t want to leave because things were starting to ramp up. I went anyway. It was really important to honor the commitment. You have to be your word. So I toured with Sammy Hagar for three months, which was one of the best experiences of my life.

Did the Sammy Hagar tour break your momentum?

Ironically, no. About two weeks before the end of the tour I started going on this electronic casting website and submitting myself. I got back to LA on a Friday night in early September, and I had and audition the next morning. Over the next three months I went on 120 auditions, and I had booked seven or eight different projects. And from taking Mike Pointer’s class, I knew I could audit other classes for free. I audited almost every acting class in town [laughs]. I went to 90 classes in 85 days. This was a great lesson to learn to not create problems that don’t actually exist. The idea of my momentum being broken was a fear I created not reality.

**Gerald Webb – On the set of ‘Zombie Apocalypse’**
Photo Courtesy Gerald Webb

Let’s bounce back to Jam Master Jay for a second. I’ve read where he lined you up for an acting gig.

A pilot called “Espia,” was being shot to present to Showtime with Mike Clattenburg, who was involved in the Trailer Park Boys series, directing. Jay was going to do this big cameo, and they were looking for a real DJ to play one of the lead roles. Jay was like, “Yo, have my boy G come up.” I auditioned, and even though they didn’t give me that role, they encouraged me to pursuing acting. To hear that from people who were in that industry as professionals, that really meant something at the time.

What happened to the pilot?

I don’t believe it ever went anywhere. They ended up giving me a different role in the film, I played a kind of pre-DJ Khaled hype guy at the club. The funny thing is Espia had ESPN’s Max Kellerman in the pilot. It’s kind of hilarious now. Years later I actually had him do a cameo on one of the Sharknado films. I feel bad because, at the last minute, his cameo was cut from the final edit. So Max missed out twice, unfortunately.

**Gerald Webb – On the set of ‘Mercenaries’**
Photo Courtesy Gerald Webb

Speaking of Sharknado, you have quite the resume as a casting director. How did this come about?

I was a little scared of casting because I didn’t come here to cast. I came here to be an actor. Christopher Ray, who is now my business partner at DeInstitutionalized Films, was directing a movie for The Asylum, which is the company that produced Sharknado. Chris and the casting director didn’t really see eye-to-eye on the talent, so Chris said, “Hey, can you do me a favor? I can’t be in all of these auditions, can you sit in and just make sure that I am getting good choices?” I agreed, as long as I didn’t have an audition myself.

The movie came out and they were really happy with the cast. One of the partners at The Asylum, David Latt, came to me and said that they had another movie starting in two weeks, and he wanted me to cast it for them. I asked for a couple of days to think it over, because, to be really frank about it, I was scared that this was going to get in the way of my own acting career. I could see myself becoming so consumed with auditioning actors for their movies that I’d have to miss my own auditions if my agent called. Well, I went home and thought about it, and I finally just told myself to stop being an idiot…to stop creating problems that aren’t there. Once again, I had to realize that the problem exists when it exists, and when it did I’d figure out how to deal with it. Worst case scenario, if I had to call a bunch of people and reschedule, then I’d call them and reschedule. I worked at that company for the better part of five years, and actually ended up being an executive there. During that time I think I missed two auditions because of conflicts.

I imagine you were working your ass off during this time.

The Asylum was doing a movie every month. I’d cast one, and maybe work in it as an actor, and then jump into another one. The great thing was that I had a job and I was making money, but I was working 70-to-90 hours a week, plus whatever I did onscreen. I loved it, because I was involved in various aspects of the filmmaking process. I learned that some of these casting decisions don’t necessarily go to the best actor. I had a producer one time say, “Great actress, but I can’t cast her because she reminds me of my ex-wife.” I understand that, but I feel sorry for that actress. The truth of it is that there are a million reasons actors don’t get roles, and I got to see the other side of that as casting director. You’re too tall, you’re too short, somebody’s friend got in the door. By having a seat at the table I was able to get to know directors and the producers, and as a result I got placed in plenty of films. I never came at them and said, “I want this role. You need to put me in in this film.” I would audition, or I would have them take a look at my reel, or I might tell them that I’d love to be in their movie if they had a role that fit me.

When it comes to casting a film, what’s the pressure like to land a big name to help carry it?

It’s huge, and I’ll give you an example. My business partner Chris Ray was directing a movie for the Syfy Channel called Almighty Thor. We’re about a week away from filming, and they don’t have any recognizable names to help sell this film. David Latt, COO of The Asylum, approaches me and Chris a bit panicked. He says, “I’ve struck out. I haven’t been able to find any stars for this movie. If you have any ideas please let me know, we’ve only got a few days or Syfy may back out of this deal.” So I made some calls to some agents that I’d been dealing with, and I was able to find a couple of recommendations. One of them was Richard Grieco, who we cast as Loki. Then we got Kevin Nash, a WWE wrestler, who was perfect as Thor’s father, Odin. I got those deals done and the project moved forward without a hitch. Distributors want big names to sell. Without them your road to distribution and profit are rough.

**Gerald Webb – At the Emmys**
Photo Courtesy Gerald Webb

You have an eye for talent.

Yeah. The next deal comes up, it’s a movie called Zombie Apocalypse. David Latt says, “Read this script and tell me who you think we should hire for the star.” So I read it and gave him my list. He liked it but said that I’d never get any of them to do our movie. I asked him to let me try, and then I went out and got Ving Rhames, Taryn Manning, and Eddie Steeples. At the time, Ving was a really big get for The Asylum, probably one of the biggest names that they’ve ever had.

What’s your secret when it comes to landing stars?

A lot of it was relationships. I’ll talk to their agents and say, “This is what have, who do you have that needs work? Who wants to work? Who’s hungry?” I also look at projects a little differently than most. For example, Ving Rhames is someone who’s known for playing the bad guy, so I’ll go against typecast and offer him the hero role. We’ve had some roles that were written for men, but put star name women in those roles. Kel Mitchell, from The Kenan and Kel Show, is known for comedy. I made him the hero soldier in the Syfy Channel film Battle of Los Angeles. He had never gotten to play that type of role.

I cast a movie called Android Cop for The Asylum. Michael Jai White played the lead detective who later on finds out that he is an android. Kadeem Hardison played one of the other detectives, and Charles Dutton played the mayor. I sent Michael the script, and Michael says, “You’re really going to let me play this role?” He was shocked because these weren’t the types of roles that Hollywood was letting him play. Charles Dutton comes to the set, and he’s like, “I can’t believe you’re letting this many minority guys play these level characters altogether.” But by giving them an opportunity to be a part of something that they weren’t used to seeing, and playing roles that they weren’t used to playing, it made our film better.

**Gerald Webb – ‘Sharknado 3’ Premiere**
Photo Courtesy Gerald Webb

Hollywood needs more champions out there breaking down those typecasting barriers.

Actors want to be challenged. Actors want to break out of the stereotypes that Hollywood wants to impose upon them. It’s a Catch-22. In order to break through in Hollywood, you have to somewhat accept and master the stereotypes that they want you to play, and they want you to master them. Then, as an actor you don’t want to be stuck there, so you have look for roles in independent projects to show Hollywood that you can do other things. I am so happy to see the progress mainstream Hollywood is making in diversity. But there is still a long way to go both in front of and behind the camera. The champions you reference will shine as they have more opportunities as writers, directors, studio executives aka decision makers.

You’ve also been ahead of the curve when it comes to diversity.

I’ve been doing this kind of counter-casting for the past dozen years, well before the whole #OscarsSoWhite controversy and the current Hollywood focus on diversity. But I couldn’t do it in a vacuum. We were working on a movie that was going to star Bai Ling and Christopher Judge from the Stargate series. Paul Bales, one of the partners at The Asylum, backed me from Day One. He said, “I don’t know if I’m going to be able to sell this movie, but we’re going to give it a try.” I give David Rimawi, David Latt and Paul Bales, the partners at The Asylum, a lot of credit because they embraced my unrelenting push for diversity and allowed a lot of it to happen. They deserve a lot of credit for that, I’ve seen many others use any excuse in veiled attempts to side step diversity. And to your point, our diversity went up dramatically during that period. We started getting notes from networks like Syfy, commenting on how we were getting stars that other companies couldn’t get them. Collectively, we were way ahead of the curve on this and dispelled the old and false narrative that diversity doesn’t sell.

One moment you’re a casting director, the next you’re an executive. You’re busy.

I think my boss must have thought, “Hey, I can offload some work because this guy is good at it.” [Laughs.] So he gave me more responsibility and a promotion to Director of Talent, an executive-level position. Keep in mind, I’m still pursuing acting, and I’m casting the series regulars for the first season of Syfy’s Z Nation series. Then Sharknado comes out of nowhere and I cast that project – Ian Ziering, Tara Reid, John Heard, everyone in that first cast were all my ideas and hires. One of the reasons I got good at what I was doing was because I had no choice but to put the time in. I had to find great casts. I had to find great stars but had limited time and resources at my disposal. One year we did 20+ movies and a TV series, and I oversaw all of that casting. Over a five year period I cast 130+ movies, and a television series. I know casting directors who haven’t done that many projects in their entire careers. So, it turned into a lot, but it was all growth, all challenge, all push. There were few moments to just relax, but there’s a reason The Asylum has been around for 20+ years. They don’t fix things with money. They have a budget, they stick to their budget, and you have to figure out a way to make things work. I learned and grew a lot while working there.

**Gerald Webb – ‘Mega Shark vs. Crocosaurus**‘
Photo Courtesy Gerald Webb

What do you like most about being an executive?

I think of myself as an executive-in-training. There are some things that I am terrible at, and others that I’m probably pretty good at. I really want to learn how to put bigger projects together. As an executive at The Asylum, and now at DeInstitutionalized Films, I truly enjoy steering projects and having the ability to influence a project at a high level.

People think being an executive is a cushy place, but I think it’s the exact opposite. There is more stress and more work, and you’ve got to wear so many hats. I’m a blue-collar guy. I will get in there and move tables and chairs if that’s what we need on set that day. I have cleaned a toilet. I will help the art department. There are times when I do all of those things, but, there are also times when I shouldn’t be doing any of them because I need to be focused on things that are going to steer the ship better. So, I’m still learning how to delegate, how to handle teams, how to deal with the Millennials that are working for me. There are so many things that still have to be learned, that have to be practiced, that I have to get better at. So what I like the most is the challenge of being an executive-in-training.

Do you have an example of how wearing so many hats forces you to look at things from different perspectives?

We’re working on a series at DeInstitutionalized called FraXtur, which Christopher Ray and I co-produced. I just got the edit of the eight episodes, and while I’m excited to watch them, I’ve got to make time to watch them in a critical manner. I need to be thinking how we can make this better. I might need to send notes to the editor. I might need to pick up the phone and call Chris, who is also the director. If I’m only an actor and project is released with something that doesn’t work, that’s not really my problem. There have been times I’ve worked as an actor on somebody’s else’s set, and it’s just not my place to say something. I may offer my opinion. If they don’t take it they don’t take it. Sometimes Chris and I may butt heads and disagree about something, but, we are both fighting to make the project better from different perspectives. I like having a seat at that table. $TACK$ was an entirely different perspective coming in as writer, director and producer. I saw the whole process from a new angle and it was very enlightening.

**Birthday Cake for the OG**
Photo Courtesy Gerald Webb

You’ve acted with Danny DeVito. Tell me about that.

I booked an episode of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and when the time comes I’m like, “Wait a minute, I’m doing a scene with Danny DeVito!” That’s the cool thing about acting. Tomorrow I could be doing a scene with any actor in the industry. I could get an audition tomorrow, and the next thing you know I am opposite Patrick Stewart. Or Viola Davis. Even now, the idea of ever acting with Danny DeVito never seemed possible…at least until he was standing right there in front of me. It’s a wonderful reminder that truly – anything is possible. Also that most limits and barriers are ones we create or at least accept ourselves.

You not only hired Ving Rhames, you’ve acted with him.

I had a death scene with Ving – I was the token black guy who dies at the beginning of the movie [laughs]. To make it worse, I cast myself in that token role, so I’ll take full blame for that. Seriously, acting with Ving was great. I was in the scene with Ving, Eddie Steeples, Taryn Manning, and Lesley-Ann Brandt among others. The zombies swarm me and started biting, and I’m trying to get away. It’s actually two death scenes in one because I turn into a zombie and they have to kill me all over again. Well, we’re walking back to base camp after filming and Ving says, “Yo, Webb, that was nice man. That was a really nice death scene, brother.” I laughed so hard! That was a really cool moment. . It was also a critical moment in my development as an actor. It confirmed for me that I was ready to stand opposite anyone in the business as long as I prepared and did my work.

I’ve read where you did a scene with Malcolm McDowell. What was that like?

That was incredible. I play an INS agent, and Malcolm McDowell’s character has married this young woman to get her citizenship. My partner and I are trying to find holes in their stories, so I’m interviewing Malcolm and my partner is interviewing the young wife. The scene is supposed to be played like something from Dragnet – no joking, dead serious – because we’ve got to catch this guy. The whole time the camera is on me, Malcolm McDowell is trying to make me laugh. The whole time. And I have to stay serious! Score one for me, and take one away from Malcolm, because he didn’t break me. As soon as we were done I said, “I’m a little disappointed that you didn’t break me in there.” He just started chuckling. Malcolm McDowell was a lot of fun. . I think somewhere in the back of my mind I could hear Ving Rhames’ voice saying “Yo Webb, Malcolm McDowell can’t break you, brother!”

Those are memories to last a lifetime.

Yeah. I just did a scene with Jessica Alba and Gabrielle Union for the show called LA’s Finest, which is on Spectrum. They play two LAPD detectives. Traditionally that would’ve been two men. So that was a really cool moment, being in a scene with strong, talented women in non-traditional roles. Being nominated for an Emmy as a producer is something else I’ll never forget. Winning our first Telly Award was another. Being on the set of $TACK$ as a first time director was amazing. You never want to take these things for granted.

We talked about fear in terms to taking risks. Have you ever acted in something that, for whatever reason, has scared the shit out of you?

I just did an episode of a show called 9-1-1 for Fox. I’m playing a sergeant with Ryan Guzman, one of the series regulars, and I’m in one of his flashbacks when he was a medic in Afghanistan. I get to location, and they have a real Black Hawk helicopter there. The guy goes, “Are you okay going up in this?” I spent two days flying around in a Black Hawk helicopter! With the door open! Who gets to do that? When those rotors are spinning and you walk underneath the blades and out to the helicopter for the first time, you have some fear. When you go up you’re really scared, but you’re an actor so you’ve got to be a professional [laughs].

Final Question: If you had one piece of advice for others who aspire to get into the acting game, what would that be?

Two things: First, be really clear about what you want. If you can get to a place and stay quiet and still enough to really listen, something is already speaking to you. Second, you have to be willing to humble yourself and do the work. I feel like we’re living in a time when so many people don’t want to really do the work. They want to work as much as the person next to them, maybe a little bit more, but at the end of the day that only makes you average. You’re not getting ahead in this industry just being average. Be honest with yourself about where you are in your journey, the quality and amount of work you’re willing to put in etc.

Film & TV, Music, Q and A

Cela Scott – Show Stopper

Written By: Michael D. McClellan | Cela Scott takes your breath. A multi-hyphenate badass with roots in Nashville and a career in Hollywood, Scott oozes brashness, confidence, and sophistication in ways that set her apart in an industry teeming with starry-eyed wannabes trying to make their mark. Meet her, and your first reaction is to find a parallel, but drawing comparisons only cheapens both her inimitable range and magnetic charisma. The talented singer-songwriter-actor makes up one-half of the LA-based alternative duo, Automatik Eden. On screen, she’s done everything from Wells Fargo commercials to Star Trek: Renegades to indie movies like the dark comedy Dick Dickster, where she plays a neophyte porn star named…wait for it…Peaches Ripen. Yes, Cela Scott is from this world, but she is not like the rest of us, nor is she someone who can be pigeonholed into a stereotype for the sake of conversational brevity.

“I like being me,” she says, settling in for the interview. “I’ve always charted my own course and figured out things on my own terms.”

Indeed.

Scott could have played it safe and stayed home, working some honky-tonk dive in downtown Nashville, fronting a mediocre band and churning through a weepy old set of country-music standards every weekend. A move like that was never in the Cela Scott playbook. Slender and radiant, with piercing eyes that grip you and refuse to let go, it’s as easy to imagine Scott gracing the cover of Elle or Vanity Fair as it is to watch her perform in the official music video for Renegades. Her vocals on the Automatik Eden single Gold to Straw cast a hypnotic, dreamlike spell where time seems to stand still, while the voyeuristic video dares you to look away. (Spoiler Alert: You can’t.)

Earning her theater degree at the University of Southern California, today Cela Scott oscillates between music and acting with uncommon ease, equally comfortable in both worlds. Her husband, David Crocco, makes up the other half of Automatik Eden. Their debut LP, Madland, produced a single by the same name that charted on Billboard’s Hot Singles Sales Chart at #12. Scott’s voice delivers exceptional range, natural elegance, and lucent tone. There is a refined edginess to her vocals, a hint of danger dabbed with pop playfulness. She plays the guitar, and does so exceedingly well. And then there’s the look: Depending on the mood and moment, Scott’s eyeliner is a precision event, a marvel, as if drawn on by the kind of pre-programmed robot arm used for laparoscopic surgeries. Red lipstick. Black lipstick. Ornate, patterned jackets over Gothic, ruffled shirts. Tight dresses that stop mid-thigh. All of it complimenting the equally effectual look worn by Crocco and completing the vibe that is Automatik Eden.

“We have fun with it,” she says with a laugh. “When you take the stage, you’ve got to play the part. That’s rock and roll.”

Scott’s comfort level in front of the camera is evident at every turn. She’s acted opposite Tim Russ in Renegades and Robert Ray Shafer in Dick Dickster. She’s played a reluctant goddess of the underworld/part-time secretary at a dotcom. She can soon be seen in Deep in the Forest, a thriller starring seasoned actor Peter Jason.

Today?

Cela Scott continues to audition in the face of COVID-19, using her quarantine time to dress up like a rock star and produce a self-tape to be shared virtually. She, along with Crocco, are plotting the next move for Automatik Eden. Together they continue to grow Crocco’s Emmy-nominated audio post-production company, which has mixed such TV hits as Behind the Music, Punk’d, and United Shades of America. There are more songs to write, more roles to own, more galaxies to explore. All while staying true to her inner compass.

“There is plenty to keep me busy,” she says, smiling. “There is no shortage of opportunities. Sometimes I find it. Sometimes it finds me. It all works out in the end.”

No doubt.

The next chapter, like the last, is all about success.

Please take me back to the beginning.

I was the oldest of four homeschooled kids in Nashville. We were somewhat on the front wave of the homeschooling phenomenon, so not a lot of people had heard of it yet. Today it’s much more accepted as the norm, and now everybody knows what it is. And during COVID-19, many families are getting a taste of what it might be like! My mom is really getting a kick out of that. There was a lot of creativity in my family. My dad was a musician, and my mom was into the theater. I grew up doing mostly musical theater, which is what eventually jettisoned me from Nashville to Los Angeles.

What was it like growing up in Nashville, and how did that influence your creative side?

I came to the guitar later in the game, which is ironic since I grew up in Music City, USA. Nashville was mostly a country town when I was growing up, which is what it’s still famous for, but it’s become a much more diverse place for artists these days. I did not take music seriously as a youngster. It’s kind of what everybody was doing there – everybody in Nashville wanted to write a hit song, just like everybody in Los Angeles wants to write an Oscar-winning screenplay. Growing up I never really saw myself going in either of those directions. Weirdly, I sort of ended up in both of those worlds.

When did you start singing?

I was in the Nashville Children’s Choir for several years, and we toured all over the place. We played Carnegie Hall and went all over the country, so I have this sort of classical background in music that later would transition into more of a rock ‘n roll sensibility when I got out into L.A.

You went to college at the University of Southern California. Please tell me about this period in your life.

I did my undergrad in theater at USC. That was a very cool time in my life. To this day, some of the closest friends that I have – many of whom are working actors now – are people that I met at USC. Through the theater I also worked with my husband, David Crocco, on music for a theater piece called Vinegar Tom. This was an existing play about witch hunting in the 1800s, as told through the lens of a modern, feminist perspective. The director wanted to modernize the music that was supposed to go with it, so we created the soundtrack for the play. That was our first collaboration, and it later led us to form a band together.

You and David are Automatik Eden. How did you meet?

David and I have been together a long time. We actually met in Nashville as cast members during a production of Hair, which was before we moved out to California. Hair is this famous rock musical about hippies living in New York during the time of Vietnam, so there are a lot of songs about war protests, the most famous of which culminates in this nude scene at the end of a very powerful song where everybody takes off their clothes. This was a little bit too spicy for Tennessee sensibilities at the time, but we like to joke that we met in the nude [laughs].

Have you acted together since?

Hair was David’s first and last play. He’s really not an actor, but he auditioned because he loved the music so much. He keeps getting sucked into it here and there because I’m involved in it, so he’s always sort of on the periphery.

How did Automatik Eden get its start?

It wasn’t until after college that we had the epiphany. David had been a musician for a long time, basically his whole adult life, but he had taken a break from it to start an audio production business for TV and film called. A.G.E. Post, which is now an Emmy-nominated post-production facility, which is pretty cool. In 2018 we were nominated for an Emmy Award for mixing Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath. We were kicking around one day in the living room, and he was playing something on guitar that’d he’d written. I had some classical text lying around – I think it was some Shakespeare or some poetry by Lord Byron – and I just started singing the words that were available to me. I was used to cold reading and rehearsing from a script, so I just sort of created a melody to go with what he was playing. We had so much fun doing it we thought, “Oh, maybe we have something here. Maybe this is something we can do together musically.” From there it evolved into the band.

Automatik Eden kicks ass.

Thank you! We started getting kind of serious about it maybe five years ago. We went through a couple of different machinations as a band – a couple of different names, and a couple of different band members – but it’s always been the two of us writing all of the original material and recording everything on the tracks. There are occasions where we will bring in some super awesome friends with specialized skills that we really like to showcase on the records, things like saxophone and cello. And our producer is a dear friend named Sean Beavan, who produces and engineers all of our stuff, including Madland. Sean is extremely talented. He’s worked with Marilyn Manson, and 9-Inch Nails, Garbage, and No Doubt. He has a killer sensibility.

How do the two of you collaborate? Is this like Bernie Taupin and Elton John?

Yes, it’s exactly like Bernie and Elton [laughs]. No, I would not compare us to those guys, but those are two of our favorites. David is one of those kind of musicians who can play everything. It’s annoying in an endearing sort of way, but he’s good at all of it – good musician, good lyricist, and good singer. In terms of how we collaborate, it’s been a little bit different every time. Typically, he’ll have an idea for a song that’s fully fleshed out, and then I’ll add a little sparkle to it and kind of fill in what’s left. Or it works the other way around – I’ll have something that is pretty much done, but it’s missing a bridge, or it’s missing lyrics, or needs a stronger chorus, and David will fill in the blanks. There have also been times when we will write something together from the ground up, so it really varies, depending on the mood and the situation.

Madland is one hell of a debut LP.

Thank you again! Madland was really important for us to complete, and we’re very proud of it. We did a few singles before this record, and we released a couple of EPs, but all along we knew that we wanted to do a full-length album. That was a big goal of ours, and we were able to achieve that with Madland. The title is our commentary on the insane state of the world as we see it.

The goal of the record – and I really do hope you got the opportunity to listen to it from start to finish – is for the listener to experience all of it uninterrupted. It’s good driving music in that regard. It’s throwback to the albums from the ‘60s and ‘70s that we loved so much, when the music was connected and it was really about a journey, where one song is meant to go into the next, in a particular order, and it takes you on a ride. We really missed that record experience. You just don’t get that with a lot of today’s digital music, especially with the attention span of today’s listener.

**Cela Scott and David Crocco are Automatik Eden**

Madland is really diverse.

You’re definitely going to hear some Beatles-inspired stuff. You’ll hear Radiohead and Massive Attack, too. There is a slinky, sexy, electronic, down-tempo kind-of-thing going on as well, which draws its inspiration from Portishead. The more upbeat and aggressive tracks might remind you of an early Pretenders, or maybe White Stripes.

Automatik Eden are wildly popular in Cleveland.

We do have a very strong following in Cleveland. It’s really great. David spent his formative years there as a teenager and as a young adult, and he still has a lot of friends there. We became connected with oWOW Radio, which, I’d like to say, is an amazing streaming service started by John Gorman. John became famous for WMMS in Cleveland, which was a terrestrial radio station that broke acts like Rush, Brian Ferry, and David Bowie in the United States during the early 1970s. People from that region know that station and know that guy, so it’s been very cool to be played a lot by oWOW Radio.

The voyeuristic video for the single Gold to Straw is amazing. You star in it, and it clearly plays into your strength as an actress.

Thank you! I love acting – whenever I can combine music and acting, it’s a good day for me.

**Cela Scott in the Automatik Eden video “Gold to Straw”**

Did acting school help you transition from stage to screen? Did it help you as a musical artist?

I would say that in some ways it helped, but in some ways going from one medium to the other can also hinder you. If you’re so used to theater, for example, there are some adjustments that need to be made when you get in front of a camera. You’re not playing as big necessarily as you would to a stage audience. Being a classically trained musician was a really good thing because of the skills that I learned, but that didn’t really apply once I got into a rock ‘n roll kind of sound and started doing music videos. It was more important that the music didn’t sound too perfect or put together, the way one might sing in a choir, which is the way I learned growing up. I had to be aware of the difference, and then let things naturally be more edgy and imperfect. Then I could find the fun in that.

You play Persephone, a reluctant goddess of the underworld/part-time secretary at a dotcom, in the web series Godsdotcom.

That was a fun one to do. It has to do with the idea that the Grecian gods have fallen out of style, and nobody’s really worshiping them anymore. They don’t have the same cachet that they once had, so they try to make themselves relevant again by starting a tech startup company. It has a lot of elements of The Office. They find themselves in this office-y environment, although they are larger-than-life deities, and they have to do mundane jobs to keep the lights on. Persephone is a secretary with not-so-great of an attitude.

Do you enjoy playing comedic roles?

Comedy may be my favorite thing to do. I loved doing Dick Dickster with Bobby Ray Shafer, who everyone knows as Bob Vance, Vance Refrigeration in The Office,and Tim Russ from Star Trek: Voyager. Bobby Ray made the film on a shoestring budget, and he did it in a handful of days. He also used Citadel in the film, which is one of our songs from Madland, Citadel.

It was a lot of fun – I played Peaches Ripen, who is sort of a newbie, wannabe porn star with some serious daddy issues. She’s trying to infiltrate a close knit group of the porn community and make a name for herself, but she’s always messing up. It’s a fun premises for a dark comedy. It’s really a send-up of Hollywood and how everybody wants to be famous and sorta wants to be somebody that they’re not. I had never worked with either of these guys before, but they are so creative and so talented that it made it a blast to be involved.

I hear that you auditioned in full porn star costume.

Yeah, I think I freaked out Bobby Ray, who was at the auditions. I went in with long blonde hair, extensions, fake nails, super high heels, a spray tan, and a little cocktail dress. I was just going for it. Bobby Ray looked at me and thought I was a real porn star. And I was like, “I’m here in character, this is my resumé. I’m acting right now.” Then I did the read and he looked at me like I was an alien [laughs]. I got a call a few hours later and learned that I got the gig.

**Cela with Tim Russ on the set of “They Want Dick Dickster”**

How did you get your start in acting after moving to California?

I did a bunch of indie kinda stuff, which I still do – I’m pretty much always involved in some kind of independent film project. In 2015 I did a film called Death Valley, which was directed by T.J. Scott, who directed the television show Spartacus, among many others. There were several other cast members who were also from Spartacus, wonderful actors like Katrina Law, Nick Tarabay and Victoria Pratt. That film was very fun to do – they even ended up incorporating some of our songs into it as well, so that was an added bonus.

Your music has also been featured in a very popular Wells Fargo commercial.

Yeah, that was pretty cool. That commercial was created for the STAPLES Center, where the L.A. Lakers play. They have giant TV screens for the sporting events and stuff, and we shot the Wells Fargo commercial portraying a band that is “ready to rock the house.” They used the largest camera I’ve ever seen in my life, the lens looked like it was the size of a car. That was really cool to do, and it played for several years at the STAPLES Center. Actually, it’s weird to see yourself on giant screens like that. It’s surreal – you think you’re prepared for it, but every time you see it there’s a disconnect, because seeing something on that scale is hard to relate.

You’ve not only appeared in Star Trek: Renegades, but Automatik Eden performs the operatic title song, Captain of my Soul.

I ended up getting involved in Renegades through Tim Russ. I actually met him on the set of Dick Dickster, and we connected instantly. It turns out that he’s a musician, too, so I guess that was the common bond that drew us together and helped create our friendship. He’s actually a great musician, and he plays all over Los Angeles with his band, the Tim Russ Crew. He cast me in Renegades, which was a real thrill because I’ve been a total Star Trek nerd since childhood – and I still am!

Tim ended up asking David and I to do the title track. The captain in this series really takes to heart a poem by William Ernest Henley called Invictus. One of the lines in that poem is I am the captain of my soul. They really wanted to take this older poem in turn it into a piece of music, so that’s what we ended up doing. Tim Russ directed the music video, which was also a lot of fun to do. My scenes in the video are done against a rocky, desert backdrop, which gives it a really cool vibe. That’s how it all came together. Captain of my Soul is rather sweeping and epic, with lots of strings. They thought it was kind of appropriate for space opera like Renegades.

Please tell me about your role in the pilot.

The captain in this series is a female, her name is Lexxa. She is played by Adrian Wilkinson from Xena: Warrior Princess, among other things. I end up playing her mother in flashbacks to her childhood, and you quickly learn that she’s lost her mother under some tragic circumstances.

How important is it for an aspiring actor to have an agent?

You need an agent, definitely. It’s kind of tricky – you need an agent to get the jobs, but in order to get an agent you need to have already had jobs, so it’s a Catch-22 kind-of-situation a lot of new actors find themselves in. You have to start building a resumé as best you can. It’s tricky terrain to navigate, because it’s not always easy figuring out what kind of work you want to get involved with…and it’s really hard to know the quality sometimes. Most actors are really just trying to build their reel, which is just a series of clips, an example of their body of work that shows what they can do. A lot of time you’re doing smaller projects in the beginning, maybe student films and independent stuff. You’re just trying to build that reel, so that you have enough of a resumé that you can take it to an agent who might be willing to take a chance on a newcomer. As a newbie actor that’s how you have to approach it. You want to say, “Hey, here’s what I have, here’s what I can do, give me a shot.” From there, you just audition and you do the best you can. There’s a lot of competition and it’s easy to get burnt out. It’s a wild world and it can beat you down if you let it, but for people who really love acting, you keep getting drawn back into it. It’s sort of hard to get away from in that respect.

**Cela Scott & Lochlyn Munro in “Death Valley”**

How important is networking?

It is, and it isn’t. I think there are a lot of “networking” events and workshops that are traps that young actors can fall into. I think you have to keep your eyes open and try to be aware of what’s a genuine opportunity and what is a waste of time. There are a lot of sharks out there preying on actors who are kind of naïve. I would advise that nobody ever spend money for anything that is supposed to be considered a networking event. I think the best way to network is to work. That’s the best way to meet other actors and professionals in the business who can really help. You want to network with the people who are on sets, and try to make as many friendships as possible. If you hit it off with the right people, that always leads to other opportunities.

What do you currently have in the works?

In 2020 I’ll be starring in the short film Impulse Control, written and directed by Juliette Beavan of the rock band 8mm. She is Sean’s wife, just a super talent. This film is the first in a series of narratives and music videos inspired by the artists in 8mm’s sphere. Juliette’s motto with these: “Move Fast, Make Things”. She’s in post-production on this one now, and there will be plenty more coming this year.

If you could offer one piece of advice to aspiring actors, what would that be?

I would say hang in there. It’s tough. It’s also really rewarding. As a creative individual, be sure you have other things in the arts that you enjoy doing. For me, the saving grace has been having another creative outlet. When acting becomes difficult, I can go to music. When I start to get burnt out on music I can go back to acting. I think it’s really helpful if you have something like painting, or writing, or something else in the arts that can help fill that artistic drive when one area has dried up for you. It’ll be easier to keep your momentum going, and you can go back to acting when the time is right.

During Corona Quarantine, I’d love to encourage actors to use some of this extra free time to keep your talent sharp and continue to build your reel. Now is a great time to find a monologue online, or write one yourself, and tape it. Most of us have access to some really good looking phone cameras now. Order a little microphone online and teach yourself about audio. Direct yourself, download some editing software and learn about that. Plan to be ready to get back out there when the world opens up again.

Dance, Film & TV, Music, Q and A

Melora Hardin – Power Play

Written By: Michael D. McClellan | Melora Hardin is on a roll. The Houston-born actor, who cut her teeth on ‘80s TV shows like Diff’rent Strokes and Magnum P.I. and later rose to fame as Michael Scott’s tightly-wound love interest on The Office, scored a 2016 Primetime Emmy Award nomination for her character Tammy Cashman on Amazon’s Transparent, and generated a stream of buzz from critically-acclaimed roles on Freeform’s The Bold Type and ABC’s A Million Little Things. Suffice it to say that Hardin is busier than ever, which is saying something since she’s worked nonstop in Hollywood since the age of six. Her IMDb is a roadmap of American television from the late ‘70s to today – skim it and you’ll find hit shows like The Love Boat, Little House on the Prairie, “Murder, She Wrote”, Friends, Caroline in the City, Family Guy, NCIS, Boston Legal, Gilmore Girls, and Monk. Impressive stuff for sure, but it’s as Jan Levinson on The Office that Hardin carved out the role of a lifetime, one that delivered international fame and legions of loyal fans.

“I still have so many fans,” Hardin says. “Because of the way things can stream and replay and play again, I sort of have a whole new generation of fans from The Office, so it’s really exciting to me.”

Adapted from a BBC series of the same name, The Office landed a whopping 42 Emmy nominations throughout its nine seasons, winning a total of five. Its cast won the Screen Actors Guild Award for best comedy ensemble twice in a row, and the sitcom itself earned a Peabody Award. For Hardin, not a day goes by that someone doesn’t bring it up.

“Fans know so many of the lines by heart,” she says, “and they feel like they know the characters personally. If someone says, ‘Walk of shame,’ it immediately brings back memories of Meredith stumbling back to her house at 6:00 A.M. to find Michael Scott and Deangelo Vickers delivering her Dundee Award nomination. The show has those types of iconic moments, and that kind of staying power.”

Hardin has a point. Try finding someone – anyone – who hasn’t heard the Michael Scott catchphrase, “That’s what she said!” Surprisingly, The Office wasn’t always on track to become the pop culture behemoth that it is today.

**Melora Hardin as Jan Levinson – The Office TV Series**

“We struggled that first season,” Hardin says. “Viewers compared it to the BBC version, which didn’t help, and there were only six episodes. We were still trying to find our footing, and it’s really hard to do that with so few episodes. The future of the show was on shaky ground.”

The first episode of The Office premiered in March 2005 to mixed reviews. The ratings steadily declined, which didn’t give the cast and crew much hope about the show’s future. One of the writers, Michael Schur (who also played Mose in the series), admitted in an interview (via Vox) that nobody liked the first season, and that everyone expected it would get axed.

Says Hardin: “Kevin Reilly was an NBC executive at the time, and he was extremely passionate about The Office. He believed in the show, and was able to get a second season which lasted 22 episodes. That changed everything.”

It didn’t hurt that, prior to the Season 2 premiere, Steve Carell starred in the summer comedy film, The 40-Year-Old Virgin. The movie was a huge hit, and NBC loved the idea of having its newest comedy star under contract.

Propelled by a greenlit second season and Carell’s popularity, The Office now stood a fighting chance at survival. Lightening up Carell’s character was another shot in the arm. A masterful salesman with not much else, Michael Scott served as the Regional Manager of Dunder Mifflin’s Scranton branch through the first seven seasons. Jim Halpert (portrayed by John Krasinski) once made a color graph of how Michael spends his time: 80% distracting others; 19% procrastination; and 1% critical thinking. Jim added that he inflated the “critical thinking” percentage so people could actually see it on the graph. It was that kind of chemistry that turned the show into a hit.

“I always thought that Michael Scott’s character was a classic case of arrested development, and that he was really a 12-year-old kid,” says Robert Ray Shafer, who played Bob Vance, Vance Refrigeration. “There is a piece in Phyllis’s wedding, where they show flashback footage of Michael Scott when his mother marries his stepfather. When he sees himself at the wedding, I’m like, ‘You know, that’s who he is. He’s never gotten over Jeffrey getting his mom [laughs].’”

**The “Dinner Party” episode – Angela Kinsey, Steve Carell, and Melora Hardin**

And then there is the chemistry – or lack thereof – between Michael Scott and his boss, Jan Levinson. There are very few Office fans out there who will attempt to argue that Michael and Jan were right for each other. That awkward dynamic, however, is what made them one of the show’s most interesting couples. In fact, “Dinner Party” is widely considered to be the best episode of the entire series.

“Every day,” Hardin replies, when asked how often that episode comes up.

Today, The Office is still going strong. According to data compiled and analyzed by Nielsen, the Wall Street Journal reported in April, 2019 that The Office was the most-watched show on Netflix during a 12-month period that concluded during the summer of 2018. It attracted almost 3 percent of total user minutes, meaning that Netflix users spent 45.8 billion minutes basking in Dunder Mifflin’s chaotic energy. This even bests Friends, a fellow NBC comedy that attracted 31.8 billion minutes of attention and cost Netflix $100 million to keep through 2019. For her part, Hardin couldn’t be happier.

“The whole experience was amazing,” she says, reflecting on the show’s place in history. “The cast, the crew – it was a beautiful, fantastic, hilarious, wonderful journey. It will live forever in my heart, and it will live forever on film. I really feel grateful I was a part of it.”

You dad is actor Jerry Hardin, and your mother was an actress also. Is it safe to say that the acting bug bit at an early age?

Yeah, from the time I was six. I sort of tugged on their sleeves and begged and begged until they said, “Well, we’ll let her go on some auditions, and if she doesn’t get anything we’ll ease her out of it and she’ll never know the difference.” I got the first thing I went on, which was a commercial for a toothpaste called Peak, which is no longer around.

I’ve read where you started dancing at a very young age.

I was a very serious ballerina. I would’ve told you as a child that I was going to be a ballerina, and that acting was just my hobby. I went to Joffrey Ballet on scholarship when I was 13. I had some incredible dance teachers, and I’m so grateful for that. They gave me an incredible connection to my body, and confidence about my physical self and how to move through the world in a way that absolutely comes from my dance training.

What about acting lessons?

I was taught by my mom, but I also took a class with Stella Adler when I was 18 years old. At the time I was unsure about the direction I wanted to go, and I was contemplating whether I wanted to continue acting. My mom was an amazing acting teacher, and she had helped build this great foundation for me as an actor. She taught Leonardo DiCaprio, and discovered Jessica Biel and many, many, many people. But, at that point in my life, I had serious doubts about acting being a part of my future. I was thinking, “Is this really what I want to do?” Since I wasn’t sure at that point, I took the acting class with Stella Adler.

What was it like taking acting lessons from a legend like Stella Adler?

Ironically, she was really tough on women in particular. I did a scene from Agnes of God. I did all this work to prepare myself for the part, but I never felt like I arrived at what you might call a well-polished performance. I was very nervous when I got on stage to do it in the class, but it was one of those incredible moments as an actor where I got so in touch with the character that everything just seemed to fall into place. She turned to me at the end and said, “I have nothing to say to you, that was brilliant.” At that moment of time for me in my life, it was exactly what I needed to hear.

What advice did your parents give you that has helped in your acting career?

Teaching me the craft at a young age, and teaching me how to be professional, were very important. And most important of all: Persistence, persistence, persistence.

**Melora Hardin as Trudy Monk – *Monk* TV Series**

Did you have to audition for Jan, Michael Scott’s boss in The Office?

I did audition for the role of Jan Levinson. She was a guest star in the pilot, with the potential for the character to develop into a recurring role. I was made a regular in the second season. When I got the material for the audition I read it and I felt like, “I can connect to this.” So I auditioned, and I could feel from the vibe in the room that they really liked me. A big thing that worked in my favor was that they had taken my character from the BBC version, and [executive producer] Greg Daniels didn’t want to duplicate the same character on his show. He wanted it to be the character that I had created in the audition. I had never seen the BBC show until I got the role on The Office, and I didn’t watch the BBC version until the end of the first season.

When you took on the role of Jan in The Office, did you realize what was in store for her?

I really didn’t. It was written like she was this tightly-wound boss, because she needed to be a great “straight man” for Steve Carell. I hooked into her really well and that’s kind of how I played her, but we knew on the pilot that there was something special about the connection between Jan and Michael. There was a chemistry, I guess, that works with Steve and I, because we made jokes and played off of each other.

After we had filmed the pilot episode, Steve Carell and Greg Daniels and I were having lunch one day, and we all recognized that there was definitely an interesting spark between Michael and Jan. We kind of laughed and said, “Well, if this show gets picked up, Jan and Michael should hook up somewhere along the line, at some convention or something.” So we foresaw that that was in the cards for them. But as far as Jan’s weird unraveling, I don’t think anyone knew that was going to be the case.

Did the producers realize that there would be this crazy romance between the two characters?

I think we all just knew. We just felt that there was something going on there. So that was kind of what we did, we went down that road – I think hilariously. I think just the way she unraveled was kind of like the writers seeing something in me that I brought to the part and then me taking what they gave me and running with it. It was a wonderful, collaborative little dance that we did together to make it work.

Let’s talk a couple of popular episodes. In “The Client,” Jan kisses Michael during a weak moment in a Chili’s parking lot, jump starting their awkward romantic relationship.

I think to everybody, the first kiss in the Chili’s parking lot was ridiculous and surprising; the way the characters’ dynamic was just so push-pull, it was awful and pleasurable at the same time. It just sort of made you want them to hook up.

“Dinner Party” is an absolute fan favorite, and one of the most cringe-worthy episodes in a series made famous for its cringeworthy-ness.

I’m quite proud of the Dundie hitting the television every time. We shot that scene three times and I hit it every time – I think all the crew guys kind of had a crush on me after that! I loved the moment in “Dinner Party” where I put on the Hunter song and I danced inappropriately, because I am a dancer, and it was super fun for me to try to dance just a little off the beat, just a little wrong. I also loved the moment where Michael Scott heard the ice cream truck and he ran through the glass door, because Steve [Carell] and I were kind of improvising there and I said, “That makes me the devil.” And then I did those little devil horns, and he had such a real reaction! They were filming both of us at the same time, so you get to see me doing that and you also see his reaction to it in the moment.

Would you be up for a reboot of The Office?

If it was a feature film, absolutely. If it was a series I couldn’t do it. I’ve been too busy with other projects like The Bold Type and A Million Little Things to commit to a series. And I don’t think the idea of going back and being Jan Levinson again for a series reboot is really that interesting. I don’t even think the fans would really like that.

I would love to do The Office in a film because I think in a film you could get everybody, and you could probably get Ricky Gervais to pop in. A film would also be the best chance to get Steve to do it, and since all of my storyline revolves around Steve Carell’s character, Michael, I couldn’t really do it without him. I just can’t see him doing another series of The Office.

Although The Office ran on NBC from 2005 to 2013, it is reportedly the most-watched show of all time on Netflix.

It’s amazing. Jan has become an iconic character and she certainly is loved. I get people coming up to me every single day telling me how much they love her. It’s incredible to be a part of a show that has brought so much joy to people, and it’s exciting to know that it continues today. I mean, The Office seems to have a bigger, stronger life now that when it was being filmed. It’s like the show that never dies!

Your husband, Gildart Jackson, wrote the independent film You, released in 2009. You starred in it and directed it, and your parents were in it as well.

My husband went away on location for another project, and while he was there he wrote the screenplay. He was really missing us, which led him to write what I consider a love letter to me and the girls. The inspiration came from a moment that we had with our first daughter, Rory, where I had a daydream about what I might say at her wedding. And then he thought, “What if that time came and you weren’t there to say those things? How sad that would be?” So he explored how somebody who lost their soulmate would go through that process, how they would recover, and how they would find their way through the grief.

What did you remember most about filming You?

Wearing all the different hats on You was very exciting to me. It was my very first time directing and producing and being a part of the editing process. I have often thought it would be wonderful to try on the hat of every person involved in making a film. To have compassion and understanding of specific challenges and victories would give me a new appreciation for filmmaking. Taking on a project like You did just that.

**Steve Carell and Melora Hardin – “The Deposition” episode – *The Office* TV series**

What types of movies interest you, and did any film in particular have an impact on this project?

I’m very attracted to foreign, arty, and indie films. I see everything, but I find that I remember more detail from films like Amelie, The Secret of Roan Inish, The Cook the Thief his Wife and her Lover, The Piano, Delicatessen, Like Water for Chocolate, and many others. These films have made a distinct impression on me with their unique visual storytelling. Mostly what I wanted to do with You was to get the emotion, sensitivity, love and depth to leap off the page and up onto the screen.

You are also a wonderful singer. One of the producers for All the Way to Mars was acclaimed Broadway producer and director Richard Jay-Alexander. How did that come about?

Richard and I found each other through my mother, who called an agent friend of hers in New York and told her that her daughter needed to do an act. The agent connected me with Richard, and we met and really hit it off. He liked my music, and we ended up collaborating on an act together, which I performed at the Catalina Jazz Club. Then he hired me for the role of Fantine in Les Miserables at the Hollywood Bowl. Performing there was a pretty amazing moment for me, because it is one of the most beautiful outdoor amphitheaters we have in Los Angeles. That led to talks about my singing, and out of that came a decision to put out a new record. It had been ten years, and my previous record just wasn’t representative of how my voice had grown. So, with Richard’s coaching and Ben Toth, my musical director, we built a really beautiful repertoire of music.

Singing or acting – do you prefer one over the other?

You know, I can’t really say that I prefer one over the other. Music is one of the things that sort of rolls through you. With acting, you’re getting inside of different characters that really aren’t you. So I love them both. I’m constantly searching to express myself creatively in different ways, and I’m sure I’ll find other outlets as time goes by.

Do you enjoy performing on stage?

I played Roxie on Broadway in Chicago for three months when I was on hiatus from The Office. I am one of those people that there’s nothing more gratifying than being completely used up. I have been dancing since I was five. I’ve been singing all my life. I’ve been acting professionally since I was six. To be able to act, sing and dance all at once eight times a week was heaven on a stick. You basically don’t even need to pay me, I’ll show up!

**Melora Hardin as Tammy Cashman – *Transparent* TV Series**

Transparent earned you a 2016 Emmy nomination for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series. What was that like?

Oh, my God! It was an unbelievably exciting time in my professional life, as you can imagine. I was totally shocked and just thrilled.

What was it like to be a part of such a respected show as Transparent?

You know, it’s funny. There was nothing difficult about working on the set of Transparent. It was so joyful because of its richness, and everything is really held in such love. As actors, what do we want? We want opportunities to stretch and to go places that we don’t go in our everyday lives, and I had that opportunity. It was really quite glorious to be honest. It feels really good to hook into the truth of a character and allow her to come through me that is, in a way, cathartic.

You have such an amazing onscreen chemistry with Amy Landecker. Can you tell me a little bit about working with her?

Everyone always asks, “How did you create the chemistry with her?” The formula for creating chemistry with any actor is the same: It takes two people that dive in 150 percent. That’s all it takes. The thing that I can say that I loved the most – and there’s a lot I love about her – is that she jumps in with both feet. I think we were both very fearless in that we did a lot of very risky stuff together. That helps to create chemistry, because you have two actors who are willing to take chances.

What was it like playing a woman who unraveled the way Tammy did in Season 2?

It’s interesting, because when you play a very together character, obviously there’s something underneath those coils that is tightly wound. I think that Tammy, in a lot of ways, was tightly wound, even though her facade was very cool and easy with everything. I think Tammy was all about making the picture look right, and I think the picture looked really right with Sarah. I think that when they broke up, not only did it break her heart, but it also broke her vision of this perfect family.

**Melora Hardin as Jacqueline Carlyle – *The Bold Type* TV Series**

In The Bold Type, you play the Editor-in-Chief for a Cosmopolitan-esque women’s lifestyle magazine called “Scarlet.”

The show is inspired by the ex-Cosmopolitan Editor-in-Chief, Joanna Coles, who’s one of our Executive Producers and who is now the Chief Content Officer at Hearst [Magazines]. The show revolves around three young women who are working at Scarlet magazine, which is a Cosmo-type magazine. It features empowering women, sex, relationships, workplace conversations, fashion and beauty and all other things in the magazine.

It has to be exciting having Joanna at your fingertips as Executive Producer of this series.

Oh yeah. We spent quite a bit of time together in the workplace, also socially. I’ve been able to observe her and I’ve called her a couple of times to say, “Is this something you would say?” or “How would you say this?” or “what do you think, does this sound right to you?” And she’s reading all the scripts as well. We’re definitely in collaboration about all those things.

Please tell me about your character, Jacqueline Carlyle.

I’m the Editor-In-Chief of the magazine, and I think she’s a very empowering boss, not a Devil Wears Prada kind-of-boss. She’s much more realistic. She thinks of what real women of power are like in today’s world. Just much more collaborative, empowering, nurturing, setting a high bar for her employees and expecting them to reach outside their comfort zone and pushing them, but not doing it in a mean or manipulative or deceptive way. You don’t have to like her but she’s really going to make you your best at what you do. She has integrity, and she’s decent. That’s the main reason I accepted the role. I wasn’t comfortable with the idea of it just being a flat character. I really wanted her to be three dimensional, which I think she is.

Your character is tough on the girls, but she also cares about them and sincerely wants to see them thrive.

I was really drawn to my character for that reason. I was originally chosen to play the role of Jennifer Parker in Back To The Future, when Eric Stoltz was supposed to play Marty McFly. When they recast that character, I was actually fired because I was considered too tall to play opposite Michael J. Fox. Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale called me at home when I was 17 years old and told me that it had nothing to do with me, that it was just that I was too tall. I later learned that they had no trouble with me being taller than Michael J. Fox. It was actually a female executive who pushed for the casting change, which was shocking to me. But again, that was 1985. I cannot think of one female executive that would say something like that today. I believe women in power want to support other women who are out there trying to make a name for themselves.

The show also shines the light on the importance of balancing a career with personal life.

You can be focused on being in the present. If you’re at work, be at work, if you’re at home, be at home. Turn the screens off in the house, put your phone down. Don’t be texting and emailing and being pulled and distracted. Stay with each other and take the time to be really connected. Eat dinners together and talk about the day. Ask questions of your kids, let your kids ask questions of you. I think that’s really, really important, to just really be where you are, don’t be half where you are. I think the people that struggle are the people that are half where they are and I think that sometimes you’re in one place and then you get pulled somewhere else. But I think that’s the exception more than the rule, and I think most women are learning how to have both things.

**Melora Hardin as Patricia Bloom – *A Million Little Things* TV Series**

Let’s talk about A Million Little Things. What was your approach to building a character that was originally cast as a guest spot?

Well, I knew that they were probably going to bring her back. I probably wouldn’t have done it if it was going to be a one-off thing. I knew that my character was interesting, and her character’s daughter on the show was struggling with cancer, and that was something that really drew me in.

Final Question – If you had one piece of advice for other aspiring actors, what would that be?

Persistence, persistence, persistence!!!

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