JIM O'REAR INTERVIEW 9/6/2011
IMDB -http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1252668/
FB FAN -https://www.facebook.com/pages/Jim-ORear/109703659049394
WEBSITE - http://jimorear.com/
JG - WHERE DO I BEGIN- YOU HAVE DONE SO MANY AWESOME FILMS-,WORKED WITH SO MANY AWESOME FOLKS AS ACTOR AND STUNTMAN.EVERYONE FROM STEVE MARTIN , WILLIAM SHATNER, HECK STAR TREK IV-VOYAGE HOME CREW, TO DOING STUNTS IN SUMMER RENTAL ,COCOON , DAY OF THE DEAD,THE LIST GOES ON AND ON- WHAT GOT YOU TURNED ON TO WORKING IN THE FILM INDUSTRY?
JOR -It was completely by accident, actually. When I was very young I travelled around the country performing as “The Youngest Professional Magician,” working with Harry Blackstone, Jr., The Great Tomsoni, and David Copperfield. A television producer saw me in one of those shows and approached me afterwards with an offer to appear in a television commercial. Not knowing anything about acting, I turned him down. This guy saw something that he wanted, though, and after a week of him begging my agent and my parents, I caved in and agreed to do the commercial. I was probably in 5th grade, at the time. Well, that led to other jobs on TV, in films, and on the stage. Since I have also studied Martial Arts from a young age, that led into stunt work. I, basically, went from having no interest in being an actor to suddenly being thrown into it. I don’t regret it, though, as it’s been a fun ride.
JG -YOU ARE QUITE A TALENTED MAN. HOW DID MAGIC BECOME A PART OF YOUR LIFE? WHAT BROUGHT YOU TO A FASCINATION WITH PERFORMING MAGIC?
JOR -I became interested in magic when I was in kindergarten. My parents took me to Disney World and I was fascinated by the Haunted Mansion ride. It’s still my favorite ride at the park. Even at that young age I recognized, while riding that attraction, that people could make a living fooling other people. There was a magic store outside the Haunted Mansion, at that time, and I found a Mickey Mouse magic set that I had to have. My parents bought it for me and a week later I was doing a magic show for my kindergarten class during Show-And-Tell. It was the art of illusion inside that ride that captured my attention and made me want to learn how to do it.
JG- THE MAN OF MANY TALENTS : MUSIC , SIGNING ,PHOTOGRAPHY , MARTIAL ARTS- SOME SAY A MAN WHO CAN DO SO MANY THINGS HAS YET TO MASTER ANY- BUT YOU FINE SIR- HAVE SEEMED TO MASTER QUITE A LOT, WHAT DRIVES YOU , WHAT MAKES YOU TICK AND PASSIONATE ABOUT SO MUCH TO BE ABLE TO SUCCEED IN SO MANY DIFFERENT AREAS???
JOR -That’s very nice of you, but I don’t think I’ve really mastered any of it. I’ve been lucky enough to have been given the opportunity to participate in a lot of different areas in the industry. I never wanted to be famous, I just wanted to work. So, in order to work you’ve got to be savvy on a lot of different things. If someone calls and asks, “Can you do this?” I want to be able to say, “Yes, I can.” You can get more jobs in this industry knowing a little of everything as opposed to mastering only one thing. So, I think the drive to become proficient in many different areas comes from wanting to succeed in the industry, overall.
JG- ALABAMA ! A BEAUTIFUL STATE, HOME TO LYNYRD SKYNYRD ,THE CRIMSON TIDE ! SO WHAT WAS IT LIKE GROWING UP IN THE SOUTH? I KNOW IT IS DIFFERENT THEN UP IN THE NORTH , WHAT ABOUT IT DID YOU REALLY LIKE ? WHAT DIDN’T YOU LIKE ?
JOR -I, actually, didn’t spend too much of my youth in the south. My dad was in the military, so we moved around. I was born in Alabama, started kindergarten in Tennessee, and by second grade was in Alaska. I lived in Anchorage, Alaska, until I graduated high school and then moved to Florida. Of course, I was flying a lot of places to work on various projects and even lived in New York for awhile as I attended the American Academy Of Dramatic Arts, so I’ve been influenced by a number of different cultures. I’m back in the south now, though. I do like the people… most are very, very nice… and the lifestyle is much slower. I do, sometimes, miss the electricity and excitement of the big city, though.
JG -NOW YOU HAVE DONE THIS CRAZY FILM BEVERLY LANE , THE ‘OFFICE SPACE MEETS ZOMBIES” ! TELL ME ,WHAT IT WAS LIKE TO BE ON THE SET OF THIS CRAZY FILM? PLAYING ADAM CADABRA? HE HAD ME IN STICHES, I WAS ROLLING!!
JOR -Thank you. I’m glad you enjoyed the film and my character. This was an extremely fun film to work on. Joshua Hull crafted an incredibly witty script filled with outrageous characters. Josh has a fantastic mindset for comedy and the relationships of different types of people who are thrown into crazy situations. The cast that was assembled were an incredibly talented group of people who came to the set prepared and ready for action… even when I’d go off on a tangent and start adlibbing lines. The rest of the cast just followed and played along like true pros. It was very freeing, as an actor, to be able to genuinely react with other actors and just comfortably take a scene into a new direction. I have to thank Joshua Hull and Jim Dougherty, the co-producer / cinematographer, for allowing that kind of freedom and creative atmosphere to exist on set. It truly was like a big family just playing together.
JG -RECENTLY YOU HAVE HAD A FILM (UNDERGROUND ENTERTAINMENT) BASICALLY DROPPED FROM A VENUE FOR ITS CONTENT , I KNOW IT’S A LOADED QUESTION , AND MAYBE THERE IS NO SHORT ANSWER OR COMMENT TO THAT, WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGTHS ABOUT THAT SITUATION? DO YOU FEEL THAT THERE IS STILL A LOT OF CENSORSHIP IN THE FILM INDUSTRY IN GENERAL?
JOR -You are right… there’s no short answer… ha ha ha… Your readers can catch all the details on my Facebook page (www.Facebook.com/JimORear), as well as the film’s website (www.UETheMovie.com), but, basically, my business partner (Bryan Wilson) and I had the world theatrical premiere of our documentary UNDERGROUND ENTERTAINMENT: THE MOVIE set up to play at the Artcraft Theater as part of the B Movie Celebration in Franklin, IN. We were guaranteed this spot, repeatedly, for almost a year. Well, after all of the advertisements and promotions were underway, we were informed 3 weeks before the screening that they refused to play an uncensored version of the film… which is ironic because half of the documentary is about our fight against censorship. It turned out that there was a lot of other shady stuff going on there. Even the Mayor seemed to be involved… and using public funds to support this act of censorship.
Bryan and I have been fighting this type of small-minded mentality for over 20 years. In that time the system has loosened up quite a bit on the censorship front and it’s nowhere near as bad as it used to be. But, when politics starts mixing with religion and then starts mixing with private enterprise, as it all did in our Franklin, Indiana, incident, it’s walking the line of 1st Amendment rights and the legal separation of church and state. Not a pretty place for small town America to be and potentially harmful to the industry of independent filmmaking, overall, when it’s attached to an independent film festival.
JG -TWO MORE QUESTIONS- IF YOU COULD GO ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD- TO FILM A MOVIE , YOUR CHOICE OF TYPE OF FILM, THE STARS AND DIRECTOR, WHERE, WHAT AND WHO WOULD IT BE??
JOR -This may sound weird and completely whacked out, but… I’d like to film a comedy (either romantic comedy or musical comedy) in a small town in Massachusetts (I think it’s beautiful up there) directed by Tim Burton or Guillermo del Toro and starring Jennifer Garner, Kristen Chenoweth, Martin Sheen, Kevin Bacon, Jennifer Love Hewett, and Samuel Jackson. How weird is that?
JG- THE LAST BUT NOT LEAST , WHAT IS YOUR GUILTY PLEASURE??? MAYBE A CLOSET LOVERBOY FAN??? MAYBE A CLOSET FAN TO DANCING WITH THE STARS?? INQUIRING MINDS WANNA KNOW!
JOR -I love Broadway musicals and Judge Judy!
If that doesn’t scare you off you can find out more about me on my website (www.JimORear.com) and on my Facebook page (www.Facebook.com/JimORear).
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Jim O'Rear
S.I.B. Studios
www.JimORear.com
www.Facebook.com/JimORear
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