Off Camera with Sam Jones

Actor, writer, director, thrill seeker, and comedian Dax Shepard joins Sam to talk about risk, both the real life kind on a motorcycle and the kinds he took to become the actor, father, and husband he is today. He also shares the gift of perspective and gratitude that he’s learned from his “current wife” Kristen Bell (his words folks). Pull up a chair and listen into this honest and revealing conversation.

As someone whose been famous for the majority of his life, Kevin has learned a lot from navigating the ups and downs of a career in the public eye which also made for some interesting conversation. He’s one of the rare artists that bridges the gap between the modern actor and the era of the classic movie star. In this episode, Kevin joins Sam to talk about his early days in a family that valued creativity above else, he shares the unexpected joys of doing a network TV show, and admits to some really awkward guitar moments. Sam has admired Kevin’s work for a long time and his chat with him was truly worth the wait. So pull up a chair and listen in.

Rashida is someone who has always made her own luck in her career. She figured out early on that creating her own projects puts her in the driver’s seat and as a result she has become a multi-hyphenate creator with a unique voice whose made people take notice. She gets personally involved in socially conscious projects that she believes in and isn’t scared to aim high which is probably why she has been handed the keys to one of Pixar’s beloved movie franchises, Toy Story. She wrote a great film called Celeste and Jesse Forever and had the confidence to not only attach herself as the lead but to refuse to let the studio make the film without her. That takes balls. In this episode, Rashida discusses her relationship with her iconic parents Quincy Jones and Peggy Lipton, her uncertain transition from academia to acting, what she learned from her time on The Office and Parks and Recreation, and her Steve Carrell produced comedy Angie Tribeca. She also shares her eye opening and sometimes painful experiences producing Hot Girls Wanted, a documentary about the amateur porn film industry. You might want to take your kids out of the room for that one folks.

You know few jobs demand more skilled straddling of the line between the creative and business sides of an industry than a film producer. And there’s perhaps no one better suited. “Born to” is not a stretch for that unique role than independent producer and independent thinker Chris Moore. After 3 years as a very successful agent, his creative side no longer allowed him to sell scripts he loved. Never to see them until they emerged on screen as almost unrecognizable versions of their former selves. Hooray for Hollywood. He didn’t do badly out of the gate as a producer. Betting bigger than any studio on two unknown screenwriters Matt and Ben who insisted on starring on their own movie. Then he went on to produce films like The Adjustment Bureau and Promised Land and TV shows like Project Greenlight with said unknown writers. Relentlessly curious and original, he’s made somewhat of a career of on-air experiments and taken some heat for them too. The Chair, his latest on-air what if is a fascinating look at what happens to the same story in the hands of two different directors. These are interesting times in filmed entertainment and Moore has seen a sea change in the making, funding, and promoting of it over his career. The embarrassment of riches occasioned by the explosion of film, TV, video choices and the way we watch them has scattered audiences to the point where return on investment is impossible and risk taking is at a minimum. Moore might lament the fickle economics of choice if he wasn’t too busy on working how to reinvent and adapt to them. For starters he thinks filmmakers need to open up their process, focus less on marketing their products, and more on marketing themselves. Well, interesting times call for interesting minds. Call him opinionated, self promoting, or a control freak and also call him if you got a good story because if you do he’s a guy who you want in your corner. He says he got into the business to tell stories about people he would want to hang out with. We loved hanging out with Chris Moore. So pull up chair and listen in.

You know it’s funny and sometimes not so funny how an actor’s earliest role can influence the rest of their career. Lizzy Caplan’s first acting job was convincing everyone around her that she was just fine when her mother passed away. Caplan was 13 at the time and the tough hold it in and laugh it off persona she cultivated as a result landed her a seemingly endless string of flirty funny side kick roles. Caplan was surprised and disappointed when the toughness she brought to her characters didn’t result in bigger parts. She stuck it out and resigned herself to a career of cool comedies that no one would see. A fate she didn’t mind except for the fact that she knew she could do more. The folks at Showtime finally realized that too and cast her as Virginia Johnson on its break out drama Masters of Sex. Caplan joins Off Camera to discuss the influence of her early childhood on her acting, feminism on and off the screen, and the value of terrifying yourself on a daily basis. And nudity. We discuss nudity. So pull up a chair and listen in.

In one review of Zach Braff’s “Wish I Was Here,” Sheila O'Malley quoted a T.S. Eliot poem “And indeed there will be time to wonder. Do I dare? and Do I dare?” Well folks, Braff dared. He dared to bring a small passion project to life via crowd-funding. He dared to veer from the standard studio sanction story arc to see the film he wanted to see. He dared to write, direct, and act in it though he lives in a town that prefers ponies of the one trick variety. He dared to share emotional and personal stories through his work only to have his means and material eviscerated. Maybe it’s no surprise that one of his favorite lines in the movie, delivered by Kate Hudson is “At least i’m trying.” Well he never assumed to bring a small passion project to the screen would be easy, he also never assumed his quest to do so via Kickstarter would spark wide spread vitriolic backlash. With hard earned hindsight and rare honesty, Braff discusses the experience of shaping very personal stories through his art. Maybe it was bound to happen to a hyper sensitive theatre geek who’s vulnerability served him well for 9 seasons on Scrubs but less so as an indie filmmaker. But the audiences and critics who jumped on the poop slinging bandwagon overlooked what wish i was here did offer: a subtle humorous look at family dynamics, modern masculinity, and what we owe our kids vs. what we owe ourselves. This episode sparked an engrossing conversation about Braff’s early introduction into theatre, the horrible auditions that saved his career, and the parallels between his life and his films. He doesn’t mind taking a punch or two on screen but says the virtual one he took from the internet will shift his future work away from personal heartfelt projects. This makes us sad but also skeptical, Braff is a filmmaker not just by choice but by unalterable DNA. We’re betting and certainly hoping he can’t keep his unique voice quiet for long. So pull up a chair and listen in.

How does a 17 year-old with one credit as an extra end up in the audition room for the lead of one of the most seminal movies of its decade? And perhaps more importantly, how does an introspective not highly social student deal with the surreal experience of having her privacy go away overnight? For Jennifer Beals, feeling like a equal opportunity outsider due to her mixed race and the one-two punch of losing her dad and discovering her family was shockingly poor at age 9 may have provided the best if uninvited coping mechanisms. As humble as she is beautiful, the actress who said she would never make it on So You Think You Can Dance? shares the blow by blow experience of her Flashdance audition, which was the breakthrough role she came very close to turning down. She also talks about dealing with the boys club that was Hollywood filmmaking in the 80s and returning to school at Yale immediately afterward. Given that she has continued to take on roles portraying strong independent women and often using them to integrate acting with activism, it’s surprising to learn that she’s often happiest retreating back to the rich solitary realm of her imagination. But when she tastes a role she wants watch out, she’s ready to come out swinging. Talking to Jennifer Beals is inspiring in so many ways but perhaps most so because after decades of work in what could be a challenging business and tough for women in particular, she still feels joy at the the thrill of jumping in. So pick up a chair and listen in.

Lake Bell wasn’t discouraged when her first punchline didn't get a laugh. Granted she was two years old and most toddlers aren't easily discouraged but subsequent events indicate it may have had more to do with her steadfast belief in her destiny as a comedic writer and actress and most admirably her willingness to do the work to get there. Though Hollywood called soon after college, she went to England first to train professionally at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Once in LA, she landed a couple of TV shows and could have easily traded on her looks for more but she wanted to write. So she befriended a writer, learned the trade, and wrote a script. Only to have it fall apart shortly before being produced. Undaunted, she went on to write In a World, offered the chance to direct and star in it, she first wrote and directed a new short film just to get the experience she felt she needed. It paid off. In a world mined her own comedic vulnerability and fraught relationships to commercial and critical success. In this episode Lake discusses the family dynamics that spurred her creativity, her love and pathological need for storytelling, the experience of simultaneously starring in and directing in her first feature, and the best writing advice she received along the way.

Could you see Jon Hamm on Dawson’s Creek? Neither could he nor anyone else in the youth obsessed Hollywood of the 80s when he drove to LA with $150 in his pocket and no real master plan to make it as an actor. And no, he didn’t get the Dawson’s Creek part. Moving to Los Angeles was a big risk at a time when no one was looking for mature, square jawed, slightly world weary men. Enter Don Draper and a certain amount of irony. His status as a Hollywood unknown landed him the role of a lifetime as the suit and hat clad personification of an era rapidly losing relevance on a network undergoing seismic shifts itself. Eight seasons, a Golden Globe, and multiple Emmy nominations later, exit Don Draper. And the question becomes: Once your famous for defining a character, how do you avoid being defined by him for the rest of your career? Struggling for years before officially making it on Mad Men and subsequently spending each hiatus wondering if the show would be coming back for another season. Jon Hamm has developed a Draper worthy take on that question. Over the course of his career, he has seen a lot, learned even more, and has a passionate but clear eyed grip on the industry to show for it. This is a man who understands the value of his own hard work and the importance of surrounding himself with people as smart and curious as himself. I think he will be just fine. So pull up a chair and listen in.

Success came to Ethan Hawke when he was young. He landed the Explorers, a major motion picture at age 13 off his first audition no less. His second film at 18, under Robin Williams’ tutelage on and off screen was the now classic Dead Poets Society. He’s been an established star ever since. At age 24, in the midst of his early film successes he published The Hottest State. Hawke admits that adding novelist to his resume made him an easy target for ridicule. The word pretentious has been thrown at him many times, often by foes, a few times by friends, and even by himself. His response: It beats not trying. He did keep trying and with his true renaissance man’s every career milestone over 20 plus years, the neigh saying is drowned out by the praise. His roles in Reality Bites, Training Day, The Before Sunrise trilogy, and most recently Boyhood have entrenched him in the top tier of the film industry with four Oscar nominations. He has the faith of stage producers and directors as well. He’s done Shakespeare, Chekhov, and three plays with Tom Stoppard. His second novel Ash Wednesday was a best seller. In his latest film he has moved behind the camera to show the world someone who has played the game of life even more skillfully than he, an 87-year-old piano player named Seymour Bernstein who embodies an ethos that Hawke has embraced. In the grand scheme, it’s not about growing up, it’s not about growing old, it’s simply about growing. So pull up a chair and listen in.