00:03
jasper jeon
00:04
so happy to have you on the everyday
00:05
enthusiast you are an
00:07
actor that's appeared on major tv shows
00:09
like glee true blood westworld
00:12
and now most recently you were playing
00:14
uh the character jesse on the video game
00:16
the last of us too correct
00:18
that's correct yeah first off thanks for
00:19
having me really appreciate you
00:21
thank you uh yeah it was uh you know i
00:24
was featured on glee
00:25
true blood um and the last of us was
00:28
kind of like
00:29
one of those things where like it was
00:30
kind of like a dream come true type of
00:32
deal like
00:33
you know i'ma be honest i wasn't too
00:35
huge and informed into um
00:37
games up until probably like two three
00:40
years ago
00:41
you know i actually i got the news from
00:42
my my agent saying like hey you booked
00:44
this job called
00:45
uh the last of us and it was from um the
00:48
game developers naughty dog i was like
00:50
oh okay cool cool you know i brushed it
00:52
off and i told
00:53
told my wife i was like hey i booked
00:54
some job called uh
00:56
the last of us and she was like the last
00:59
of us you know
01:00
you know i was like oh god this must be
01:02
big so i did my research and due
01:04
diligence since then and i'm
01:06
super grateful for the opportunity and
01:08
um you know i've had a lot of people
01:09
reaching out to me
01:10
a lot of um friends from like my high
01:13
school and like college and stuff and
01:15
like
01:15
you know i started over them the past
01:18
like
01:19
12 since the past 12 months you know
01:21
i've had a lot of like
01:23
realization of how how much of an impact
01:25
this game was for a lot of people
01:27
yeah it's shocking to me you know people
01:29
downplay i think some people still think
01:31
of gaming as like this niche culture and
01:33
it's like these blockbuster video games
01:35
they have
01:35
budgets bigger than you know hollywood
01:37
video or hollywood movies i mean like
01:39
hundreds of millions of dollars they're
01:40
putting into these projects
01:42
and i mean i don't play video games and
01:43
i've heard of that video game
01:45
so like a crazy experience for you but
01:48
obviously
01:49
you know they are innovators as far as
01:52
storytelling and and
01:53
i think you know hollywood should take
01:55
notice to that you know which i'm sure
01:56
they have
01:57
um but i really like the stories that
02:00
they tell and they're very progressive
02:01
you know
02:01
despite all the backlash and all that
02:04
and well and of course
02:05
like uh it's not just you voicing a
02:07
character you're actually putting on
02:09
like a
02:09
like a little right for jesse i i didn't
02:13
do the voice i just did the mocap room
02:15
and i'm the face of him
02:17
uh the actor that played his voice his
02:19
name is stephen h chang
02:22
interesting so actually so it's your
02:23
body but a different voice
02:25
yeah yeah yeah he gave me a southern
02:27
twang in the game
02:30
and and so like how like how many weeks
02:32
were you working on that project how
02:33
exactly does that work doing mo
02:34
motion i would say it was probably um
02:39
i'd say like four weeks split up four
02:41
weeks about and it was very tedious long
02:43
days 16 hours you know i i
02:46
won in their headquarters in santa
02:48
monica and the next one and um the mocap
02:49
was done in san diego
02:51
um and it was very tedious work you know
02:53
it was a lot of
02:54
facial expressions and and moving around
02:58
with like guns and axes and bats and
03:00
stuff in the mocap which is which is fun
03:02
that was probably my favorite part of it
03:03
you know doing like movements and stuff
03:05
so basically how
03:07
jessie moves in the game is exactly how
03:08
i move and walk
03:10
and is jessie a playable character was
03:13
that
03:13
is jesse a playable character um
03:17
no he's not a playable character but
03:18
he's he's um he's a part of uh
03:20
ellie's story basically so they always
03:23
interact from the start you know from
03:24
the very
03:25
opening games introduction dialogue
03:27
scene he's there
03:28
and you know he takes he's like his he's
03:31
like ellie's like right
03:32
hand and now uh you know as an actor
03:36
you know it's it's a long process how do
03:38
you as an actor
03:40
stand out from you know the millions of
03:41
other people in the city
03:43
you know trying to you know make their
03:44
you know make their stake into this
03:46
business how do you uh stand out like or
03:48
if you were to give advice to another
03:49
actor
03:51
you know it's a that's a really good
03:53
question you know
03:54
and that's something you know i had to
03:55
discover for myself you know because
03:57
you're i'm going into these rooms and
04:00
you know it's funny because you know on
04:03
tv and film you'll see these
04:04
stereotypical audition scenarios and
04:06
it's like
04:07
exactly like that you know you go in and
04:09
there's like a 100 carbon copies of
04:11
yourself you know with like similar
04:13
features but
04:14
you know and it's you know at first
04:16
going into it
04:18
i would be honest size people up
04:20
sometimes you know i'm like wow like
04:22
it's like
04:22
that guy's like almost like a better
04:24
looking me or more talented
04:27
person and then i started catching
04:28
myself and i was like no you know what
04:30
like
04:30
it's it's really not it's really not
04:32
about that you know it
04:34
you what you need to bring is your true
04:36
self you know don't try to be someone
04:38
else
04:38
just just be your true self because
04:40
really there is only one of you so that
04:42
would be probably my best advice you
04:43
know don't
04:44
don't go in there as a competition
04:46
because it's really you're not you're
04:48
not battling anybody else they're not
04:50
going to keep the
04:50
other actors is not going to give you
04:52
this job really it's the pro
04:54
it's the producer it's the director it's
04:57
if you actually fit the story and you
04:58
understand the story
05:00
and you can give a fruitful genuine
05:02
honest
05:03
um presentation of what what this story
05:07
and character represents you know so in
05:09
the end like i've met
05:11
i've made some of the best and closest
05:13
friends
05:14
through through thinking that way you
05:16
know and i'll see them out all the time
05:18
at auditions and now it's like a small
05:19
community going and i love that you know
05:22
no one's really trying to like bring
05:24
anyone down you know you'll get a people
05:26
every now and then you know one or two
05:28
you know bad apples out of the bunch
05:30
that will you know
05:31
try to throw some shade and stuff but um
05:34
for the most part everyone's pretty
05:35
supportive of each other
05:37
and yeah the talent will always shine
05:39
through it's you know as somebody
05:41
who you know i was filming tv was my
05:43
major passion that was what i majored in
05:45
in college and stuff it's
05:46
you're seeing a real evolution in the
05:48
industry too
05:49
um but you know you mentioned something
05:51
that must be that's kind of funny it
05:52
must be very surreal
05:54
to walk into a room we know where you're
05:55
going for a part and just to see like
05:58
twins of yourself everywhere that must
06:00
be a really
06:01
odd experience you know i found it i
06:04
found it very comical offer so i was
06:06
like oh
06:07
yeah that that scene in masters of none
06:09
was a hundred percent
06:11
accurate oh my gosh you just yes i just
06:14
remembered that oh man
06:18
um
06:24
are there any uh actors you know that
06:26
are your inspiration like who is your
06:28
you know your favorite actor who do you
06:29
aspire to be like um
06:31
you know uh when i first got into the
06:33
industry definitely i would say bruce
06:35
lee
06:36
um he was you know growing up as a kid
06:38
you know i i really couldn't
06:40
identify with anybody that i saw on
06:42
screen that looked like me you know
06:44
um of course there was other actors that
06:45
didn't weren't asian
06:47
or asian american that i did relate with
06:48
in certain ways you know because of
06:50
um their characteristics and who they
06:53
are as a person
06:54
um but bruce lee was definitely one of
06:57
my
06:57
my idols and actually i um i auditioned
07:00
for
07:01
tarantino's once upon a time in
07:02
hollywood and i auditioned for the role
07:04
of bruce lee
07:05
and like when i got that i was like oh
07:07
my gosh like i i put
07:09
so much into it you know i spent a lot
07:11
of money on training you know
07:12
like i i reached out to uh you know brad
07:15
pitt's accent coach
07:16
um and and and if that would have done
07:20
it justice because you know i'd be in
07:21
that scene with brad pitt too
07:22
so i like oh i gotta i gotta hire his
07:25
accent coach for this you know so i put
07:27
a lot of time and effort into it
07:28
um and just to be in that room was like
07:31
that was enough for me
07:32
you know that was that was definitely
07:33
enough for me um but
07:35
yeah bruce lee would be the starter now
07:38
i look up you know
07:39
i see more and more faces now which is
07:41
great um daniel day kim is another idol
07:44
i look up to he's a great person
07:45
through and then you know on-screen
07:48
off-screen genuine guy
07:49
family man um
07:53
now like uh actually have you met by
07:56
chance i mean
07:56
like as you know spending all this time
07:58
in la going from shoot to shoot do you
08:00
ever have you ever had a chance to meet
08:01
one of these idols of yours
08:03
um
08:07
because i'll say like being in la i have
08:09
met it's it's weird whether it's just
08:11
actually at jobs or even like going to
08:13
chipotle at the corner and like hey
08:15
you know you and then you have an
08:16
awkward awkward stare down with somebody
08:18
you're like is it them
08:19
and then you finally realize it is there
08:21
yeah you know i haven't got to meet any
08:23
of the people that i truly look up to
08:25
but i have you know ran into
08:27
you know people that other people know
08:29
of um
08:30
i i did get a chance to audition for
08:32
daniel day kim's show
08:34
the good doctor that he's executive
08:35
producing which would have been awesome
08:37
to get on
08:38
um but other than that i haven't got to
08:41
run into any of my idols unfortunately
08:43
but you know
08:43
it's a matter of time i would say well
08:46
you know what's really important
08:47
something that you mentioned though is
08:48
that like
08:49
i don't think people uh i think people
08:51
will downplay the importance of
08:53
representation in media you know
08:55
to for a young man you know who's
08:57
watching you know something
08:58
bruce lee's somebody who he sees himself
09:00
reflected in it can be really
09:02
touching and it will be a moment of
09:03
inspiration i mean for you it
09:05
that's what led you to pursue the career
09:07
that you have and
09:09
uh you know it's it's obviously you know
09:11
the industry is evolving to show
09:14
you know more you know a rainbow if you
09:16
will you know to show all forms of
09:17
representation
09:19
um are you are you happy about this are
09:21
you seeing like you know do you think
09:22
you know the next 10 years
09:23
it will just be it won't even be a
09:25
question anymore you know we'll laugh at
09:27
scenes you know how they're portrayed in
09:28
master of none like that will be a joke
09:31
not by
09:32
the reality right right and yeah you
09:34
know um
09:35
i think we will look up look back on
09:37
that and i think it's good to look back
09:39
on the past of where it was where the
09:42
mistakes were made
09:43
you know i mean and to look back on that
09:45
because then you'll see how far
09:46
it has come from that for the industry
09:48
and yeah i have seen you know i've been
09:50
doing this for about nine years
09:52
and i have seen the progressiveness of
09:54
the industry
09:55
and you know it's made leaps and bounds
09:57
but i think it's really made an impact
09:59
last year
10:00
you know when when crazy rich asians
10:01
came out when parasite won um
10:04
the oscars you know like that was just
10:06
groundbreaking
10:07
groundbreaking you know and i definitely
10:10
see it on the other end too when i'm
10:12
getting these scripts that haven't maybe
10:13
some of them didn't take off but you
10:15
know
10:15
we're backed by really big productions
10:17
you know like warner brothers and fox
10:18
you know and that
10:19
i'm seeing a lot more scripts that have
10:21
like asian needs and it's not like
10:24
it's not roles that i would not take you
10:26
know it was definitely non-stereotypical
10:28
roles which is great yes
10:30
um so yes i think you know 10 years from
10:32
now it's
10:33
it's gonna be you know i think the
10:36
representation will be
10:38
um very true to what um
10:42
we represent you know honestly in in
10:44
life
10:45
you know it's it's not like it's not
10:48
like um it's
10:49
above anything it's just equal
10:50
representation
10:52
exactly what i'm hoping for you know and
10:54
i think right now i think you know
10:55
asians and asians americans only
10:57
represent
10:58
10 of um principal actors
11:01
in in the industry right now and that's
11:03
it's very small you know but
11:05
it's starting to grow it's starting to
11:07
grow i i have faith
11:08
that must be yeah and i hope that would
11:10
be encouraging to other actors as well i
11:12
mean but also i mean it's a grind
11:14
no matter what i mean you said you were
11:16
doing this for nine years
11:17
how long did it take you until you
11:19
booked that first like you know where
11:21
you
11:21
you're like this is my first real gig um
11:25
i would say um you know i had this uh
11:28
film that went to uh sundance actually
11:30
that i booked
11:31
and i booked the um the lead of it and
11:34
this was kind of one of those stories
11:36
that you know
11:37
a lot of people don't really really
11:38
share because
11:40
of um you know it's their it's their
11:43
mistakes that they've made
11:44
and you know i think i i got that role
11:48
too early on in my career i would say
11:50
because it was like a year in you know i
11:52
got
11:52
scouted by a manager off of this really
11:55
kind of sketchy website called model
11:56
mayhem
11:57
and you know some of the messages you
11:59
get on there you don't know if they're
12:00
good or reliable or
12:02
legitimate um so a lot of them were
12:04
questionable so when this manager
12:05
reached out to me on there i was like
12:06
okay well
12:07
you know yeah yeah i'll come and read
12:09
for you you know and i read for him and
12:11
uh turns out he's like a
12:12
really well known manager and powerhouse
12:14
of a management company and
12:16
you know one of the first auditions he
12:17
sent me on i booked
12:19
and um you know some of the the script
12:22
was great
12:22
well written some of it was a little you
12:25
know um
12:28
it was very vulgar you know some of the
12:30
material in it
12:31
and you know my manager had some
12:33
concerns about it saying telling me
12:35
you know that this might not be a good
12:37
great look you know for your very first
12:39
role
12:40
and you know i i and we we kind of had a
12:42
back and forth you know i
12:44
i kind of disagreed but you know in the
12:46
end of the day i respected his decision
12:47
because you know
12:48
he he's been in the industry for 50 plus
12:50
years you know he's coming off of
12:52
working with
12:53
um he was an agent at caa and his
12:55
partner was a
12:56
agent at wme and they came in and made
12:58
their own agency you know our
12:59
own management company so i trusted
13:02
their knowledge
13:03
but you know that that film you know
13:07
was well written 100 and it won sundance
13:10
you know awards so
13:11
i i i was upset about that and we kind
13:14
of had a falling out
13:15
um and it took a while to you know
13:18
bounce back from that because then after
13:19
that i was like is this really what i
13:21
want to do you know
13:22
it's a constant battle i would say every
13:24
day every single day it's a constant
13:26
battle and
13:27
um you got to love it you have to love
13:30
doing this you know it's not about
13:32
booking for me you know it's really
13:33
about loving the craft and loving the
13:35
stories that you get
13:36
you get in front of you that that's what
13:38
i think it's really about so
13:40
um as far as booking roles you know i i
13:43
i haven't really like got something
13:45
where i was like
13:46
yes you know um but i have i think
13:50
for me the the wins are in getting there
13:52
and getting that good feedback you know
13:54
and and being able to play
13:55
being able to really play in there well
13:58
geez just the fact that you got in the
13:59
room for the bruce lee roll that's a
14:01
huge
14:02
deal i mean i bet everybody was trying
14:04
to get in there
14:05
because i mean bruce lee it's bruce lee
14:08
um yeah
14:09
as a now are you exclusively a writer do
14:11
you ever like ever do anything else
14:13
behind the camera
14:14
or like uh you know yeah i've been i've
14:16
actually been writing some stories you
14:18
know during during
14:19
or a lockdown and stuff um um but
14:23
you know it's one of those things where
14:26
i'm trying to find inspiration for it
14:28
and i do see inspiration in everyday
14:29
life of course um
14:32
but right now i i have been writing a
14:35
couple things
14:36
definitely that um um it'll be soon that
14:40
i
14:40
share it hopefully it'll be very soon
14:42
and it'll be a very
14:44
moving powerful story and it'll be
14:45
proper representation but that's the
14:46
hard part you know it's kind of like
14:48
um to have a house story like that and
14:51
also you know meet the needs of
14:53
hollywood
14:54
it's tough you know and i would probably
14:56
have to go the route of um
14:58
self-funding and looking for um
15:00
investors and stuff like that
15:02
have you ever uh done like a short film
15:05
or anything like that is this your first
15:06
project that you've written no no i
15:07
definitely have wrote short films i
15:09
haven't been shot before um
15:11
obviously not to the grade i would like
15:12
them you know but it was more so testers
15:14
you know i've had like casting calls and
15:16
stuff like that
15:17
right on all right and so uh just like
15:21
one more question here so now that you
15:23
you know you're you've been in bigger
15:24
projects now you're jesse from the last
15:26
of us
15:27
have you ever had that moment where
15:28
you're the one that stopped on the
15:30
street and somebody says hey
15:31
you are you jesse for like have you had
15:33
that moment where somebody sees you and
15:34
recognizes you
15:36
um not yet i think you know since the
15:37
game has just been released and we
15:39
haven't been out
15:40
much definitely not oh my gosh i've had
15:42
some people from social media reach out
15:44
to me a lot of people do social media
15:46
that didn't
15:47
that don't even know me it's like wait
15:48
are you jesse
15:50
you know and and that's been great
15:52
that's been great
15:53
well i'm sure if you know the world was
15:55
still happening and we were going
15:56
outside you'd be getting stopped at
15:57
every
15:58
every street corner i would love that
16:00
you know i would totally i would totally
16:02
eat it up you know
16:03
definitely you know um shoot it you know
16:05
because i love conversating about stuff
16:07
like this you know and
16:08
and um i guess like
16:12
i i would never want to be at a point
16:14
where i get big headed about it you know
16:16
i would i
16:17
i hope someone comes and talks to me you
16:19
know not just just
16:20
to be a fan you know it'd be more to
16:22
like have a conversation and make that
16:24
connection with someone you know
16:26
well and to also uh one day be the
16:28
person that you know plays the role that
16:30
bruce lee played in your life you're
16:32
you'll be the one on the screen who you
16:33
know inspires the fans to you know one
16:36
day do it themselves
16:37
yeah definitely jasper thank you so much
16:40
for taking the time i really appreciate
16:41
it
16:42
thanks for having me
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theTUNDRA sits down with Los Angeles-based actor Jasper Jeon, who has appeared in numerous high profile televisions shows like "Westworld", "Glee" and "True Blood". Most recently, Jeon did the motion-capture for the character Jesse in the blockbuster video game "The Last of Us Part II".
If you're a Film Enthusiast, check out Jasper's Instagram page and follow his career: https://www.instagram.com/jasperjeon
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