One of the more prominent villains in the indie scene, actor Jimmy Dempster has built a career on the heels of numerous performances in the genre working in that familiar type of role. Now, with the release of his latest starring role in the short film "Box," I talk with him about his start as an actor, his early days and the new short film.
Me: Hello and thank you for taking the time to do this. First off, where did you get the urge to get into acting?
Jimmy Dempster: Pleasure is mine thank you so much for having me.
In 2012 I saw an ad for a zombie film being shot in Florida and they were looking for a cast. Having absolutely zero experience I walk down there to the casting cuz it wasn't too far from the house I was staying at at the time and I went in did a couple of reads and they asked me if I was interested in being a zombie extra and I said heck yeah I love zombie flicks so I was only supposed to work for about 2 or 3 nights but that ended up turning into about 2 or 3 weeks and the entire time I remember just watching the special effects a couple nights we had a scene where a truck would drive into a barn and there were all these explosions going off and I would watch the principal actors get into character and deliver their lines and I think right there was the moment I said to myself I want to do that ..it's fun being on set BUT I need to be able to do what they're doing that's what I want to do.
Me: Were you always into genre films growing up? What films specifically got you into watching horror movies?
JD: Yeah as a child growing up in the eighties I seem to be right there in the middle of the horror genre slasher craze that was going on at the time. It was a really good time to be into that genre because it seemed every Friday there was a new Nightmare on elm Street or Halloween or Friday the 13th film being released it was great you know and then added in with the late-night horror fans and HBO and the mom and pop video store really came in handy too I mean every Friday we would go down there and I would just grab the craziest looking cover art I could find ..just the dirtiest craziest sleaziest most violent film and bring it home and get some buddies over the house and get some pizza and some soda and just stay up all night and watch these crazy movies haha. So yeah the very young age it was pretty much a steady diet of horror films and macho action films a lot of explosions and gunfights and fistfights and bar fights LOL
Me: While you have been mostly known for playing villains, is there any specific type of character you prefer playing? What qualities stand out the most when looking for new roles to play?
JD: Yeah, I do get cash as the villain a lot and it's really cool because it allows me to work I've always said that the only thing worse than being typecast is not cast haha so it really is a good thing I don't look at it in a bad way at all I don't really have a preference the first thing I look at when I'm offered a script or if I'm looking at a breakdown I look at the character and I say okay how much of this character is me and how much of it is turned up to 11 and it just kind of proceeds from that point.. I've played a lot of characters from bouncers to boyfriends to backwood redneck psychos and even portraying real-life killers in some TV shows. also most recently I was able to strip it down a bit and play a character who's known only in the script as "The Man" in the multiple award-winning Noir Thriller "BOX" and I really really sank my teeth into that because it gave me a chance to do something that I don't normally get to do and that is to portray a character who isn't necessarily a villain he's more of a tortured soul and while there's not a lot of dialogue in the film it allows me to express various emotions throughout the project as the character slowly descends into madness and then at the end just kind of lets it rip I really dug that. If I had to choose I think I would like to do more characters like that.
Me: Being known for that aspect of your performances, what do you do to stay in character throughout the shoot?
JD: I don't really do anything to get into character or to stay in character a lot of times if I'm playing a character that's I feel is similar to one that I've done before you can almost kind of get yourself in that zone and do different variations of it a good example is I played a character that was based on real-life killer called John Barrett and the TV show "Swamp Murders " and that project allowed me to portray a couple years worth of roles that were oddly similar. I was the backwoods redneck psycho killer guy for a couple projects and I loved it because they're all very similar characters I would just throw in little tweaks and some of them are turned up higher than others performance-wise I really credit the John Barrett character as the blueprint for my (The Last One) character and my upcoming "Ghost Killer" character in (The Fury) film coming next year.
Me: Having worked on plenty of short films early in your career, what tools and skills do you acquire working on those that transferred to future film projects?
JD: I learned so much from those early short films the student films at full sail University and be bopping around Florida that first couple of years helped me out exponentially. I'm at a lot of really cool people throughout that time as well some of them fellow actors many of the film directors that I've actually gone on to work with more than once since then. I've always been alone by doing kind of guy I did the art sex studio 12-week course just to kind of get my feet wet but about six or seven weeks in I had to kind of get out there and do it on my own and finding some of those short films allowed me to work get the experience I needed while gaining some good footage at the same time. Like I said learn by doing I learned a lot I learned how to be an assistant cameraman I've held boom Mike's I've rolled sound I've slated I've co-directed I've done just about everything there is to do and that's all thanks to the great people that you work with on these sets and yeah I really learned my craft in those first couple years just you know not to belt out every line in the first Take, how to hit my mark where to keep my eye-line all that good stuff I really attribute to those early formative years.
Me: That brings us to your latest project, the short 'Box.' What can you tell us about the project?
JD: (Box) is probably the very definition of a passion project for me. And a lot of ways it's the end of something but the beginning of something else my good friends' filmmaker Lee Thongkham and Director of photography Brant hackney we had just finished making a big-budget studio film and we were kind of looking to do something that was a little bit more stripped down and you know didn't have those trappings of money and time and stuff like that we basically just wanted to make a project that we could put together with the barest of essentials and we just said let's see what we can do with the three of us pitching in and we'll put together a project that doesn't rely on a big studio feel but more atmosphere ambiance and a character-driven performance and hopefully deliver an intriguing story that makes people think. And sure enough, it's just morphed into this thing and we finally finished it and submitted it to the film festivals and having sat in on many of them as well as conventions and appearances and stuff like that it pretty much set out to do exactly what we wanted it to do if you watched the film with an audience and there are 20 50 150 people you're going to get 20 50 150 different interpretations.. a lot of the stuff in the film is open to interpretation a lot of it is a metaphor a lot of it is pretty obvious but it's one of those projects that always makes people question and we purposely went out of the way to leave it ambiguous especially at the end you know a project that gets people talking is never a bad thing right
Me: What was the set like while shooting the film? How did the cast and crew react to the type of film being made?
JD: Forming the project was great it was very laid back you know we had a lot of time and we had a lot of room for to pretty much do whatever we wanted it really is comforting when you don't have people breathing down your back to get things done we shot whenever we could some days during the week mostly on weekends and it really was the ultimate in a collaborative effort.
Me: Do you recall having any odd or funny on-set stories about yourself or any of the other cast/crew members?
JD: I have had some great moments on set that always make me laugh a couple that comes to mind first is (One Night Of Fear) my first lead in a feature film and my first day I met costar Jessica Sonneborn and the first thing she says to me is "I got an idea how about we start making out and that will lead into the opening scene " haha I was like OK no prob haha.. it's like hello we haven't even met each other we both landed on set and boom without so much as Hi how are you we're already into that and it was just hilarious ..another one I laugh at was (Devious Maids) working with co-star Dania Ramirez it was good as hell for some reason that night in Ga and in between takes we would all huddle up together and say "body heat, body heat"haha it was cute.
Me: Lastly, what else are you working on that you'd like to share with our readers? Thank you again for your time!
JD: I just did an episode of (Your Worst Nightmare) and got to work briefly with Rob Schmidt (Wrong Turn) which was very cool I also just wrapped playing real-life cult leader "Gerald Cruz" in the series (Deadly Cults) for Oxygen Network. Dark Roads 79 I have a small part in there that's a great slasher film co-stars Bill Moseley, I just this week actually wrapped reshoots on (The Fury) in Denver Colorado which was a blast that's an old-school gritty Action/Thriller and stars Lilo Broncatto from (The Sopranos, A Bronx Tale) and I finish off the year with (Killer Babes and the Frightening Film Fiasco) which is a kick-ass throwback to 80s anthology horror films..with a twist !! That project costars genre legends Linnea Quigley, Lisa Wilcox, Debbie Rochon, Jenna Kanell and more !!
You can follow my projects of course on imdb.com feel free to like the page and leave a review/rating for any project that you have seen in like I'm also on Instagram I try to get on there a couple times a week as best I can it's always good to chat with fans at @realjamesd
I'm also on the slasher app. and yeah check out (BOX) on the Kings of Horror Network here
I want to thank you for taking the time to chat with me I look forward to doing it again soon cheers my friends take care and as always thank you for the love and support!
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