Photo: Joel Bryant
Joel Bryant came to our attention last week as the protagonist of the webseries After Judgement. His portrayal of Steven earned him a Best Male/Drama nod and propelled the series to a Best Drama Series and Viewer's Choice award nominations. You'll be able to see more of those rugged good looks in the upcoming dark comedy series Hillers. Or you can see Joel and his much better looking wife Deven live when they bring their improv group to a town near you.
IBV: Joel, thanks for being our first interviewee here at the Idiot Box. To start, let's head back to the beginning at La Cueva High in Albuquerque. What was out there that nurtured the acting bug?
JB: I can't tell you how cool it is that I'm the first interviewee. It's a week of firsts for me: The first interview, the first Streamys.
Ah, let's go back....
The "acting bug" actually hit me long before I went to high school. When I was 11, a buddy of mine at the time was in a regional commercial for a local bank. The commercial got all kinds of play and he was on billboards all around Albuquerque. I thought: "How cool is that?" I didn't exactly know it was acting, per se, but I knew that I wanted to do something that cool as well. Looking back, I guess you could say it was a general need for spotlight and a tad bit of 11-year-old narcissism that made me want to get in to acting.
I immediately cajoled my mom into signing me up for acting classes at the Albuquerque Little Theatre. She was OK to let me do it, I think, because she always saw the ham in me. I would entertain her guests at Tupperware parties by lip-syncing and performing all of the songs off of the Kenny Rogers Greatest Hits album. After classes there, I followed my bank-hawking buddy Chris Senger into classes at Rick Nickerson's Acting Studio. That's where I think the bug really started to hit. The beautiful thing about doing live theatre is that you get immediate gratification when you're doing a good job.
That's really the addictive part of it - the "bug" if you will.
So the "bug" didn't bite me in high school, but it certainly got nurtured and trained further while I was there.
Despite your reputation for playing cops and drug slingers. It
seems like your true love is in improv and sketch comedy. What draws
you to the dramatic rolls and what keeps bringing you back to writing
sketches?
In truth, my true love is performing and/or acting. I'm just lucky enough to be able to jump between comedy and drama, good guys and bad guys, quite easily. It's not necessarily the genre that I'm drawn to or prefer but rather the challenge, the experience, and frankly, if something's interesting, then I'm in.
I love doing the drama just as much as I love doing the comedy. The beauty about improv is that you really are working without a net. And since it's live, and almost always based around audience suggestion, the show is organic and truly has to be experienced that night, for that one performance, to be really appreciated. The bar for improv is always pretty high, and to make it work and make it entertaining is an irresistible challenge!
Sketch comedy is also challenging in that you write what you think is funny and have to make it accessible to a wide swath of audience members who may or may not be on your wave-length when it comes to humor. So the challenge in that lies not only in the performance but in the preparation. Essentially you're saying: "I think this is funny or interesting." Then you have to go out and make it so in performance.
So the thing that brings me back to doing drama, sketches or really anything, is the challenge of it. The challenge of making the people that paid the money to see you get their dollar's worth.
I'm endlessly fascinated by the places that I have to go - and get to go - to make an audience appreciate the work. If I can bring them on board with me, then I've done my job. And I always want to do a good job!
As long as something is interesting and challenging to me, that's all the draw I need.
photo: After Judgement
Your nominated for best male in a drama for the first annual
Streamys. This is for your role as Steven in After Judgement. Where
did the gig come from?
Actually, the gig came from the online community. In a cool way, it's the same community that the Streamys and it's sponsors are aiming to honor.
I met Mike Davies (writer/director/editor of "After Judgment") a few years ago at a roof-top party thrown by Jessica Kill to gather like-minded, mostly Canadian film people. I snuck in thanks to my Canadian wife!
We chatted for a bit. He's a filmmaker, I'm an actor and we got along great.
Cut to over a year later and I had just signed up for Facebook. I was trolling other people's friend lists when I saw his name. I reached out to him, both because he's a solid guy and because, well, he's a filmmaker and I'm an actor.
We exchanged casual messages.
Then out of nowhere he tossed the idea of "After Judgment" to me and asked if I would be interested in auditioning.
Of course! It was a cool concept and the shoot was a small time commitment. I was between projects and thought: "Why not work on it? They seem to have their stuff together." Plus, it's the web. It's worth the gamble to put good work on there because you never know where it could end up.
I initially was called in to read for the role of "The Stranger." Mike envisioned someone a little off-kilter and dug my improv background.
At the audition, he also asked if I would read for the role of Steven.
I loved playing that role and I really enjoyed what Tim (Halling) did with the role of The Stranger, so it worked out all around.
As the protagonist and narrator, we're all looking to you to help us navigate this post-Rapture world Steven lives in. When you were prepping, how difficult was it for you to understand the world you were in, and then find your motivations?
Genuinely it's tough to play the "audience's role" so to speak, to be the one that they go on a journey with. On the one hand, I'm playing a unique character with a unique past and unique circumstances that no one in the audience has experienced.
On the other hand, I have to bring them along with me, discover things with them, and let them see the story unfold through my eyes. It's a very fine line to walk. You're playing a character, but you can't be so far out there that you lose the audience, because then their journeys over and they stop watching.
In my prep for this role, I pretty much asked as little of Mike as possible about the world that we were inhabiting. I know he has it all mapped out through 64 episodes (production financing willing!) and that a lot of the mysteries that are introduced will be solved. There is an ending to the whole story and questions are answered.
As curious as I was to see the whole picture, I never got into that conversation with him because, frankly, Steven would be just as ignorant to a lot of what was happening. So in this instance, unlike many roles I've played, the less I knew the better.
I just wanted the basics (100 years post-Rapture, electricity doesn't work, the Sun doesn't set, etc.) and would play Steven as a normal guy, with a bit of a sordid past, who just happens to live in this odd world. The beauty of it is, since it's so many years after Judgment Day, the general rules of the world aren't surprising factors. I had to get that across so the audience would be there as well.
So when odd things start happening - like seeing a boy years after all of the children had vanished - the surprise would take me, and hopefully the audience, on this mysterious journey.
Another key to the character was also to play him weary. Frankly, it's a boring world. Nothing changes. It's sunny. It's very humdrum. That's why his past doesn't bother him too much anymore. The world isn't shocking. It's just another day. Another day of the same old after 100 years.
So the boredom - without being too bored, because who wants to watch that? - was key. It's the trick of finding interesting, exciting ways to play bored and down-trodden.
I know from my minimal experience shooting for the web, the process can be very chaotic. Tell us what the process is like when your shooting.
Shooting on "After Judgment" specifically was a tad chaotic as well. It's very micro-budget, meaning we didn't have a lot of the luxuries that bigger shoots have. You change in your car, tend to eat the same bagels for breakfast that weren't finished the day before, and try to steal shots when you don't necessarily have the permits.
It's exciting shooting that was as well because you know that everybody that agreed to be a part of the project is a 100% into it. There's no room for divas or complaints or high-maintenance. It's nice to have everyone on the same page.
I was lucky enough on this project to just have the role of "actor." A number of people doubled up to make it happen: Mike doing quadruple duty as producer, director, editor and playing The Neighbor. Taryn O'Neill - a Best Actress Streamy nominee - producing and playing Michelle. Stephanie Thorpe producing and playing Elizabeth, plus letting us use her place for a location.
A lot of people had to wear multiple hats. Plus, and this is key, when shooting something like this, you have to have a crew that is top-notch, and we had just that. They were focused and present and game for making anything happen.
You end up calling in a lot of favors and dealing with a lot of crazy schedules.
Like I said, though, I was lucky enough to just have to play "actor" this time!
However, at the time, I was also in the beginning stages of recording Beau L'Amour's audio-drama The Diamond of Jeru. So sometimes during lunch, I would use that hour to rush up into the Valley for a meeting or a quick recording session. It was a nice-paying gig and a fantastic project, so they were kind enough to deal with some of my pre-booked sessions.
Some things you do for love, some things you do for money and I was lucky enough to be able to do both at the same time.
It seems like there is a very specific vision for the show, how much room are you guys given to improvise and help shape the show?
The show is 100% Mike's vision. He knows where it came from, where it's going, and what needs to be shot and shown and how it should be filmed.
Because it's for the internet, the general rule is that you need to keep it short and entertaining and, ideally, fast-paced, otherwise, ADD-addled web cruisers and casual surfers will pass it up.
So there isn't much room to include improvised bits and randoms tangents. Luckily, we had a tight script that we were working with, so it was all already there. We just had to say it.
There were times when we got to go off-book a little here and there, but I'm sure that was mostly just to keep us entertained as I'm not sure much of it showed up in the final cut. The problem is, when you tell a guy that loves to improv that he's free to improv, a 30-second scene can turn into a 10-minute tangential dialogue.
Plus, this is a very specific world Mike created, with very specific rules and very specific bullet points that just had to be hit to tell the story correctly. We might have come up with some brilliant improvised bits, but it was most likely detrimental to the larger picture, so it's unnecessary.
If it didn't move it forward, then it went to the cutting room floor.
But it sure is fun when a director says, "feel free to improv." I just light up.
Episode 16 left us on a hell of a cliff hanger (literally?). When does season 2 go into production, and where are Steven and the rest of the gang headed?
I'm guessing Steven and the rest of the gang are headed to Heaven, eventually. At least, that seems to be the goal. As I mentioned, I'm not sure exactly where it's going or where the story's headed. I like it that way!
I'm just as in the dark as you are about the rest of the story, and we're all just as bewildered as Steven is.
As far as Season 2 goes, I think they're looking to begin production in the summer. Once again, a lot of it depends on financing. None of us are looking to get rich off of this, but it sure would be great to have a solid budget to work with and that's what the producing team is pursuing now.
We really are the little fish in the Streamy pond. With no disrespect to a number of the nominees because I've watched them all and they are fantastic and deserve recognition, we didn't have the luxury of studio backing or big names or even sponsorship.
This was really a labor of love made on credit cards and favors.
That's why something like the Streamys are so important to little guys like us. Hopefully it shows that people will turn out for quality online fare and it's worth investing in.
Bless people like KoldcastTV for taking a risk with putting something like "After Judgment" on it's site and giving it some endorsement.
Now we just have to turn that endorsement into a selling point and a production budget.
It's interesting because a lot of folks want to get involved in new media, because it's sexy and cutting-edge and the next generation, but a lot of people - especially those with wallets - don't want to be the first to jump because it is still fairly untested.
I think once one person makes a truly remarkable splash, the floodgates will open and you'll see even stronger-produced content. But until then, everybody's just trying to figure out the rules and define the new media paradigm.
I'd love for them to do it soon, otherwise that cliff-hanger will be rattling around in your head for a long, long time!
An award show for web videos would have seemed silly in 2007. But After Judgement is up against Battlestar Galactica in the best drama series, and Joss Whedon's Dr. Horrible and William Shatner in the fan's choice. Not to mention the quality of chops in the best male, drama category your in. What's it mean for you to be thrown up there in that kind of company?
I have to say that it's a truly humbling honor. Really. It's cliche to say "it's nice just to be nominated," but dangit, it really is.
After the nominations were announced, and I stopped jumping up and down, I immediately went and watched everything that I hadn't seen. This really is the cream of the crop of online television.
As with any other awards show, there are some quality programs that didn't get recognized, but it's a sheer numbers thing. And everything that got recognized, really, honestly deserves it.
In my category alone, Alessandro does strong work on a spin-off of the critically-adored "BSG." Christopher Stapleton is fantastic fighting vampires. It's amazing to be recognized along with Justin Hartley and their well-financed "Gemini Division." And then there's Seth's quiet, quirky web series that I couldn't stop watching.
It's a great honor to be in the same breath as all of that varied work.
Then when you mix in the fact that "After Judgment" is up for 6 Awards, it's just mind-boggling. It's one of the top 5 dramas deemed award-worthy from last year. It's one of the top 10 chosen for the Audience Choice Award. All of this out of over 100,000 submissions!
And then for Mike and Taryn to get recognized just is the icing on the cake.
Obviously, you don't go into a project thinking about the Awards. You just want to do a good job and make solid entertainment. However, I can't hide the glee I felt when the nominees were announced. It's truly gratifying seeing how people have taken to the series.
Even though I'm not competing against them, it's very humbling to be noticed along with Joss Whedon, Paul Rudd, Neil Patrick Harris, Rob Corddry - the list goes on.
"Children's Hospital" slayed me. LOVE "Dr. Horrible." LOVE "Wainy Days." "BSG" rocked! I mean it's amazing company to be in!
And when you put "After Judgment" side-by-side with some of the shows that have been defining online entertainment - "The Guild," "Dr. Horrible," "Gemini Division" - these are benchmark, iconic shows that are putting new media on the map. And they're including "After Judgment?" Awesome.
I've been lucky enough to have worked with or known a number of the nominees and, regardless of if it's "just" an award for online television, I think everyone's pretty dang happy.
photo: Joel Bryant)
What other projects do you have lined up that we should be looking out for?
I seem to be keeping it in the online world!
This summer, you can start looking out for Hillers (The trailer is hilarious -ed). It's a fantastic script about mid-life crisis produced with the web in mind. Great cast and crew on this one as well, so look out for that.
I also am continuing to travel and perform with my wife and comedy partner Deven Green. She's become quite a ce-web-rity (rim shot goes here. -ed) over the past 2 years with her hilarious online videos, so I'm always busy supporting her. We perform live two-person improv shows and are also always shooting more videos for her online fan-base and we're developing a live show to complement that.
I'm currently in pre-production on a feature script I wrote with Steve Sawalich, who directed me in Music Within, and we also have 2 TV shows we're in the process of pitching.
And hopefully - hopefully! - shooting a second season of "After Judgment."
Just always keeping as many irons in as many fires as I can. Got to keep myself challenged and interested!
Now, can you believe I typed all that while Joel and I were talking on the phone? Plus, I was driving. Thanks to Joel for being our interview guinea pig. I was going to lob some follow-ups at him, but I'm still processing these questions. Root for Joel and the After Judgement crew during this weekend's Streamy Awards. You can also bug Joel on his website at JoelBryant.net. He also has Facebook and Twitter profiles.
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