Interview with Legendary Screen Villain Jasper Cole

I’ve been blessed to be a working Actor, writer and Producer for the past 32 years working in over 100 tv/film roles, commercials and stage plays. For the past 15 plus years I have mainly been a character actor who is blessed to often be called one of HOLLYWOOD’S BAD GUYS playing rather crazy, bizarre and often violent roles. It’s been a blessing to be type cast in these roles and I work with amazing actors, Directors and producers. Its been quite the journey filled with ups and downs

I have two new films coming out: From Gravitas, MODEL HOME will be out in the fall and I play “Walker” a desert rat who stumbles into a bad situation that only gets worse as the film progresses. It stars Monique Curnen and Kathy Baker. Then in Jan 2020 I’m excited to be “Shelly” a creepy but sweet groundskeeper in the thriller CAPTURED starring Brittany Curran, Kristen Zien, Julian Curtis and an amazing group of actors who form a rock band and come back to the lead singers childhood home where horrible things took place. I was last seen on TV as “Crack Head Fred” on the hit ABC Series THE ROOKIE now filming season 2.

 I’m always attracted to playing characters that are flawed in some ways. I never try to judge the character as good or bad since most of us are all degrees of both on different levels.

I hope to serve the writer and director’s vision for the character and I’m lucky because fans love Horror and thrillers, the genres I seem to work a lot in.

I’ve been beyond blessed in my career to work with so many great people. A true highlight was exactly 10 years ago this month, being cast as “Zeke Pleshette” in the SNL comedy film MACGRUBER opposite Will Forte, Kristin Wiig, Ryan Phillipe, Vak Kilmer, Powers Booth, Maya Rudolph directed by the hilarious Jorma Taccone form THE LONELY ISLAND GANG and produced by Seth Meyers and the comedy legend Producer Lorne Michaels of SNL. We shot out in New Mexico in the August heat but it was a spectaular experience and the film lives on today with a strong loyal fan base. I’d say another honor was getting to work with Ryan Murphy on AMERICAN HORROR STORY as wel las the late Bill Paxton on his CBS TV Series TRAINING DAY. I played Jacques De Leon also known as Jacques the Ripper. It was only a few months before Bill died so suddenly and unexpected and working with him and that cast was an amazing week. Another was working on the TV Series TEXARKANA in 1998 with the one and only Sam Elliott. It was only a pilot but I learned so much watching him work and seeing how he treated the cast and crew and everyone that worked on the set. He really set the tone and although he took his work extremely serious he never took himself too serious. We had great conversations about the business and I had only been working about 10 years at that time so it was a master class in all things ACTING and TV.

The biggest challenge changes from decade to decade it seems. The first ten years you are just trying so hard to get any work at all so you take anything and everything. Then the next 10 years I had to sort of reinvent myself and find my own look and style which I slowly did and I was able to work pretty steadily. I always say its “different levels, different devils” in show business. The biggest challenge is to not take any of it personally and always maintain dignity and class. I am finally at a place where I don’t compete with other actors, only myself. I’ve reached a nice place where I know what I bring to a role and that its uniquely mine and bottom line what I do IS NOT brain surgery but I’m blessed to still be working after almost 35 years.

A dream project for me would be to work on a procedural series like THE ROOKIE as part of an ensemble cast and play a character that can go undercover and utilize my years of playing “Bad guys” but in turn end up helping the good guys. I’m hoping “Crack Head Fred” can continue on the show as well and who knows maybe that will be my DREAM project. I worked with these same producers on TRAINING DAY so it’s great to work with them again.

My wish list of people to work with is very long and varied but my favorite actor is Jeff Bridges and I’d love to work with him. I love how he’s aged into his roles and he’s a great family man with a long happy marriage. The Cohen Brothers and Tarantino are at the top of the list as well for directors. I would love to work with Actresses like Jessica Lange and Angela Bassett..strong, fearless women. TV producers like Shonda Rhymes, JJ Abrams, more of Ryan Murphy and Greg Berlanti. The list is ENDLESS. There is so much great TV now and so many platforms to work in and on..it’s an exciting time to be an actor period.

I’m  producing  two new drama series currently in development and a realty show. I also produced 6 episodes of the hit digital series BRONX SIU on Amazon and the show recently got  3 daytime Emmy nominations as well. Season 3 will filming soon starring Brian White, Shanti Lowry and Denise Boutte. My radio podcast show ONE ON ONE WITH JASPER COLE is now in its 8th year in one form or another. I have been so lucky to sit down and interview wonderful people from all walks of life. The show is heard around the world on itunes, Iheart radio, spotify, Spreaker, Blog talk radio and so many more. I’m really proud of the show and thankful to all my listeners.

I think fans are surprised to see how different I really am from most of the characters I play. My basic personality is pretty sarcastic and funny and I love politics and all things Pop culture.

I also love reality TV shows especially BRAVO and all the Real Housewives shows and Million Dollar listings, Southern Charm, Below Deck…the more ratchet the better. lol I will say I’ve never seen The Bachelor or The Bachleorette of any of The Kardashian Shows so I do draw the line somewhere. lmao

On the scripted side I ‘m a huge fan of Ray Donovan, Pose, This Is Us, American Horror Story and Dirty John

Hope everyone will check out my website www.jaspercole.com Twitter and instagram @jaspercolesays and I’m on facebook too

In closing, I would love all Americans to please get out in vote in 2020. We are so divided as a nation and my hope is soon this country can start to heal. Its gonna take time but we have survived so much in our history that I have faith we can all do it again. God bless everyone!