Talking about Generations

By Ines Schinazi

“My mother has always been an actress to me.”  This is how Jessy Hodges explains that her relationship with her mother hasn’t changed, despite the fact that they’ve recently found themselves in very similar places career-wise, while obviously being at completely different points in their lives.

As a mother gets back into her acting career, a daughter stands on the cusp of her fresh beginning.

What makes this story even more interesting, is the fact that Jessy Hodges, and her mother, Ellen Sandweiss (most famous for her role in the cult horror film “The Evil Dead”) are “learning together” as they both explore the completely new territory of acting in web series. Jessy stars in “Anyone but Me” (www.anyonebutmeseries.com) and Ellen in “Dangerous Women” (http://www.strike.tv/show/dangerous-women/).

In an exclusive interview, Jessy speaks about first discovering the film, “The Evil Dead,” and the teenage “OH. MY. GOD.” moment, that went along with that.

While she clearly feels lucky to have a mother who can give her advice about her career, she’s also really thankful that her boyfriend is a Law student, allowing her to take a break from the “ongoing conversation” that is acting.

On “Anyone But Me,” she plays the subtly omnipresent Sophie. Though ironically, she calculates she’s really only “…spent about 8 minutes on screen so far.”

Speaking to Jessy, you get the feeling that she’s quite wise beyond her years.  Full of introspection, playing Sophie has given her a lot to think about…

Ines:  Because of the technological nature of a “web series,” and all the advertising that goes on through Facebook, and Twitter, do you find yourself doing a lot of explaining to your mom as to how these things work?
Jessy:  It’s really funny, because in that specific regard, I find her totally explaining stuff to me.  She’s taken on a producer/directorial role, in her web series.  She’s an extremely energetic and motivated to learn type of person, so the stuff that she needed to figure out, she figured out pretty quickly.

Then at the same time, I’m of the computer generation, and so she’ll be like, “Wait…how do I turn it on again?”   Sometimes, she doesn’t get the basics, but she knows way more about Myspace and Twitter than I do.

Ines:  I read an interview in which you speak about, growing up without knowing that your mother was really famous for her role in “Evil Dead.”
Jessy:  My mom went to school for Theater and was very involved in Theater and acting in the early years of my life.

Then, she kind of took on a more mother figure role, particularly when my younger sister was born.  She also worked in my dad’s business, and stopped acting for a long time.

I had seen her on stage a lot when I was younger.   But the film, “The Evil Dead” was not a part of that conversation.  I believe it came out that she was in a movie when I was like 13 or 14.  And I was like, “What???” “You were in a movie?” I had no perception of what this movie was.

Then, my friends and I found this old VHS copy of “The Evil Dead” behind a line of books in a bookshelf!  And we were like, “OH. MY. GOD.”

We had to start watching for ten minutes while she was gone, and then put it back in the bookshelf…

When I turned 15 or 16, I finally got to watch it.  But it was only a couple years after I had seen it, that I realized what this movie was. This was a really important movie in horror. Sam Raimi (the director) coined all these technical camera techniques and all this cool stuff.

I only began, a couple years out of college to really appreciate the movie.  And every time I watch it, I love it, and appreciate it more.

Ines:  I’m curious to know what it’s like going from a kind of “outsider” perception of your mother’s career, to becoming a professional actress yourself, and following your mother’s current career.  What has that shift been like for you?
Jessy:  It’s intense really.  My friends will comment on my relationship with my mom.  They’ll be like, “Jessy and her mom are best friends.”   That’s the relationship that we already had.

Then, with my mom really starting to get back into acting, just as I’ve started getting into it.  You know it’s been wonderful and it’s been hard, and really interesting, and really bizarre.

Not only do I have my parents’ support, but also someone who knows exactly what I’m going through, and who can give me advice when I ask for it…stuff that most actors’ parents wouldn’t even know about.

But also, empathetically speaking, it’s rough. We both know what the other is going through, because for as many “baby successes” as you have in this career, there are a million disappointments. It’s a real hard but really gratifying world to be in.

It’s an ongoing conversation.  Sometimes all I want to do is talk to her about it and ask her about it.  Other times I’m like, “Ugh… god!  I can’t talk about this anymore! All my friends are actors, my mom’s an actress…luckily my boyfriend is a lawyer…”

Ines: Obviously you and your mother are at completely different points in your career, but because the web series is something that is so completely new and innovative, do you think your experiences, as actors on these web series, are really different or actually similar?

Jessy:  We can totally relate to each other on it.  We are both kind of bewildered and confused by it.  I feel like we’re in such beginner stages with web series, that we really don’t know what they are yet.  I mean people hardly know how to make money off them yet.  I think we’re both going “Wow.” I’m learning along with everyone else, including my mother.

Ines:  Can you talk a little about what it’s like to play Sophie on “Anyone But Me?”  She’s a really interesting character in the sense that she’s kind of off to the side, but we already get the sense that she’s going to be so central to the whole story…

Jessy:  Playing Sophie is one of the most fun things I’ve ever done.

Though because of the web series genre, I’ve probably spent about 8 minutes on screen playing Sophie so far.  You only get a little bit of time every time, so you’ve got to make it worth it.

On relating to the character, I really do.  I think more so, than I might have realized at the beginning.

It’s been so cool, because we’re filling in the lines, coloring in Sophie.   I’m sure that Susan Miller and Tina Cesa Ward would say that as they’ve gotten to know us as people, it’s definitely affected the writing.  They’re constantly writing, changing, and editing.

First of all, it makes me feel like I’m in High School again, which is crazy.  Also, I never had the experiences that Sophie is having or may have in the future.

I had close gay male friends in Theater growing up. But I never had someone the same sex as me, who was choosing to date women, at that young of an age. I think that it would have been confusing for me, despite the fact that I consider myself entirely open and gay friendly.

I wonder how that would have affected me in High School. I wonder how that will affect Sophie, being opened up into this world, in the suburbs, away from a big city, especially in real-world circumstances, not in some lame, stereotypical, one-dimensional way.

So it’s exciting, and it gives me a lot to think about for the character, and about myself in a weird way.

It’s always you playing the character.  I feel you have to establish your point of view, so that you can look into the character, and establish the character’s point of view, and see how it differs.

There’s always a comparing and contrasting, and a melding of the human you are, and the human you are portraying.

Tags: acting, Anyone But Me, Artikullocks, Celebrity, generation gap, Jessy Hodges