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.

Ines Schinazi
The Manhattan summer, filled with pent up heat and the polluted desire of lust, ignites Katy Perry’s voice, making it the perfect soundtrack for half of an instant, as Lindsay Lohan kisses Samantha Ronson behind the DJ booth, in a scene so surreal it could emerge straight from “The L Word.”

Flash forward to the end of summer. A lazy Sunday near Union Square. Katy’s voice still lingers in our ears. Two summer interns sip on red wine while trying to forget the word “Monday.”

Out of the blue, but in perfect harmony with a sense of destiny, Samantha Ronson, herself, walks right past us. A moment of hesitation, just to check if we are dreaming or already too drunk. As instinct hits, we frantically sprint behind her, (and our waiter chases after us, with the unpaid bill.)

In a state of half delirium, we follow Ronson, to the miniscule NYC Deli where she buys her cigarettes. Inside, my friend is struck with sudden, uncharacteristic, shyness. So.it’s all up to me. It’s a “make” or “break” moment.

I gather up the courage to speak to this completely high/hung-over/not so nice looking/ skeletal being. I compliment her music. Silence lingers in the air, as she slowly processes my words. Then, underneath her little signature hat, she says, “Hi, I’m Sam.” and gives me a smile. And, just like that, she walks, coolly, into the downtown sunset, leaving us stuck between packs of cigarettes, and our own laughter.

Yes. These are the times in which we are living. The times of chasing a famous person’s, not so famous girlfriend, down the street, and pretending to know her music. It is (or it was, for I believe their romance is already passé, as I write this) the time of Lindsay Lohan and Samantha Ronson.

It had been a messy sort of summer. First, Katy Perry sang about kissing a girl. Then, actress, Lindsay Lohan admitted she was in love with DJ Samantha Ronson. Even darling little socialites and heiresses, like Casey Johnson and Courtenay Semel, weren’t immune to the raging trend, as they dated each other.

It didn’t stop there. Two months later the world was in a “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” frenzy. Scarlett, Penelope, and Javier painted a new sort of relationship, and the world seemed to devour it.whole.

Just as the summer began to wind down, the French film, “Les Chansons d’Amour” arrived right on cue. The film painted a three-way love story, filled with beautiful confusion. The actor Louis Garrel, who usually portrays virile masculinity, even experimented with another man.

After this heavy injection of sexual experimentation via pop culture, my mother sadly shook her head, and proclaimed these films “A true depiction of our times.” To her, it seemed that our generation, loved (or fucked) whatever was in front of them at that specific instant, regardless of gender.

In short, we are just a bunch of starving, confused, kids. My mother comes from a time when things were simpler (or perhaps more complex.who knows?). One was either gay or straight, and this notion of a “free, fluid, sexuality” did not exist.or at least it wasn’t talked about.

The recent depictions of fluid sexuality in entertainment seem inspired by “real life trends.” At least, this is my personal observation. Is this simply a consequence of our evolution in society as beings? Or are we being pushed towards this fluidity by other factors, such as technology?

These days, most of us, exist in two worlds. We live in the “real world” and the “virtual world.” This allows us an abundance of possibilities and fluidity.

In the virtual world, information flows with great speed, intensity, and freedom. We’ve got everything at our fingertips, and we don’t have to choose, between “this” or “that.” In a sense, we can have more than one thing, and be more than one thing.

I communicate through machines, relying on wires and electricity. Yet it is all very palpable and real. Everything gets tangled up, and inevitably the “virtual world” overflows into the “real world.”

Perhaps, this encourages us to rip up our labels, and roam free from rigid definitions. Our personal identities become increasingly “flexible” and “elastic.” Living between the virtual world and the real world has taught us to “adapt,” according to our “audience.”

In the virtual world, everything is fluid. Information is abundant and ever evolving, just like the identities that create and mold it. Maybe the desire, to move away from the rigid definitions, of “gay” and “straight,” is our way of transposing “cyberspace fluidity” into the “real world.”

I don’t want it to seem like I’m sugarcoating the situation.

We aren’t nearly to the point of free love and tolerance. Lesbians are generally still thought more acceptable or at least prettier to look at, than gay Men, both in the media, and in real life. And if we need any more proof of existing homophobia, there is also the recent passing of proposition 8.

Yet, I do believe that the virtual world plays an immense role in shaping our actions in the real world. Despite the obvious existence of homophobia, most of the world does seem at least a bit more open to alternatives and difference.

It seems that, cyberspace fluidity has begun to pour out, into our real life interactions. It may even play an important role in the current evolution of romantic relationships and allow us to start “un-defining” sexuality.

In the spirit of fluidity, I dare to mix in some philosophy, by borrowing Rilke’s words. Rilke wrote, “…only someone who is ready for everything, who excludes nothing, not even the most enigmatical, will live the relation to another as something alive and will himself draw exhaustively from his own existence.” Clearly avant-garde, Rilke may have envisioned what was to come.

Yeah. I think it is going to be a fluid mess. Let’s just hope it will be as pretty as “Vicky Cristina Barcelona.”

Our generation lived for Elvis Presley, The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Jackson 5, and Michael Jackson.

Our Brazilian idols were Leila Diniz, Elis Regina, Tom Jobim, and Chico Buarque.

We listened to all thismusic. Religiously.

In 1968, the “Reboucas Tunnel,” was inaugurated in my hometown of Rio.

The tunnel connected the south area of Rio with the rest of the city. Ipanema beach, which had always been an oasis of calm and tranquility, became jam packed and chaotic.

Dictatorship hit right before our eyes. But we still managed to be happy. At that moment, young students, all over the world, broken down rigid paradigms. Questioning morals and ancient customs and traditions. Paris was literally in flames.

At that moment speed picked up, and our lives accelerated.Our generation, the Baby Boomers, started getting married and having our own kids.Between all the rules, norms, and laws, of the time, we raised our children. We changed, we changed the world, and we created a generation. We changed what it meant to raise kids. Perhaps the greatest evidence of our new child raising philosophy came in the ever present sentence,

“Mommy said I could!”

The little boys and girls who were born in 1980 and in the years that followed, are now starting to lead the world. We coexist with them in our businesses and outside of them. I wonder where they will be 15 or 20 years from now?

I wonder who their heroes and idols will be? Who will they remember? Who will they be proud of?

I miss, Tom Jobin, Leila Diniz, Elvis, Lennon, SydBarret, David Gilmour, and Michael Jackson. I miss Michael in Black and White. I miss Belle de Jour by Sartre. I miss the beautiful “make love not war” attitude. Our generation laid the grounding for where we are today.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of all this, is that we still question ourselves.

How do we deal with the new generations? Who are they? What do they want?

No rules and no family dinners. The television blares in our living rooms, and computers are almost as vital as blood, their sound interfering with the voices from the TV.

Our children don’t even have time to listen to us anymore.

So now what?

The song “comonossospais” (“Like our Parents”), written by Belchoir, and sung by Elis Regina, holds great significance, when it comes to thinking about generations. The lyrics reveal the immense gap between the singer and her parents. Even more interestingly, the song also expresses the huge gap between young people today and their parents.

I don’t want to talk to you
About the things I’ve learned
From my records…
(The new generations are barely familiar with the “records,” which had such huge impact on previous generations. This is the generation of CDs, chips, and pen drives.)

I want to tell you how I’ve lived
And everything that’s happened to me
Living is better than dreaming
I know that love is such a beautiful thing
But I also know
That its charm is so much smaller
Than any one of our lives…
(Love? Well, that’s a frequent theme for generation Y. But their perception of love is much more about having fun, and living in the “now,” with a carpe diem attitude.)

So be careful my darling
The street corner is dangerous
Their light turns green
And is constantly red for us
For we are young…
(For young people today, there are no red lights. Everything is allowed. Everything is OK. There are no obstacles. Nothing is too difficult. They can do anything.)

To hug your brother
And kiss your girl in the middle of the street
That’s what your arms,
Lips, and voice, were made for…
(Because of the violent environment in Brazil these days, it’s a bit dangerous to kiss in the street. So people kiss in shopping malls, in school, and wherever other safe public spots they can find.)

You ask me about my passion
I say that I’m under your spell
Like a new creation
I want to stay in this city
I’m not going back home
Through the wind
I smell a new season coming
I know everything inside my wounded heart

It’s been a while
I saw you on that street
Your wild wind blown hair
All the young people standing there
Against this wall of memories
The memories hurt the most…
(Again, this shows the sense of real life community youth had back then, these days that doesn’t exist, and youth get together virtually, and are usually much more individualistic.)
My pain is inknowing
That despite everything we’ve done
We are still the same
We live
And we are still the same
Just like our parents…
(This verse is the one that seems most out of tune today. Nobody belonging to this generation lives like their parents! What’s worse is that they don’t do anything to be different from them. Previous generations made a real effort not to be like their parents. It’s normal to want to be different. But this generation is different from their parents, effortlessly. It’s as if the generation gap develops naturally.)
Our idols
Are still the same
You say that after them, there was nobody else… “Today I know where my ideas come from.” “A new conscious is youth.”
(Idols? What? This generation has very few)
But you
Love the past
And you don’t see
That newness constantly flows…
(Even in Elis’ time, older people didn’t like the new)
Today I know where my ideas come from
A new conscious is youth
(The new conscious that Elis sings about comes from parents. Even this has changed. Youth today doesn’t learn as much from their parents. Rather, they learn with their friends. That is a fact. Of course this is greatly due to the fact that parents today, aren’t at home constantly keeping an eye on their kids. Most of them are out working hard. Much to their kids’despair….

The death of Michael Jackson means the death of a brilliant entertainer who also lived between three generational planes. We could perhaps call him an “X Y Boom.” Technically born into the baby boomer generation, he speaks our parents’ language and has many fans in the baby boomer age group. And yet, nearly every time I go out, the night often isn’t complete until the DJ plays a Michael Jackson song.

Generation X and Y know the dance steps to “Thriller” and “Billy Jean.” Some of them can even do a perfect moonwalk. Not to mention, those who can recite every single word in a Michael Jackson song, without skipping a beat. Clearly, he’s made quite an impression on the younger generations. He speaks the languages of X, Y, and Boom.

In many senses, Michael Jackson brought different generations together, sliding between them, allowing them to see how similar they actually are.

In the workplace, perhaps we need someone like him. A mediator. Someone who speaks both languages. Someone who exists on many generational planes. Someone like the great Michael Jackson. We need a translator, who doesn’t get lost in translation.

I’m extremely happy to find out that Grupo Foco is the first business in Brazil to conduct job recruitment processes through social media.  We do this for our own team as well as for our clients.

Our team navigates through countless social networks (Blog, Twitter, Linked In, and Orkut, among many others) until we find the right person.

As in many other instances, Foco is a pioneer in this realm. That gives me great pride.  I know that even as I write this blog, the manner in which we recruit young people will change.  In fact, it’s already changing.

I’d like to thank all of those who have been a part of this project.  Our team constantly strives to be “Avant Garde.”  Hahaha “Avant Garde” seems like an ancient term, but I’m sure Generation Y knows what I mean by it!