We had the good fortune of connecting with James Patrick Nelson and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi James Patrick, can you tell us more about your background and the role it’s played in shaping who you are today?
I was born and raised in Los Angeles – so many of my friends hesitate to believe such people exist. But I did, I grew up in North Hollywood. And I went to the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts, which was a tremendous training ground at a very young age, and really ignited a passion for the theatre, which back then made me want to rush off to the east coast as fast as possible. It’s been so empowering the last couple of years, as I’ve returned to LA for extended periods – to film my TV pilot, to work at Center Theatre Group, and to attend film festivals – to discover that so much of the creative identity and artistic confidence and personal conviction I dreamed about finding on the east coast has now been internalized to such an extent that I can carry it with me to LA and anywhere I go.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I’m an actor first and foremost. I recently starred Off-Broadway in the NYT Critic’s Pick “Memorial” and the world premiere of “Reverse Transcription”. I appeared in the LA transfer of Broadway’s “Slave Play” at Center Theatre Group, and I starred in the world premiere of Terrence McNally’s final play “Immortal Longings”. My cast and I won a Helen Hayes award for Outstanding Ensemble for Bedlam’s “Sense and Sensibility” at the Folger Theatre, reprised at the American Repertory Theatre. I began my Off-Broadway career in productions of Chekhov with Maggie Gyllenhaal and Ethan Hawke.

Alongside these opportunities, I’ve always strived to create my own work. And during the pandemic, when no one had the power to determine my value as artist but me, I started doing a lot more screenwriting and I learned how to be a creative producer and build a filmmaking team. It’s been so empowering to let go of hierarchy mentalities and to take the reins of my creative life and career and to actively seek out the peers I want to make art with for the rest of our lives.

One of the most meaningful original projects for me is my TV pilot “For Years to Come,” an irreverent and heartfelt romantic half-hour dramedy about a gay man who falls in love with his dead mother’s hospice nurse, while struggling to reconcile with his elderly father, who’s secretly a porn director. We’ve played to sold-out crowds at numerous festivals around the country, including SeriesFest, HollyShorts, Dances with Films, and Outfest, and we won the audience choice award in the London Lift-Off Festival. We’re actively seeking the right production company to collaborate on a full season of the show.

There have definitely been ups and downs, peaks and valleys, and there’s plenty more I still want to achieve, but I have to keep reminding myself how awesome it is to do what I love. I always do my best to really savor the experience when I’m in a play or a film, but then in the moments when I’m not, when it feels like a slow period and everything feels out of reach, I still savor the certainty I feel that more is on the way, my certainty that this is the work I’m meant to do.

Because I’ve always known that some of the best roles for me are still waiting up ahead for when I’m a little bit older. I’ve been getting cast as the wise-old patriarch ever since my early 20’s. It’s exciting in recent years to feel like my own sense of myself and other people’s impressions of my type are starting to converge. I’ve often been cast as the emotional or moral compass of the story. I love playing characters who are both commanding and vulnerable – it doesn’t happen often enough where you find parts that encompass both of those qualities, but that’s the sweet spot I love to play in.

Most of the work I’ve been developing, writing, and producing has featured majority-queer ensembles and protagonists. I’m just old enough to have spent my youth and young-adulthood living through a seismic shift in queer visibility on film, and it’s very empowering to recognize the implicit queerness in the media that inspired me as a child, and to rewrite the stigmatizing narratives our culture has tried to limit me to, so I can keep pushing the needle forward.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I still carry a New York sensibility whenever I come back to LA, so I’m always in love with the places where you can walk around. So we’d definitely spend time in Los Feliz. Breakfast at Fred 62, lunch at Alcove, dinner at Home (or the other way around), picnics in Barnsdall Art Park, browse the Skylight Books, see a movie at the Los Feliz Theatre, then drinks at Figaro or Akbar – or both! Or if we were closer to central Hollywood, I’d say drinks at sunset on the rooftop of Mama Shelter. And at some point we’d have to get some In-n-Out…when I first left LA for a while when I went to college, In-n-Out is what I missed the most! And then of course, finger-crossed there’s something amazing playing at the Hollywood Bowl.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
There are so many people I could mention – from childhood mentors to college professors to New York theatre directors – but the person who first really jumps to mind is Micah Stuart, who directed my TV pilot “For Years to Come”.

I reached out to Micah at the height of the pandemic lockdown, because I’d seen his film “Johnny” and really admired it. He connected personally to some of the major themes in “For Years to Come” and we decided to work together, even though we were on opposite sides of the country at the time. We developed the project, ran a successful crowdfund, and started pre-production before we ever met each other in person.

Micah was such a dream to work with, his on-set demeanor was so remarkably calm and collected, and he had such a generous, collaborative spirit, and the talent and skill he brought to the project is really exceptional.

Over the past year, attending film festivals together, we’ve become even closer friends. I will always be thankful to him for trusting me and diving into this project with me. We’ve made something together that I think we’re both really proud of and I can’t wait to work with him again soon.

Website: www.james-patrick-nelson.com

Instagram: @jamespatricknelson

Other: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm5662482/?ref_=tt_ov_st https://medium.com/@jamespatricknelson , https://vimeo.com/753648646

Image Credits
Taylor Noel, Strekoza and Stan Barouh.

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