Meet Jerry Brown Jr | Actor and Filmmaker

We had the good fortune of connecting with Jerry Brown Jr and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jerry, let’s talk legacy – what do you want yours to be?
I’m an actor and a filmmaker so I’m in the business of storytelling. We all have a unique way we perceive the world, and part of the filmmaking process is finding out how to deliver those experiences, our visions, through this visual medium. When I get it right, I’m able to connect to the people who watch and help them understand some facet of our collective existence. Then maybe, even if it’s just a little bit, they’re better off than they were before they watched the film. That’s the goal. I’m not there yet, and maybe I’ll never quite reach it, but I don’t see a world where I’ll ever stop trying. I want to leave a legacy where something I’ve created had a story powerful enough to change a person’s life.

I want people to remember that I never stopped working towards my dreams. I want my films and my characters to stand as proof that I tried, and even though I had failures along the way, nothing deterred me from executing a vision. Long after I’ve departed this world, if people still remember the actions I took to live as my ideal self, and that resulted in someone feeling less alone in this world for the things they want to do, or the person they want to be…then that’s a life I hope stays remembered.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I’ve been fortunate enough to work professionally in and outside of the Hollywood system on both sides of the camera in my creative journey. From pre-production, to principal photography and post production, I’ve gained the ability to produce a film from end to end with nothing but me, my camera, and my computer. It’s taken me much longer than I care to admit to view it as a strength.

I dove headfirst into YouTube again this year. I started uploading extremely sporadically in 2013, sometimes years in between uploads. I would tell myself, “This isn’t what my favorite filmmakers did to succeed so I have to follow a more traditional route if I’m ever supposed to be taken seriously as an artist.” I was so enamored with this more traditional route of filmmaking: write a short film, ask for money, submit to festivals, gain interest, get everyone to love my work, write a feature, get more money, win an Oscar. Boom, life done…but is it? Is that really how my story is supposed to go? At the end of 2023 after a fateful conversation with a fellow filmmaker, I had to learn to amplify a little voice in my head telling me what I really wanted to do. All those years spent learning how to write and edit, composite VFX, 3D modeling, carpentry, set building, stage rigging, 1st unit grip work, lighting, and sewing costumes all while dealing with the business of being an actor, are the exact things that set me apart and got me to where I’m at today. These things allow me to connect to the world only if I choose to embrace them.

Solo filmmaking. That’s what excites me. It allows me to take full ownership of my creative process from start to finish. I’ve spent all of 2024 so far using every single day to plan, write, act and edit films I produce completely on my own and upload to my YouTube channel. I get to refine my creative approach and everything I learn will only strengthen my abilities and bring me more confidence for my crewed productions. The trend I notice with fellow filmmakers is that we spend years upon years at times crafting the one short film that we feel will show the world who we really are and what we can do. We spend hundreds maybe thousands of dollars submitting to the biggest festivals after funneling thousands of our own money into the production, going broke, just for the opportunity to be seen and heard and to make it big. When that one moment doesn’t play out like we dreamed, discouragement sets in and we stop making movies…

I want people to know that you don’t have to follow this route. In this day and age there are so many avenues to get people to watch your films and you don’t have to spend tens of thousands or millions of dollars to make your movie. You don’t need expensive equipment or a large crews, you just need to start with your story and the courage to find a way to tell it with what you’ve already got. Sure Hollywood productions can be a goal, but you don’t go from A-Z by making one short film every 5 years. How about one short film a month for 5 years? Imagine the progress you’d make, the confidence you’d gain? I’m a big believer in the power of YouTube for filmmakers. It has challenges just like the traditional route and yes, you will still have failures along the way. The days are long, you will experience self-doubt, struggle to trust your ideas, work with no guarantee of reward, and ask yourself is it even worth your time to keep going. We all know these feelings that come with the territory, but they’re way easier to manage when you combat them with the consistency of doing. Don’t quit when things get hard, don’t let perfection be the enemy of your art, know that you have something to give to the world, and that your voice is just as important as the people who inspire you…even if it starts off a little quiet.

We all get the same 24 hours a day on this earth to spend and I no longer want to spend it waiting for opportunities that I know I can create myself. I’m using my YouTube channel to learn and grow as a filmmaker by actually making films. Have I reached the level of success that I want yet? No. Have my films been able to “move the needle”, to change people? I don’t know, but what I’m doing now sure beats the alternative of living a life not having tried and wondering what could have been. Make movies. Perform. Repeat.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
If my best friend were visiting LA and I wanted to give him the BEST time ever, we’d take things easy at first by going to go see a movie at the Burbank AMC, then grab subs at Ike’s Love and Sandwiches on San Fernando. We’d go back to my place, pack my truck, then head to Joshua Tree National Park for some bouldering, sport climbing routes, and camping for a few days. Then after we’re spent, I’d make us hit up Mount Baldy for a 7 hour, 11 mile hike to highest point in LA for some epic views. Next we drive east to the Mojave Desert and grab some epic pics traversing the Kelso Sand Dunes. Finally, to finish off the weeklong trip, we’d head back to the city, go to a K1 Speed for some go kart racing and cap things off by walking down the Venice Beach boardwalk to watch the sunset at the Santa Monica Pier. LA is one of the best places in the world to be a city guy and outdoors guy. You can be in the mountains or off the grid in an hour and I like to take advantage of that as much as I can.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
There are so many names that have inspired me over my creative journey but funnily enough one name keeps coming to mind and I have to tell the story…

It was a chilly November night in LA where I went to watch a friend perform a few new songs from her then upcoming album over at a music lounge. Every time I go to one of her shows, it’s a great place to catch up with all the various faces of our artsy friend groups. This one night I stood next to a tall guy with his girlfriend who I’d seen at various get togethers, but never really talked to. Somehow this tall man with an English accent and I got to talking about film and we quickly realized how much we both love the art form. I was in the middle of wrapping up an edit for my most recent short film so I was voicing a lot my inner thoughts and turmoils when he asked me about my favorite filmmaker. When I mentioned the name of this amazing auteur, the floodgates of film nerd-ery fully opened. Then he asked, “When was the last time a film made you feel icky?” I thought about things for a sec, gave him a name of a recent film and then he elaborated something to the likes of “the last film that really changed something inside of you”. I thought about it for a while…a long while…came up with some films that inspired me, but I knew that wasn’t what he was really getting at. I waxed on about how I want to make films like this auteur, to do what he did for me, but for others. Then what followed was the advice that sticks in my head to this day. He told me “You’ve already seen all his films, studied all his work, so you’ve learned what you had to learn. Now you’ve got to let that sh*t go.” As he continued speaking, I realized it was the first time in my filmmaking life someone gave me permission to find my own thing. I was so locked into following the exact path of the people who inspired me, I was blinded to the path that I needed to shape for myself and it all started with “letting that sh*t go”. I’m on my current creative pathway because of that one singular conversation in a lounge on a random November night in 2023.

That was the last time I saw him.

We agreed to keep in contact and I haven’t held up my end of that bargain yet, so he doesn’t even know how much weight that conversation has in my life. So here’s a huge shoutout to a fellow filmmaker for leading me to find my own voice and for opening up a desire within me to make something “icky”. Thank you Richard Rudy.

Website: https://iamsuperepic.com

Instagram: @superjbj

Youtube: https://youtube.com/@SuperEpicJBJ

Image Credits
Troy Prow
Joanna Dee