August 18, 2025 • 23 mins
In this special bonus episode of The Hollywood in Toto Podcast, we sit down with independent filmmaker Jonathan Fox and "Saturday Night Live" legend Victoria Jackson for a behind-the-scenes look at their latest collaboration, "Boardwalk Winter."
From hilarious on-set hijinks to unexpected production challenges, this candid conversation pulls back the curtain on the creative chaos that fuels indie film success. Jackson opens up about her comeback from a serious injury, proving her legendary resilience and dedication to the craft. Fox reveals how Jackson’s perseverance helped keep the film production on schedule, and the duo teases their exciting upcoming project that fans won’t want to miss.
Whether you're a fan of indie cinema, classic 'SNL' comedy, or stories of Hollywood grit and determination, this episode delivers insight, inspiration, and laughs. 👉 Subscribe now and don’t miss this unforgettable bonus interview on The Hollywood in Toto Podcast — where pop culture meets independent spirit.
--------------------------
'Boardwalk Winter' - https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/boardwalk-winter
Subscribe to HiT's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@HollywoodinToto
Read Hollywood in Toto - https://www.hollywoodintoto.com
Lend a hand: Leave a tip! https://hollywood-in-toto.ck.page/products/hollywood-in-toto-tip-jar
Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/HollywoodInToto
Read: "Virtue Bombs: How Hollywood Got Woke and Lost Its Soul" https://www.amazon.com/Virtue-Bombs-Hollywood-Woke-Lost/dp/1637580991
From hilarious on-set hijinks to unexpected production challenges, this candid conversation pulls back the curtain on the creative chaos that fuels indie film success. Jackson opens up about her comeback from a serious injury, proving her legendary resilience and dedication to the craft. Fox reveals how Jackson’s perseverance helped keep the film production on schedule, and the duo teases their exciting upcoming project that fans won’t want to miss.
Whether you're a fan of indie cinema, classic 'SNL' comedy, or stories of Hollywood grit and determination, this episode delivers insight, inspiration, and laughs. 👉 Subscribe now and don’t miss this unforgettable bonus interview on The Hollywood in Toto Podcast — where pop culture meets independent spirit.
--------------------------
'Boardwalk Winter' - https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/boardwalk-winter
Subscribe to HiT's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@HollywoodinToto
Read Hollywood in Toto - https://www.hollywoodintoto.com
Lend a hand: Leave a tip! https://hollywood-in-toto.ck.page/products/hollywood-in-toto-tip-jar
Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/HollywoodInToto
Read: "Virtue Bombs: How Hollywood Got Woke and Lost Its Soul" https://www.amazon.com/Virtue-Bombs-Hollywood-Woke-Lost/dp/1637580991
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Indie filmmakers have my complete respect. I mean, think about it.
They get paid a fraction of a fraction of a
fraction of what the big stars make, and of course
they will do anything humanly possible to get that one
last shot just right.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
It's not over until you say that's a wrap.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
They max out their credit cards, they call in favor
after favor, you name it. They'll do it just to
make sure that their vision gets on screen. And if
even more than that, a lot of times indie filmmakers
have to kind of improvise on the fly. Things go
wrong on the set, happens all the time. They've got
to figure out what to do on the spot, otherwise
they could lose what little budget they have at that
(00:38):
very moment. Just tons and tons of pressure. But they
do it because they love it and that's amazing. But
of course, along the way, they would like it if
a star would read the scripting question and say, yeah,
I'd like to make that movie, that makes their job
so much easier. I admire your work and feel really
lucky to have you as a part of this production.
(01:00):
And that was the case with Victoria Jackson. She read
a script by writer director Jonathan Fox and said, yeah,
I'd like to do that movie. The movie in question
is called board Walk Winter. It's a story about a
young woman who gets a terrible diagnosis, but she's not
going to give up, and she might even try to
find one last love. Tell me about your last two
short a small talk, then that's get uncomfortable.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
A vegan and a crossfitter walk in two bar but
neither of them can get a word in because I'm
already in there telling everyone that I am dying.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
How are you seeing parents?
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Will she find the man of her dreams? Well, you
have to wait and see and check out this charming movie, which,
by the way, is on video on demand platforms right now. Well.
I talked to Jonathan and Victoria about their time working
together some of the hardshifts they faced alone the way,
and turns out that Victoria Jackson is a trooper. Not
only did she suffer through some interesting experiences in her
(01:55):
hotel room, but she really did prove the adage the
show must go on is one of a kind.
Speaker 3 (02:01):
I think that's the truth.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
So hope you enjoy the conversation with Jonathan Fox and
Victoria Jackson about their new movie, board Walk Winter. Available
right now. I know I did, and they got another
behind the scenes look at why indie filmmaking is so special,
so rare, and how committed the people are behind the
scenes to make it all possible. My hat's off to them. Well,
thank you Victoria and Jonathan for joining the show. I
(02:25):
want to start with Jonathan. We all know Victoria and
I have known her for quite some time. Love her
work obviously, but you're an up and coming filmmaker in
the indie ranks. Kind of a bootstrap kind of a process,
which I absolutely love of me. It's just people who
just do it because they enjoy the process and they
just get it done by any by any means. I
love that sort of attitude. But tell me a little
(02:46):
bit about how you got involved with filmmaking, Jonathan. We'll
get into the film.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
Sure. Yeah, I have a bit of an interesting way
of getting into it. I worked in the white collar
industry for the last you know, fifteen years or so,
also in the Virginia Army National Guard, and I came
from the Virginia Military Institute, went right into you know,
doing brokerages and banking and all that kind of stuff,
(03:13):
and also did the military on the side, and I
got to a point where in the in the army
they told me go get a master's degree so you
can get promoted. And I'm like, all right, well, my
industry doesn't care about master's degrees. I don't know what
to get it in. And They're like, get in anything
you want to get it in. It doesn't matter to us.
Just get the piece of paper. So I looked for
(03:35):
something that you know, I'd be passionate about, I would enjoy,
and I found the screenwriting program at Regent University locally
and got into filmmaking kind of from there and just
fell in love with it. And it really fit a
lot of the skills and the creative things that I've
been doing on the side for years, and and like
you said, just kind of boots trapped my way into
(03:56):
it and kind of love forced things to happen.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
It was maybe it was meant to be, but you
gave it a little nudge at the same time. Now
with Boardwalk Winter, did you originally have a role in
mind for Victoria? How did the collaboration take place with
that on that end?
Speaker 2 (04:10):
Yeah, Well, it helps a lot to write a part
for for an actor that that is a huge advantage.
At the start, I did not write it thinking of Victoria,
but sort of a character that I knew she could fill.
Once I I saw a trailer of a movie she
was in, and I instantly knew, this is this is
(04:32):
missus Kellogg. She has to play this character. And then
I got together with Victoria and we just kind of
mold over who this character was, how she wanted to
play it, combined a lot of her thoughts, a lot
of her acting skills into it. Rewrote some of the
dialogue with her, so it kind of fit better, and
it really became a new character, and it really came
(04:54):
became her character.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
Gotcha and Victoria, When you have a character like this, uh,
what do you What's what you're thinking? How do you
prepare for it? What do you want to bring something
different to the project? What the how are you going
to approach it? Because you've got you know, I've got
years of experience. You're you're you know this is a
young filmmaker on the rise, and you're you're you have
(05:16):
all this wisdom behind you. Talk about your face.
Speaker 4 (05:19):
Well, I had quite a stretch because I had to
play an older woman, and that's very hard for me
because I'm so young, but I'm an.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
Act ex true, she's getting younger every day too.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
Yes, I am, And my acting range is like eighteen
to sixty nine, so I just don't I tapped into
my age sixty nine and and uh, I think I
pulled it off.
Speaker 1 (05:56):
The main character is Fern, and obviously she's got a
pre significant but there's a lot of humor here. Some
of it's a little dark, a little bleak, some of
it's certainly effervescent. Jonathan, talk about sort of why you
went in this direction or what appealed to you about
this particular story.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
Yeah, well, the story kind of began when I was
jogging on the boardwalk near my house and I came
across this little hotel is like three stories high. I
had a little ice cream shop in the bottom of it.
It was adorable, but it struck me because it was
(06:33):
it was sandwiched in between these two high riser, sort
of corporate style hotels along this giant boardwalk, and it
just it shocked me a little bit that this thing
still existed. And I thought, man, the audacity of this
thing to still sit here on this beach all these years,
(06:53):
and you know, amongst these huge buildings, and I started
thinking what kind of a character would live there, kind
of a person would live there? And so the location
kind of started the thought process, and it naturally led
into this sort of an underdog sort of a story
where this person has this diagnosis and the world seems
(07:14):
to be kind of crowding over her and she's trying
to figure out what to do to kind of last.
And I knew instantly had to be kind of a
I didn't want it to be another cancer story, just
another you know, six story, So I wanted to be
all about that hope. And like this this little building
stands for something. It's it's there to stay, it's it's adorable,
(07:39):
it has character, and it's not going to give into
the world and become something different that it shouldn't be.
And I thought that this Ferm character could be that
and and I think it played out really well, kind
of balancing that darkness that you mentioned in the humor
and and and always staying hopeful.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
Yeah. Yeah, Jonathan, you mentioned via email the budget the
film is that's you can you want to talk about it?
You okay with that? Sure?
Speaker 2 (08:02):
Yeah? Yeah, yeah, we shot it go ahead, good, Yeah,
we shot it for about one hundred thousand dollars and
we all sell financed. Yeah, so we were squeezing, that's
for sure.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
Now in that squeezing process, and I'm sure Victoria can
tell you this as well. Sometimes magic happens, Sometimes accidents happen.
Sometimes you think, well, we can't do this, but perhaps
if we improvise and go in that direction and then
it ends up being even better than you ever thought about.
Can you talk about some of the sort of the
hardships and the and the celebrations you both had on set,
things that just worked out maybe after a little bit
(08:35):
of a creativity and ingenuity.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
Yeah, that's absolutely the way it is. I Victoria can
probably speak to this too. She's now shot two movies
with us with the same crew. But you you get
together with a crew that's sort of skin and bones crew.
It's it's a bunch of indie filmmakers who are very
passionate about making the movie because I know they're not
(09:01):
getting paid a ton of money for this, and none
of us were, but we made it for a different reason.
You kind of come together and you rally and it's
just a different team atmosphere than a big you know,
multimillion dollar set would be. And you're right, everybody kind
of has to step in and maybe step outside of
their lane once in a while and help out here
and there and problem solve constantly.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
Now, Victoria, you've been on big productions, you've been on
smaller sets, Kinna, you run the gamut. Any reflections on
this particular film.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
Well, I had so much fun, and I think Jonathan
is kind of a genius. And the script was very poetic.
To me, it was and and it was kind of
I love dark comedy. It was it was a romance.
It was a rom com, you know, but but you know,
(09:57):
it addresses issues like death and very poetically. I thought
the title was poetic. But anyway, we're working on a
low budget. Was wonderful because Jonathan's wife filled eight departments.
He was wardrobe, she was catering, she was the driver,
(10:20):
she was and it was beautiful to watch a husband
and wife team working together like that. That was the
most rom com thing of the whole rom com. To
see his family and his children and everybody just it
was so loving and I think he cast it really well.
(10:41):
I have a very small role. The other actors did
a great job, but I don't know what was the
question again?
Speaker 1 (10:52):
No, I mean you kind of just answered it so fine. Actually,
you know, I want to mention another actor. Eric Roberts,
has become almost the patron saint of indie filmmaker filmmaking.
He does a ton of movies each year, and because
he's such a name, you know, an established star, someone
who we've seen for decades, it brings some gravitas and
(11:12):
it brings some cloud to films that maybe sometimes don't
have them even though it's no you know, no fault
of the films themselves. I feel like in a way,
you know, you're helping that here where you know you've
been around for a long time, people know you, people
love your work, and then when they see you attached
to a project, Oh, Victory Jackson, I love her. I'll
check this out. I mean, can you talk about what
that means to a film like this? And the film
(11:35):
itself is charming and wonderful, but people at first glance
may not know the actors as well as others, and
then they see your name.
Speaker 3 (11:42):
Well, I would like to say that I found out
a couple of years ago how hard it is to
make a movie because I've got my master's in film
and I could never do what he pulled off. But
I found out in college that if you get a
celebrity name of it helps you sell it. So I
was like, oh, that's why he wants me, and uh
(12:08):
and you're.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
Good, You're good.
Speaker 5 (12:09):
Well, well, personally why I have cancer and I'm old,
I don't I'm not in the game anymore.
Speaker 3 (12:20):
So when he found me, which was kind of a
divine appointment because I never answer calls from strange numbers,
and on my IMDb I had my husband's number because
I don't really have a manager anymore. I sort of
have an agent who never sends me out much. Uh
(12:40):
so what that's always the case, but anyway, yeah, so,
so the fact that he would risk working with a
woman in active cancer treatment was to me personally awesome
because then I not to take my mind off of
(13:02):
all the boring medical stuff and do what I love.
So he gave me a huge gift. So he basically
gave me more of a gift than I gave them
by having a no name.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
Well, that's very sweet to say. I've been a huge
fan since I was a kid. I grew up watching
reruns of SNL on Comedy Central and always remembered hearing
Victoria Jackson, you know, and her name announced every time,
and big UHF fan watched out a million times as
a kid too, Just so when I saw her in
(13:40):
a movie, Charlie, I think it was for a Christmas movie.
I think he had a small part in that too,
but I saw her and I'm like, oh, yes, Victoria Jackson,
She's perfect for this role. And I'm so glad that
she didn't answer my call and call me back. And
we've had an interesting adventure too, if I could speak
just for a second on her cancer issue as well.
(14:00):
We actually didn't know when we were shooting Boardwalk Winter
yet that you had cancer. You didn't know yet. I
think you found out afterwards. And then we did shoot
another movie when we completely knew that you had cancer.
But we had another crazy health scare right before the
movie started. I remember Victoria sending me an email, I think,
(14:23):
and she's like, I broke my ankle falling down a
hill at my daughter's farm, and you know, I'm in
surgery on Monday or something, and I'm like, oh no,
I'm like I'm freaking out. In my mind. I'm like thinking,
who do I know who can I call to fill
this role really fast? But we talked and one of
(14:46):
the first things she said to me was, I've never
missed a gig and I'm not about to miss one now.
And she said she's having the surgery on Monday, and
she's going to be on the plane on Tuesday. And
absolutely showed up with a boot on her foot and
we got her a walker and we just kind of
built that into the character and it actually assisted the
(15:09):
roller really well. But to her credit, even for our
tiny little film, she suffered through a lot of pain
and traveled with a broken a newly broken ankle to
be in this movie.
Speaker 3 (15:22):
Here's a funny story. Yeah, Donathan got me a great
room in that little building he's talking about that survives
even though big new things are going around it. And
I had an ocean view and it was a great
room to be healing in because it was little. I
(15:43):
was taking baths with my boot sticking out of the bathtub.
She can't get it wet. I had lots of pain pills,
which is great. But my one funny story is in
the middle of the night I heard and it was
a rat in the wall.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
Oh and so low.
Speaker 3 (16:05):
Bunchet movies, you get surprises like that. It did it
for a long long time, and then I told them
next movie, I want a different room.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
And she didn't leave though. Yeah, that's true. We did
get her a new room for the next.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
It's such a diva. Victoria's a diva.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
You know.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
When you think about the money spent on this film
and the fact that it looks beautiful. It's a feature film,
you can't you know, you couldn't guess the budget by
watching it. It's just remarkable. And yet we're also in
a time where there's so much noise and product in
the marketplace. Jonathan, for you, is it intimidating and promising
all at once? I mean, how do you view, you know,
(16:42):
entering the filmmaking field now, given all the competition but
all the opportunity at the same time.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
Wow, Yeah, that's that is a good question. It's a
very very strange marketplace right now. It absolutely is. They
talk about our audience is having TikTok brains where they
can't pay attention to something longer than three to five seconds,
and if you don't hook them in three to five seconds,
(17:09):
you don't have them.
Speaker 3 (17:11):
So it is.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
It is a weird thing to think about filming in
this era. But I thought from the very beginning I
needed to separate myself as a screenwriter and as a storyteller.
And I'm very Christian myself my personal beliefs. I know
Victoria very much is as well. And we've talked about
this a little bit too, Victoria. Where this film isn't
(17:34):
an overtly Christian film. There's plenty of that out there
and there's a great marketplace for that, and preaching to
the choir isn't a bad thing. The choir goes to
church to be fed too. But I wanted to kind
of reach outside of that faith based market to appeal
to a wide audience. So I would kind of call
my filmmaking values based, and so I wanted to have
(17:58):
a really good message about that it's never ever too
late in your life to make positive changes. Even if
you're you have a terminal diagnosis, you don't have much
time left, there's always something you can do.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
It's always hope. It's always hope.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
In every scenario in your life. And I hope that
at least if people give it a little try, or
you know, word of mouth would get out there that
this is an inspiring, uplifting movie that's also funny and
feels more mainstream than most face, most faith based films do.
I would hope that it would resonate and rise above
(18:40):
the thousands and thousands of streaming movies now that that
it is hard to kind of get into. But and
then hopefully you know, Victoria's face, name and her laugh
and everything will help bring it out too. And and
that's that nostalgia for for better actors and a better times.
Speaker 1 (18:59):
On me real quickly. I know I want to focus
mostly on this film, but you have another project that
you've worked together on. Can you give us a little
teas about what that is? And it?
Speaker 2 (19:06):
Yeah, absolutely, yeah. I threw my Icebros. Shirt on today
here it's that's the next movie. It's called Ice Bros.
And after working with Victoria on Boardwalk Winter, I knew
I had to write something specifically for her and give
her a much bigger part. And she was so gracious
(19:27):
and willing to do it, and even in all of
her health scares and conditions and everything, and like I said,
she's getting younger and healthier every day. She says all
the time online. You know, people don't believe that she's
even sick because she's out doing handstands in Greece and everything.
And so anyway, I wrote this story for her and
two of the other actors that were in Boardwalk Winter
(19:47):
that I just loved working with, and I thought they
were hilarious smaller parts as well in Boardwalk Winter. So
the story is Icebro It's about two young idiots who
started business driving the fish around town. It's kind of
a dumb and Dumber style comedy, and they get involved
with the mafia, and eventually the mafia convinces them to
(20:08):
dump a body bag a dead body somewhere eight hours away,
and while they're on their road trip, the person and
the body bag wakes up and it's Victoria and now
these two idiots have to figure out what to do
with her. So it was a blast. It was so
fun to film.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
Is there an estimated release or that too too soon
to say.
Speaker 2 (20:29):
I've got a rough cut put together now, so we've
got a lot of postworks still to do. But I'm
hoping next spring would be a great time to get
that out. I think I think that might be a
good schedule for us.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
Yeah, already, before I let you both go, I want
to ask Victoria, I mean, just giving your work in
comedy over the decades. We're in such a curious time
right now. I feel like we're allowed to laugh again,
some of the unwritten rules again saying certain jokes are
falling away. Stand up comedy is booming right now. I mean,
this is your lifeblood. What's your take on where we
(21:01):
are from a cultural point of view when it comes
to comedy these days.
Speaker 3 (21:04):
I think people got really mad about the woke agenda,
and the pendulum is swinging back and people are a
celebrating freedom of speech again.
Speaker 1 (21:18):
It's about time, I imagine.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
I think it's been a fearful thing. I think that
even good comedians now, even when they're writing stuff that's
not woke, they're trying so hard to be safe. Yeah,
and you can't be safe when you're writing comedy. You
just have to let the comedy flow and if you
think it's funny, someone else will too. But too many
(21:42):
people are sitting there tapping at the keyboard and they
probably hit delete and like, I don't know, that might
offend somebody, so they rewrite the joke and then it's
not a joke anymore, and so you lose all the
comedy and all the heart in your movie.
Speaker 3 (21:54):
Yeah, gotcha.
Speaker 1 (21:55):
Well, I thank you again for both of you for
joining the conversation, for making this movie. Of course, it's
board Winter. It's it's all available right now on video
on demand platforms. That means like iTunes, Google, Amazon, where
you get your video on demand titles. You can find
it right there. So do hope you check it out.
It is fun. It is funny at times given the
even though the somber subject matter may not seem that way,
(22:17):
but it really has a sense of life and vibrancy
to it. But again, thank you so much, Victoria. Treat
to talk to you and hope you're feeling better soon.
I hope things are working out there. But so glad
the two of you found each other. What a great collaboration.
It sounds like you've made each of your others lives
even brighter.
Speaker 2 (22:33):
Thank you, Christian, I really appreciate you.
Speaker 1 (22:35):
Well, it's it for this week's bonus episode. Again, thank
you to Jonathan Victoria for sharing their time and talking
about Boardwalk Winter. And we'll have your attention. Well, I
hope you'll check out Hollywoodintoto dot com. It's my website
updated seven days a week. Also want you to kind
of head on over to our YouTube channel. We've got
a series called Short on Hollywood Again. It's a short
under a minute long, and it's kind of a snarky
(22:57):
look at the latest entertainment headlines. It is a little
bit right up center like the show. It is a
little bit silly, not quite like the show, but once
in a while we get silly here. But overall it's
just fun. It's different, it's fresh. I think you're gonna
like it. And if you didn't, well you didn't hear
from me. Singer Katy Perry is spotted on a date
with former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. The singer insists
(23:18):
they're just friends, adding she's conflicted about interracial dating. But
that's all for now. I hope everyone has a wonderful day,
a wonderful week. Doctor's Orders
Indie filmmakers have my complete respect. I mean, think about it.
They get paid a fraction of a fraction of a
fraction of what the big stars make, and of course
they will do anything humanly possible to get that one
last shot just right.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
It's not over until you say that's a wrap.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
They max out their credit cards, they call in favor
after favor, you name it. They'll do it just to
make sure that their vision gets on screen. And if
even more than that, a lot of times indie filmmakers
have to kind of improvise on the fly. Things go
wrong on the set, happens all the time. They've got
to figure out what to do on the spot, otherwise
they could lose what little budget they have at that
(00:38):
very moment. Just tons and tons of pressure. But they
do it because they love it and that's amazing. But
of course, along the way, they would like it if
a star would read the scripting question and say, yeah,
I'd like to make that movie, that makes their job
so much easier. I admire your work and feel really
lucky to have you as a part of this production.
(01:00):
And that was the case with Victoria Jackson. She read
a script by writer director Jonathan Fox and said, yeah,
I'd like to do that movie. The movie in question
is called board Walk Winter. It's a story about a
young woman who gets a terrible diagnosis, but she's not
going to give up, and she might even try to
find one last love. Tell me about your last two
short a small talk, then that's get uncomfortable.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
A vegan and a crossfitter walk in two bar but
neither of them can get a word in because I'm
already in there telling everyone that I am dying.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
How are you seeing parents?
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Will she find the man of her dreams? Well, you
have to wait and see and check out this charming movie, which,
by the way, is on video on demand platforms right now. Well.
I talked to Jonathan and Victoria about their time working
together some of the hardshifts they faced alone the way,
and turns out that Victoria Jackson is a trooper. Not
only did she suffer through some interesting experiences in her
(01:55):
hotel room, but she really did prove the adage the
show must go on is one of a kind.
Speaker 3 (02:01):
I think that's the truth.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
So hope you enjoy the conversation with Jonathan Fox and
Victoria Jackson about their new movie, board Walk Winter. Available
right now. I know I did, and they got another
behind the scenes look at why indie filmmaking is so special,
so rare, and how committed the people are behind the
scenes to make it all possible. My hat's off to them. Well,
thank you Victoria and Jonathan for joining the show. I
(02:25):
want to start with Jonathan. We all know Victoria and
I have known her for quite some time. Love her
work obviously, but you're an up and coming filmmaker in
the indie ranks. Kind of a bootstrap kind of a process,
which I absolutely love of me. It's just people who
just do it because they enjoy the process and they
just get it done by any by any means. I
love that sort of attitude. But tell me a little
(02:46):
bit about how you got involved with filmmaking, Jonathan. We'll
get into the film.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
Sure. Yeah, I have a bit of an interesting way
of getting into it. I worked in the white collar
industry for the last you know, fifteen years or so,
also in the Virginia Army National Guard, and I came
from the Virginia Military Institute, went right into you know,
doing brokerages and banking and all that kind of stuff,
(03:13):
and also did the military on the side, and I
got to a point where in the in the army
they told me go get a master's degree so you
can get promoted. And I'm like, all right, well, my
industry doesn't care about master's degrees. I don't know what
to get it in. And They're like, get in anything
you want to get it in. It doesn't matter to us.
Just get the piece of paper. So I looked for
(03:35):
something that you know, I'd be passionate about, I would enjoy,
and I found the screenwriting program at Regent University locally
and got into filmmaking kind of from there and just
fell in love with it. And it really fit a
lot of the skills and the creative things that I've
been doing on the side for years, and and like
you said, just kind of boots trapped my way into
(03:56):
it and kind of love forced things to happen.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
It was maybe it was meant to be, but you
gave it a little nudge at the same time. Now
with Boardwalk Winter, did you originally have a role in
mind for Victoria? How did the collaboration take place with
that on that end?
Speaker 2 (04:10):
Yeah, Well, it helps a lot to write a part
for for an actor that that is a huge advantage.
At the start, I did not write it thinking of Victoria,
but sort of a character that I knew she could fill.
Once I I saw a trailer of a movie she
was in, and I instantly knew, this is this is
(04:32):
missus Kellogg. She has to play this character. And then
I got together with Victoria and we just kind of
mold over who this character was, how she wanted to
play it, combined a lot of her thoughts, a lot
of her acting skills into it. Rewrote some of the
dialogue with her, so it kind of fit better, and
it really became a new character, and it really came
(04:54):
became her character.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
Gotcha and Victoria, When you have a character like this, uh,
what do you What's what you're thinking? How do you
prepare for it? What do you want to bring something
different to the project? What the how are you going
to approach it? Because you've got you know, I've got
years of experience. You're you're you know this is a
young filmmaker on the rise, and you're you're you have
(05:16):
all this wisdom behind you. Talk about your face.
Speaker 4 (05:19):
Well, I had quite a stretch because I had to
play an older woman, and that's very hard for me
because I'm so young, but I'm an.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
Act ex true, she's getting younger every day too.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
Yes, I am, And my acting range is like eighteen
to sixty nine, so I just don't I tapped into
my age sixty nine and and uh, I think I
pulled it off.
Speaker 1 (05:56):
The main character is Fern, and obviously she's got a
pre significant but there's a lot of humor here. Some
of it's a little dark, a little bleak, some of
it's certainly effervescent. Jonathan, talk about sort of why you
went in this direction or what appealed to you about
this particular story.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
Yeah, well, the story kind of began when I was
jogging on the boardwalk near my house and I came
across this little hotel is like three stories high. I
had a little ice cream shop in the bottom of it.
It was adorable, but it struck me because it was
(06:33):
it was sandwiched in between these two high riser, sort
of corporate style hotels along this giant boardwalk, and it
just it shocked me a little bit that this thing
still existed. And I thought, man, the audacity of this
thing to still sit here on this beach all these years,
(06:53):
and you know, amongst these huge buildings, and I started
thinking what kind of a character would live there, kind
of a person would live there? And so the location
kind of started the thought process, and it naturally led
into this sort of an underdog sort of a story
where this person has this diagnosis and the world seems
(07:14):
to be kind of crowding over her and she's trying
to figure out what to do to kind of last.
And I knew instantly had to be kind of a
I didn't want it to be another cancer story, just
another you know, six story, So I wanted to be
all about that hope. And like this this little building
stands for something. It's it's there to stay, it's it's adorable,
(07:39):
it has character, and it's not going to give into
the world and become something different that it shouldn't be.
And I thought that this Ferm character could be that
and and I think it played out really well, kind
of balancing that darkness that you mentioned in the humor
and and and always staying hopeful.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
Yeah. Yeah, Jonathan, you mentioned via email the budget the
film is that's you can you want to talk about it?
You okay with that? Sure?
Speaker 2 (08:02):
Yeah? Yeah, yeah, we shot it go ahead, good, Yeah,
we shot it for about one hundred thousand dollars and
we all sell financed. Yeah, so we were squeezing, that's
for sure.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
Now in that squeezing process, and I'm sure Victoria can
tell you this as well. Sometimes magic happens, Sometimes accidents happen.
Sometimes you think, well, we can't do this, but perhaps
if we improvise and go in that direction and then
it ends up being even better than you ever thought about.
Can you talk about some of the sort of the
hardships and the and the celebrations you both had on set,
things that just worked out maybe after a little bit
(08:35):
of a creativity and ingenuity.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
Yeah, that's absolutely the way it is. I Victoria can
probably speak to this too. She's now shot two movies
with us with the same crew. But you you get
together with a crew that's sort of skin and bones crew.
It's it's a bunch of indie filmmakers who are very
passionate about making the movie because I know they're not
(09:01):
getting paid a ton of money for this, and none
of us were, but we made it for a different reason.
You kind of come together and you rally and it's
just a different team atmosphere than a big you know,
multimillion dollar set would be. And you're right, everybody kind
of has to step in and maybe step outside of
their lane once in a while and help out here
and there and problem solve constantly.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
Now, Victoria, you've been on big productions, you've been on
smaller sets, Kinna, you run the gamut. Any reflections on
this particular film.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
Well, I had so much fun, and I think Jonathan
is kind of a genius. And the script was very poetic.
To me, it was and and it was kind of
I love dark comedy. It was it was a romance.
It was a rom com, you know, but but you know,
(09:57):
it addresses issues like death and very poetically. I thought
the title was poetic. But anyway, we're working on a
low budget. Was wonderful because Jonathan's wife filled eight departments.
He was wardrobe, she was catering, she was the driver,
(10:20):
she was and it was beautiful to watch a husband
and wife team working together like that. That was the
most rom com thing of the whole rom com. To
see his family and his children and everybody just it
was so loving and I think he cast it really well.
(10:41):
I have a very small role. The other actors did
a great job, but I don't know what was the
question again?
Speaker 1 (10:52):
No, I mean you kind of just answered it so fine. Actually,
you know, I want to mention another actor. Eric Roberts,
has become almost the patron saint of indie filmmaker filmmaking.
He does a ton of movies each year, and because
he's such a name, you know, an established star, someone
who we've seen for decades, it brings some gravitas and
(11:12):
it brings some cloud to films that maybe sometimes don't
have them even though it's no you know, no fault
of the films themselves. I feel like in a way,
you know, you're helping that here where you know you've
been around for a long time, people know you, people
love your work, and then when they see you attached
to a project, Oh, Victory Jackson, I love her. I'll
check this out. I mean, can you talk about what
that means to a film like this? And the film
(11:35):
itself is charming and wonderful, but people at first glance
may not know the actors as well as others, and
then they see your name.
Speaker 3 (11:42):
Well, I would like to say that I found out
a couple of years ago how hard it is to
make a movie because I've got my master's in film
and I could never do what he pulled off. But
I found out in college that if you get a
celebrity name of it helps you sell it. So I
was like, oh, that's why he wants me, and uh
(12:08):
and you're.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
Good, You're good.
Speaker 5 (12:09):
Well, well, personally why I have cancer and I'm old,
I don't I'm not in the game anymore.
Speaker 3 (12:20):
So when he found me, which was kind of a
divine appointment because I never answer calls from strange numbers,
and on my IMDb I had my husband's number because
I don't really have a manager anymore. I sort of
have an agent who never sends me out much. Uh
(12:40):
so what that's always the case, but anyway, yeah, so,
so the fact that he would risk working with a
woman in active cancer treatment was to me personally awesome
because then I not to take my mind off of
(13:02):
all the boring medical stuff and do what I love.
So he gave me a huge gift. So he basically
gave me more of a gift than I gave them
by having a no name.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
Well, that's very sweet to say. I've been a huge
fan since I was a kid. I grew up watching
reruns of SNL on Comedy Central and always remembered hearing
Victoria Jackson, you know, and her name announced every time,
and big UHF fan watched out a million times as
a kid too, Just so when I saw her in
(13:40):
a movie, Charlie, I think it was for a Christmas movie.
I think he had a small part in that too,
but I saw her and I'm like, oh, yes, Victoria Jackson,
She's perfect for this role. And I'm so glad that
she didn't answer my call and call me back. And
we've had an interesting adventure too, if I could speak
just for a second on her cancer issue as well.
(14:00):
We actually didn't know when we were shooting Boardwalk Winter
yet that you had cancer. You didn't know yet. I
think you found out afterwards. And then we did shoot
another movie when we completely knew that you had cancer.
But we had another crazy health scare right before the
movie started. I remember Victoria sending me an email, I think,
(14:23):
and she's like, I broke my ankle falling down a
hill at my daughter's farm, and you know, I'm in
surgery on Monday or something, and I'm like, oh no,
I'm like I'm freaking out. In my mind. I'm like thinking,
who do I know who can I call to fill
this role really fast? But we talked and one of
(14:46):
the first things she said to me was, I've never
missed a gig and I'm not about to miss one now.
And she said she's having the surgery on Monday, and
she's going to be on the plane on Tuesday. And
absolutely showed up with a boot on her foot and
we got her a walker and we just kind of
built that into the character and it actually assisted the
(15:09):
roller really well. But to her credit, even for our
tiny little film, she suffered through a lot of pain
and traveled with a broken a newly broken ankle to
be in this movie.
Speaker 3 (15:22):
Here's a funny story. Yeah, Donathan got me a great
room in that little building he's talking about that survives
even though big new things are going around it. And
I had an ocean view and it was a great
room to be healing in because it was little. I
(15:43):
was taking baths with my boot sticking out of the bathtub.
She can't get it wet. I had lots of pain pills,
which is great. But my one funny story is in
the middle of the night I heard and it was
a rat in the wall.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
Oh and so low.
Speaker 3 (16:05):
Bunchet movies, you get surprises like that. It did it
for a long long time, and then I told them
next movie, I want a different room.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
And she didn't leave though. Yeah, that's true. We did
get her a new room for the next.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
It's such a diva. Victoria's a diva.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
You know.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
When you think about the money spent on this film
and the fact that it looks beautiful. It's a feature film,
you can't you know, you couldn't guess the budget by
watching it. It's just remarkable. And yet we're also in
a time where there's so much noise and product in
the marketplace. Jonathan, for you, is it intimidating and promising
all at once? I mean, how do you view, you know,
(16:42):
entering the filmmaking field now, given all the competition but
all the opportunity at the same time.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
Wow, Yeah, that's that is a good question. It's a
very very strange marketplace right now. It absolutely is. They
talk about our audience is having TikTok brains where they
can't pay attention to something longer than three to five seconds,
and if you don't hook them in three to five seconds,
(17:09):
you don't have them.
Speaker 3 (17:11):
So it is.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
It is a weird thing to think about filming in
this era. But I thought from the very beginning I
needed to separate myself as a screenwriter and as a storyteller.
And I'm very Christian myself my personal beliefs. I know
Victoria very much is as well. And we've talked about
this a little bit too, Victoria. Where this film isn't
(17:34):
an overtly Christian film. There's plenty of that out there
and there's a great marketplace for that, and preaching to
the choir isn't a bad thing. The choir goes to
church to be fed too. But I wanted to kind
of reach outside of that faith based market to appeal
to a wide audience. So I would kind of call
my filmmaking values based, and so I wanted to have
(17:58):
a really good message about that it's never ever too
late in your life to make positive changes. Even if
you're you have a terminal diagnosis, you don't have much
time left, there's always something you can do.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
It's always hope. It's always hope.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
In every scenario in your life. And I hope that
at least if people give it a little try, or
you know, word of mouth would get out there that
this is an inspiring, uplifting movie that's also funny and
feels more mainstream than most face, most faith based films do.
I would hope that it would resonate and rise above
(18:40):
the thousands and thousands of streaming movies now that that
it is hard to kind of get into. But and
then hopefully you know, Victoria's face, name and her laugh
and everything will help bring it out too. And and
that's that nostalgia for for better actors and a better times.
Speaker 1 (18:59):
On me real quickly. I know I want to focus
mostly on this film, but you have another project that
you've worked together on. Can you give us a little
teas about what that is? And it?
Speaker 2 (19:06):
Yeah, absolutely, yeah. I threw my Icebros. Shirt on today
here it's that's the next movie. It's called Ice Bros.
And after working with Victoria on Boardwalk Winter, I knew
I had to write something specifically for her and give
her a much bigger part. And she was so gracious
(19:27):
and willing to do it, and even in all of
her health scares and conditions and everything, and like I said,
she's getting younger and healthier every day. She says all
the time online. You know, people don't believe that she's
even sick because she's out doing handstands in Greece and everything.
And so anyway, I wrote this story for her and
two of the other actors that were in Boardwalk Winter
(19:47):
that I just loved working with, and I thought they
were hilarious smaller parts as well in Boardwalk Winter. So
the story is Icebro It's about two young idiots who
started business driving the fish around town. It's kind of
a dumb and Dumber style comedy, and they get involved
with the mafia, and eventually the mafia convinces them to
(20:08):
dump a body bag a dead body somewhere eight hours away,
and while they're on their road trip, the person and
the body bag wakes up and it's Victoria and now
these two idiots have to figure out what to do
with her. So it was a blast. It was so
fun to film.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
Is there an estimated release or that too too soon
to say.
Speaker 2 (20:29):
I've got a rough cut put together now, so we've
got a lot of postworks still to do. But I'm
hoping next spring would be a great time to get
that out. I think I think that might be a
good schedule for us.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
Yeah, already, before I let you both go, I want
to ask Victoria, I mean, just giving your work in
comedy over the decades. We're in such a curious time
right now. I feel like we're allowed to laugh again,
some of the unwritten rules again saying certain jokes are
falling away. Stand up comedy is booming right now. I mean,
this is your lifeblood. What's your take on where we
(21:01):
are from a cultural point of view when it comes
to comedy these days.
Speaker 3 (21:04):
I think people got really mad about the woke agenda,
and the pendulum is swinging back and people are a
celebrating freedom of speech again.
Speaker 1 (21:18):
It's about time, I imagine.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
I think it's been a fearful thing. I think that
even good comedians now, even when they're writing stuff that's
not woke, they're trying so hard to be safe. Yeah,
and you can't be safe when you're writing comedy. You
just have to let the comedy flow and if you
think it's funny, someone else will too. But too many
(21:42):
people are sitting there tapping at the keyboard and they
probably hit delete and like, I don't know, that might
offend somebody, so they rewrite the joke and then it's
not a joke anymore, and so you lose all the
comedy and all the heart in your movie.
Speaker 3 (21:54):
Yeah, gotcha.
Speaker 1 (21:55):
Well, I thank you again for both of you for
joining the conversation, for making this movie. Of course, it's
board Winter. It's it's all available right now on video
on demand platforms. That means like iTunes, Google, Amazon, where
you get your video on demand titles. You can find
it right there. So do hope you check it out.
It is fun. It is funny at times given the
even though the somber subject matter may not seem that way,
(22:17):
but it really has a sense of life and vibrancy
to it. But again, thank you so much, Victoria. Treat
to talk to you and hope you're feeling better soon.
I hope things are working out there. But so glad
the two of you found each other. What a great collaboration.
It sounds like you've made each of your others lives
even brighter.
Speaker 2 (22:33):
Thank you, Christian, I really appreciate you.
Speaker 1 (22:35):
Well, it's it for this week's bonus episode. Again, thank
you to Jonathan Victoria for sharing their time and talking
about Boardwalk Winter. And we'll have your attention. Well, I
hope you'll check out Hollywoodintoto dot com. It's my website
updated seven days a week. Also want you to kind
of head on over to our YouTube channel. We've got
a series called Short on Hollywood Again. It's a short
under a minute long, and it's kind of a snarky
(22:57):
look at the latest entertainment headlines. It is a little
bit right up center like the show. It is a
little bit silly, not quite like the show, but once
in a while we get silly here. But overall it's
just fun. It's different, it's fresh. I think you're gonna
like it. And if you didn't, well you didn't hear
from me. Singer Katy Perry is spotted on a date
with former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. The singer insists
(23:18):
they're just friends, adding she's conflicted about interracial dating. But
that's all for now. I hope everyone has a wonderful day,
a wonderful week. Doctor's Orders
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