411Mania Interview: Jason Priestley

Posted by Al Norton on 08.10.2009

411's Al Norton sits down for an exclusive interview with Jason Priestley!



Jason Priestley may forever be known as Brandon Walsh but he has carved out a nice little post-90210 career, both as an actor (Side Order of Life, Medium, Love Monkey, Tru Calling) and as a director (The Secret Life of the American Teenager, 90210, Barenaked In America). His newest project is the web series The Lake, which debuts today on www.TheWB.com.

Al Norton: I want to start by telling you how much I liked Side Order of Life.

Jason Priestley: Oh, thanks a lot. We had a good time making that show. It was good. We were all sad to see it go.

Al Norton: How did you get involved in The Lake?

Jason Priestley: I got involved in it the way you get involved in every show; my agent called me up. He said, "hey, how'd you like to direct a web series?" It totally came out of left field but I said, "ok, what's the story?" He told me it was for Peter Roth and Craig Erwich over at Warner Brothers, who I worked for in many different machinations over the years, so that was cool. And it was written by Meredith Lavender and Marcie Ulin, and I'm big fans of those guys. And he said Jordan Levin was going to produce it. Jordan is a guy that, although we traveled in the same circles for years, I'd never had the opportunity to work with.

It all just seemed to make perfect sense to me and it also gave me the opportunity to work in a new medium since I'd never actually directed anything for the web before. It was a great chance for me to work in a new medium and work with a bunch of people I really like, so I took the job and here we are.

Al Norton: Was part of the appeal directing the entire series start-to-finish as opposed to a job where you just do an episode or two?

Jason Priestley: Yes. I've directed a few TV movies and a documentary, and seeing a project from the very beginning all the way through to the end is very creatively satisfying. This was a great opportunity to do that and I did really enjoy that aspect of it.

Al Norton: What kind of new challenges did you face on the director with these episodes being 7-to-10 minutes long?

Jason Priestley: Telling a story in those small servings was ore of a challenge for Meredith and Marcie – the writers – than it was for me. As a writer, it made it more difficult because everything had to be really on the nose. As a director the challenges were in the pace of the work that had to be done. We shot all 12 episodes in 12 days, so I had to be cognizant of how much material had to be shot each day, how quickly we had to move, and also within the workload I had to be able to take the time to make it look good. Also to take the time to work with the actors to get the performances out of them that we needed.

Al Norton: Do you remember when it was you got the directing bug and do you find you prefer that as a creative outlet?

Jason Priestley: I can't really say I prefer one over the other because they are both so different, they both require such different skill sets. I started getting the desire to direct when I was probably about 20 years old and when we first got picked up on Beverly Hills, 90210, I started really hammering Aaron Spelling to let me direct an episode and he finally acquiesced at the end of season three. I still shake my head and wonder what he was thinking, turning over that show to a 23 year old kid, but he did and thank god he did because he gave me two more episodes to direct the next season and 15 total before we were done.

Al Norton: Did you experience any déjà vu directing The Secret Life of the American Teenager last year, watching that cast and the show break so big?

Jason Priestley: Yes. To see them go through that, there was a lot of déjà vu there (laughing). It's very different now than it was for us back then. It was almost 20 years ago and there were no cell phones back then and everyone didn't have a video camera in their pocket. It was different.

Al Norton: Because of the internet and the various TV news magazines, do you think what a young actor hitting it big goes through now is significantly more intense that what you experienced?

Jason Priestley: It's absolutely more intense. The aggressiveness of the paparazzi now, the fact that there are so many more magazines and 24 hour entertainment channels that have programming to fill, it's so much more intense than it was for us. In retrospect it was pretty easy for us, although at the time it seemed difficult. When I look at what these people go through now, we had it really easy (laughing).

Al Norton: At this point in your career, what do you look for in a project?

Jason Priestley: I look at the quality of the script, I look at the other people who are involved, I try to look at the bigger picture. When I was younger I was very myopic and I would just look at the character I was playing. I would get so wrapped up in my character that what I ended up doing a lot of the time was playing these wonderfully interesting characters where I would do all of this work and pour my heart into these people and create these incredible back stories, and I'd end up playing these characters in the worst movies I'd ever seen.

I got so frustrated by that so many times that now I try to look at the project as a whole. It took me a long time to figure that out. When young actors ask me now, "what's the one thing that I should do when picking a project?" that's the one piece of advice I try to give them; look at everything, don't just get wrapped in your character. Who is the director, who are the other actors? Where is it going to shoot, what's the budget? It's the big picture you've got to look at.

Al Norton: I'm not sure if you are referring to this in particular but I can tell you I have a group of guy friends and we can all quote line from Calendar Girl verbatim.

Jason Priestley: (Laughing) That's awesome.

Al Norton: "Did you canoe her?" was a frequent post-date question.

Jason Priestley: (Laughing) You just made my day.

Al Norton: Not that you would ever say anything bad about the show, especially since you directed an episode, but do you remember what your reaction was when you first heard The CW was remaking 90210?

Jason Priestley: To me it made perfect sense. It's a brand known globally, why wouldn't you redo it? And really the new show has nothing to do with our show.

Al Norton: Can you foresee any possible scenario where you would play Brandon again?

Jason Priestley: No, I don't think so. I don't think so. I think at this point in time they are really trying to distance the show from the original, and I think they are right to. I think the show stands on its own merit. I don't think they need to keep doing these callbacks to the original, bringing back all the old cast members. I think the show stands on its own.

Al Norton: Any plans to direct more episodes?

Jason Priestley: They haven't called me yet this year. I thought the episode I did was pretty good (laughing).

Al Norton: Do you think web-only series are here to stay?

Jason Priestley: In talking to young people it seems like people don't watch TV on TV anymore. They watch on Hulu, on NBC.com, on TheWB.com; they watch on their computers. I think scripted web-only content is part of our future. Is it the entirety of our future, I don't think so. I think television will always be around. I think it will change, and I think web-only content will be part of that.

Al Norton: Give me a quick sales pitch on The Lake.

Jason Priestley: The Lake is old school summertime entertaining television. It's how you always wanted your summers to be.

Don't miss The Lake, available for viewing at www.TheWB.com as of today.