John E. "Jack" Noseworthy, Jr. is an American actor, whose most visible movie roles were in Event Horizon, U-571, and Killing Kennedy. He graduated from Lynn English High School in 1982 and attended Boston Conservatory, where he earned a BFA. He appeared in Bon Jovi's music video "Always", with Carla Gugino and Keri Russell. He co-starred with Meryl Streep in the Public Theater's 2006 production of Mother Courage and Her Children. He starred in a short-lived MTV drama series, Dead at 21. In December 2005, he originated the role of Armand in the musical Lestat during its pre-Broadway run at the Curran Theatre in San Francisco, but left the production during its first week of previews. He is also the only male actor to play Peter Pan in the musical adaptation. Noseworthy made his debut as a nightclub performer in September 2006 at the Metropolitan Room in New York City in "You Don't Know Jack!". He appeared in a Burbank musical at the Colony Theater, No Way To Treat A Lady, a musical version of the cult film of the same name, written by Douglas J. Cohen, which opened on April 18, 2009.
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» All Actor InterviewsHey guys. I'm Jack.
I've been an actor for more than 20 years. My latest project is The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe, airing this Saturday & Sunday 5/30 and 5/31 on Lifetime. I play Marilyn's therapist in the film. I'm also going to be at Days of the Dead Convention, June 26-28 in Indianapolis (http://www.daysofthedead.net/indianapolis/).
I'm happy to answer any questions that you have. And you can follow me on Twitter @JackNoseworthy.
Victoria's helping me and I'm following along. AMA.
https://twitter.com/JackNoseworthy/status/604325009297915904
Update: Well, thank you for your questions. This has been really fun. And please tune in for The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe on Lifetime this weekend. And follow me on Twitter @JackNoseworthy !
Nope, no idea.
Um, how's life?
Life is good! I just finished a one-mile swim. Anybody do triathlons?
Are you and Jon Bon Jovi good friends that you've worked together several times? Is he a fun guy to hang out with?
We've worked together twice, actually. He's in U-571, actually!
He's a great guy. I haven't seen him in quite some time, but when we do see him, we're very friendly. He and I got along quite well. I never met him when we shot the Bon Jovi video - we met when we went to Italy to shoot U-571, and we became fast friends during that time. All the things you hear about Jon are true, he's a really nice guy!
What was it like working with Sam Neill on Event Horizon? Any interesting stories to share?
Sam Neill is such a gentlemen. His focus, his commitment to his work and the craft was just SO inspiring. He's the one that had to sell the movie, he's the one that created the event horizon, so he really IS the centerpiece of the whole movie, and he carried that really well. He's just a great leader, you know? His wife celebrated an important birthday during the movie, and he threw a big dinner party at a photography studio, and he brought in a big group of Maori dancers (because he's from New Zealand) and they performed, and he had all his friends who were really amazing actors in London at the time. So it was great to be able to be in a room like that. It was my introduction to London, this amazing party that Sam Neill threw!
What's been your favorite Broadway role so far?
My favorite Broadway role is a musical I did called The Sweet Smell of Success with John Lithgow. My favorite thing on Broadway I'd ever done!
Jack, thanks for taking questions, today. I have a few.
1) Your wikipedia doesn't say how you got into acting. How did you land your first role/appearance?
2) How was working with Dave Chappelle in Undercover Brother? I saw the scene where he pistol whipped you after saying "I like black people" Were there any cool behind the scenes moments?
3) What is one secret about Marilyn Monroe that stuck out to you the most? (Don't need to include spoilers)
4) What is your dream job or role?
1.) I went to school at the Boston Conservatory, where I studied theater. And I'd been an actor my whole life - I performed in church plays, and high school drama shows, we had a strong drama program at my high school, and then when I was a senior in college, I went to my very first professional audition, which was for the National Tour of the Broadway show CATS. And I got the job. And that was my first professional job. I played Mungojerrie. And for television, I auditioned for a television series on CBS - it was called TEACH - and we did 13 episodes, and it was about an African-American teacher teaching in an all-white boy's school, and he was a music teacher, and it was a situational comedy. And I actually played the "dorky, glasses, smartest guy in the room." So that was my first job in film & television.
2.) He's really funny. Dave Chappelle is REALLY funny. And SUPER smart. That was before Dave Chappelle really exploded, and we were just hanging out on-set, he'd just had a baby, and so his baby was around on-set - so hanging out backstage, this guy was REALLY Smart, and you knew something really special was going to happen for him.
3.) I never realized SHE divorced all of her husbands. SHE took control of that. That's something that surprised me the most.
4.) Whatever the next one is!
Thanks for sharing your Sam Neill story! That movie scared the living shit out of me.
Hahaha!
It wasn't scary to shoot. It was complicated, because it was very technical, and there were a lot of special FX, so when you're breaking it down, you're on green screen... for example, the sequence where I blow out of the airlock, I was attached to a metal body-plate that was designed for my torso, that was attached to a crane, and then I had tubes and wires coming out of me, and I had a wig on, and they could spin me around in circles, gyrating in any direction, send me round-and-round, 60-70 feet in the air, and I'd have to sit up there between takes, because they couldn't take me down between takes.
So it wasn't scary shooting the movie. It was about the technical aspects of it, and infusing what my character was going through, without having to think about everything going on around me.
Would you say that Idle Hands was another of those dude/guy movies? There was definitely this sort of 90's flair to them that made them very memorable.
Thanks for the answer!
Yes. I do think that there's a "dude/guy" movie flair. And it had a nice message about people being different, and accepting them for their differences. And a real nice comic flair to it.
Do you still not want us to tell the U-571 crew that you grew up in Germany?
HAHAHA!
Very funny!
They find out when I speak German! You've seen the movie, you know!
I had to learn fluent German for that. The crew finds out when I actually speak it.
Greetings Baby bear! You were in perhaps one of my favorite underrated 'apocalypse' movies of the 90's, The Trigger Effect. Any stories from the set? What did you think of the final cut?
In the final cut, my favorite shot was cut out.
I had the shot where I laid on the ground, and I had tubes running up - I was shot dead, on the ground - and I had tubes running around my body, and the camera was on a crane, and it started on the bullethole where I was shot, and then as the crane lifted and the camera rose, and you started to see my whole body, eventually blood started to ooze out from around my whole torso, and then when the camera pulled away, and you saw the street and the house, you could see my body lying in a pool of blood.
And that shot was cut.
I liked that movie a lot. It was David Kopp's film. He wrote JURASSIC PARK, he's written a lot of amazing movies, but that was his directorial debut. I just think that's a really interesting, intellectual film that raises a lot of questions and I think it's very much under-appreciated.
It's about - electricity gets shut down, and this relationship between this couple, played by Elizabeth Shue and Kyle McLachlan - it's a fascinating movie.
What is the dream role you would love to play, that you haven't done yet?
I like to play bad guys.
I think being able to play - finding a 3-dimensional bad guy character that you can empathize with, and also root for - that's something worth looking for.
What would you say is the best piece of advice you've gotten?
Not being afraid of the unknown. To not be afraid of the unknown.
For example: when I was doing my first job, that was a long-running show, right? And I got an opportunity to work with a famous Broadway director, his name is Jerome Robbins, but I was in CATS - so I had a guaranteed paycheck for a long time because the show was a hit - but I got this opportunity to work with an incredible director, Jerome Robbins, but only for six week.s
The job was only for six weeks. And i was only 22 years old. And this friend of mine, who's still a friend today, said to me "Yeah, you could stay in this show for however long it runs" (and it ran for another 16 years) "Or you're 22 years old, go work with this director, he's the greatest director in theater EVER - who cares if it's only for 6 weeks, JUMP at the opportunity to grow as an artist, and to grow as a person."
And in fact, that turned into being a long-term job - I worked on a show that turned into Jerome Robbin's Broadway, it turned into a 1.5 year gig, the first Broadway musical that I did, and that philosophy has stayed with me - to not fear the unknown, to take a chance, whether it turns out for the best or not, and no matter what, you're at least putting yourself out there for new experiences.
I remember you! shit! nice to see your name again.
what was the coolest, most memorable moment of the 90s for you?
Hahaha!
Um... I don't know, it was a long decade!
I think the coolest, most memorable moment of the 90s... maybe DEAD AT 21? It was a TV show on MTV, called DEAD AT 21, and I played this guy who had a computer chip stuck in his brain, and by the time I turned 21, the computer chip would explode and kill me, and I found out when I was 20, so the whole series was me trying to figure out how to get the chip out of my brain, so that I didn't die when I was 21.
it was MTV's first scripted series.
The first time they ever had a scripted series.
So I think being on MTV. That was pretty cool, back in the 90's.
that's hilarious and awesome, that's like going back to the 'brothers grunt' days of mtv. thanks for the reply!
I think it was 1994?
That was the first movie I saw you in, its one of my favorites of all time, being a big ship and navy fanatic when I was a kid. What was the funnest part of being in that movie? Being in that old sub and that big rain stage looked really sweet!
We shot that movie in Italy, in Rome, at CineCitta. As well as in Malta. And the most enjoyable part of that movie was the camaraderie that all of the guys developed. We all became really good friends. It was similar to when I did this movie called ALIVE, back in 1992, about the plane crash of Uruguayan soccer players that had cannibalism - in that it was a movie about a bunch of guys, stranded, and so the cast just developed really solid friendships. So the best part of the movie was all the friendships that came out of it.
Hi Jack!
I've seen a lot of your work, so it's hard to pin down a specific project to ask about. But what was it like working on Event Horizon? Any fun behind the scenes moments you'd care to share?
Also, how fun was it work on Encino Man?
Thanks and keep up the great work!
EVENT HORIZON shot in London, on the Bond stages, at Pinewood Studios. And the sets were all really huge - they were the biggest movie sets I'd ever worked on. The actual physical production design sets. And the production design was just amazing on that movie, a great experience. I knew that I was making a - I felt like it was an intellectual thriller, because you just didn't know what was happening? like a haunted house in space. You didn't know what was going to be around the next corner. So you had to allow yourself to go to a place of vulnerability without expectation. So sometimes that can be scary.
My special FX makeup took 8 hours, and I had to do it 11 times, because it was incredibly detailed, thin facial restructuring - they had to paint on my face, so I'd go in at 2 AM in the morning, and I wouldn't be called to set until 9 AM, and I would sit there and read while 4 guys worked on my makeup. During the day, I would watch movies - because I had to lay there, still, while they did the makeup.
PHOTO: http://imgur.com/mMRPwaG
ANOTHER PHOTO: http://imgur.com/0CslvU1
I'm doing a horror film convention in Indianapolis - it's called Day of the Dead - and I'll send you the picture right now!
It was my second movie with Kathleen Quinlan, we'd done a movie called BREAKDOWN together (she's on CHICAGO FIRE) and she's done a lot of movies - she was in that movie with Tom Hanks, APOLLO 13, she played his wife, a very very cool lady, and I loved working with her. I also had so much respect for Laurence Fishburne - the cast was just great, it was a small cast, so we got really friendly, and we really enjoyed working on this movie. It was just a lot of fun.
ENCINO MAN I think was my first movie! And those guys were - it was a silly sort-of dude movie. And kind've made Brendan Fraser a star. It was fun to be in a hip, cool, dude movie at that time in my life. I was just so happy to be in it - I'd never made a big movie before! Just the silliness, and there's a whole scene that takes place around a swimming pool at the end of the movie, the big group scene that was - Pauly Shore is really funny, and he was at the height of his popularity, so it felt like it was - at the time - for those "dude / guy" movies, in the hip zeitgeist!
If you were a hot dog, would you eat yourself?
If I was a hot dog, would I eat myself?
Yeah. I would actually. I like hot dogs.
Who nose?
Well, you should. It's a great sport.
do you consider yourself worthy of a nose?
Well, I think we ALL do. I think we all SHOULD. We all have one. I think we're all worthy of them.
How did you prepare for your role as Monroe's therapist?
My character's the only fictional character in the whole story.
So the director and I focused on making him an early addiction therapist, so that Marilyn was seeking out a therapist to help her with her addiction. Because she was very much in control, and very much aware of doctors and therapy, so the director felt that she would know a doctor who was using new therapies to help people with addiction, and she would want to be on the frontline of getting that kind of therapy.
Of course, now there are lots of therapists that deal with addiction, but back then, it wasn't so common. So we took the knowledge we have TODAY, and tried to imagine what it would be like to be an early addiction therapist, dealing with the biggest movie star in the world.
Kind of like - Dr. Drew of 1962. Who would the Dr. Drew be, of 1962?
Next time you talk to Jon, ask him if he remembers some drunk asshole asking if he was Bon Jovi on Bourbon Street back in 2005.
Sure! That will be my first question to him! LOL!
Sounds like a challenge. Do you think of your character had been a real person in Monroe's life, things would have turned out differently?
You know, I think - YES, I do, actually! I think that my character definitely wanted to be the one to save her. Which, ultimately, may have been his downfall, but not in the initial therapy sessions. I think my character truly believed - I know that my character believed he could help her, because I didn't want anything from her.
I just wanted to see her for her truth, and get her to see herself without all of the self-anesthetizing.
Hi there. If you had to work on only one project for the next year, what would it be?
I want to be a series regular on a one-hour drama show.
Without naming names, what's the craziest shit you ever saw an A-list celebrity do?
Not come out of their trailer.
Literally, not come out of their trailer to work.
They...just... didn't like the way the shot was set up. And wouldn't come out of the trailer.
And they had producers and the director knocking on the door, trying to convince them to come out and actually work. With the rest of the cast and crew sitting around waiting.
It was the craziest thing I'd ever seen. Like, you hear about this type of thing happening, but it was the craziest thing I'd ever seen. And everyone else was unbelievably professional, and for some reason, this particular person was not happy at that time in their life and taking it out on this particular movie.
It is the freakiest thing I'd ever seen a major celebrity do.