I’m sooo excited to bring to you one of the newest additions to my blog where I profile Black Hollywood Execs, Producers, Writers, etc. It’s a way for us to get to know some of the folks behind the scenes and behind some of the biggest projects in Hollywood. I’m hoping that we can draw inspiration and hopefully take something from these rarely heard about brothas and sistas who are making it happen behind the scenes.
Kicking things off, we have Jeff Taplin who is an Executive at Johnny Depp’s production company Infinitum Nihil. Jeff had some interesting things to say about politics, Johnny Depp, and about us paying dues to our ancestors. Jeff and I talked soo much that I had to split the interview up into three parts—which basically gives me a reason to make it read like a three act screenplay (lol). I know, I know, I’m such a geek. Anyhoo, here’s the first act in my chat with Mr. Jeff Taplin. The final two parts will be posted sometime next week. Enjoy
ACT ONE
FADE IN:
SHEQUETA
Where are you from and what college did you attend?
JEFF
From Denver Colorado and I went to Occidental College here in Eagle Rock California, where Obama went.
SHEQUETA
Major in College?
JEFF
Theater Arts and a minor in Politics.
SHEQUETA
Favorite Movie?
JEFF
I don’t know if I have a favorite. I have about three or four that I would put up there at the very top. Which would be: Dr. Strangelove, Bonnie and Clyde, Blade Runner, and Goldfinger.
SHEQUETA
Favorite Director?
JEFF
Probably the one I learned from the most about films or (who) just makes me think the most about film would be would be Kubrick, Stanley Kubrick.
SHEQUETA
What has he done?
JEFF
He did Dr. Strangelove, 2001 (A Space Odyssey), Full Metal Jacket, The Shining, Eyes Wide Shut. I guess you can learn many things from many directors. So he would probably be at the top of the list--for me at least.
SHEQUETA
Lamborghini or Ferrari?...It’s a Hollywood question.
JEFF
Wow. Which one gets better gas mileage is the question? Probably…probably Ferrari. Yeah it’s a little more classy. Not so out there. You know ostentatious like yeah I got money F off.
SHEQUETA
But a Ferrari is gonna say you got money.
JEFF
Yeah but a Ferrari is a little more low key. A Lamborghini is--I mean you look at that and go whoa, like who’s driving that thing you now. With a Ferrari you blend in a little bit better.
SHEQUETA
Obama or McCain? Why?
JEFF
(Laughter)
Uh…
SHEQUETA
You can say no answer…
JEFF
No, no, no, no. It would be Obama because I like his message of changing the tone of politics. You know I, as a longtime follower of politics ever since I was—I mean I voted in probably every election I can. I’ve been voting since I was eighteen and I’ve seen just over the years where the debate has just become more and more sort of angry and vitriolic and just nonproductive. And I like the fact that part of his candidacy is about changing the tone of the debate. And saying look, you know it’s dumb to focus on these stupid trivial matters and it’s really time to actually really deal with issues and you can debate me on issues.
JEFF CONT'D
I mean this is what I always go back to, even with someone like George Bush where I say look you know you can disagree with his policy but I don’t know why you gotta like make him out to be some sort of bad guy. I never quite get that and it’s like I always have respect for the office cause when you look at the whole picture of the of the presidency not everyone is like Bill Clinton. That’s the model people like to use. Oh why can’t we have this—well you know I mean Taft (William Howard Taft…our 27th President) wasn’t like Clinton either. Taft wasn’t like Bush. And all Presidents have their good points and bad points. Even when Clinton was in office it was about the politics of personal destruction. So I feel like we need to get away from making politics so personal and get down to what we elect people to do--which is to represent our interest in government.
SHEQUETA
How did you get into your position?
JEFF
Well, a series of sort of happy accidents you know. I was working at UTA for like about eight years or so, the story department. I started out in the trainee, Agent Trainee program. I did that for about eight months. Then I went down in the story department. I was doing that for probably like about four or five years when Johnny’s (Depp) agent came over to UTA. You know people read coverage in this town and he had read a lot of my coverage and I guess he liked them to the point where he told his agent that he wanted only me to read his submissions. He trusted my opinion or whatever.
JEFF CONT'D
A few years after that happened, he was starting his company up and his agent said hey you know you should go interview over there and I said okay fine. Then she kind of changed her mind like well you know I’ll just make it happen I’ll make it work, you’ll go over and work over there. I said okay that sounds good to me. And it just all kind of happened it just all sort of fell into place. When I talked to them, interviewed with them, they liked me and I guess there was really no one else…so I kinda got it almost-kinda by default. But I mean I obviously had been someone that they wanted to work with anyway so you know again it just all worked out for the best.
SHEQUETA
What's Johnny Depp like?
JEFF
He’s...I guess I could say...maybe it’s a bit of a cliché but I guess I could describe him as a gentleman and a scholar.
SHEQUETA
Well he’s a Gemini so he’s duel sided.
JEFF
Yeah, Yeah I mean he’s a low key guy, down to earth, reads a lot. He’s well informed about not only the arts but just life in general and…you know he kinda shuns the whole almost like apparatus of celebrity. So he’s not hanging out at the hottest places and going to this party and that party. I mean he’s kinda like a family guy in a way. He’s like an average guy where he gets up in the morning goes to work, comes home to his family at night. I mean it just so happens that his job is to entertain people. But you know beyond that he doesn’t really sort of--it’s not like a lot of celebrities where you see where it’s almost like what they did defines what they are. It’s like he’s already sort of defined himself in a sense and then that definition informs his work.
SHEQUETA
Is it hard to be a black exec in Hollywood where you all are few and far between? I mean do you all have a support group or something?
JEFF
I mean yes and no. When I first started there weren’t a lot of-- I don’t think there were like a lot of blacks in the industry. This was like ten years ago probably. And I think over the year’s maybe it’s become a little bit better. But I think that’s mainly because society itself has become more inclusive. When you have someone like Will Smith who’s like arguably the biggest movie star right now, it changes people’s perceptions…Or someone like Tyler Perry, you know very successful. Or even like Spike Lee who had to change what he did to be more commercially accepted. Then I think it kind of changes the rules of the game and the way that minorities are seen in town. I guess in terms of a support group…every couple of years it seems like someone starts up something like a networking kind of thing or whatever and we kind of meet each other and say hey. But I don’t know that there is really a concentrated effort to have this kind of other Hollywood. I would sort of be against something like that where it’s like okay we’re gonna have our own kind of Hollywood.
JEFF CONT'D
I mean like I said, it’s great for what like someone like Tyler Perry has done where he has in a way become like his own studio which is very hard to do. I would say that any minority group should do something…just to say hey we’re a part of this too we’re a part of the arts too. In a way, it’s almost like Hollywood is kind of behind a little bit like theater. When I was studying theater it was about non traditional casting. You can have a black guy play Romeo in Romeo and Juliet. And that would almost sort of inform the arts in what you were doing. Where it’s like in Hollywood they do tend to have a like a bit of a more narrow focus. But that’s just because they’re trying to sell to so many eyeballs...But I think they’ve been able to almost sort of go the opposite where they initially start out very broad and now that we’re in this 500 channel universe you can do niche programming and target people and give (them) what they want whether it’s Latinos or Blacks or Asians.
SHEQUETA
What is the hardest part of your job?
JEFF
I guess just managing people’s egos. When you work in a creative field everyone feels like they want to put their two cents in and that their two cents is worth you know five dollars. And so (laughs) a lot of it is…kind of agreeing but not agreeing and being diplomatic and being respectful but at the same time having enough experience and courage to say no that’s a bad ideal. That’s not gonna fly--people aren’t gonna go watch that--and then be able to back that up. When I was at UTA, at the story department, I think part of the reason people really liked my coverage and respected what I had to say is that I would always have examples to prove my point. I wouldn’t just fly off the handle and say oh this is dumb and blah, blah, blah, I wouldn’t go see it. I would say look you can look at these other examples and make up your own mind. Look at those other examples and think about do you want to make this or do you want to put your client in this project based on those other examples. I may throw in my two cents and say yeah I think it’s bad, I think it’s good but you gotta have examples to back that up or otherwise you just talking nonsense.
END OF ACT ONE
...Click here for Act Two where Jeff reveals what kind of projects interest him and who really has the power in Hollywood
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