KID MONEY PART 2

CCF: With your career, you said you get bored easily and are trying everything, so what is your overall goal?

JYL: Like you mentioned before, I’ve done managing... And that is something I am never going to do again.

CCF: (LOL)

JYL: That was fun. Ernest Miller, I managed him, I got him in the film “The Wrestler.” He played The Ayatollah and I felt that was a huge accomplishment for myself. I was very happy I was able to do that for him. He was like a brother to me. Obie Trice - I was a big fan of him in high school and when he came to the premiere of “Tooth & Nail” and he asked me to manage him, I said, “Fuck yeah.”

CCF: (LOL)

JYL: Excuse my language. But with that being said, the amount of time I spent managing these people and the outcome as far as revenue goes, (versus) me just producing movies, it doesn’t add up. It doesn’t add up and as fun as it is, I need to go where the money is for me right now. It’s just not worth it in the long run, but what I will do is I will keep producing movies, I’ll still keep executive producing movies and we’ll see what happens with the acting.

CCF: I was going to ask about that. The acting, that’s not something that is necessarily a goal, it’s more of something you just want to try out?

JYL: My bread and butter... My forte... It is definitely producing... The money side. I have executive produced almost ten films now. The first film I am full on producing by myself is a film called “The Land of the Astronauts.” The acting thing, I had a great time on “2001 Maniacs.” After I do this movie in Fiji, which I am starring in, I will be able to call you and say, “Hey, I want to pursue it” or “I don’t.” But six weeks in freaking Fiji starring in a movie with guns, boats, jet skis and Fijian girls; its going to be a lot of fun.

CCF: (LOL)

JYL: (LOL)

CCF: The only problem there is, first role, right off the bat is the crazy “2001 Maniacs” sequel. Now you are going to be doing the guns and action. It’s going to be almost like where do you go as an actor from there? (LOL)

JYL: (LOL) It’s going to be crazy. But that is what is so much fun about what I do. I literally make my own destiny. “2001 Maniacs”? Yes, it was a fluke. I was handed that. It was a great opportunity, but that’s not something I am going to count on and bank my career on. If I like acting, I could put myself in my own films, which I am doing obviously. But I don’t know. If I could name one person who’s career I love, I’d be somebody like Mark Wahlberg.

CCF: Right.

JYL: Now he’s producing. He went the other way then me. He acted and now he’s producing. I’m doing both, but I did the producing before the acting. But, hey, movies like “Fear,” “Boogie Nights” and everything that he’s been part of are all similiar to things I’d like to do if I was going to continue acting.

CCF: Does that include a rap album too?

JYL: Ugh.

CCF: (LOL)

JYL: I wouldn’t say a rap album. But I am pretty involved with the wrestling community. I went backstage at Summer Slammer and Shad Gaspard, who is a part of the team Cryme Tyme, is really a good friend of mine. Shad is going to be in the film that I am going to be doing in Fiji and I hope to work with him on some other projects. We will see what happens, but no rap album.

CCF: (LOL) “The Land of the Astronaunts,” thats been in development awhile. I’m actually a fan of the director Carl Colpaert, who did the film “G.I. Jesus,” which I thought was brilliant. How do you come about getting involved with a project like that?

Jordan Yale Levine with Carl Colpaert.

JYL: Carl is a very good friend of mine. We met through a mutual contact, an old agent that I worked with. He was trying to get “Astronauts” off the ground, around about this time last year at the American Film Market. They heard about our financial situations and what we had been able to do in the past and Carl offered me the project. I was looking for a movie that I can be involved in as a producer as opposed to just financing and executive producing. I read the script and I thought it was brilliant. I was very familiar with Carl’s work in the past as well, we hit it off and I thought it be a great project for me to get my feet wet on my first time as a producer. It just kind of went from there. We found the money, now we are attaching the actors. But yeah, Carl’s produced “Swimming with Sharks,” “Hurlyburly” and his company has been around longer than I’ve been living. He’s kind of a mentor figure to me and we get to spend a lot of time together and make this movie a special one.

CCF: Yeah... You keep mentioning how a lot of these people were basically established before you were born. Do you sometimes feel out of place that way or no?

JYL: You know what? I have that conversation a lot with a bunch of people

CCF: (LOL)

JYL: It used to be. It was hard for me starting. I was 19 and most people looked at me like this little punk kid. My business partner, he’s 51 years old now, so there’s always such a crazy dynmic, which does work in our favor. But I always felt like everybody thought I’m his assistant or people would mainly focus on him, which angered me. But it actually drove me to learn very quickly and I was the one pitching our projects. I was the one that was answering the questions. I would make the attention focus on me, so people would know who I am and I’m actually a partner, like this is my company. It’s 50-50. So, yes, the last five years out here... I haven’t had too many friends my age because I am always dealing with people much older than me. But I’m fine with it. It’s cool. Now I am established. Now it’s a different story. But to get my foot in the door, I had to work 24-7 and just forget about the partying, girls and all the other stuff that comes along in Hollywood.

CCF: Yeah, it just seems so crazy because the people usually on the money end of films aren’t the young and pretty type.

JYL: It’s been trippy. But like I said, at the beginning of our conversation, you have to find a way to be different from everybody else. You have to find you’re own niche market. If you want to make it, unless you are the son of one of these big famous producers or actors, you have to go out there and be completely different. To be just a producer, to be just a writer, to be just an actor, you are a needle in a haystack and you are better off going and getting a freaking lottery ticket.

CCF: So in a way you feel being this “young punk kid” was helpful as opposed to...

JYL: Yeah, like I said, it was the money. I had to go out there, find money, finance everybody else’s movies, get my credits on IMDb, establish my resume, get published, etc. Now that I am established as an executive producer, I’m able to go finance my own projects, not everybody else’s. So, yes, to get my foot in the door, I had to do what I’ve always done, which is go out there, hustle and get money.

CCF: And how does that feel going from the one end, to now you probably have lots of people knocking on your door, trying to get you to help them?

JYL: Yeah, it’s cool because I got to see it before when I was knocking on everybody else’s door and nobody was really opening up. Now some of the same people come back to me and its a complete joke. I only take phone calls from numbers of people that I know, but with that being said, I love helping people out that have the right attitude and have the right mind set... People that are hungry like I am and especially how I was. Yes, I was naive, but I had a lot of street smarts from going up in New York... in Brooklyn and Queens, etc. So I’m always down with helping people out if they have the right mentality, but somebody who now wants help that would not give me the time of day five years ago, I don’t want to ever speak to. They’re going to be in the same place, five years from now.

CCF: People that are still where they were and you’ve passed them?

JYL: Exactly. It’s funny to see those people and I’m not going to mention names, but obviously it was some people that I was introduced to when I first moved out here one way or the other. People would tell me, “Hey Jordan, you should hook up with this person. They can really help you out.” And at the time, they didn’t do anything for me. And now, it’s funny looking back and looking at their cedits and they still have the same one or two credits from five years ago and nothing else. Maybe it’s karma... Maybe... I don’t know what it is. But I just like to do good by people that have the right intentions.

CCF: It seems like in this business it is realitivy hard to find people that are willing to help people that are down at the bottom. I’m sure you have had lots of doors shut on you, but do you think this is a business that is that way or does it just depend?

JYL: This business... I see people I went to high school in New York pushing mail carts at Endeaver, William and Morrison. That’s cool. Look, they’ll waste five or ten years to be a junior or senior agent. If that’s what they want to do, that’s great. I’m not going to knock them. But to get in to my side of it, if you want to be producing movies, get involved right away, you want to do all these kinds of things, you have to make your own way. And guess what? Nobody is going to give you the time of day. You read in the Hollywood Reporter about Leonardo DiCaprio and Martin Scoserse find this writer in the middle of Nowhere, Ohio and they get a $600,000 deal with one of their scripts. Well, good luck with that. Once again, that’s the lottery. That’s one in a million. You just got to go do it your own way. Unless you have an amazing script, unless you come to the table with money, unless you have Brad Pitt or Bruce Willis attached to your movie, good luck; nobody’s going to help you out. For me, I’ll help somebody out if I see somebody that is a couple years younger than me or my age that has the right intentions. I have a hard time trusting people because everybody wants to screw you over out here. Once you can trust people and they come aboard what you are doing, that’s a different story. I’m not going to have people waste five to ten years to come to work for me. But it’s even hard to find people that have the right intentions to work for you. So yeah, to answer your question, you are out here on your own.

CCF: Is that ever a little depressing?

JYL: Yes! It’s been very depressing at times. Now everything is all great with my partner and I and my company. But we’ve had times where we had all our marbles on one specific deal. I can remember one deal a few years ago that was in Africa. This deal was a couple of million dollars. We had this big financier, everything was going through, contracts were basically almost signed and at the last minute, they decided not to do it. Because all of our marbles were on that one project, it felt like the whole world collapsed. You’re sitting there at your apartment and not everything is as great as it is now and you feel like the whole world is coming down on you.

CCF: One of the other things is, even with what you’ve done, you’re still on the outside as far as Hollywood because your working in independent films. Is it your goal to break into the mainstream?

JYL: I would love to. I had to bring my own money to the table to get involved with independent films and now I have to go make a bunch of successful indepedent movies, churn a good profit and then hopefully one day, the goal is definately to accuire a studio deal. If I got a studio deal, I wouldn’t have to worry about accuiring my own financing anymore. Then I can just sit back and produce movies. Right now, even though I am producing movies, I am still executive producing my own films. I’m still raising money for the films I am producing. One day if I can accurie a studio deal like a Scott Rudin or even a Mark Wahberg at HBO. Then it’s like, alright, go produce the best product you can and not worry about finding money from different people.

CCF: Yeah, even though you’ve had this success, you’re in this prove yourself mode constantly.

JYL: Oh yeah. I mean look, I am still hustling very hard, even with “Land of the Astronauts” with Carl. Another reason I hooked up with him is I want credibility. I want to go out there and win some awards at a Sundance or one of these established festivals opposed to just making random horror movies. Which don’t get me wrong, horror movies are so much fun to make. But I want to be a well versed producer. I want to be involved in different genres, win awards, etc.

CCF: Any aspirations to direct anything?

JYL: Not right now. Maybe down the line. Like I told you before, I do get bored very easily. Executive producing is great, but I don’t want to raise money my whole life. When I produce movies, that’s going to be fun. Acting, I had a lot of fun and am sure the Fiji movie will be a lot of fun. But down the line, I don’t see why not. Right now we are working on possibly producing a cool little reality show, so we are involved in every aspect of the entertainment business - movies and TV. And directing? Who knows? I am sure one day I will be interested.

CCF: Right. Well, cool. I appreciate you talking with me.

JYL: It was great talking with you.

CCF: I am very, very impressed with what you have accomplished.

JYL: I really appreciate that. It’s nice to hear that. After everybody, especially your own family, tells you when you are starting out, “You’re making the wrong decisions. Go to school.” I’m from a nice little Jewish family. “Go to school. Go be a doctor… a lawyer. You need stability.”

CCF: Right.

JYL: But to go out there and make it on your own when everybody is saying you can’t, to have this kind of appreciation now, is very nice.

CCF: Well, great job so far and keep doing what your doing. I am interesting to see how your career goes the next 10 to 15 years. Unless you burn out... (LOL)

JYL: I’m not. (LOL) I’m not going to burn out. That’s why I was in New York a few weeks ago because I was feeling the pressure before the “2001 Maniacs” movie. I was feeling the pressure and I had to go take a rest. It was just ironic that Diamond Dallas Page and Tim Sullivan called me at that moment. Another piece of advice, is you need to just balance your life out. Recently, I have been able to get a little more relaxed. Once you have your infrastructure in place and the wheels are in motion, it’s easier to sit back and take a little break.

CCF: Okay, cool. Again, thanks for talking to me.

JYL: Alright, I’ll talk to you again. Take care.

- CCF, October 2009