JM: Hi Jonathan, Jason Marsden.

JC: Hey. How are you?

JM: I’m well, thanks. How are you?

JC: I’m doing very well.

JM: Great. Thanks for doing this interview.

JC: Wonderful. It’s my pleasure. Thanks you for having me.

JM: Yeah, I’m glad to. Well, we have a youth-oriented website called MatthewsPlace.com which has a resource directory for LGBT youth or people trying to start Gay-Straight Alliances, or otherwise stand up in favor of diversity. We also do a number of interviews with entertainers, media figures, politicians, business leaders, to try to provide some inspirational messages to youth that kind of demonstrate the different career paths they can take, how issues of diversity play out in the work force regardless of what sort of work you do, and also some commentary from people in the entertainment industry about what goes into producing a film that has a diversity message and how the people who act in and direct and produce those films or television programs, how they feel about doing it and what they feel like they’ve accomplished once their work is complete and people are watching it. So that’s sort of the context in which this interview takes place. You played kind of a mean character with a lot of aggression, in The Sensei. How did it feel to play someone like that? I assume you don’t go around beating up kids in locker rooms in real life ---

JC: Oh no. No.

JM: --- so it’s probably something you have to really give a lot to.

JC: There’s a little bit of stretch.

JM: Yeah. So how does it feel to put yourself in the role of that character and what, if anything, do you draw on to make that character real and recognizable to viewers?

JC: It felt --- well, from an acting standpoint, it was very interesting because I got to do something I don’t normally do. So it’s actually fun in that sense. But it was --- you know, to [make it] seem like I would hurt someone or hate someone just due to the fact that they’re different is challenging, because it’s not who I am or who I want to be or any type of message I want to convey to anyone. That’s not how you should be. And in the movie McClain, or Michael who plays him, gets his revenge, which I love. I kind of drew off of, I guess high school, where you have a lot of bullying and a lot of hazing goes on.

JM: Did you see a lot of that in school, while you were in school?

JC: There wasn’t a lot of bullying where I come from Everybody got along pretty well. But it was just more that the athletes would haze the younger athletes by embarrassing them and making them do stupid stuff. So I just kind of drew off those types of people. It added a lot more fuel to the fire. A lot more anger …

JM: It seems like there’s a lot of that --- we certainly hear about it all the time, that kind of aggression in certain people in high schools. We visit high schools around the country and we hear consistently that this sort of thing goes on. Did you come up with any insights about where that kind of aggression comes from? That sort of, just, powerful hatred for people that are that are different from oneself?

JC: The only thing I can think of that fuels it is, like you said, the difference. People are afraid of change. People are afraid anything that’s different from them or the norm. And instead of embracing it and evolving with it, they just kind of push it away and do anything to try and keep it from making a difference. And I just figured in the film --- you know, my character, a jock, doesn’t like anything different from him and didn’t grow up with much money, and doesn’t want to see anyone happy, because he’s not. So I just put it down to him just being afraid, and instead of fear turning into anything positive, he turns fear into very negative things. So he just hated the character McClain because he was different from him. But in a lot of ways there are very similar; didn’t have much money, didn’t have a father. So he doesn’t realize that, he doesn’t want to see the similarities between the two. He just wants to focus on hating this person. And it was a very interesting role to play. Very challenging but very rewarding. If I did a good job it’s because you really see in the film that good overcomes evil, the nice guy wins out in the end. And that’s what it’s all about.

JM: There’s part of the message about the film --- what you said about good triumphing. And “good” has to go through this really painful journey, of toughing up and being able to handle himself in a fist-fight before triumphing over evil. Do you feel there’s a part of the film’s message that is about being able to defend yourself physically in a situation like McClain finds himself in?

JC: I think the sense of the film is --- I don’t think it it’s so much that there’s a physical aspect. I think it’s more that, in the film, because of his physical preparation, it often prepared him mentally to deal with everything. I think that’s more where it more focuses, because it also gave him the strength to defend his own hatred for himself. He didn’t like himself, he didn’t like where he came from. He just couldn’t accept the fact that he was different. So I think going through these physical trainings also gave him the mental training and the spiritual preparations for accepting himself. I felt that was the biggest message in the film.

JM: You mentioned earlier the challenge of playing someone who is really unlike yourself. Did you learn anything about how to be that character? That maybe [you could] see yourself taking lessons from that role in the future in your career?

JC: I guess so --- the very next film I did I played another character who’s a very physically abusive person, who’s very angry, who’s very mean. In the film McClain is homosexual, and he didn’t like him for that reason; in the next film I played in, I didn’t like the girl that I was dating because she was trying to leave me and hurt me, so I physically and mentally abused her. It was in back-to-back roles, I just played this evil person, and I was like, “Man, what do people think about me? People are really going to start hating me! Hope you realize that that’s a character.”

JM: Yeah. Do you have any concern about getting typecast? You’re very convincing in this role and presumably you don’t want to play the heavy in every role you do going forward. Of course this [film’s production] was some years ago now. So have you been able to come at that from the other side? Have you been able to portray the role of anyone who is the victim or a less powerful person since this was shot?

JC: I’ve gotten to stretch a little bit. I’ve gotten to play a love interest in one film and do some interesting short films where I got to stretch a little bit. But I mainly do get cast as the heavy, the villain. But that’s okay with me. I mean, every good movie needs a good bad guy because if there wasn’t a good bad guy, you wouldn’t like the good guy. So it’s kind of fun being something different too. And that’s the whole side of acting that I enjoy is you get be all these different things and all these different people that aren’t you so that’s actually the part of acting.

JM: A little bit about the industry today --- there’s a lot more pro-diversity messaging in film and television now then there was, say, 20 years ago ...

JC: Oh, very much so.

JM: Yeah, if you’re a lesbian or gay kid in middle America somewhere, maybe 16, 17 years old, you can see a lot more characters who are like you or who face similar situations to you than you would have ever seen a generation ago. Do you get feedback about that at all, or do you see that change taking place in real time in film now?

JC: Oh, very much so. I mean even 10, 11 years ago when I was in high school you didn’t really see much of that --- you know, it was, it still is, kind of not a spoken thing if you were gay in high school. And I didn’t really know anyone that in high school came out. And nowadays you hear about kids coming out younger and younger, and they’re okay with it, they talk to their parents about it. I think a lot of that is due to the film and television industry that’s brought it to a head and shown people that, “Hey, this is who we are and this is okay, you can be who you want to be and you can have a voice to speak up for you.”

JM: Any parting thoughts, for those kids that are out there that are wrestling with their identity and maybe wondering if various career options are open to them?

JC: Anything. Absolutely anything’s open to them. They have to realize that they should just be happy with who they are and how they are and whatever decisions they make are the right ones. Because it’s their life to live and they just need to be happy. So I hope this film and other films and shows, and other people, can really help those out there that feel like they need to hide, to come out and say “You know what? This is me, accept me. If you don’t, you can’t change me.”

JM: That’s great. Jonathan, thanks very much for you time. I really appreciate it.

JC: It was absolutely my pleasure.

JM: I hope this goes well and the best of luck with your career.

JC: Thank you very much. And if you guys ever need anything at the Foundation just let me know.

JM: Great. Will do. Thank you.

JC: Thank you.