WONDERLANCE: Many thanks for taking part in this interview, Jay; we’re delighted with your participation, for, and as director Matthew Cooke put it: you’re ’the best leading man to work with, both on and off the screen’. That’s a nice professional compliment to hear, isn’t it? You discoveed your passion for acting when you were around eleven years old, is that correct?

Could you please tell us a bit about that moment, when and how did you realise that you wanted to become a professional actor? Who has encouraged you the most in pursuing this dream?

JAY SUTHERLAND: It is indeed a nice thing to hear said about yourself, and I’m grateful for everyone who has shown faith in me and encouraged me. It’s comments like this, and encouragement and belief from other talented people, that have given me the incentive to keep at it.

It was around the age of eleven that it clicked for me; that I realised acting was something I really enjoyed doing, and wanted to pursue properly. I had always been a shy lad; I got involved with things like football and other sports, but I’d never been the type to stand up and talk in front of a bunch of people before. So when they cast me as the title role in ‘Oliver Twist’ at school, it was quite a shock; I can still remember my mum’s incredulous reaction when I told her... she thought I was having her on, and called one of my friends over who was walking past, to confirm that I wasn’t fibbing. I guess it was just the realisation that you don’t have to be cocky, or even particularly confident in yourself, to be an actor... and you know how it is as a kid... you don’t really analyse your decisions at the time – so it’s only really now that I can look back on it and see how odd it was that I even took on the role, as shy as I was. But from that point on, I just did as much acting as I could. I already wrote and drew a lot, so this was just another way to express myself creatively, I suppose.

It wasn’t until a few years later, when I was about 16, that I seriously began to consider a potential career as an actor. Like most kids, I’d totally avoided thinking about a career. I had that horrible feeling that soon I’d have to go out into the big, wide world and start earning money.

JAY SUTHERLAND: Firstly, thanks!!  In terms of preparation; it’s always different, depending on the project. The scale, the length of the production, the schedule, and even the budget, all have factors for how one can reasonably prepare for a project. If a film has a budget of 100 million and the character is meant to be ripped like a Greek God, of course I’ll hire the best personal trainer in Hollywood and get him to work me ‘til I drop. But if not, you have to make do with the resources you have. For instance, when I played a marine in a theatre production of ‘A Few Good Men’, I couldn’t afford to get myself a personal trainer, but I found a way around it as best as I could; I got a marine friend to write me up a routine similar to what he was put through, and made sure I stuck to it; even if it made me feel ill. The idea is, even if you can’t quite make the physical transformation you’re looking for, you’re putting yourself in the mind-set of somebody who’s in that position, and even if only a semblance of that is evident in your performance, it informs your development of that character.  For ‘Pulp’, however, I had a month to prepare, so that gave me a little bit longer to get ready. 'Pulp' is all about comics... so I asked the director/producer, Adam Hamdy, who also wrote the comic, The Hunter, if I could pick his brains.

WONDERLANCE: One of your best skills as an actor, as well as your facility for improvisation is your great command of a wide range of different accents. You’re leading and appearing in quite a few full features this year and next, including ‘Grace and Danger’, ‘The 4th Reich’ and ‘Sure Fire Hit’.  Please, tell us a bit about these soon to be released projects, they all sound exciting!

JAY SUTHERLAND: Thanks again. I’ve always done various accents, and when I go out with mates, I often speak to random people pretending I’m from a place that doesn’t exist, and speak in a bizarre made-up accent. It’s fun, albeit a little weird on hindsight. In my head it’s hilarious, but that’s probably the effects of a good night out!
 
I try to get involved with projects that have interesting concepts and scripts, and these three aren’t exceptions. ‘Grace and Danger’ is a character study of people trying to hold on to their own humanity amidst World War II; ‘The 4th Reich’ is basically a zombie war movie with brains (!); and ‘Sure Fire Hit’ is an action comedy/drama about a hit woman. I can’t really say anything more about them than that at the moment, but there are also a few others in the ether; all very exciting. All I’ll say is... I may be heading to the US at the end of the year.

WONDERLANCE: And we arrive to the eagerly-awaited ‘PULP’: What would you say you have in common with the protagonist, which you embody, Tony Leary, and what’s the most difficult part of his personality for you to play?

JAY SUTHERLAND: My character, Tony Leary, is a struggling comic-book artist, whose fictional comic book, The Sodomizer, is... frankly, a bit rubbish. Critically panned, one reviewer described Tony’s work as “the worst printed material since Mein Kampf”.  So, not great, then.  But he’s determined to make his latest title a success. So it really is in that regard that I was able to identify with the character. Hopefully my critical reception won’t be as frosty as Tony’s, but it’s that sense of carrying on following your dream in the face of adversity. That ethos of: “it’s hard work, but it’ll be worth it in the end.”

The most difficult part for me was the fact that Tony is the straight-man of the film. Whilst a lot of the characters around him are crazy and larger than life, Tony is the every-man; the sane one in this bizarre world. There are some fantastic comic performances in the film and my role is often reacting to these characters... it was difficult not to join in with them! Luckily, a few weeks later, I got to play that sort of character, in the comedy, ‘The Callback Queen’, and I got my fix of crazy character acting. Playing the straight-man is sort of more difficult, but only because you feel like you should be doing more; but, whilst not as immediately gratifying, it has the potential to be very rewarding long-term.

WONDERLANCE: Apart from the feature films we’ve just mentioned, what else is on the pipeline, Jay? We heard something about a TV series…

JAY SUTHERLAND: As I mentioned, I’ll hopefully be embarking on a US adventure soon with a feature or two, which I can’t mention just yet.  I try not to get too excited about anything until then and just try to continue to make opportunities happen.

WONDERLANCE: Again, thank so much for your answering our questions. Hollywood, watch out, here comes Jay Sutherland!