Our webzine recently had the pleasure to interview American film actor Dean Cochran who spoke candidly about his career, his love for his family, and his passion for acting. Cochran was born and raised in
New Orleans, Louisiana, and it is his southern charm, family value, and his morality that our webzine finds most appealing. A graduate of Tulane University, the film actor began his acting career in college, earning his Screen Actors Guild card for his performance in the film Blue Sky, a film where Jessica Lange won an Oscar. We think our readers will enjoy this wonderful spotlight and find Dean Cochran as fascinating as we do. Enjoy!
Isaac: Hi Dean, I wanted to first thank you for allowing us to connect with you. I know your schedule is extremely busy so we will get the interview started. Now that 2010 is coming to end, What are you most thankful for in 2010?
Dean: Isaac, it’s a real pleasure to have the chance to speak with you, thank you so much for contacting me. Easily the thing I am most thankful for in 2010 is my little girl Katie. She was born 3 months early on March 22nd, 2009 at 2 ½ lbs and in the hospital for 4 months. She came home on oxygen and monitors; it was a very rough year. In 2010, she came off the oxygen and while we still have to shelter her for fear that she could become sick it’s such a miracle to see this vibrant little girl running around the house laughing and playing.
Dean's hand on Katie (daughter) in the hospital.
Isaac: You have an interesting background in that you work on both sides of the business. What is the main reason why you wanted to pursue a career in acting? What draws you to want to become an actor?
Dean: There is something magical about having the opportunity to step outside of your comfort zone and infuse these words on a page with all that is inside of you to help create a character. I really can’t compare it to anything else. I first started acting as a kid in the occasional commercial in my hometown of New Orleans. It was OK but at some point it became a little too serious. I remember my mom taking me to some audition where a lot of judgmental people were looking at me and how I read the script.
I decided it wasn’t any fun and didn’t want to do it anymore. I didn’t start again until I was in college and saw an ad in the Time Picayune (our local paper) about some agency looking for actors and models. I figured maybe I could pick up a few bucks while going to school. I got the first thing I went out on, then the second, then the third. At that point I figured maybe I’d better pick theatre as my major and learn something about this acting stuff.
Air Marshal Poster featuring Dean on the Cover
Isaac: What do you enjoy about being behind the scene when working on a project?
Dean: I work in what is called Post Production. I’m the Director of Post Production for Regency Films (it’s that big R you see before movies like Love and Other Drugs, Big Mommas, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, L.A. Confidential, the Chipmunk movies, etc.) and I will usually take a project and personally Post Supervise it for the run of the show as I did with both Love and Other Drugs which just came out as well as Big Mommas Like Father Like Son due out in Feb. My favorite part of my job is when I have the opportunity to sit with the director say after a run-through for a preview or during a color timing session and just talk about the movie. I LOVE movie making, every aspect, so anytime I get to give my opinion or just sit down and talk sports with a director I admire I just get excited.
Isaac: Which one do you prefer the most at the moment; in front of the camera or behind the camera?
Dean: Acting will always be my first love and it’s for all the reasons listed above. Mostly I just love being on a set and being around it all and as an actor it gives me the most creative license to contribute to the final product.
Isaac: You have been in several films now in smaller roles, as well as starred in several indie films. What do you feel it will take to move into a larger film, major film, TV show, or other acting projects?
Dean: That’s a great question. It’s really hard to say. I have been in bigger films just in smaller roles but it’s a tough business. When I starred in Target of Opportunity and some of those other Millennium Films, I was the star so it was like being the quarterback of the football team. People looked to me for my opinion, I got to be in every scene, and I learned so much. The best lesson was from my first starring role in Air Marshal. They had put me up in this cool hotel in the mountains outside of Sofia, Bulgaria and I would stay up most of the night, first working on my Post Production job back in L.A. via email and telephone and then into the morning rewriting dialogue for my character at the encouragement of the Director. After that first week, I was beat and on about day 6 I was just exhausted. It was cold and rainy and I had little to do that day as it was lots of establishing shots of the plane and people aboard.
Dean Cochran
Photo by Dana Patrick
I was on set and started to fall asleep in my chair when the Director came up and said, “Dean why don’t you head to your trailer, you’re the star of this film, every single person from the other actors to the crew members are looking to YOU to set the tone for everything that happens on this set. If you are dragging around then they aren’t going to feel like they need to be sharp either. If you are going to be on the set then I need you to be a participant, a leader, even when you aren’t in a scene. Can you do that for me?” Let me tell you, it hit home, after that I was always present whether I was in a scene or not, encouraging the cast, encouraging the crew, I made sure I knew EVERYONE’S name. I knew what everyone did and made sure I thanked each person for the hard work that they all put in.
When the show finished I was at the wrap party and met the producer Danny Lerner for the first time. Danny said, “I’ve heard about you and how you are on the set, I want you to know how much I appreciate that and how much I know the crew and other actors appreciate you. You are a real leader and that’s the type of person I want in my films.” Three weeks later he offered me the lead role in his next film, then in the film after that, we’ve been close friends ever since.
Isaac: What type of role are you eager to portray on film and why?
Dean: You know Isaac; I took this really great acting program that Drew Carey recommended to me called Acting from Image which was developed by former casting director Sam Christensen. Basically, after 4 intensive days on interviews and series of “first impressions” Sam and his team come up with what he likes to call your “Myth” or basically that thing in YOUR life that drives you and that attracts people to who you are. For me, the word is responsibility. I “respond” to situations, I don’t necessarily seek out to do certain things in my life but I never back away from handling something when it comes up.
Chuck Norris and Dean on the set of the film "The Cutter"
It’s the Han Solo role in life, the reluctant hero, the guy who always seems to end up in these situations and who says to himself “well, I’m here, so like it or not it’s my responsibility to take care of it.” Part of what Sam comes up with in the program is to give you these catch phrases that he calls your essences. The idea is that when you are doing a part if you incorporate these things that represent the real you then people will respond to it because it’s authentic, nobody wants to see somebody “pretending” to play a part.
We want to know that when we invest ourselves in watching a character on television or on film that the person playing the character believes it too. A couple of my essences are: “This Superman thing is great and all but the changing clothes in the alley gets to be a drag”, “Funny in kind of a serious way and serious in kind of a funny way”, “Do I look like I give a shit? I do? Well then I guess I give a shit.” That’s probably the one that best fits me. A character that embodies that aspect of my personality would be somebody like Matthew Fox’s Jack Shepard on Lost. He didn’t set out to be the leader on the island but he figured he had to be the guy.
In film, you can go back to Han Solo in Star Wars or like a Kevin Costner in Bull Durham or even Tin Cup. Those are the types of roles I love to play. My character Jim Jacobs in Target of Opportunity is 100% that character, I played a guy who quit the CIA and just wanted to lead a normal life, then my buddy gets in trouble and I respond. Which reminds me of another of those essences of mine which is “better in action”. I’m never going to be the star of My Dinner with Andre’ ;o)
A Scene from Target of Opportunity with Dean Running From Train
Isaac: What is the one aspect that you enjoy about working in films?
Dean: I just love the creativity, being a part of something that really entertains people. Something, that in some cases, allows us all to escape from our own lives for a short period of time and in the best cases makes us recognize something about ourselves either positive or negative that sticks with us a little bit.
Isaac: Elaborate a little about your background and training for being an actor.
Dean: I received my degree in Theatre from Tulane University; I also attended Loyola New Orleans in their program for 2 years. I had a great deal of classical training and had the opportunity to play Hamlet, MacDuff in the Scottish play as well as a few others of Shakespeare’s plays. I trained in Meisner for a few years and did a lot of Cold Reading and Improv work.
Isaac: If you were to produce your own film right now, what type of film would it be?
Dean: Obviously, I'd do something I could star in ;o) I've got a few ideas in mind, a couple of my friends have written scripts and I look at them and say, "Yeah, I could play the heck out of that." Without giving too much away I'll just say something fun that has a lesson without beating your over the head with it, makes you laugh, tugs at the heart strings, and has you leave walking just a little taller than you were when you walked in. I felt that way when I saw Rocky as a little kid, I felt that way when I saw Tin Cup, I felt that way when I worked on and saw Love and Other Drugs.
I do have a project that I've been trying to get off the ground that is strictly because it's a movie that should be made. It's called Slave Letters based on a book by a friend of mine Michal Connor. He made a compilation of actual letters from the time of slavery in America. He has written a beautiful fictionalized story around these actual letters and written an entire score much of it based on slave songs. It will make a beautiful film but like anything it's a matter of our getting the funding together to make it.
Target of Opportunity Poster with Dean on the Cover
Isaac: What has been your favorite project to work on either in front of the camera or behind the camera and why?
Dean: Air Marshal was really special because it was my first starring role. We had this BIG cast. We were all in Bulgaria for the first time, we toured around together, ate dinner together, went out together, and all really wanted to make the best movie possible. Target of Opportunity and Shark Zone might have been even better because I LOVE Danny Lerner, he is the greatest person. Danny is very under rated as a director; the guy knows exactly how to make the most movie out of whatever funds and materials he has.
I remember we got to this one set on Target. It was supposed to be Todd Jensen’s character Nick’s “safe house”. Well we got there and it was barren, there just wasn’t anything that made it seem like this cool CIA agent’s lair. Danny scrapped everything he planned on the spot and said, “Dean we are going to play this whole thing in close up, I need you to be really small, I’m going to pick up even an eye movement so you need to believe everything you are doing”.
It was one of my favorite scenes in the movie. Now Shark Zone was great because I got to work with my wife Brandi. She came over to Bulgaria and even though she was just there for about a week while on break from her show The Price Is Right we had a great time. How can you beat being in a foreign country doing the thing you love most in the world with the person you love. I was very blessed to have had those opportunities.
Isaac: What has been some of the negative aspects about the entertainment industry you have experienced that you would like to warn others about?
Dean: Listen Isaac, there are a lot of negative things around the entertainment industry and people need to be careful. It’s easy to get pulled in with the wrong crowds, with people who would love to just use you up and move on to the next kid who shows up in Hollywood. I came to L.A. right after college but I came with a couple of friends and we looked out for each other. We weren’t influenced by the negative aspects of Hollywood because we were our own sort of New Orleans mafia coming to town.
You weren’t going to change us but we might just change you. Maybe it’s just something about being a New Orleanian, we love everybody and we’ll bring you into the circle, we’ll cook you some red beans and rice and if you need something we are going to be there for you – but don’t try to take advantage of us and don’t mess with our friends or family because we won’t stand idle by. ;o)
Look for me; I wasn’t going to let the bad stuff in L.A. take me down because I knew that there was far more good than bad in this town. My background is – I never took a drink in my life, I have never smoked in my life, never taken an illegal drug, I haven’t had a carbonated drink since I was 10 years old. I’m pretty disciplined but more importantly I know who I am.
I lost my dad to cancer while I was in college, I’ve been shot at, ran to save a girl being chased down by a guy only to have him intentionally run down by a car 10 feet in front of me, been caught in the middle of a hold up while with my nephew and talked our way out of the store, and had a .357 pointed at my face and somehow survived. I figure if all that didn’t get me, a few bad apples in this wonderful industry aren’t going to. We are all so very fortunate to be able to be a part of the entertainment industry. Maybe I haven’t done anything that people recognize me for but I am a small part of this whole crazy thing and I love it and I’m proud of it but mostly I’m just thankful for what opportunities I have had.
My advice to a person new to the industry is to surround yourself with people you trust, people who will keep you grounded. Some people are going to try to take advantage of you by tearing you down but some people are going to try to take advantage of you by hyping you up! The truth is usually somewhere in the middle which is why it’s important to know yourself and to make sure your friends and family remind you of who you really are now and again.
Dean's wife, Brandi, with their daughter Katie (current pic).
Some interesting facts, Brandi Sherwood (her maiden name at the time) was Miss Teen USA and Miss USA (the only person who was ever both).
Brandi was on the Price Is Right for 6 1/2 years as one of the Price Is Right Beauties.
Isaac: When you are in character, where do you get your emotions from to add life to the role you are playing?
Dean: I use a lot of different techniques. The Method teaches you to recall something from your past in order to bring forth the emotions of a character, the Sandy Meisner technique focuses on living in the moment, reacting off of anything that is given to you. Both work and work well. I don’t believe there is one set way of “getting into a character”.
As I said earlier, I like to initially find something about me that I can bring into a character but once I’m sort of in there I like to react. I put myself in the position that the character is. I can tell you truly, when I am in a scene, I mean really into it, I don’t see cameras, I don’t see a stage, or the crew, or the audience, I just see the other person I’m acting with and I believe it for that moment. I kind of become that person or maybe I should say that character become me. Then once someone says cut or the play ends I don’t think about it anymore, I’m just me.
Isaac: If you could just act for the rest of your life but never become a household name, would you be happy (why or why not)?
Dean: I would love to act for the rest of my life period whether I was a household name or not. The advantage of not being well known is no one bothers you. You can go out with your family and not feel like a hundred eyes are starring across the room at you. Having said that I would like to be known, at least just a little bit, but not because of some desire for "fame". I would love to have enough notoriety that kids would want to listen to some of the things that I have to say, to have the opportunity to talk to people, to motivate and encourage them.
My wife and I have done a lot of public speaking with the DARE program, talking to kids about saying no to drugs. I love getting in front of an auditorium of kids and motivating them, building their self esteem. My belief is that when you build someone's self esteem they naturally make the right choices because they are less likely to be influenced by negative things.
So to answer your question, yes I'd be thrilled to just act for the rest of my life but it would be a nice perk to have the forum afforded by some level of fame to reach out to people, to have the opportunity to have a voice.
Isaac: Which actor or actress you would love to work with and why?
Dean: I am a gigantic Denzel Washington fan, besides being an incredible actor he seems like an incredible person. I’m also a Tom Cruise fan, my wife Brandi worked on Jerry Maguire and said that he brought so much energy and light to the set even at 3AM that you just had to give it your all. As far as actresses go, I have done my last couple of films behind the scenes as Post Supervisor with Anne Hathaway and she is a very kind and gracious individual besides being a very talented actress. Having seen all of her dailies I can also tell you that she gives a lot to the other actors she works with and you can’t ask for much more than that.
Isaac: Do you feel you have the support from your family and friends?
Dean: I do. I’m not saying I didn’t have my share of moments with my family back home wondering when I’d get a “real job” but I’ve turned this sort of jack of all trades thing into a career with Post Production and acting and I do well at it. I have friends in and out of the industry and one thing I’ve learned is that every industry is just as crazy as mine so if you’re going to get up in the morning and go to a job even if it’s not EXACTLY what you want to do you need to bring all that you can to your work. If you do that then people will respect and support you because everyone appreciates someone who gives it their all.
Isaac: How has having an official website helped you professionally?
Dean: I think it’s more helped me to keep in contact with folks who have seen some of the things and allowed them to connect with me and me with them. That’s really been my favorite thing about having a website. I really appreciate it when people email me and I always email them back – maybe if I were Tom Cruise I’d have to limit it a bit but for me it’s all good ;o)
In terms of professionally, I don’t think you can really operate these days as an actor without a website. You need to have a place to guide casting directors, producers, agents, and directors to. It’s ideal to have one spot with your reel, resume’, contact information, and a little background all in one spot.
Isaac: What is next for Dean Cochran? What are some up and coming projects that you are working on currently?
Dean: I’ve spent the last year really focusing on our daughter and making sure she is happy and healthy and strong. Career wise I’ve doing a lot of Post Production work, Love and Other Drugs just came out, Big Mommas is finishing up and I Supervised a wonderful movie called Little Red Wagon which was produced by Michael Guillen. It’s based on the true story of young Zach Bonner who walked across America raising awareness for homeless youth.
That one was a real honor to work on. My manager Chris Sherman of Rooster films and I are coming up with a game plan for my acting career to see what we can do to sort of kick start it again. I think there are going to be some exciting things on the horizon and as always I’ll give it my all.
God bless you Isaac and thanks for asking to do this interview.
