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What have you been up to the last few years?
Lawrence
Hilton-Jacobs-Alive. I've done quite
a lot in the last few years. I seem to do a lot of guest
shots. Those come up a lot. I'm recurring on The
Gilmore Girls. I've done Girlfriends, I'm
trying to think. I think when you've been in show business
as long as have I kind of hit em' and quit em'. I've
gone on the road for the last four years doing plays.
I've done three gospel musicals. One by David Talbert,
one by TJ Hepfield and then I did a play on the road
up until right around Christmas titled Waiting To
End Hell. It was a relationship play that we were
touring with, me and Ella Joyce and Phylis Stickney
who are two of the craziest women I have ever met. They
are a lot of fun, Ella has become my darling. Just mixing
it up. I'm a director as well. I was in another film,
I directed a short called "Haunting Reflections," I'm
about to edit I also did a short called "Don't Give
Me The Finger." It won a lot of awards during the festival
routes. For some reason they told me I won the Best
Actor award at the Long Island Film Festival which is
coming up in about a week, so I find that interesting.
What was it about the script for "30 Miles" that
made you want to do the movie?
Lawrence
Hilton-Jacobs-It was a challenge.
The challenge of having to have basically two characters,
two actors carry the movie and keep your interest. Maybe
a little scary to do it but at the same time an exciting
challenge to try to pull off the multi-layers of the
emotions in the short time that we shot it. We shot
it in about 8 or 9 days. More than half of it was done
on a sound stage. They had the car on a rack and they
would make it move and they would add the car sounds
later and because we are out in the darkness of the
desert we can just blacken the studio and make it look
like that but learning all those lines. Myself and Rusty
we were a little busy with that, but it was a challenge.
To carry a film and keep your interest. For me it was
a little departure in recent times when I get to play
a guy who isn't the tough guy necessarily or the one
that is going to take on the world and fight everybody.
I'm just a regular guy trying to get through life and
a tragedy or situation happens to him and he has to
deal with it. So that was fun. I seem to get cast a
certain way a lot, I think they think I'm the last rough
and tumble guy.
Are there any similarities to you and Anthony?
Lawrence
Hilton-Jacobs-I would say that I have
a strong belief in my career as he does. Very much so.
He is a loving family man and has gone through some
multi-layers in his relationships. The difference between
Anthony and me is that Anthony is a little more haunted
by his past. He tries to apologize for things that are
outside of his control. That's not how Larry Jacobs
is. I feel that if you deal with something and it doesn't
work or it doesn't happen you have to face it as fast
as you can and try not to dwell on depression, which
I'm just not into although we all feel those moments.
I'd rather just face what's going on and just move on.
I'm human. I feel the stings. If you are going through
a faulty relationship or you have a business deal that
didn't work out and you tried hard to make it happen.
But with Anthony Vs. Larry Jacobs we are both just very
determined people trying to go forward in their lives.
Now I know you had a lot of female fans back in the
day. Do they still look you up and everything?
Lawrence
Hilton-Jacobs-Yeah. I get fan letters
a lot still. It was kind of funny because I was in a
shopping mall the other day with some friends and we
were just doing our thing. They were shopping, I was
just hanging around to be honest and when I came out
this lady came up to me, and she was like, "Lawrence
Hilton-Jacob you are so cute." It makes me laugh now
because a lot of them don't even know my age. I'm 51
and I don't hide that, but most people think I'm like
38 or something because I work out and all that. I find
it amusing, I find it flattering, I don't take it too
serious because I see what I look like when I wake up
in the morning. But....umm that's the way life goes.
Out of all the films that you have made which ones did
you enjoy making the most?
Lawrence
Hilton-Jacobs-I would have to put
three of them together as my favorite. My first movie
Claudine was my first major role. I was 19 turning
20 and that was 1973. I had a chance to chance to play
a real multi layered role. In that day with the Black
exploitation roles they were not trying to write roles
for young black men with levels of substance. So I feel
really lucky and blessed that that came along my way.
Then Cooley High which was really just fun. I
have a lifetime friend out of it Glynn Turman, but we
are buddies. The most multi layered role I had was The
Jackson Family An American Dream playing Joe Jackson.
There were a lot of emotions to deal with and a lot
of wonderful actors. Some of the kids out of the show
we are still friends. Little Alex, who played the youngest
Michael has become my unofficial adopted son. He's 23
now and we are just as tight as ever. So that was a
great experience.
What I think was really neat about that film is that
it was a mini-series, and you don't always see people
talk about mini-series almost 15 years later. Everybody
still remembers that movie.
Lawrence
Hilton-Jacobs-What's really amazing
is when people remember certain things is that a lot
of people remember Cooley High and they certainly
remember Welcome Back Kotter, The Jackson's in
more recent times is something that they remember and
it resonates with them. What's good about that movie
and the approach to that movie is that it wasn't just
a movie about The Jackson Family and their rise to prominence
or music royalty, which they are. It was a love story
about a man and a woman-Joesph and Katherine and they
really truly loved each other and they dedicated their
lives to their children and these children happened
to turn out to be these talented really amazing people.
But it was all born out of a father's dream and maybe
even his dream deferred and so with that as a through
line and that kind of a feeling going in, doing that
movie was fun. It was a little weird the first time
myself and Angela, who played my wife in the movie knew
that Katherine and Joseph were going to show up on the
set to watch us playing them. It was peculiar but we
had so much work to do and so many lines to learn so
we got over that really quick and Katherine is the sweetest
lady you would want to know. She is very nice and she's
been like that since before I did the Jackson's and
after.
Now I know we already mentioned Cooley High and Claudine
two movies I really enjoyed, are you surprised that
those movies have become African-American cinema classics
and they were like your first two films?
Lawrence
Hilton-Jacobs-Yeah. I was a young
actor in New York City where I am from and by the time
Claudine came along I had been in the business
about maybe five years but nothing really happened,
a lot of extras and bit roles and a lot of theater and
stuff like that. Again, I just put it on top and really
realized and was happily surprised about the weight
of that kind of role in that day. Every other role was
Slaughter's Big Rip-Off off or one of the super macho
brothers, that is what they always seem to want to make
and along came this little gem and I was like wow, "Larry
you are going to really have to buck up and go to work."
When I realized that Diane Caroll was going to be the
mother, originally it was going to be Diana Sands (Raisin
In The Sun, Willie Dynamite) who it was written
for but, but Diana during production had passed away.
And so they put Diane Caroll in the movie who is beyond
brilliant and is my friend to this day and when I heard
James Earl Jones was coming on board I was like, "Man,
you better wake up dude. These ain't no jive actors
here." So, just a lot. Especially when I hung out
with James sometimes. We didn't talk anything about
acting. We talked about how he grew up and he told me
he was s stutterer. It's kind of funny that James Earl
Jones is a voice over actor and a legend but back then
he was very nervous about doing any looping. That just
shows you how determined a mind can be when you want
to get over something that is holding you back, nothing
holds anyone back but themselves. I believe that.
What have you done to maintain such a long career
as an actor?
Lawrence
Hilton-Jacobs-I don't know. I haven't
gone to psychiatry yet. It's what I do and what I believe
and over the years I have gotten to layer it with other
things. I'm a writer, I have directed a few films, I
have directed just one television show, and I've written
maybe 25-30 screenplays and bunch of them haven't been
made.
Well that's cool I am a writer too. I write books.
I write screenplays too but nobody's bought them.
Lawrence
Hilton-Jacobs-Well all in time. If
you really want that to happen and you deserve to have
it, it will. It's where we have to find out humility
in the process of getting there. I always call it how
hard you can hang. Cause you hear so much nonsense about
why your screenplay is not it or it's not your day and
you may have all these meetings and the meetings go
nowhere. It can definitely frustrate a person and you
have to pick yourself up come back the next day again.
Like you have to keep on, like you are writing right
now. The best thing about being a writer is when you
get the mood you can do it and it's your creation. You
can feel it, put your nature to it. That's a world that's
wonderful to itself.
What do you like to do in your free time?
Lawrence
Hilton-Jacobs-Hang out with the kids.
Play volleyball, take walks on the beach. I'm a musician
as well so music is a pleasure for me. I will sit down
at the piano for sometimes 7-8 hours and not even realize
it. All things that come out of the creative realm,
I draw as well. In the beginning it was either become
a professional artist or a professional actor and I
opted to be the actor. So when I am designing films
or trying to compose a scene I have an understanding
of how light works and composition so it helps me a
great deal in doing my thing.
Do people still ask you about doing a Welcome Back
Kotter reunion?
Lawrence
Hilton-Jacobs-All the time. Recently
they tried to do one. This March we were asked to do
a Welcome Back Kotter reunion. My opinion about
that is it's hot and cold a lot of times. I don't see
outside of what the audience would get out of it…it's
not that big of a deal to me. It's been said and it's
been done. It would be a fun thing for the one time.
But that might be it's own wait and it's own goal but
the real deal is they have to get all of us to do it.
Not everybody is in agreement. This last time almost
everybody was in agreement, there were a couple of hold
outs. Plus I have seen a lot of the reunion shows on
television and they don't look very good to me. They
look like they just got everybody together, and most
people look like they are tired. That was not my approach.
With this last one I said, "Let me direct it and I'll
be interested." That's an incentive with where I am
going with my life. I would try to make it a real special
fun documentary thing and we would also have an audience.
Build the old Kotter set, have us all come out and we'll
talk about Kotter a little bit before we show clips.
I want to include the audience because a lot of people
including some celebrity people have grown up with the
show and even have some of the new kids who caught the
show on Nick at Night, so who knows. It didn't happen
this time and we have been asked 7 or 8 times.
Yeah, I'm 30 years old and it's one of my earliest
memories. I remember watching it when I was 3 or 4 years
old and I remember saying , "Daddy, I wish you could
be more like Freddy Boom-Boom Washington because he's
so cool." My thing about the reunion shows, if they
do a whole season set DVD release, this one is just
like maybe 6 episodes, if they can have some commentary
and new interviews, that would be cool. But I wouldn't
want to see everybody back in a fiction or a drama because
everybody is all grown up now and you all were kids
on the show.
Lawrence
Hilton-Jacobs-I think we need to leave
the show for what it was and show the people as they
are today. I had the whole concept written out just
in case they would have gone forward with it. I had
a whole thing, even the studio where we shot Kotter
was a historic studio. It's where they did all these
early movies like "Intolerance" and all of these
Charlie Chaplin movies. That's where they happened.
A lot of people don't know that history. It's not a
big piece of history but it's a little piece of history
to know that the ground where we shot the show is where
a lot the film industry actually started, in this little
area that is hidden in LA and you go back there and
this big studio is looking at you. There were a lot
of in depth ideas I wanted to include. I wanted to do
remotes with the individual actors. Not just have them
come in one after another and shoot them. I would go
to where they are to their homes. Like Travolta I probably
would have gotten with him on a plane since that's what
he likes to do. Bobby Hedges who plays Epstein he teaches,
Ron has a play that is Broadway broad. I would go into
what they are doing and it would have been capsuled
with these little bios that would last 2-3 minutes each.
Most of these reunion shows are put together pretty
fast. They are cost effective, they get big ratings,
great revenue for the producers and they move on to
the next.
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30 Miles
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 Interview
copyright Dorrie Williams-Wheeler, and Thabiz.com 2005
Dorrie Williams-Wheeler is the author of Be
My Sorority Sister Under Pressure and the Unplanned
Pregnancy Book for Teens and College Students. She
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and Imissthe80s.com
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Interview copyright Dorrie Williams-Wheeler, thabiz.com
July 2005.
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