Jacob Bruce: professor and movie star

USD professor stars in the new movie ‘Andy Somebody’

Satvika Nitya / Asst. A&C Editor / The USD Vista

When USD Theatre professor Jacob Bruce first graduated from acting school, acting in movies and television was the last thing on his plan. Instead, working for the Midwestern theater circles in Chicago, St. Louis, Milwaukee and Indianapolis was the next move for him. 

But now, after three decades of working in the industry, he has over 20 movies and TV series written under his name, and it all started with a call from his college roommates and a film project called “A History of Violence or Gangster a GoGo.”

After being trained in theater, combat, ballet and everything related to the stage, Bruce’s intentions after graduating college were to stick to the thrill of live performances. But these plans were thrown off when a friend from college asked Bruce to feature in a film he needed to make, to receive admission into the University of Southern California. Thus began an on-the-road production spanning from Tuscan, Arizona, to Chicago, Illinois.

“It was my first feature, and I’ve only seen it once,” Bruce said. “I wish I had a copy of it, ‘cause I’m so bad in it that it’s breathtaking. Because I wasn’t trained to do film. I was trained in Shakespeare and sword fighting. I was horrified after watching it; I was such a theater actor in it, and you could see it. But my friend said I was gonna be in it, so I agreed. And it worked. He got in!”

After that film and a year of running through Chicago’s theater scene, Bruce received a call from his roommates from college who moved to Los Angeles, asking him to come down and work not on stage but in front of the camera. And against all his plans and premonitions, Bruce did exactly that. This led him to work on his most recent film “Andy Somebody,” directed by Jesse David Ing and also written by Ing and Jeremy M. Evans.

The film is an action comedy about Andy Fielder, a depressed Chicago accountant, who steals three million dollars from his corrupt plastic surgeon boss and runs off to L.A. to start a new life. Only now, Andy finds himself being chased by his boss’ men and constantly needs to find ways to save himself and his best friend. The movie features Bruce in the role of a character named Gene and stars other actors like Leslie Wong, Jonathan Buckley, Franko Marcano and one of the writers himself, Jeremy M. Evans, starring as Andy. 

With filming over the span of two years in 20 different locations, the production for this movie was huge. But the abrupt interruption of the pandemic set the movie back by not months, but years. And four years, two new cast babies and several relocations later, “Andy Somebody” is finally ready for an audience to watch it.

Bruce talked about his experience going in and working with the cast and crew while filming this movie.

“I was leery going in, ‘cause I didn’t know any of them,” Bruce said. “But after the first day, I was like, ‘wow!’ They were on the ball, efficient with the setups, communication with the different departments, and there was almost no downtime. And it was because of this that some of us in the film felt comfortable taking big swings both character-wise and acting choice-wise. They were really accommodating, encouraging and we just had such a great time.”

Despite the harmony of the cast, the pandemic caused a lot of confusion and frustration for the future of the film. With constant conversations over a returning filming schedule and many cast and crew members relocating, the movie witnessed several challenges that it had to overcome in order to finally be released. 

But the producers, crew and actors believed in the heart of this film which made its completion successful. 

“It’s a pretty classic heist sort of story, but it’s such an absurdly great movie,” Bruce said. “The dialogue is really funny, and there are some interesting twists in the story and it doesn’t tell you the story in a typical way. So it takes a very common plot and tells it in a very fun and interesting manner. People will either absolutely hate it or absolutely love it, which is what we want.”

In the midst of Bruce’s acting career, he found his way to teaching and ended up at USD a decade ago, acting as an adjunct professor teaching Fundamentals of Acting and Theatre and Society. And even after 10 years, Bruce still finds it funny when students are shocked to find out about his involvement in TV and film. 

USD senior James Caroll, a theater major, has taken several classes with Bruce over the past few years and talked about his reaction to seeing Bruce on screen.

“I’ve known Jacob for almost four years and I was surprised when I first got to know his involvement in movies and TV,” said James. “It’s definitely reassuring because it’s one thing to be an armchair expert and preach from this pedestal of not actually interacting with the field you study. But it’s so refreshing to see someone like Jacob Bruce who works whenever he can at both local theatres, at USD and in the film industry. And it kinda does give me more hope ‘cause I wanna do the comedy route too, so it’s inspiring to see someone do the same.”

Bruce’s expertise extends into stunt choreography and directing, for USD’s fall and spring plays. But his biggest contributions come in during his acting roles both on film and TV, as he brings a very human face to Hollywood by being an example for students at USD. 

To experience Bruce’s work first hand, “Andy Somebody” is available to watch on Amazon Prime Video, Google Play and Vudu.