Actor Lucas Jade Zumann (“20th Century Women”) chatted about his new movie “No Address.”
‘No Address’
The film is directed by Julia Verdin and written by award-winning writers Verdin and James J. Papa. They pulled characters’ touching storylines from the countless hours spent by the producing team visiting shelters, missions, and organizations across America.
“We are still in the works. The experience is definitely an original one for me,” he admitted. “I am working with people who are very experienced in the issue of homelessness. My experience with homelessness is not firsthand so I want to make it as authentic as we possibly can.”
“I think this is the perfect time for this film because there is a more of a general population of audience members who will be able to understand and relate to homelessness,” he said.
This movie, produced by Robert Craig Films, revolves around a story of a group of people experiencing homelessness.
Aside from Zumann, the all-star cast features William Baldwin, Xander Berkeley, Ashanti, Beverly D’Angelo, Ty Pennington, Isabella Ferreira, Kristianna Loken, and Patricia Velasquez.
Playing his character Jimmy
He is drawn to playing Jimmy for several reasons. “What I love most about my character is what I relate to most in my character: it is the sense of needing to be loved and this human connection everyone yearns for to a certain degree. The feeling of being needed and to need others and having that symbiotic relationship between people that you love,” he said.
“Homelessness is more universal than people give it credit for,” he added. “We are not trying to necessarily preach a solution to the issue as much as we are trying to bring awareness and empathy to it. Having people look at this issue with an objective manner is important, and also having them look at it in an emotional manner. I really think that approaching this in a way that is human is what needs to be done.”
The goal is that “No Address” will encourage viewers to engage deeper with compassion in their own communities and incite personal participation by. It is being filmed in the greater Sacramento area through the end of March. “The research we did was very specific to homelessness in Sacramento,” he said.
’20th Century Women’
“That was a lovely film,” he said. “I was 13 years old when we shot that one in Santa Barbara and Pasadena. It had a cast that I felt so intimidated by. I love those people so much and two weeks prior to that project, we got to know each other and we danced together. We all came up with a playlist of our characters’ songs, and that was something super important to the integrity of the film to help develop those characters and make them so seamless the way they work together. That was really important to writer and director Mike Mills. I learned so much about acting and the industry from doing that movie. That was such a formative project for me.”
“Annette Bening became my second mother,” he said. “One of the most important things that she told me that brought me so much strength and structure was that I need to spend as much time off-set as Lucas, if not more, in order to bring an authenticity to the characters I play on set.”
“I have taken that to heart, and I have diversified my skills over the past seven years or so since we did that film, and all of that has helped me while shooting ‘No Address’,” he added.
The digital age
On being an actor in the digital age, now with streaming and technology being so prevalent, he said, “Streaming and technology have definitely affected this industry. I have done mostly only on-tape auditions and meetings with people over Zoom.”
Zumann continued, “One of the aspects of my personality that is so profound is an in-person presence, where I can have eye contact with somebody and start a conversation with that person, and I think that’s what got my career started in the first place. I haven’t had that experience over the last three years during the pandemic because of how much of it has transferred over to the digital side of things, having to do Zoom meetings and auditions over tape. I don’t have the same affect on my casting directors.”
“In an age like this, we can use those tools to our advantage,” he admitted. “There is a certain level of research that I have done using the Internet that I owe a great deal of gratitude. For this film, I watched a lot of the YouTube series called ‘Soft White Underbelly,’ which has some really great profiles on people that have experienced drug addiction, domestic abuse, and other things of that nature. I really appreciate the authenticity and the honesty of how those were approached.”
On the title of the current chapter of his life, Zumann said, “Self-sustainability.”
Success
Regarding his definition of the word success, Zumann said, “That is a difficult question. I feel like when I’ve reached stages in my life where I’ve accomplished something that I consider to be an achievable goal, I’m not satisfied. I don’t think that the emotion of happiness is sustainable so I seek contentment in rhythms and patterns of action, as well as exercise of the mind and body.”
“Success, to me, is when I find myself emotionally and physically unreliant on others,” he said. “I don’t take for granted the fact that I am a human being, and there are certain levels of capacity that I have. I have a capacity to feel and a capacity do things. I want to do as many things with my hands as I can before I am no longer human.”
To learn more about actor Lucas Jade Zumann, follow him on Instagram.
