Latest / The Scene Projects / Will Keenan on Acting, Digital Media, and Creative Evolution

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Will Keenan on Acting, Digital Media, and Creative Evolution · The Scene Projects

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  This program is part of the Zine Projects podcast network.
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  Zine Project features interviews with independent musicians, comedians, and artists
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  from across the Midwest.
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  Become part of our community and support local art wherever you are.
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  Welcome into another exciting episode of the scene.
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  I'm your host Bubba Starts, and with me today is actor, writer, producer, director, living
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  legend, Will Keenan.
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  Will, welcome to the show.
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  Bubba.
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  How are you, man?
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  I I hate I I can't believe I'm saying this, but, first time I ever talked to someone named
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  Bubba.
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  Hey.
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  That's such a common name.
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  Well,
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  it depends on where you're at.
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  It's fairly common,
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  but you
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  you've spent a lot of time, you know, working in show business.
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  You were out in LA, I know, for a long time.
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  Not a lot of Bubba's in California, but if you, travel to Tennessee, you can't throw a rock
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  without hitting one.
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  Really?
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  Did did a middle name, Bubba Joe?
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  Bubba did something else come with that?
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  No.
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  So James Junior, dad was uncle Bubba.
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  So when I was born, it was, you know, that oh, that's little Bubba.
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  Right?
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  That's Bubba Junior, and it just stuck my entire life.
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  So dad would father
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  uncle Bubba?
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  Yeah.
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  So he was the youngest of five boys and had some sisters as well.
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  So had a lot of nieces and nephews, before I was born, and he was, yeah, just always uncle
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  Bubba.
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  Now that's actually the bigger story, Will.
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  It's like, I don't know how he ended up uncle Bubba.
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  Right?
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  Like, mine, I just kinda fell into it, but I don't know where his came from.
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  I'm gonna have to get him on the podcast and Yeah.
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  Talk about it sometime.
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  That's an episode right there.
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  Yeah.
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  For sure.
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  Well, Will, we're not here to talk about my life and what's in a name, but we are here to
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  talk about you and some really awesome things that you're doing now.
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  But before we get into that, I'd love for you to take a few minutes and give us a little bit
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  of your backstory.
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  Well, alright then.
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  I was born in Philadelphia, and I'm close to Philly right now.
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  Spent the primary years there and then moved to South Jersey.
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  Went to twelve years of Catholic school, or as I like to say, I was in for twelve years.
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  But I got accepted early decision, they called it, to New York University where I majored in
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  you know, it was, $45,000 at the time.
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  So I majored in you know, double major and double minor just to get the money's worth, but
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  primarily theater, psychology, philosophy, and dance.
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  But the interesting thing was that, you know, throughout my high school career in South
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  Jersey, I was, like, president of my class a few times, and I was prepared to go to the Air
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  Force Academy in Colorado.
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  And I would have been the first student from that high school to do that.
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  And it kinda last minute, was like, you know what?
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  I got this bug.
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  And I just wanted to to test myself to see because NYU at the time, I still think one of
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  the best schools for that kind of thing, filmmaking, acting, like, all that stuff.
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  I said, you know, I just wanna see if I can get in.
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  And, you know, if I can get in, if they accept me because it was really, you know,
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  competitive, you know, maybe I'll think about it.
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  So not only did I get in, but they gave me a pile of financial aid and did an early decision
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  and stuff.
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  So I went from, like, the, you know, like, the star student at my high school to, like, what
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  is he doing?
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  He's going off to be a schmactor.
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  And then and so at 16, because I was young for my grade.
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  At 16, I went to New York City and went through NYU, four years of that, very intense.
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  And, you know, the education was great, but mainly it was, like, being in New York City
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  that, you know, really gave me a lot of, you know, contacts, networking, and so forth.
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  I started doing Off Broadway theater, like, age 17, 18.
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  You know, there was a six seven age 17.
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  It was the first time I was, you know, bold faced in the New York Times.
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  They reviewed a a play I had done.
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  And then upon graduation because I was you know, even though I was gonna be, like,
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  hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt, I just fell in love with theater, even in, like,
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  in a 99 seat, like, black box theater.
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  You know?
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  And I said, you know what?
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  If I never make any money at this, if I never, you know, pay off my student loans, this is
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  fulfilling.
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  I'll be happy.
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  Until the last week of of NYU when we're graduating, me and my buddies were sitting
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  around.
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  I had this apartment on Saint Mark's Place, you know, in the East Village, Lower East Side
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  area.
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  And we're all kinda sitting around thinking, what are we gonna do now?
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  You know?
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  We had a week to graduation.
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  And one of my friends has a Backstage magazine.
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  I'm not sure if you're familiar with Backstage.
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  It's been around forever.
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  It used to be, like, a big, you know, kinda like a broad sheet paper.
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  And they would have all these pretty much nonunion, you know, gigs.
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  And one of them was like, oh my god.
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  Troma's casting.
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  And I was like, what's Troma?
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  And they're like, you don't know Troma, the toxic avengers, surf Nazis must die, the
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  classic nuke them high, and all these, like, crazy movies.
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  And I'm like, what are you guys talking about?
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  And found out then, it was like, you know, while they were watching these crazy movies
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  when they were younger, I was, like, climbing trees and playing sports.
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  So I had no idea what it was, but it was their adaptation of of Shakespeare's Romeo and
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  Juliet.
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  And it said that there was gonna be actual Shakespeare and that that the whole script was
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  written in iambic pentameter.
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  And I had just finished two years of, like, Shakespeare intensive.
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  Right?
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  And I loved Shakespeare.
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  It's like full bodied acting, you know, which, you know, lends lent well to crazy kind of b
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  movies.
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  So I went down to the audition, and I read the sides.
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  And I was like, oh my god.
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  There was Shakespeare in it, and the rest of it was written in iambic pentameter.
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  But it was, like, to me, and twisted stuff.
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  I was like, oh my god.
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  Oh my god.
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  But I said to myself, you know, this may be the only and last time I ever could potentially,
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  you know, do some actual Shakespeare on film.
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  And, I got the role.
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  So as I'm, like, you know, graduating, walking down the aisle at NYU, I've been cast in my
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  first movie as a lead, and it's probably gonna be on my gravestone.
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  It's called tromeo and Juliet.
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  I played tromeo, and it became you know, that company was known for, like, I guess, b movies,
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  schlock movies, splatter movies.
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  Splatter meaning it's just, like, you know, fake blood everywhere and someone's arm rips
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  off and then girls in bikinis or naked run by.
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  Like, really weird stuff.
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  But, you know, I I just took the gig, and it was very low paying.
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  And, you know, it it did something.
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  I I think I was, like, 19 or something at the time.
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  And this was at a period in in New York where there was a boycott on on independent
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  filmmakers, you know, with the unions and and so forth.
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  And I don't know what it was, but it was just being lifted.
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  And this was a nonunion movie.
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  I mean, they used to supposedly at SAG, the Screen Actors Guild, they would put up posters
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  saying, do not work with trauma.
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  But but this was my, like, way in.
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  You know?
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  And it immediately became, like, a cult classic.
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  And it was reviewed well, and, you know, it was right before Baz Luhrman's Romeo and Juliet
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  came out.
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  So, like, I was in entertainment weekly.
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  I got all this press.
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  I went to Cannes to for the premiere of the movie.
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  And then I saw myself on screen the first time, and I was like, oh my god.
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  You know?
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  Because theater acting is very big, which I had just gotten out of.
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  You know?
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  And film acting, the all seeing eye, it's like it sees everything.
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  So I was disgusted by myself.
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  But everyone loved my performance, and I guess it's because I was I was broad enough for
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  movies like that.
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  You know?
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  So that was essentially the beginning of an independent film career.
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  And over the those next few years, I did some theater but went right to film because once I
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  saw myself like that, I was like, I have to crack this nut of how to act on film.
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  Right?
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  I don't think I ever totally cracked it because I'm still people are always like, Will, can you
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  tone it down a little bit?
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  You know?
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  And I see myself on screen.
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  I'm like, oh.
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  And now that I'm getting older and it's just like, you know, chins and and extra 10 extra
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  pounds.
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  But I I ended up racking up, like, 45 movies in a a period of, like, four or five, six years
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  and became, like, kind of, like, you know, an indie indie name.
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  Right?
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  And I got to travel to hundreds of festivals around the world, but I caught the producing
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  bug pretty early on because working with Tromo is one thing.
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  And then the second movie I did, which was right after, gets credit for being the very
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  first fully digital feature film.
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  It's called love god.
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  And it was made in 1996, and it was all digital.
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  But also a crazy cult movie that no one no one one saw that one.
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  A lot of people saw Romeo and Juliet.
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  And I caught the producing bug because, you know, actors, they're treated the worst.
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  You know, they're just treated like cattle.
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  No one believes them because they're always on all the time, you know, except when we're on
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  camera.
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  Then they want us to be as truthful as as we can.
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  And, you know, just watching people behind the camera, Virgo, you know, I like to have a
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  little more control than just being told, like, you know, where to stand, what to do, da da da.
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  So I started producing.
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  I made a few short films myself and then really caught the producing and acting bug.
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  I produced and financed home movies with me as the star, like, because I thought that was I
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  thought that was the thing to do, you know, to to just keep going up and, you know
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  You were doing content before it was content.
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  Yeah.
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  Exactly.
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  Exactly.
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  And then Incredible.
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  I I wanna touch on a few things because now we've kinda made that transition out to Los
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  Angeles, and I think there's some really intriguing things about that early part of your
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  career and and your schooling.
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  It's funny.
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  We talked a little bit off camera about conversation I had yesterday, with the senior
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  executive director of the New York City Office Of, Media And Entertainment.
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  And, yeah, the the cost of tuition at NYU has doubled since those days.
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  And I was like, that's more money that I made in two years working in the factory, and that's
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  what kids are trying to go to school.
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  The difference in rural America and the cities that you find and I have no formal education as
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  an entertainer or, you know, an actor or media personality or anything.
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  And maybe further ahead than some people who are formally trained now.
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  And just the difference between, you know, starting a career forty years ago in media and
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  entertainment than it is now.
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  There's so many more avenues.
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  And what I liked about kinda where you're where you're going in this conversation to the
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  production acting side is that that's we're all self produced now.
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  Right?
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  From music, musicians with home studios, and I know you worked on a lot of records, while you
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  were out in California as well.
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  And, you know, content just in general, we've all become filmmakers and, you know, producers
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  and directors that whether we wanted to or not, like, I've kind of fallen into this role.
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  I thought I was quitting my, you know, job in the factory two years ago to be a rock star.
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  Well, I thought I was going on tour, and I got on tour, and I was like, oh, I hate this.
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  I don't want I don't want to do this not to have to perform all the time.
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  You know, I don't drink and party.
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  I'm almost 40 now.
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  You know, back in my twenties, it was the bee's knees.
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  Right?
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  Yeah.
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  I get to be around, you know, the party all the time, but when you're a little bit older and
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  kinda watching, you know, the drink spilled on the floor and the people rush into the bathroom
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  to throw out, like, I don't want this.
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  I don't want this anymore.
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  So find it really interesting that you're really I mean, you've always just been ahead of
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  your time.
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  Since high school, right, graduating at at 16 years old, going off to New York City as a
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  teenager, in the, what, late eighties, early nineties?
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  Early nineties.
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  Yeah.
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  Yeah.
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  I mean
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  Not that old, Bubba.
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  Yeah.
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  Well, I I was trying to get time frames in here.
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  You mentioned some of the dates of the movies going out there, but still a wild time.
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  You know?
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  New York was a wild place, in that time frame.
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  A lot of music, things are happening.
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  The grunge era is really just beginning.
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  Hip hop in New York City is becoming massive, and you were kind of in the zone at a pivotal
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  moment in entertainment history.
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  Was there any touch points with the music world, while you're going to school at NYU and
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  kind of being in there or when you're in school for acting and doing that, like, it's all
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  consuming.
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  Yeah.
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  I mean, in New York City, besides, like, friends of mine being musicians and going to
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  their their events and their their shows, not really.
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  And then when I, you know, went to LA, was in New York City thirteen years, LA fourteen
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  years.
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  And while I was there, I was producing, you know, independent films and hiring music
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  supervisors, choosing music, you know, being in the recording studio to lay down, you know,
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  ambiance tracks, you know, the the soundtrack.
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  And that's where it kinda started.
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  And then the economy crashed.
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  You know?
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  So where I used to get my money from, like, hedge fund guys who just wanted to meet
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  actresses at parties and didn't expect their money back, like, that all closed up in, like,
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  2006.
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  And then I had I had this kind of, intuition to go abroad, to go to India, Bollywood, because
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  they have four distinct independent film industries, and they're huge, and they were not
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  being hit.
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  So because I was a Ferengi, a westerner, they call them Ferengis, you know, with some
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  Hollywood credits, they kinda rolled out the red carpet for me, and I ended up producing
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  some, you know, or co producing some big Bollywood movies with some of the biggest stars
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  there.
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  And it was going great.
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  This is, like, from 2008 to 2011.
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  And it was going awesome until, you know, my partner at the time, she had said to me, look.
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  I know it's going great out there because my trips to India just kept getting longer and
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  longer, the last one being eleven months.
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  And she said, I I know you're doing great out there, but I'm not coming there.
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  And if you don't come back soon, like, you know, we're we're we're kaputs.
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  So I came back, and I said, alright.
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  This is the time because I saw it coming.
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  YouTube had come out in 2006, and I saw what was happening.
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  YouTube stars were already being created.
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  I, as a talent, probably should have, you know, embraced that earlier on.
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  But I said, alright.
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  Well, now's the time to figure it out.
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  This is around 2011.
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  And I put myself in, like, a boot camp, and I printed out, and I had this long, you know,
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  dining room table of stacks of printouts of just studying what was going on with YouTube
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  and an online video.
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  And by the end of it, like, two week boot camp, I was like, I know everything about the digital
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  world, which wasn't true.
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  But the confidence and I'm one of those kinda spiritual dudes who think, like, what you think
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  about, you bring about.
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  I think it was my confidence about it.
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  All of sudden, get a call from the wife of a friend who we did a TV pilot together years
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  prior in LA saying, like, I'm the head of HR at this new multichannel network on YouTube called
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  Maker Studios, and I just have a feeling you'd really fit here.
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  I hear you're back in town.
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  And I was like, I know Maker Studios because I just read about them.
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  And then I said, alright.
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  This is my chance to switch from traditional to digital.
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  And and I got the job.
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  They gave me three raises in the first month, and I just ran around every department trying
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  to, you know, make myself indispensable.
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  And they made me within two years VP.
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  So and we were building, like, huge, essentially, networks by category.
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  Like, you know, I helped build the news and politics.
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  I helped build the the music network.
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  I helped build the the moms and family network and a bunch of them.
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  And then I got the job of a lifetime, you know, Endymal.
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  It was called Endymal.
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  They were the largest television production company at the time.
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  They were essentially acquired a few years ago, now they're called Benaje.
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  And they were, because everyone was into the whole like, we wanna do a multichannel network.
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  Disney eventually bought Maker.
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  You know?
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  And right before Disney bought Maker, I was hired to be president and to launch Endymol's
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  first North American digital division.
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  You know?
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  And I was known at the time as someone who because of my traditional, I I worked with a
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  lot of celebrities.
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  So I was bringing people like Snoop Dogg and Adrian Grenier, James Gunn to the YouTube
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  platform, and I was helping discover and launch YouTube stars, you know, when I was a digital
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  entertainment executive executive.
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  So and and oh, but to get back to the music part, when I was in Bollywood, I re because in
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  Bollywood, although the movies I was helping make, yeah, there was, you know, there's like,
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  every 10 minutes, there's, like, a music musical interlude, like, of the Bollywood, you
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  know, sequences.
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  Right?
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  So it's very reports.
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  It's very, very intertwined.
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  Very intertwined.
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  So being a producer for a few of the movies over there, I was responsible for, like, hey.
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  Do you think you can get some Western artists to collaborate with some Indian artists?
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  And I was like, yeah.
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  This is fun.
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  So I produced this song that Julian Lennon did, John Lennon's son.
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  He's become a a great friend and awesome, you know, philanthropist and awesome talent
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  himself.
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  And I hooked him up with the star the Bollywood star of our movie, and that was a big, big deal
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  over there.
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  And Dave Kushner, you know, one of the founders of Velvet Revolver, and he's, you he's
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  obviously a legend himself.
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  I paired him up with, you know, a superstar over there named Shruti Hassan.
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  We made these awesome songs that did really, really well over there, and, you know, they've
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  gotten views over here.
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  And, like, that's really what kinda got me the music bug.
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  And then and then at Endymol, they signed Pitbull, which which was awesome.
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  So I got to work directly with him on all his YouTube stuff and was a big part of the the
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  fireball music video.
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  And I signed myself, Courtney Love, to end them all to do her first YouTube channel and
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  essentially web series.
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  And through that, ended up producing, I guess, you know, ultimately executive producing the
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  music and produced the video for her song called wedding day.
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  And then one one of the things I'm most proud probably has the most views is I don't know if
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  you if you know who Andy Milenakis is.
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  He had a a TV show on on MTV a while back, and he's done a lot of music.
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  So I signed him to end them all, and he wanted to do a collab with a big rapper named Chief
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  Keef.
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  And I think it's called I forgot what the the song is called, but it's got, like, you know,
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  50,000,000 or something views on YouTube.
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  And so it's just really cool because it's like a a hip hop or rap video.
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  And at the very end, you know, how they do the the big block, you know, font letter.
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  It's like, executive Bruce or Will Keenan.
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  I'm like, oh, man.
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  I'm I'm cool in the rap world now.
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  I got street cred.
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  Alright.
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  Yeah.
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  Yeah.
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  Yeah.
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  So and I've always loved music, and I've you know, I starred in the the very last black and
• 18:16
  white musical feature film called the ghastly love of Johnny x, which was, you know, a
• 18:21
  musical, and I had to sing for that.
• 18:23
  So I've always, like, you know, been into it, and I hope to, you know, do even more with it.
• 18:26
  But it you were saying, like, it's like anyone, you know, because of the tools that are
• 18:30
  provided us now.
• 18:31
  You know?
• 18:32
  Anyone could be a one man band or one woman band and or, you know, you know, be a filmmaker
• 18:37
  now.
• 18:37
  And now that AI is kind of disrupting everything because I was there for the digital
• 18:41
  disruption, right, and the live streaming disruption.
• 18:45
  And now there's this AI disruption, which especially people from my generation, they're,
• 18:50
  you know, they're up in arms about it.
• 18:51
  And I understand that.
• 18:52
  You know?
• 18:53
  Especially if I was losing my creative job to AI, you know, a lot of my friends or people I
• 18:58
  came up with are out of work.
• 18:59
  The other the other
• 19:00
  people designers are are taking a major hit in this, you know, and a lot of other things.
• 19:05
  And then, honestly but it's also because you you gatekept this knowledge and probably
• 19:10
  overcharged people and you held the keys until somebody was like, man, why are we letting
• 19:15
  these people hold the keys and just Yeah.
• 19:17
  Kinda take advantage of us, the consumer.
• 19:20
  Yeah.
• 19:20
  I'm on I'm on the fence about it because if I were a 14 year old kid today and I had
• 19:25
  aspirations to for music or filmmaking, you could become a filmmaker with AI at age 14
• 19:31
  right now.
• 19:31
  Right?
• 19:33
  So I I'm on the fence about it.
• 19:35
  You know?
• 19:36
  I think I think in the end, create creativity will win out like it always does.
• 19:41
  But, also, as kind of a vain, you know, former movie star, I'm kinda like, I want AI to take
• 19:47
  the 20 year old me to still star in movies.
• 19:50
  Let's go.
• 19:51
  You know?
• 19:52
  I'll sign those rights away.
• 19:54
  I just need I just need a taste.
• 19:55
  I just need a piece.
• 19:56
  You know?
• 19:57
  I need to put yeah.
• 19:58
  How do you put your, you know, your yourself, right, as you are now as a, you know Yeah.
• 20:05
  More experienced, I'll say, gentleman into that body with the face of a 20 year old again.
• 20:11
  Right.
• 20:13
  Go to work, buddy.
• 20:15
  Let's go.
• 20:15
  We got movies to make.
• 20:17
  Right
• 20:17
  on.
• 20:18
  Right on.
• 20:19
  Will, that's so interesting, man.
• 20:20
  What a life.
• 20:21
  What a life that you've lived.
• 20:23
  It's so interesting.
• 20:25
  Just everything, the Bollywood journey.
• 20:27
  And I feel like you've always been someone who was very conscious of your surroundings.
• 20:33
  Right?
• 20:34
  That you you saw the writing on the wall before.
• 20:37
  You know?
• 20:38
  You didn't seem like someone who was so rigid in your thinking that you got run over by these
• 20:42
  things.
• 20:43
  You've been constantly adapting, and that's how you've been able to stay, you know, at least
• 20:47
  relevant.
• 20:48
  Right?
• 20:48
  You've stayed working.
• 20:49
  Right?
• 20:49
  If not, you know, relevant on a major scale, which I think for anyone who works in
• 20:54
  Hollywood, you have a different you have a different kind of, I guess, a a, like, a meter
• 21:01
  that you judge it by.
• 21:02
  Right?
• 21:03
  Like, to me, I'm like, holy shit.
• 21:04
  Well's one of the most famous people I've ever met in all these credits and all these things
• 21:08
  here.
• 21:08
  But to you, you're like, I worked with Snoop Dogg.
• 21:10
  You know?
• 21:11
  Like Right.
• 21:12
  When Pitbull, you know, two two icons of pop culture.
• 21:15
  So you're like, well, yeah, I'm not even like nobody knows who I am in comparison to them.
• 21:20
  Yeah.
• 21:21
  Yeah.
• 21:21
  So, yeah, it's a weird thing to do, but you I I feel like you've been wildly successful, if not
• 21:27
  financially so, definitely in the works that you've been able to create and to stay working.
• 21:32
  And and I know that now that you're back on the East Coast that you're doing, you know,
• 21:37
  probably a little bit smaller stuff, obviously, than working with Pitbull.
• 21:41
  But it feels like what you're doing now is even more near and dear to your heart.
• 21:46
  We talked a little bit about your one man show in our discovery call, but you're also working
• 21:50
  with your children now in creation process.
• 21:54
  What is that like for you who is someone who has created and mostly created out of the home,
• 22:00
  right, and working with some of these big stars or working overseas to now be working, you
• 22:05
  know, in the house with your children?
• 22:07
  That has to be so awesome.
• 22:09
  Yeah.
• 22:09
  So I I became a father for the first time a little over four months ago.
• 22:13
  I call her my daughter.
• 22:14
  Congratulations.
• 22:14
  I didn't realize yeah.
• 22:16
  That's, that's new.
• 22:17
  And I and I'm an old dad, and I had this, condition, when I was 16 years old that happens
• 22:23
  to, like, two percent of American boys.
• 22:25
  I was that one kid I can't believe I'm saying this.
• 22:27
  I think this is the first time I'm doing this in a podcast.
• 22:29
  I was that one kid in high school who got testicular torsion.
• 22:34
  You know?
• 22:34
  So it's, the second worst pain to labor, and all of a sudden, like, your gonads exploding.
• 22:39
  And and the result of which, you know, and they were able to you know, I'd be rushed to the
• 22:44
  hospital.
• 22:44
  They said, you're never gonna be able to procreate.
• 22:46
  You know?
• 22:46
  And and let's just say I had a long and fulfilling romantic life.
• 22:50
  But, you know, a little over four you know, five years ago, fell in love and, you know, the
• 22:56
  the young lady was telling me, let's get married and have a kid.
• 22:58
  I was like, well, here's my here's my deal.
• 23:01
  Here's my condition, but let's have fun trying.
• 23:03
  You know, she she said we tried for a year and a half, the last seven months of which I I took
• 23:08
  seriously.
• 23:09
  And I by this time, I had bought an historic church in Cape May County and started a
• 23:14
  nonprofit in my mother's name who had who had passed months prior.
• 23:17
  And I prayed on the altar of this historic church named after my deceased mother for seven
• 23:23
  months and just giving it up to god saying, this is what we want, but thy will be done.
• 23:27
  And then all of a sudden, she's pregnant.
• 23:30
  You know?
• 23:30
  So I consider my child like a miracle child.
• 23:32
  So my whole life's really just and and, you know, that's why I stay where where I am right
• 23:37
  now in South Jersey, which is where we're bringing her up.
• 23:41
  Like, it's right across the bridge from Philadelphia.
• 23:42
  It's about an hour.
• 23:43
  If you drive like me, an hour and ten minutes to New York.
• 23:46
  But you're right.
• 23:47
  I mean, the opportunities, even though there's so much going on online now, you know, that can
• 23:52
  take meetings via Zoom, this and that, but, you know, eventually, like, I've had to turn down
• 23:56
  gigs, executive gigs that would bring me back to LA or even in New York, which is too far
• 24:01
  away from my daughter.
• 24:02
  You know?
• 24:02
  So one of the things when I knew she was, you know, coming when we were pregnant, and I say
• 24:07
  we were pregnant, is is is that, like, oh, I gotta get back.
• 24:11
  Because I did very well, especially the last five years of my career as an executive.
• 24:15
  And, you know, I was doing this nonprofit and sinking all my money into it.
• 24:18
  But when we were pregnant, was like, I think I gotta get back into the game sock some more
• 24:21
  away.
• 24:22
  I'm an old dad.
• 24:22
  And if I'm not around, I want her to be chauffeured and with armed guards to
• 24:26
  university.
• 24:26
  You know?
• 24:27
  So I just started saying yes to things again, you know, including films.
• 24:32
  I've done, like, two or three from filmmakers, you know, in the Philly area.
• 24:36
  I go up to Connecticut for one next month.
• 24:39
  So I I just started saying yes to things again, and I'm really enjoying, doing on camera work
• 24:45
  again and performing again.
• 24:47
  I I do have this one man show called one man Poe, and that is the my selections of the
• 24:52
  writings of Edgar Allan Poe.
• 24:54
  And it's like a forty five minute show, and that's been commissioned by local arts
• 24:58
  organizations and so forth.
• 25:00
  So after all these years, you know, I was one of the only kind of actors who actually starred
• 25:04
  in movies, not 80,000,000 Tom Cruise type movies, but, you know, independent films, who
• 25:08
  became an executive without, you know, the help of his own production company.
• 25:13
  And now in my in my older years, I'm I'm just you know, because because of the early work,
• 25:20
  especially the cult movie work, I would I still get, like, four to six offers a year to star in
• 25:27
  these, you know, sick and twisted movies.
• 25:29
  And I'm not saying yes to all them because, you know, my daughter's gonna eventually see these
• 25:35
  things.
• 25:36
  You know?
• 25:36
  But but the work I've been getting lately and this this was new for me too because the four
• 25:42
  roles that I've been cast in and and one is shooting next month or two are shooting next
• 25:45
  month, one in South Jersey, one in in Connecticut, it's it's I'm I'm being cast as
• 25:51
  dad.
• 25:52
  Right?
• 25:52
  So one one film's called my little daughter by Dana Morazo.
• 25:57
  And in each role, I'm being cast as the dad.
• 26:00
  It's there was you know, my ego a little bit, I was like, I well, come on.
• 26:03
  I'm still leading man type.
• 26:05
  You know?
• 26:05
  But the stories that I've been cast as the father are amazing.
• 26:09
  And, like, a lot of the times, just because of my relationship with my own daughter and how
• 26:12
  she came about, like, they're like, Will, this this scene does not require crying.
• 26:16
  I'm like, I can't help it.
• 26:18
  I'm just crying against my daughter.
• 26:21
  You know?
• 26:21
  So getting back into it and, you know, I'm still consulting.
• 26:26
  I'm still you know, I have a couple movies in in the hopper as far as a producer.
• 26:30
  I still, you know, work with influencers and YouTube stars.
• 26:34
  So it's kinda nice.
• 26:35
  I'm getting to do a little bit of everything even though I'm kind of, I would say stuck in
• 26:41
  South Jersey, but, you know, it's where I grew up.
• 26:43
  It's a great place.
• 26:45
  Yeah.
• 26:45
  What an incredible career.
• 26:47
  And I feel like in some ways, you're just kinda getting started because the media world is
• 26:53
  changing so much, and you have this plethora of experience in how things used to be, but you
• 26:59
  are still very much on the cutting edge of where it's going.
• 27:03
  And I think that leaves you uniquely poised to help a lot of people, not not unlike me, where
• 27:10
  where I kinda wanna keep you off camera for a little bit if you have a few more minutes and
• 27:14
  pick your brain about some things.
• 27:17
  And yeah.
• 27:18
  But great glad we got to have a conversation on camera today.
• 27:22
  I look forward to coming through the East Coast and being able to sit down and do one in person
• 27:26
  on camera with you.
• 27:27
  I think that would be really awesome.
• 27:29
  And to see your shows and to be, you know, just around you.
• 27:33
  You you have such a light to you.
• 27:34
  You can feel it through the camera.
• 27:36
  Congratulations on being a new dad.
• 27:39
  The power the power of god is is something very incredible because I don't think that either
• 27:45
  one of us are here without a higher power.
• 27:48
  So a powerful testimony there about praying for your, you know, now daughter and praying for
• 27:55
  that child with the love of your life.
• 27:57
  And really, really incredible stuff, Will.
• 28:00
  Anything you wanna plug, website where people can find you before I let you get out of here?
• 28:05
  I'm easy to find online.
• 28:07
  Will Keenan, k w e n a n.
• 28:09
  You know, mainly Facebook, x, Twitter, and Instagram.
• 28:14
  But I have a website, willkeenan.com, and that's where, you know, you can find and buy
• 28:18
  and merch and all that kind of stuff and or just, chat, hang out.
• 28:22
  Awesome.
• 28:23
  Well, Will Keenan, thanks for being part of the scene.
• 28:26
  Alright.
• 28:26
  Thank you, man.
• 28:27
  This was fun.