I love reconnecting with actors who were amongst the first to recognize and support my initial attempts at writing, and Jaime Callica is just such an actor. He noticed my review of The Bridge around the time it first premiered, and when I became an interviewer, he was one of the first ones I “hit up” for a chat. Throughout the ups and downs of his career, I have consistently followed his journey, and I was surprised to discover it had been so long since our last interview. When I learned of his inclusion in the current season of UnREAL, I knew I had to interview him before that season premiered, and while his character has already made his grand entrance, I am thrilled to share my recent chat with this divinely talented professional.

RH: Jaime, it’s so great to chat with you again! It’s been quite awhile.

JC: Yes, it has been. It seems like every time you come to Vancouver, I miss getting to see you.

Isn’t that the truth? It’s just never worked out.

The next time you come, be sure to let me know.

Definitely. Well, how are things going for you?

Great now. There were a few slow months, and while it wasn’t rough intrinsically, it was just hard because I had gone for two years easily booking job after job. When I wrapped on Wayward Pines, it was a Tuesday. Then I got an audition call on Wednesday, got the audition on Thursday, called back on Friday, booked Romeo Section on Saturday, had my fitting on Monday…so I literally went from one job to the next. I wrapped on Romeo Section and booked Power Rangers after about two weeks off. I wrapped on Power Rangers and then booked my first job of 2017, which was Love At First Bark. That was Hallmark. Then I was in India, and I actually booked my UnREAL role while I was in India.

Really?!

India

Yes, that’s kind of a cool story. I got the audition offer when I was there in India, and I pretty much immediately responded, “No, I’ll be back in a few days if they have a callback.” I thought maybe the casting directors might bring me in for the callback. Since I was on the beach, I didn’t want to worry about running lines. I hadn’t had a vacation in a couple of years. I just wanted to enjoy my time.

That first contact was from my agent’s assistant, and my agent hit me back directly saying, “Say, they’re really interested in you. Casting really wants to see you. Can you please put something on tape?” So I figured with the huge time difference, I could wake up, go to the beach, run my lines on the beach, and then go back to the hotel. So that’s what I did. I did a take which wasn’t good, so I redid the tape–I did three scenes. I uploaded the audition to the Dropbox, went out for dinner, and since India is so far ahead, they got up the next day, and it was already there. I had a couple more days in India and a day or so in London. I got back and turned on my phone, and there were tons of emails and texts! “I need a video of you dancing ASAP! They’re really interested in you!”

So yeah, I booked it off tape from India. And it was one of those ones I almost passed on. That carried me into May/June of last year. I did a couple commercials and then did a short film in October. And then from October to now, over those four months, I didn’t book anything. When you have a little bit of time in the summer, it’s cool because I was gardening a ton and I went to Toronto and I was happy. But in the winter, it’s cold, and when you’re not busy, you’re not happy. I wasn’t even auditioning that much. I had time to sit there and think, “Did I lose my mojo?” But I knew my work was solid. So getting this movie I recently booked and shot, The House On Holly Lane, as one of the leads, was great! I needed this win. Also back in February, I had ten working days where I did eleven or twelve auditions. So things have picked up. And now I’ve had to learn to juggle all the auditions and callbacks. While filming, I would be called to an audition and do callbacks, and there were some big projects I was being called for. I would be on set, run home to run my lines, put them on tape, do a callback, report to set…it was a crazy time, but it is nice to see things picking up. I really can’t even let myself complain because of all the blessings that have been coming my way.

I’ve heard similar stories from other acting friends of mine. I know that sometimes work dries up for a bit. 

How very true. In this business, we really have no control over our own success. We definitely have a grasp of failure, but we really have no control over our success. If I were to send you some of the tapes I’ve sent to my LA manager, without any measure of conceit, I can say that the work is strong. But maybe I was a little too tall or a little too short, a little too dark, a little too light, my voice was too deep or not deep enough…it’s all of these surface-level reasons that the other guy got just a little bit luckier. And I say “good for him.” On my IMDB, it says I’ve booked thirty-three jobs, and on each of those, there was always one other person who was really close, and he didn’t get it, but I did. So I know that it goes both ways, but when you have that happen to you a number of times in a row, you start to think, “What’s going on?”

And no, Jaime, you don’t sound conceited. You are speaking the truth, and it’s good that you recognize that your work is good. You should be able to own that.

With Giles Panton and Gina Holden
The House on Holly Lane

You know, in this movie I just did, I was on set with Sara Lancaster, and she’s been in the game forever, she was on Saved By the Bell back in the day. Karen Holness, another incredible actress, is my love interest in the movie. I’m with these heavy hitter women who can act. Those two are number one and two. Another actress is three, and I’m four in the film. I’m sitting there in the company of great talent. One of the crewmen walked by and Karen and I were just running lines. He went, “Hey, I don’t mean to bother you, but man, you’re really good! I was watching you, and you were really good. I don’t always say that to people.” You know, it’s so great when things like that happen. It’s one thing for my mom and my best friend/assistant, to say, “Oh, that was lovely.” But for a complete stranger to come up to me and say that and it earns him nothing…it’s not the director or my co-star even saying it. It was a compliment from someone who genuinely was impressed, and it didn’t get him any special favors by stopping and saying that to me. It really meant a lot. And I really do think my work has gotten very solid. And that’s the one thing I can control. I can control the work.

That’s cool. I know just recently, Nicole Oliver tweeted out saying how great you and Karen Holness were in a scene. She watched you both, and she said that you knocked it out of the park. 

I finally got a chance to see where she said that! It meant so much that she took the time to say that. I try so hard to keep up with Twitter, but my schedule has been crazy lately. And since Twitter moves so fast, if you set it aside for a couple of hours, you can miss a lot!

You know, the last time we spoke was during Wayward Pines. I think the season was over or just finishing, and we weren’t sure if it was going to be renewed.

Wayward Pines

Speaking of Wayward Pines, I talked to someone the other day, and while it hasn’t been officially renewed, it also hasn’t been canceled.

Really? Oh, that’s good to know! I never saw anything saying it was canceled. I guess you never know. They could always bring it back. Maybe sometime when Fox has a lull and they need a show, they’ll revive it.

Fox is a network, and I say this with love, Fox is like the cutthroat network that doesn’t play around. If something’s dead weight, they cancel it. Whatever metric they use…let’s say, for example, that they needed two million viewers to be considered a success. If it only makes 1.99 million, it doesn’t matter. It didn’t hit their minimum threshold. Where a lot of other networks will make concessions, Fox won’t. And I have to say that has contributed to the success of Fox. If you have a hit show on Fox, you know that your show is a hit. Sadly, if you’re part of the cast on those shows that gets cut away, it kind of sucks. But I know that since I’ve been on a few of their shows. But the fact that they haven’t canceled Wayward Pines…instead of being summer programming, they moved it to winter. I’m confident that the reason they didn’t do it in 2017 is that the rest of their line-up was so strong that they couldn’t financially make it feasible. So in the event that they want to move Empire or something like that, I can see them finishing this series because it’s supposed to be a trilogy. The three to five million people that were watching it want to see its conclusion. I see them doing it. And seeing how it’s a show about a time lapse, it could even play into the fact very easily that we do the show three years later. In the real world, it’s two to three years, but in the show, it’s like another three hundred years. My character lived, so hopefully, I would be a part of it if they do another season.

There’s a whole backend matrix that has to exist that we don’t know about. One of my acting buddies said casually one day that so-and-so was now a hundred million dollar actor. The studios will look at everybody outside of the A-listers in terms of their value with every movie they’ve been in. Everybody below an A-lister, they speak of you in terms of a dollar amount, and it’s not that they don’t like us or dislike us. We just make them money.

One day I went to an acting class, and the teacher said how it’s hurtful that the thing that we pour all of our emotions and lives into perfecting this craft of acting only exists on television to sell ads. I remember thinking how I never considered that. The only reason TV exists as we have it now is that when it started in the ’50s, they could sell commercials. People needed to be entertained for a portion of that time or they would never watch the ads. So when a network like Fox comes along and is trying to sell ads, they can say, “We’re going to charge you this much money, but we’re going to get you a minimum of this many million viewers.”  Whereas on say CW, where the viewership isn’t as high, their flexibility is a lot higher because their backend matrix has to be a lot different than that of Fox or NBC. I’m really interested in that day when I’m like a number one or number two and I’m at NBC, and I can say to the executives, “Break this down for me, please. How does this work?” I know it comes from numbers and money. It’s about profitability a lot more than viewership. They need to sell ads.

That’s an interesting way to think of it. I think there’s a lot of truth to that.

Networks exist to sell ads. These networks make TV shows, and whoever has the best TV shows is going to sell the best ads. And that’s why a show like Big Bang Theory…while the viewership is super high, it’s also number one in the demographics of eighteen to thirty-five where it has twelve million viewers and thirty-six to fifty-five is doing another nine million. And so the network can send their fifteen-second ads for a million dollars. If you get fourteen of those in a single thirty-minute episode, that’s why they can pay these cast members a million dollars each. They’re raking in the money.

UnREAL

UnREAL recently premiered season three of the show on Lifetime, and we just saw your character last week. I’m so glad this show finally came to Lifetime. It seems like we’ve waited quite a while for this season. I’ve been a devoted fan who’s watched from the beginning.

I’m excited to see this season play out too. The feel is very different from the first two because this season, there is a female suitress. And my character, Xavier, is a gay character. My boyfriend in the show has his own storyline with me being prominent in it. Jay, who’s played by Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman, is a regular on the show, but in the past, his character has almost felt more like a supporting character because of the size of his role in seasons one and two. But this season, you really feel his presence because of the storyline they gave him with my character. And that’s good for him and me.

I know his character Jay, but yes, he always seemed to be in the background until this season. So far, we’re already seeing him a little more and getting to find out that he has ambitions and desires beyond what we might have thought the past couple seasons. I also spoke to Marcus Rosner before the show premiered, and he spoke very highly of you.

Oh, nice! You know what was really funny? Right before the show premiered, I messaged Marcus because I saw that he was in LA. He was down there for pilot season, but I wasn’t down there because I had this movie to film. I felt like everybody from the show was in LA, and I wanted to know where my personal invite was! He explained he was down there for pilot season, and so it lined up just right for him to be at the premiere. But Marcus is a really dope dude. He was in my very first acting class. I think he started six or twelve months before me. And then we trained together for about a year. So my very first year of acting was very close to Marcus Rosner. We both came up at almost the exact same time, almost hand-in-hand. He’s done a few more Hallmark projects than me, and I might have done a couple more regular TV guest or recurring characters. We’ve kind of come up at a comparable pace. He’s a dope dude. He’s handsome and talented, and I’m so happy he’s doing well.

I thought it was great because I’ve been watching the show from the beginning because of Brennan Elliott, and with this season, there’s you, Marcus, and Cameron Bancroft. I know and have interviewed all of you guys. It is so great to now see your part. I’m so excited to see more from you.

This season definitely has a different feel. There’s been catty girls in the past, and now you have catty guys, but the dynamics when you have a bachelor instead of a bachelorette or Caitlin { FitzGerald} versus the bachelors in season one and season two, it feels very different. Then with the introduction of my storyline and some of the stuff with Shiri Appleby’s character…we’re going to learn some crazy stuff we didn’t know before. Constance’s {Zimmer} character is a wild card, and she’s gonna do wild card stuff. It’s a great season.

I do know there are some Hallmark people who are jumping in and watching the show. Hopefully, they like it because you have to realize it is not a Hallmark show. They pushed the boundaries, and maybe I was offended at times, but never so offended that I wanted to turn it off. I was more shocked to think that this is what goes on behind-the-scenes in reality shows. 

We started shooting UnREAL back in February of last year. My guilty pleasure–my bestie and I watch The Bachelor and The Bachelorette. The newest season of whatever it was after we wrapped on UnREAL, I watched the show completely differently. I could tell when interactions had gotten produced. And then I began to realize that contestants were assigned to a certain producer. I’d watch the show and think, “Those are all assigned to one producer like Jay. And these people have like a Madison.” I really don’t know what I can trust anymore on these shows to be organic. I realize it’s happening organically with humans, but if it is being manipulated by producers, then how much is of the own person’s idea and what is from the producers? I now watch these shows for pure entertainment. I no longer know who really loves who.

I never watched The Bachelor or any of those shows, and I was worried I wouldn’t like UnREAL. I will say though it is just so well done, and the people behind it are pretty incredible at what they do. The writing is really smart, and the acting is absolutely phenomenal. Everything works together so well. 

With Shiri Appleby

You will be able to see me in five episodes, so four more, including this one coming up on March 26th. Of the five times I was there, Shiri directed one of them. It was wild because I remember she was feeling unwell and feeling congested. But this woman would sit at the director’s monitor and quickly watch the playback. She would then say all the stuff she needed to to the crew. Then while she was walking to the scene, she’s getting a line yelled at her. She sits, puts on the producer headphones for her character and has the first AD call “action.” She acts in the scene, and when the scene is done and they call “cut,” she walks back to the director’s monitor, watches it, and says, “Cool. Let’s go again.” I was watching this, and she’s like a real workhorse and missing no beats. She knows what the episode needs to look like, knows what she needs to get from the actors, knows what she needs to get from herself and just bangs it out. I am confident that is going to be one of the best episodes. Not to take anything away from any of the other directors, but when you watch that episode that she directed, you’re going to feel how it’s Shiri’s episode, and she killed it.

I’ve had people talk about how amazing Shiri is, but that story you told illustrates it well. It gives me more insight into her. It doesn’t surprise me as I’m constantly in awe of her. Now, I joked with Marcus about this because Marcus said they spent a lot of time shirtless in the show. Is that going to happen to you also?

No, not with my character. And to tie into a personal thing here, over the past four or five years, I have been seeing this weight fluctuation that I’ve been trying to get a handle on. I’ll put on fifteen or twenty pounds, and once I realize that my pants are pretty tight, I’ll lose it within a couple months. Then something will happen. It’s a comfortable period or my birthday season. So I had just gone through birthday, Christmas and India, and when I came back, I was quite heavy. I was at the first table read in February last year. I remember these guys were all doing some promo stuff, like the photos you see that are the contestant photos. So there were times when the photographer said, “Let’s do a couple more. Take off your shirts.” So all these guys were at one place in the studio, and they were all shirtless. I was like, “Man, do you guys stay like this all year? What?!”

This is a true story. I instantly went and got a gym membership. Now, it’s not to be a gym rat, but this is what we do. There are some actors, like Jonah Hill, who can play a heavier character. But for the most part, when they see a handsome guy who can act, they are expecting that underneath the clothing, we’d be in pretty good shape. And really, that’s part of the package that they don’t even just expect, but they deserve. If they had wanted me to be in this show bareback, I couldn’t have been, at least in the beginning. And so I started going out to the gym every day, and if you look at the show and my character, you’ll actually see the difference in my first couple episodes as compared to my last couple. I’m a lot smaller. You will be able to see the transformation if you watch for it. And it took seeing these guys like Marcus who are so chiseled and handsome. They inspired me to get in shape.

I can relate to the weight issue. I lost fifty pounds many years ago, and I still have kept it off, but there are times it’s not so easy. And of course, I wasn’t in front of a camera. I’m glad you shared that, Jaime, because sometimes people assume that actors never have weight issues because every time we see them, they look great and in shape. But it’s true that most of them have to work at it too. 

Lucifer

Yes, and when we book something, sometimes we go into hyperdrive. Since we talked in 2016, I did Lucifer last year. Because I had started working out in mid-February, by the time I booked Lucifer in May/June, I had lost most of the chub and I was just trying to get chiseled. And I was pretty much butt naked for my scene. So the week before, I was taking all the supplements. I was working out twice a day. I was doing a thousand crunches, five hundred pushups, and then I’d go to the gym later on. I was taking glutamine, protein, everything you could think of. I cut my carbs to a hundred grams a day, which is almost crucially low in order to have what you saw in that episode. I say all that because people think, “Oh, actors are so beautiful and chiseled.” And I’m like, “No, no, no, no, no!” I was working out for five months, and then I starved myself and worked out twice a day for about a week. I wish I could stay looking good like that.

I know there are the people who are really lucky like that, but I don’t think that is most of the population. You’re not the only actor who has told me stories like that. And I think it makes actors more relatable when they share stories like that, and so thank you for being so open and candid about that. I honestly have a great respect for actors like you who put in the work like you’re doing. And I’m sure your fans will cheer you on.

Thank you. It’s a great feeling when you can work hard at something like this. And not just in acting. Let’s say that a vehicle has three different lines. You have the cheaper, smaller model, the mid-sized model, and the bigger, more expensive model. My friend was telling me about the car she had just bought, and when I asked her what kind it was, she was downplaying it and saying, “Oh, it’s just whatever it was.” And I said, “No, when you work for anything in your life, and then you have something to show for  that hard work, don’t downplay it by saying, ‘it’s just the whatever.'” If you bought a Timex or a Rolex, you worked hard for that and put major money towards it. This lady goes to work every day and bought the car she was able to afford. Maybe one day she’ll be able to afford the next model up, but for now, she worked hard and got that one. And she was like, “Oh, that’s a good way to look at it.” I mean, even avocados are expensive. Two dollars for one avocado? You work hard for whatever you buy, and you need to be proud of whatever it is you bought. For me, if I work hard on the physical fitness stuff, then I’m happy to be playing basketball bareback and waving at my neighbors as they drive by. And if I do nothing and I’m chubby, then I’m to blame too.

Love At First Bark

I know some Hallmark viewers are going to remember you from Love At First Bark. 

Yes, I got to play opposite Natasha Burnett in that one. She played my love interest. While it was a small role, it was cool. It was originally going to be a bigger scene, but as happens in this business, it did get edited down. It was directed by Mike Rohl. My two favorite directors are Mike Rohl and Michael Scott. And with this movie I recently wrapped The House on Holly Lane, it was directed by Michael Scott. And The Bridge 1 and 2 as well as Love At First Bark were directed by Mike Rohl.

Something that Hallmark has started doing recently is this push for more diversity in their films. That is so exciting for me. It’s been happening slowly for awhile, but I feel like you kind of got in on the ground floor of that. After all, we saw you in The Bridge. Now we’ve got Holly Robinson Peete doing a reality series and a movie mystery series with the network. And in January, we had Rukiya Bernard featured in a movie where, although she was a supporting cast member, it was written very much like there were four leads as opposed to two. 

With Jana Kramer
Love At First Bark

I am so happy to see that change happening as well. I do love those Hallmark movies.

This movie you have mentioned that you recently wrapped, what can you tell us about it?

I am not certain what network will pick it up. I don’t know if it will be Hallmark, but maybe UP or Lifetime. We’ll see what happens. It was a pretty standard production without cutting any corners, so we’ll see where it goes from here. There is a scene where I’m in a sleigh. I think the viewers are going to enjoy it.

It sounds like you have a fantastic cast. 

Absolutely! The three main ladies call themselves the three amigas–they are best friends. And I’m the fourth, so that’s pretty cool for me. And Giles Panton is in this film as well. He’s number five in the cast list. I am just hoping that whatever company picks it up, it gets a widespread release. It is a great movie, and it deserves to be seen.

I know that sometimes there are movies that take a long time to come to networks. 

With Steve Lund
The Secret Millionaire

Yes, that is how is was with The Secret Millionaire.  We had wrapped it for five months at least, and I got an email saying back in February of last year to come do ADR. I figured it would be released in March of last year. Wrong! It was like December or something like that. I was trying to find the movie and watch it, and then I got a Facebook message from the writer of the story telling me that she had watched me in the movie and she said I did a really good job. She thanked me for playing her character so well. She said I was really funny and fit the role so well. It was really nice that she reached out like that personally, and that was when I sat there and was able to finally watch the movie. I just loved that movie! I don’t even know what scenes to pick out to add to my demo reel.

Speaking of movies that haven’t been distributed yet, we are still waiting on The Perfect Pickup. I am playing the nerd in that one, and it’s a comedy. The Secret Millionaire is a rom-com, and my character is the comic relief. I knew that if I fell flat, the movie would have lost its comedy. I was the funny character. I was quite nervous going into it, but every day on set, I felt good. I had been dying to see it. In fact, out of everything I had done, I couldn’t wait to watch that movie, and I was super happy with the end product. I hope more people can see it.

I have not had an opportunity to watch it yet, but it is definitely on my watchlist. I know there are many other well-known actors in it.

Yes, like Adam DiMarco, Siobhan Williams–she’s the female lead. Steve Lund from Bitten and other great people are in it.

Oh yeah! Hallmark people have come to really like Steve Lund. Over the past year or so, he’s become a major Hallmark star. It sounds like the same demographic that watches Hallmark would like The Secret Millionaire. So hopefully more people will look it up. Is there anything else upcoming that you can mention?

The Perfect Pickup is waiting on distribution. There was the episode of Lucifer I mentioned. Heather Hawthorne Doyle is a renowned director, and she directed a short that I did late last year, which is gonna do the film festival circuit. Hopefully, we can have some fun with it. It was super cool, and she’s a really great director, and I don’t often get to work with female directors. Working with one who is as prominent as she was an amazing experience. She’s very knowledgeable and totally cool. That was awesome, and we banged it out in a few days. It’s a nice story with a bit of a twist. It’s called Sorry I Broke Your Heart.

So in short, 2017 started with Love At First Bark, UnREAL, then I was the face of Best Buy for six or seven months. Then Sorry I Broke Your Heart. And then I had four months or so of just auditioning. So I’m happy that in the first month of 2018, I auditioned more than I did in the last three months. In fact, one of my recent biggest auditions was for the lead of a show with ten pages of dialogue to learn. It was a huge audition, and the fact that the producers decided to look at me for the role was an honor. There are tens of thousands of actors who whether their agents submit them or not, they will never get seen for this kind of role. But to be requested to put something on tape for that was an honor. So I went from playing a doctor on The House on Holly Lane, who has the Jaime personality, but it’s a little bit calmer and all the nervousness of an intelligent genius. And then I auditioned for an FBI agent after playing this doctor role, and it was so fun to switch to play something completely different in the same day.

I’m glad you’re getting so many opportunities. And let me say this by way of a compliment to you. While you can play a variety of roles, you have a signature look that I automatically recognize the moment you’re on screen. There are those in the industry who have many looks, and it’s easy to disguise them so that I struggle sometimes to recognize them. And that’s not a bad thing for sure. But it’s nice to know that I can always recognize you. Even when you play a completely different character. There is something about you that always says, “This is Jaime.” And I personally love that. You just have this charisma that you always bring to the screen.

That’s great! I love that. Thank you. Just like how Denzel Washington has that thing that you know from each character he plays even though they’re very different, there’s a moment with his mouth or something about him that lets us know that this is Denzel. Whereas with Daniel Day-Lewis, it’s not always so easy to recognize him. He can play these diverse characters so different from each other, and you don’t ever see him in them. It’s not that it’s good or bad. But I’m so happy that you see that in me because it makes me think of Denzel instantly.

Exactly. It’s nice to always be able to recognize you, and I’m not sure what it is, but I always know it’s you and I don’t have to go to IMDB to verify it. And I also love the fact that you have such devoted fans, and I’m sure you do too. But it’s really neat to see that you have interactive fans. The moment you tweet something out, your fans descend on that tweet. I know it might be overwhelming for you, but it’s nice to see that you have that much support.

Oh, definitely, it’s a huge one that’s for sure.

I wish more actors would just tweet out something positive or a “good morning” tweet. I think they sometimes think they only should tweet about their career, but you have a real personal connection with these fans. It makes you come across as being truly personal instead of just as a celebrity. 

I see my social media as an extension of me. And hearing you say that is just perfect. It’s not even “mission accomplished” because it wasn’t a mission. I just want to be me on social media. You might be in Arkansas or New Zealand or Trinidad, but it has to feel like you are here with me. Social media has enabled us to connect with people all over the planet. It shouldn’t feel like “TV them” and “real them.” It should be just them. If someone is a photographer on Instagram, and you’re just taking pictures of various things to build a massively huge following, that’s easy because people who like pretty photos of beaches and other scenery will follow you. It’s harder when you’re a mid-level actor. I’m a show away from popping; I know that.

With his goddaughter

Where I am right now, it’s like a steady build, but I won’t ever get a hundred thousand followers with an organic page like mine because it has a little bit of my acting, a little bit of myself and my goddaughters, it has pretty flowers and cars, but it’s the things that I love. It truly displays and demonstrates who I am. It is a perfect representation of me. You can look at my page and know that I love sports, cars, my mom and my goddaughters. So I try to find a balance between continuing to build the following for purposes of the studios since they are looking at that, but also not losing my integrity. It has to be an extension of me; otherwise, I don’t want to do it. For example, if I wake up in a bad mood, I might not tweet anything because I have nothing nice to say at all. Or I might let my followers know that today’s not the day. If a leader of the world is tweeting foolishness anywhere in the world, all I can say is, “Today’s not the day.” I’ll either say that or I’ll say nothing. But I’m not going to put on a character or wear a social media hat. My social media has to be an extension of me.

I think you’ve done a really good job of that. I notice how you try to add that personal touch on social media, and I know it’s appreciated. I try to do the same thing, and while I don’t have to respond to everyone, I try to respond as much as I can. And I think you do too.

I agree with you. I believe if someone has taken the time to tweet something to me or sent me something on Instagram or Facebook, I have a responsibility to at least acknowledge it and maybe even respond if I can.

Now, I’ve had to learn that it’s okay if I don’t respond right away. That is my downfall. Ten people send me something, and I feel like I have to respond right away. But I can wait a couple of hours, and it will be okay. I’ve been trying to teach myself that.

I am one who if something comes in to me, I’m responding. I’ve been brainwashed to think that has to take priority over the other thing that I was doing. If I’m washing the dishes, I feel like I have to respond right away. Thank God my phones are waterproof because I’m touching my phone with soapy water hands because I don’t want someone to wait three minutes.

But I have been working on what you’re talking about too. I have to tell myself to slow down. These people aren’t going anywhere, and they will still be there when I’m done washing the dishes or whatever. Unless it’s an emergency, of course. That’s different. But I’m trying to remind myself that it’s okay to finish what I’m doing and then respond. I have to learn to prioritize because I’ve become an addict with these phones of mine. Sometimes it’s an escape, but sometimes I want to use it as an excuse to get away from reading another page of my book. I’ll be like, “Oh, I’ve got to respond to this tweet.” But then I remind myself, “No, you’re going to finish this chapter and then respond.” I’ve had to talk to myself about this for the last year or so.

Interesting how we’re dealing with the same thing! Good to know that I’m not alone.

Absolutely!

I personally think you do a great job managing your social media. And I notice it’s not just that you respond, but how you respond to others. I love the interactions. I love seeing connections between these actors like you that I support and the fans. Now, have you been able to do any writing? I know you and I had talked about that last time. 

You know, in 2015, that was when I made a mental turnaround with a bunch of stuff like my work ethic and my expectations. So I decided that instead of trying to spread myself so thin and add the writing hat to all of this, I decided I wanted to become a better actor. I was okay, and I’m pretty good right now. As I look at the work I’m doing now, the difference in characters is something to see. You’re going to see me play this really flamboyant gay character on UnREAL. You’ll still see the smile that is Jaime because you have to bring yourself to every role. And I’ve never kissed a man before this show. There are a lot of firsts even in his body language. The way he stands, the way he talks…his diva-ish way of being. So seeing all that in relation to the other roles, I’m proud of the evolution. Until I feel like I’ve mastered the acting so that it’s so comfortable that I could teach it, I’m staying away from looking at other things. I’m not saying I’m opposed to being a part of another production where someone else asks me to come and maybe bounce some ideas off them like getting a producer credit or contributing to a story. But to sit and write something…writing is difficult. As an actor, when I get good writing, it’s easy to say, and it moves the story well. If it’s bad writing, it’s glaring. And I don’t want to put bad writing out there. I decided that I would focus on being a good actor before doing anything else.

I remember you’d mentioned that before, but I just wanted to know where you were with that. And that gives me a really great perspective. I think what you’re doing is very smart. I know some people can focus on multiple things, and it works for them. But with others, something ends up suffering because they can only spread themselves so thin. 

That’s exactly what I think too. I need to focus on this one thing–acting–and then once I’ve mastered that, I can move on and do other things while still acting.

I am so glad things are going so well for you Jaime. There is nothing I enjoy more than seeing my friends succeed. I look forward to seeing you in the upcoming episodes of UnREAL, and we will watch out for this movie and everything else you’re in.

Thank you, Ruth, for reaching out. It never seems like an interview. It’s just a wonderful, relaxed chat, and I appreciate all your support. I hope everyone watches out for Xavier in UnREAL! Check it out Mondays on Lifetime if you haven’t yet.

With Lesley Diana (publicist) and Ronnie Holly Stevenson.

When it comes to extraordinary people like Jaime, conducting an interview with him is always like conversing with a friend. I can invariably depend upon him to be candid, realistic, and pragmatic in his responses, and that makes these posts a veritable delight to compose. In addition to that, he perpetually exudes such kindness, humility, and gratitude that it will engender hope within you that the world is still a place of enchantment and joy, even on the most dismal of days. It is refreshing to hear his views on the television business as a whole, and one thing you can anticipate with Jaime is truth spoken in unconditional love and fathomless kindness. Jaime has always been extremely accessible when it comes to discussing the business; moreover, he has never completely lost his childlike innocence and wonderment when gushes about all the incredible projects with which he has been able to be involved. He is unquestionably committed to being the absolute best version of himself whether in front of the camera or just hanging out after hours with friends and family. I can also attest to the fact that after speaking with him, it’s as though the world glows a bit brighter due to the boundless light, peace, and enthusiasm that radiate from his innermost being. The world definitely needs more people like him, and I am ecstatic to watch him on my TV screen again!

Therefore, if you are not tuning in every Monday night to Lifetime and watching him as he portrays the ostentatious and effusive Xavier in the TV show UnREAL, I invite you to do so as soon as possible. And don’t worry if you’re behind because you can always catch up on past episodes online and/or on demand. Additionally, if you are not following Jaime at all the links below, abandon whatever you’re doing immediately and follow him on all the social media platforms possible! If there’s one person you need to follow closely on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, it’s Jaime! Every time he posts, he will surely give you a reason to smile, and my favorite posts are when he reminds us of the spiritual significance of our existence. Jaime may be unknown in some circles due to his recent absence from TV, but never fear! Jaime is back, and I believe the term to describe him is he is “looking fly!” But beneath that robust and sculptured exterior of his beats the heart of one who is more authentic than many you may chance to meet in this world. Jaime is an original, and I am so grateful to know this profoundly sensitive, indubitably artistic, thoroughly caring, intensely talented man, and I only hope and pray that he will be gracing our screens for many years to come!

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