Jaime M. Callica – UnREAL

By: Jamie Steinberg

Q) What are the recent projects that you are working on?

A) I just wrapped on a feature film called The House on Holy Lane where I play one of the leads. I play a doctor and that was kind of cool because my original aspiration was to be a lawyer. My mom always anted me to be a lawyer or doctor. I played a teacher as Simeon on “Wayward Pines,” but we didn’t see him a classroom setting. He wasn’t like lecturing classes, but he was a teacher in Wayward Pines. So, this would be my most astute role to date. Karen Holness whom is a heavy hitter actress and Sarah Lancaster who has been in the business as well forever and Gina Holden. They play three best friends who have grownup together and it is a movie set at Christmas. It’s not a Christmas story, but it just happens to be set at Christmas. I’m not sure when it is coming out, but I’m looking forward to it.

Q) How was Xavier originally on “UnREAL” originally described to you?

A) The character description was something along the lines of “beautiful, super flamboyant, gay dancer from New Orleans, who is the love interest for Jay.” That was kind of the sentence that I read when I got the audition. I thought, “Cool…” I was actually in India when I got the email and I responded to my agent’s assistant saying I was on my first vacation in a few years and I think I’m going to pass on it. If they have a call back in a few days, then I’ll be back in four days. So, if they want to bring me back for the call-back, that’d be fine, but I really don’t want to be stressed reading lines. My agent wrote back saying that casting really wanted to see me for this so could I please put something on tape. I begrudgingly did. I went to the beach and then ran lines at my hotel. I put it on tape and then went out to dinner. I didn’t think about it until four days later where I had a barrage of emails, calls and texts from agent requesting video footage of me dancing since this character needed to be a dancer. So, I abandoned my luggage and just kind of took footage for my agent. I think the next day or day after I booked at. I later learned they had been looking for this character for some time when I met the Eps and creators. They said, “We’ve been looking for Xavier and when we saw your tapes we were so happy.” I’m really glad I did this because I would have missed out on this great role.

Q) Talk about working with costar Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman.

A) He is such a sweet dude. He is so nice. He talks to everyone. He interacts with the all the guest stars. It’s just his personality. Kind of like when I’m on set, I talk to everybody. It’s not to say that other leads are bougie, but as a series lead there is a lot going on. You have a lot of dialogue and there is potentially a lot of emotion so you don’t have the mental capacity to talk to everyone, but Jeffrey somehow does. It’s nice because you’re coming into a show (especially as “UnREAL”) where pretty much everyone is new. So, there is this dynamic of the newbies versus the old guys, but Jeffrey was one of those people where you definitely saw him interact a lot with the “contestants” and suitress and definitely me. Working with him was great just because he’s so nice. Shooting scenes with him because his character is pretty much Jeffrey. He’s always laughing, making jokes and super huggy. So, when you are playing the love interest of someone like that it is going to be pretty easy. For me, the adjustment was me being a straight man so playing the character of a gay man with a gay man – my biggest thing was not being stereotypically gay without being underwhelming with the character trying to avoid being stereotypically gay. It was written that he was flamboyant so for me it was difficult for the first couple episodes to find almost the “sweet spot” where I was giving the producers and writers what they wanted by being this super bouncy, flamboyant gay character and also not doing or saying anything that would be offensive to the LGBT community as a straight man. So, playing with Jeffrey made it easy.

Q) What was the dynamic like on set?

A) My dirty little secret habit is to watch “The Bachelor” and “The Bachelorette” so I can definitely say that it would probably have been very different on set versus the first two seasons where you have a cast full of woman as contestants. But a lot of these guys are in crazy shape so they’d be working out at lunch and doing pushups between takes. Then, they did yoga three days a week. It wasn’t like “meatheadish,” but they were cognizant that many of the episodes they were going to be topless and you can see that. They were shirtless all the time. [laughs] After my trip to India, I felt like I had put on about forty to fifty pounds so I was feeling kind of chunky. I was at the production office one day and they were doing some photography for some promo shots and some of the guys didn’t have their shirts on. I remember thinking, “Yo! You guys have to stay like this all year?! This is how you stay?!” Then, I instantly got a gym membership. So, that’s my shoutout to the male cast members for getting me back in the gym.

Q) What were some of your favorite moments from filming “UnREAL?”

A) I wouldn’t call it a favorite memory so much as something that is going to be the most memorable. Again, as a straight man, I had never kissed another male before. My first or second episode of the show, I greet Jay and lay like a heavy one on him. For me as a human and an actor, I’ve never done that before so that will forever be very memorable. Ten characters from today and thirty years in the future I’ll remember the first time I ever kissed a dude. And that was cool. I have friends who asked, “Is that going to be hard or weird?” I said, “No, Jaime may like girls, but Xavier (the character I’m playing) likes men and that’s what it is. I’m playing a character on TV and I’m able to separate the two and bring enough Jaime to the character, which is what we’re supposed to do as an actor.” That would probably be the most memorable thing for me on set.

Q) Did you get the opportunity to work with Shiri Appleby and/or Constance Zimmer?

A) Shiri directed my second episode of the season and that was awesome. Her and Constance are so dope! Shiri directing that episode and acting in it – it was crazy! For one of the episodes we were shooting she was feeling sick. So, a PA or who ever would run in with a couple of Advil or whatever she needed and then she would quite literally run over to the monitor. We were shooting a scene actually where we were actually behind monitors so she’d run over to the real director monitors to watch the previous take. Then, she’d run back to the fake monitors and run all her dialogue. Then, she’d run back to watch it. She did it for several days or how ever many days we shot that particular episode. Before that I knew she was awesome as a person and an actress, but watching her balance being in an episode and directing it while making it look effortless it was inspiring and impressive.

Q) You often take on dramatic roles. Was that part of what drew you to being a part of this series?

A) There are almost more dramas, but I think I’m just more exposed to dramas. Comedy is so much harder than drama. Doing comedy, even for a self-proclaimed funny guy is so much harder because there is timing and pacing. There are so many elements that drama doesn’t have or can be corrected in editing. They can put in long dramatic pauses in a drama, but for comedy if you don’t have that pacing it just doesn’t work. You think about “Modern Family” and when the actors are doing that quick eye address to the camera and then they look back down – if that’s not timed perfectly it loses its entire impact. So, comedy is really, really hard over the last couple years. I’ve been working really hard to make my onscreen comedy better. So, I’m hoping that one of these days one of them sticks. In fact, a movie I did in 2016 called Secret Millionaire was released in the states and my character was the comic relief in this romantic comedy. I was really nervous will filming because if my comedy fell flat the movie would have lost most of the comedy. When I watched it, I was quite happy with the final product.

Q) What do you think it is about “UnREAL” that has made it such a fan favorite program?

A) I think for a lot of people it’s the fact that you watch that and you relate it to other reality TV shows and you think, “Man, I never thought that before. I never considered a reality show would have that level of manipulation.” So, from that perspective, I think people almost like it more because you’re coming out of a state of being duped having thought that everything happened the way it happened on those previous twenty-four seasons of “The Bachelor.” So, it’s almost like an eye opening where you go, “Ah! That’s crazy! I never would have thought that!” Then, you have the dynamic between Quinn, Rachel, Chet (Craig Bierko), Jay and Madison (Genevieve Buechner). We want to get ahead. Some people will go about it one way and others will do whatever it takes to get ahead. From a variety of perspectives, it will appeal to a mass number of people. But you can sit six people down and six different people can get six different things from each of the various characters. It’s not a show that is one note. So, I think from that point of view the audience is broad. Especially this season, it lines up with some of the #MeToo stuff by coincidence. Outside of #MeToo, which has a lot to do with reporting various assaults, I love that women (and people in general) are banding together. This show has two women who are super strong, both in the show and in real life. And I think a lot of women love watching it for those reasons.

Q) You are a part of social media. Are you looking forward to that instant fan feedback you’ll receive to your episodes?

A) Oh, man! I’ve been pumped! I can’t wait! He’s such a lovable guy that you’re going to love him because he’s sweet, funny and so flamboyant. He has this bleach blonde hair and he wears like the craziest outfit. He really loves Jay. So, I’m really looking forward to reading the tweets about Xavier. I’m pumped to interact! I’m really, really looking forward to the world meeting Xavier.

Q) How do you plan on celebrating your “UnREAL” appearance?

A) I usually do a little thing at my house and my mom and my closest friends come over. We’ll order some pizza and drink some wine or liquor. I’m trying to decide if I want to do that for the first episode I’m in or the last one because it’s quite dramatic.

Q) What would you like to say to everyone who is a fan and supporter of you and your work?

A) I would like to thank every single person who has tuned in to watch something of mine. In fact, I’m going to thank everyone has not watched anything of mine but has good intention to. If you interact with me on social media, thank you. I get a lot of love from a lot of people. One of my biggest motivators, number one, is to take care of my mom. I can’t wait to be able to retire her so she doesn’t have to work anymore. My second is that I love when I get messages where they’ll say, “Hey, I just saw that post and you really inspired me to work harder!” I wanted to use that platform to be the best that I can and be the beacon in a world that can seem dark now.