‘George Clooney is so friendly and generous’: interview with acress Jillian Armenante

Fresh Off the Boat is a situation comedy. We film in a sound stage on the Fox lot so all the production elements are there and ready to shoot. We generally film 8 pages per day and try to get in and out in under 12 hours, sometimes successfully and sometimes not so much. Kittens in a Cage was different for me because I directed, produced and helped write the script. We filmed in an indie run and gun way and had limited funds. We had amazing TV and film stars involve because they wanted to play and we were very luck because we were able to launch on iTunes, Google Play, Vimeo, Hulu and Amazon without being backed by a large studio. We choose to do the festival circuit with Kittens in a Cage and got lucky by participating in over 22 festivals, winning many of them. As a producer and director, I got to make my own decisions without having to consult with a “higher up” which is always refreshing. Bad Teacher was a bigger production as films tend to be. I didn’t have to leave the country or my family to film Bad Teacher as I have done with many of my other projects as an actor because it was shot here in Los Angeles. Films tend to shoot less pages per day and tend to not be filmed on a sound stage. They tend to use actual locations which has advantages scenically  but logistically tend to be more demanding on the cast and crew. All of these types of projects are amazing to participate in for different reasons. As an actor I love all opportunities and challenges. It is a great life being an actor. I plan to direct a lot more in the future as well having just put a movie in the can last week called The List, which will hopefully be released this summer.