Jesse Hutch, "Joy Ride 3"

Jesse Hutch is a veteran of the industry whose 13-year career spans film and TV, everything from "Dark Angel" (his first gig) to "The Butterfly Effect" to "Joy Ride 3," now available on DVD, iTunes and HD. The day after Father's Day, the affable and introspective actor and I chatted – him from home in Canada, me from a friend's daughter's princess-themed bedroom in the Chicago suburbs – while he played with his three children, ages 3 years, 19 months and 7 weeks. (At one point, he interrupted himself to say "Sorry. I'm 'flying' a toddler over my head.")

You’ve been acting since 2001. How has your style changed since then?

Wow. You get right to the hard-hitting questions, don't you?

Yup.

I think when it comes to acting, I feel like the largest aspect of acting is yourself, about your insecurities, strengths, weaknesses and character. I’ve come to learn that you gotta deal with yourself in order to properly deal with that emotion and try to apply that emotion to someone else's writing. I can get in my own way, if that makes sense. I was raised in the old-school mentality that men don’t cry, that strength means not allowing emotions to show on the outside. I think for me along the way, getting married and having children, [I've found that] it's rubbish to say that real men to don’t cry. If something happened to your wife and she left the earth in the blink of an eye, you’re not gonna cry 'cause you’re too much of a man? I think that’s ridiculous. I’ve had to deal with myself a lot more. I’ve had to examine myself, and ask, "What about other people?" I think being married and having kids has allowed me to think outside of myself. People say actors are crybabies and we are very emotional, but we have to turn off emotions with the words "Action" and "Cut." It’s one of the aspects of acting that I really enjoy. I have to be that character 'cause it’s not me, but I affect it.

Tell me about "Joy Ride 3."

My role is the lead role of Jordan Wells. Jordan has his own company and does a lot of rally racing. He has a team built up of friends and girlfriends. I really like the character. I was attracted to the role simply because I liked that he was a leader, but he wasn’t flawless. He is wrong sometimes. There are moments he’s able to admit it, if not straight up with his words, you can see it in his actions and in his expressions. I also enjoyed the fact that he was the lead, not gonna lie. The movie has already been released on iTunes and HD, DVD comes out June 17. The DVD will have some behind-the-scenes and extras, which I enjoy and haven’t been able to see yet.

I liked that he’s a work in progress. He does care about his friends, and as the story progresses, he starts to kind of fall apart but still keep it together. He becomes stronger – he's forced to become stronger – and in that journey he almost goes slightly crazy – not like, "Oh my goodness, this guy needs to be put in a loony bin," but I’d call it righteous anger. It gets serious pretty quick. We’re talking life-threatening, people are missing, people are dying. In a short amount of time I was trying to bring Jordan to life and show that he cares for these people, so the viewers will care about them.

According to IMDb, you perform a lot of your own stunts. Can you talk more about that? What’s the most dangerous thing you’ve ever had to do?

As far as stunts go, the majority of it is I’ve gotten to do a lot of fight scenes. I enjoy a good stunt a lot. I have friends who are in the stunt world. Back when I was single, I used to be roommates with a stunt coordinator. I’ve always appreciated that aspect of filmmaking, and I want to get in there and try to make the shot better when I can, but I appreciate the stunt folk. You have to keep a level head. Most stunt people don’t enjoy working with actors, because our focus is on character and emotion and the next thing you know, emotion can take over, and they’re not making contact with the stunt people and punches are thrown and people get hurt. I like to try to bring the stunt to life. In "Joy Ride," I was able to do a fight scene with Rusty Nail, [played by] Ken Kerzinger, who’s been in the stunt industry for years. It was a 10-year anniversary for us, because we worked on "Freddy vs. Jason" together, back in the day – I was the guy who was snapped in half. I’ve had a plethora of death in my career. That being said, I’ve enjoyed that my character makes it to the end of ["Joy Ride 3"].

Who's your dream costar, and why?

Right off the top of my head, I’d enjoy working with Tom Cruise. I enjoy that he does a lot of his stunts, and he's very committed. The majority of his films are awesome, and he gets to do a lot of action. Hugh Jackman comes across as a class act and a gentleman, but he’s really focused and plays a lot of roles, from action to comedy to drama. Daniel Day-Lewis is one of my favorite actors. Mark Wahlberg would be awesome. You just get the feeling he's a lot of fun. I’d like to have a career that isn’t just one track. I want to be all over the place, be that guy who can be in a dramedy and a straight-up comedy and action. "Joy Ride" was great because my name comes up first in the credits, and it’s like the first time you see your name on the chair [on set]. Not everybody sees that, but you know it's there. I hope to be an actor that can bring stories to life and affect people.