Jessy Terrero is a regular guy from New York that earned his way to directing a feature film. He was really cool and straightforward during our interview in Los Angeles. Soul Plane is what it is, a niche film marketed to an urban audience. Jessy had been getting a lot of heat from the press about the racial stereotypes in the movie. I wanted to avoid that line of questioning and find out how Jessy made it this far. It’s difficult for anyone to make it in Hollywood. Add minority status and your chances become even more slim. Let’s hope Soul Plane does well, so Jessy Terrero and others like him get a chance to direct more studio films.

Julian: Tell us what it’s like being a Latino director in Hollywood? Hollywood rarely gives blacks or Latinos a chance. For a guy to come up, from making music videos to feature films, tell us how this happened for you?

Jessy Terrero: Basically, I came up in the industry writing music video treatments. I started writing music video treatments for this director named Diane Martel. The first treatment I wrote was for a song called Money, Power, Respect, by the Lox, DMX, and Puff Daddy. At that point, creatively, I started getting more known in the industry. People started knowing me for some of my ideas. I hooked up with Chris Robinson and creatively we built a great relationship. I was part of his writing team, guys writing treatments for music videos. During that period I was kind of grinding and I hooked up with this group called Ghetto Concept, that was a rap group from Toronto. They were independently doing their own music videos. Toronto has this program called Video Fact, basically the government funds music videos. It’s like if you have your own record label and you’re an artist that needs a video, you put in a grant to the government and they’ll give you money to shoot a video.

Julian: Like an NEA grant?

Jessy Terrero: Yes, sort of, they were trying to build their music and film industry at the time. I hooked up with this group and they had money to shoot a video coming from the government. They liked some of the treatments I wrote at the time, for different rap artists, so they asked me to write a treatment. I wrote a treatment for them that they really enjoyed and they kind of passed it around Toronto. The directors in Toronto weren’t really getting the vision, so they called me and told me, why don’t I direct it myself. I went to Toronto, drove up there, eight hours alone, shot the music video for them. That year it got nominated by Much Music for best rap video of the year. After that I started buzzing in Toronto. Meanwhile, back in the United States, I was doing everything I could just to stay in the industry. Still writing treatments, nobody really knew I was directing.

Julian: So you were still in New York?

Jessy Terrero: Yeah, I was still in New York. I would just go, every six months up to Toronto and shoot a video for these guys. Started getting some notoriety up there and getting my feet wet. People still knew me as a treatment writer, nobody really knew I was directing. I came across Fat Joe, who I’ve been having relationships with for years. Fat Joe really tries to make a move in the Latino community. I went to Fat Joe and showed him all the music videos that I’ve done and told him I was shooting videos in Toronto. But I really needed an artist that people knew, in order to shop this reel around. I was afraid to show it to people because people are afraid to make their own decisions, if something’s good or not. I thought my work was good, but since the artists weren’t known in the United States, I felt like nobody was going to pay attention. I went to Fat Joe; Joe at the time was doing a Terror Squad album. Joe wanted to do a video for one of these singles on the album and wanted to do a mom and pop, video station, sort of street kind of single. Fat Joe, I showed him the videos that I did, and he gave me ten thousand dollars out of his pocket to shoot a video. He said it would help me and his artist at the same time. It was an artist called Prospect that was off the Terror Squad album. I shot the video and Joe pretty much made it a big deal. Invited the record label down, a lot of rappers to do cameos. At the time, Chris Robinson was shooting a big video for like three hundred grand. So Joe’s on set talking about my video and Chris Robinson already knew me, we had a relationship, took notice. Oh wow, Jessy Terrero, I didn’t even know he was a director. After the video, Chris was like; I want to take a look at your work. After Chris saw the videos, I kind of shoved all the other Canadian videos behind it. He said I reminded him of himself, cause he came up kind of scrapping in the same way. Chris was in the process of starting his own company called Robot Films. Chris wanted to make me his first director. Once I signed with Chris, I was on the road with him, traveling and learning from him. Writing with him, I felt like I was part of his success as well. In return, he was trying to make me a successful director. First video that Chris brought to me was Jill Scott, this young girl from Philadelphia. I want you to take a crack at this. I wrote a treatment; the label loved it, and the next thing I know, we’re at the MTV awards nominated for best R & B video. Videos then started coming. Chris oversaw a lot of them, was on set with me, helped me out in the beginning until I got going. After I did Jill Scott, Charles King from William Morris gave me a call. He was like, I think it’s the best video of the year. Charles just started getting his feet wet at William Morris. He was new at his position, trying to acquire directors, and was really interested in working with me. He started tracking me on the videos and would come on set and watch what I was doing. Like a year later decided to sign me as a director. I told Charles that I wanted to get out of music videos as soon as possible. I wanted to use it to get to a point, but I wasn’t chasing to be the next Hype Williams or Chris Robinson.

Julian: So you always wanted to be a feature film director? That was your dream from day one.

Jessy Terrero: Exactly, I told him, get me out before the money gets to me or the ego. Because in music videos you’re always trying to beat the next guy or be the top guy. I didn’t want to get into a situation were I got caught in that. I wanted to make sure that when the right project came along, he would be able to pull me out. When Soul Plane came around, Charles was able to talk to me about it, and thought that it could be something cool for me. I read it and here I am.

Julian: It wasn’t one of these things where you had to hunt for a project and knockdown the door, saying I’m a noted music video director, give me a shot at a feature film. Charles is your agent I assume?

Jessy Terrero: Yeah, Charles King really did a lot of the legwork. Pretty much would send me scripts. Had me focus on reading material and getting back to him.

Julian: So you chose this project?

Jessy Terrero: Yeah, I was working on a similar project that was like Airplane meets Trading Places. Charles knew I was developing a concept built around an urban airplane. So when Soul Plane came across his desk, Charles had a relationship with MGM, he represents Tim Story, that did Barbershop.

Julian: Tim Story’s awesome. He got Fantastic Four.

Jessy Terrero: Yeah, Tim’s killing ‘em. That’s huge.

Julian: When we heard that we were like, a black man directing a major summer costume film, that is huge.

Jessy Terrero: That’s huge. I applaud Tim Story. Tim’s given me great advice and Tim’s just a great guy. Charles represents Tim Story, so MGM went back to Charles and asked who did he think the new guy was gonna be. Charles was like, I got this guy, Jessy Terrero. Sent me in. I think I was the first guy out of twenty directors they were ready to meet, but since I already did so much work on this concept, I came in with all these ideas, and just blew them away. They were like this is the guy that needs to make Soul Plane. He’s gonna make this movie right.

Julian: Obviously there’s a major budget difference between doing a video and a feature film. Soul Plane is sixteen million dollars. Was MGM on your back everyday? Were they on set? Was there a lot of pressure on you, from the beginning, to make a good film?

Jessy Terrero: There was a lot of pressure, but at the end of the day, any time you’re under twenty million dollars in the studio system, it’s considered a low budget film. It’s considered movies they do for a number. I didn’t have the pressure of doing like a fifty million-dollar movie. At sixteen million dollars, I still had pressure. They were wondering how was I going to deliver. This is a music video guy, could he tell a story. I made matters a little hectic for myself. I hired a DP that has never shot a movie before. I hired a guy that came from music videos with me. My production designer never did a film before and came from music videos with me. We kind of created our little team and worked hard and pushed forward. When the studio started to see dailies, they were a little more at ease. We got our Memorial Day release based on the dailies alone. They were coming in so funny.

Julian: That’s true, you’re coming out in May, so that speaks volumes on how they think you’re going to do. The subject matter, it’s pretty raunchy, was there a point where they said tone it down? It’s too offensive here or maybe they don’t like the ending. Everyone we’ve been talking to has said there’s a lot of changes in the script.

Jessy Terrero: There was a lot of changes. A lot of it was we just wanted to make sure we were treating it and doing it with the right perspective. Doing urban films like this, everyone brings up the stereotypes and things like that. I wanted to make sure that there was something that people could address or people came at me because they thought it was stereotypical, was real to me. Anything I thought was fabricated or wasn’t real, I pulled out. Anything I feel exists and is part of America today, I kept in. Also as we got characters in the movie, Sofia’s character didn’t even exist. Me being Latino, I wanted to make sure I had a Latin character. I wrote a character for Sofia. When Sofia agreed to do it, we kept expanding on her role. Same with Monique, same with DL Hughley, the same with Snoop, Snoop’s role was written for an older man. When Snoop came aboard we had to restructure the character and the relationship between him and the co-pilot. When Godfrey came on, we restructured that. A lot of the script changed due to the cast as well. To make sure that when we cast Kevin Hart it was all believable for him, being much younger than they anticipated his character being.

Julian: I’m not going to go there with the race stuff. Being a Latino director in Hollywood, getting back to Tim Story, it’s rare that you get that big, dream project. Soul Plane is coming out. Hopefully it does well and boosts your standing. When they come to offer you stuff, what are you going to do to break out of the Soul Plane-type genre?

Jessy Terrero: Right now, that’s why you hope the movie financially does well. Hollywood judges success on how much money the film brings in. If financially the movie does well, then Hollywood will listen to me a bit more. What I think this audience wants to see next? Being a Latino director or an African-American director, it’s just hard. The more that the Tim Story’s, the F Gary Gray’s, the Paul Hunter’s, the Jessy Terrero’s, get in the game and play the game properly, the more that their going to continue to search for more Latino and African-American directors.

Julian: It’s happening, look at Guillermo Del Toro and Alfonso Cuaron with Harry Potter. You might have a shot at getting a major film like that. Is that what you’re going to go for?

Jessy Terrero: Yeah, Alfonso showed success in Y Tu Mama Tambien. Anytime you’re a part of something that’s successful, then Hollywood looks at you and says okay, he knows what’s going to sell to this audience. They listen a little bit more and put you into a category to be able to get a Harry Potter. So that’s why I hope this film is successful. The next time around, if I feel the urban market is missing a strong drama, then they might let me do that drama. The same way they let F Gary Gray do The Italian Job. Right now we’re getting opportunities that weren’t there in the past. The fact that these guys are directing films that have been successful is allowing them to move around, not only direct urban films, but show Hollywood they can direct anything that’s going to be profitable.

Julian: Last question, an easy one, because I know you’ve been peppered with a lot of hard questions. Snoop has the Snoop D-Grill coming out, have you heard this?

Jessy Terrero: (Laughs) No.

Julian: Snoop has a deal with the company that makes the George Foreman grill. Are you going to get a free Snoop D-Grill from Snoop?

Jessy Terrero: I hope so! I better get a free Snoop D-Grill! Snoop’s a businessman. He wants a piece of every pie. I hope so. Now that I know I’m calling him tomorrow and getting my Snoop D-Grill autographed by the man!

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