EXCLUSIVE: When NFL Defensive End Jalyn Holmes was a player for the New York Jets, there was a bulletin board outside the locker room touting different off-season programs and activities for the players.
Holmes, a film lover and keen photographer — he’d recently been gifted a camera by a teammate in a Secret Santa — had his interest piqued by a bulletin for a film and TV training program called the NFL Career Tour in Los Angeles, which introduces players to filmmaking, acting, and how to navigate the business. It’s a rapid talent incubator, rather than a project incubator.
“I knew I was into photography, I just didn’t know much about it, other than pointing and shooting,” explains the 29 year-old former Buckeye who now plays for the Washington Commanders. “Typically, the training programs you hear about as a player are related to finance, real estate, business, maybe fashion; I’ve done real estate workshops before and I have some real estate interests. The film opportunity was different, though, because that was something I really wanted to tap into and I’ve always had an interest in. So, I took a shot and signed up.”
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Fast-forward 18 months and Holmes is at the Sundance Film Festival with comedy pilot, FreeLance, which is playing in the Episodic Pilot strand. He’s the first player from the NFL’s film training program to have a project at a major film festival.
Holmes is an associate producer on the pilot, which he came to via his friendship with co-directors Julien and Justen Turner who produced the show under their DreadHead Productions banner and were the driving forces. Holmes is an investor but has also taken a close interest in the process. The story follows a rookie filmmaker who chronicles making his first movie while living with creative friends who help each other chase their dreams in a crowded and who-you-know industry. The novice group end up taking odd jobs to survive and grow their brand. Cast includes All American and Creed III actor Spence Moore II and former Georgia Tech and NFL cornerback Lou Young III.
The pilot’s subject seems fitting for Holmes, who is getting his own feet wet in the entertainment industry. In Park City, he’ll reunite with the pilot’s cast and crew, but also with filmmaker Deon Taylor, who set up and runs the film and TV training program, and will be his guide at the festival.
“What Jalyn has done is phenomenal,” says the high-energy Taylor. “It is so rare to find a professional athlete at the highest level who can step out of that world, find a group of creatives, and help produce something of Sundance quality. That’s the 1%.”
Taylor is known in Hollywood for directing movies including Screen Gems’ box office hit The Intruder, the same label’s thriller Black & Blue with Naomie Harris and Tyrese Gibson, and Lionsgate movie Fatale, starring Oscar winner Hilary Swank. He and his wife Roxanne Avent run production company Hidden Empire Film Group.
But his first pro career was as a basketball player in Europe after a collegiate career at San Diego State. His brother played in the NFL.
“We were basically the people that were not supposed to be in the film business,” he explains of his own journey. “We had to learn this on our own. How to write, direct, and produce. Over the years, I had athletes come to me and say ‘Deon, how did you get into this space, how did you make that movie, and how can I be part of that?’ On some of my earlier films I had former athletes in front of the camera and behind the scenes. Then I got a call from Tracy Pearlman [SVP Football Comms & Marketing] at the NFL about partnering on the course.”
During the three-day program, Taylor calls on a host of industry contacts and collaborators to come down and speak to the players. Those have included actors Tyrese Gibson and Jonathan Majors, Quentin Tarantino’s producer Shannon McIntosh, Creed II and Transformers director Steven Caple Jr, two-time Oscar-nominated DoP Dante Spinotti and former NFL player turned actor-producer Vernon Davis, who took part in the program’s first edition before hanging up his cleats.
The course has been a hit. Among high-profile players to have taken part are Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray, Cincinnati Bengals lineman Orlando Brown, Pittsburgh Steelers defensive lineman Cam Heyward, Buffalo Bills offensive lineman Dion Dawkins and LA Chargers linebacker Daiyan Henley. Like Holmes, some of the above are now pursuing their own independent projects.
Skydance Sports became a partner on the latest edition. As part of their collaboration, Skydance facilitated a tour of the Paramount lot. This year, Taylor is striking a deal with Disney as part of a new animation segment.
The crash-course offers a glimpse into Hollywood. But the film and TV industries have their own well known barriers to entry. Taylor is keen to lower those barriers.
“That’s the backbone of the program, it’s the whole point. As athletes, and as Black filmmakers, minority filmmakers, we do not always have access to the right information. I think that’s why the course became so popular. 99% of us have had to overcome to be what we are. Poverty, single family homes, judicial system challenges, systemic racism. We’re trying to break through from all that, but it’s hard when you realize that some of this stuff is built to keep you out. You will be the product of ‘no’, but you have to say ‘yes’.”
Over the decades, a handful of NFL players have gone on to careers in showbiz: Jim Brown, OJ Simpson, Carl Weathers, Terry Crews, among them. The course is about highlighting a pathway for more players to get involved and to know what to expect. Holmes believes his experience in the NFL can stand him in good stead for the film and TV world.
“I’ve been in the league eight years, and I’ve been cut five times. I got cut this year, twice. So ‘no’ doesn’t scare me. It’s just a part of the process. Honestly, the ‘no’ motivates me. I feel like that’s what’s going to help me and other athletes in this industry.”
Holmes has quietly become a student of cinema, as well the game of football. He has seen Leonardo DiCaprio Oscar hopeful One Battle After Another three times: “I even got the script of the movie and watched the film with the script. I’ve been trying to dive deeper into how writers set up plots and why certain dialogue is like it is. I wouldn’t have known to look out for those things if it wasn’t for the course.”
Holmes hopes to be back with the Commanders next season. That’s his main focus. In the meantime, he has discovered a new passion. “I’ve fallen in love with the industry and the art of it. I feel like I’m a creator at heart,” he says. He has begun writing a TV script inspired by his own experience as a player, called ‘The Bubble’: “People know all about the Peyton Mannings and the Lamar Jacksons, the big star players, but this is about the bottom of the roster guys who make a lot of things go. It’s a comedy about their daily struggles. One scene is inspired by me getting cut, for example.”