Social media has consumed our way of life that it has lead to a new form of celebrity.  What was once a status that was just for actors and athletes has now opened to anyone.  Have a video go viral and you will gain fame for a short period of time.  Keeping up with that fame on social media means that you have to create content that will stand out from the millions and millions of other content out there.  In the movie Infamous, starring Bella Thorne and Jake Manley, we see what one person is willing to do to keep that fame, including breaking the law.  This movie highlights a part of our society that is dominated by the addiction of social media and what people are willing to do for a little fame.  I was able to speak with Jake Manley, who plays Dean, on what it was like to explore a part of society that seems so crazy but real.

Nancy Tapia: How was it playing a partner-in-crime role with Bella?

Jake Manley: It was awesome. Bella is just fantastic to work with. We hit it off right away when we initially met to talk about the project, so I was really excited to jump on this with her, she just elevates everything to a whole new level so she made my job easy. A lot of what Dean is doing is reacting to her, to her character. And yeah, she just made it so believable. So it was a great time. I would love to work with her again in the future.

Nancy Tapia: So tell me about the role of Dean. Because Arielle is about exploiting social media to get a little bit of fame and some how drags Dean to be a part of that journey.

Jake Manley: Dean at the start of this film, he got out of prison recently. He’s on parole and just trying to fly right. He wants to live a normal life and his circumstances kind of just don’t let him. Then he meets this girl and he’s kind of just fascinated by her and they hit it off. I don’t think he’s had a connection with someone like that before, and so he follows her along. I don’t think he understands how far she’s willing to go for these followers. He thinks it’s just like a little game at first. And throughout the film, the power dynamic really switches to Arielle being in the driver’s seat and Dean being taken along. I think he always hopes that she’s going to change your mind or that it’ll be the last robbery they do, but by the end of it, he realizes that she’s going to pick fame over him.

Nancy Tapia: One of the scenes Dean is seen shows vulnerability when coming across a fan. Your character is like, “You’re lucky. You’re lucky to have a normal life.”

Jake Manley: Yeah, he goes, “You’re luckier than you think,” and I think that’s exactly it. He truly just wants to have an ordinary life. He’s had a really hard upbringing and I think he gets it. I don’t think he’s looking for the same thing that a lot of people are using social media, whether it be validation or some sort of fulfillment. I think he just doesn’t need that. And so he doesn’t understand it.

Nancy Tapia: I had a chance to speak to Joshua, and he mentioned you bringing up the idea of dying your hair for your role. How did that idea come to you?

Jake Manley: I did, yeah. Because after helping onboard and Josh and I, we started talking regularly through the prep process and I was just thinking about this guy and him being in these kinds of rough crowds in prisons and rough areas of Florida. I was like, “What can we do to make this guy stand out and have a bit of edge?” My profile is not very tough or scary, and so that’s where we got the idea for the hair and the kind of scruffy facial hair. Josh was super into it. He loved the idea of it. I think it just matched this kind of tone and style of the film. Then our costume designer, Jillian Bundrick, did an amazing job of just topping that off with the vibrant colors of the clothes. So the look just really came together and brought a lot to the role and we can’t imagine it otherwise now.

Nancy Tapia: So you had challenging scenes because, in this case, you have the regular camera scenes, and then you also have those scenes as a Instagram viewer watching live robberies. Can you share a little bit about those scenes? And any challanges.

Jake Manley: There was a bit of challenge to that, but, again, largely I think it fell on Bella besides the one scene. There’s the one robbery that Dean films of Arielle. Again, that was just another element that kept you very in it. You were very focused on what you were recording on the phone, and so you just trusted Josh with the camera and the rest of the crew to do their thing and capture what you were doing. So I guess it was like an added layer, but no different than other typical props. I think, for me, the big challenge was the weapons. I didn’t have a lot of experience with guns going into this and for the character Dean he is a natural with weapons. So I did some training on my own, and then we had some amazing guys down in Oklahoma training us on these weapons, Bella and I, and Michael Sirow who plays Kyle. And so that was integral for me and my character.

Nancy Tapia: How did you prepare in handling handguns? How comfortable do you feel now?

Jake Manley: It is unforgiving. My hands were always cut up from the metal and my ears were ringing a lot of times in those days. Those things are, they’re insanely powerful instruments that can’t be treated lightly. So it was a challenge, but a rewarding challenge at that.

Nancy Tapia: Going back a little, how the process in getting the role of Dean?

Jake Manley: My agent sent me the script. He knew a few producers involved and he sent it to me and said, “What do you think?” Then they offered for me to go meet Bella and talk about it. So I went over to her house and we sat down and got to know each other and talked about the project. She talked about her intentions with it. That was kind of where I decided to get involved and then spoke to the writer, director, and just went from there.

Nancy Tapia: This film definitely covers a bit of a core of what is going on today when it comes to social media and how it’s used. How do you feel social media is affecting society today?

Jake Manley: I try to look at the positive. What I like about this film is it exposes the negative. And I always just hoped it would provoke thoughts and cause people to be introspective about social media and how they use it and being responsible with it because I don’t want to write it off. I think social media can be extremely toxic, but I also think there’s a lot of good that can be done with it. And so I’m hoping anyone that watches this movie can kind of recalibrate their self and see what kind of path they want to go down and use it ultimately for positivity.

Nancy Tapia: To start wrapping up is there anything you can share that we may be seeing you in the future?

Jake Manley: Yeah. I have the second season of my Netflix show coming out this Thursday, June 18th, called The Order. I have another Netflix movie that I think comes out later this year. That’s a romantic comedy called Holidate, and that’s a great ensemble cast with Emma Roberts and Luke Bracey who lead it, and really a fun movie that I think people are going to love.

Nancy Tapia: Oh, how exciting! Well, definitely we’ll be looking forward to it. Thank you so much for your time and congratulations for now, and a lot of success with Infamous.

Jake Manley: Thank you, thank you so much. Have a great evening.

You can watch Infamous on Apple TV link by clicking here

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