Animal Kingdom Actor/Director Shawn 'Pope' Hatosy: Exclusive Interview

OCEANSIDE, CA - The Oceanside International Film Festival hosted the premiere of an advanced screening of the hit show Animal Kingdom last week at the Star Theatre. Fans were lined up around the block in anticipation of meeting the actors and viewing the final season episode days before it aired on TNT.

In attendance at the screening were Actor/Director Shawn Hatosy, who plays Pope Cody on the show, and Jasper Polish, who plays young Julia Cody, the twin sister of Pope, in the season five and six flashback scenes. Polish is best known for The Astronaut Farmer (2006), 90 Minutes in Heaven (2015) and Force of Nature (2020).

In this exclusive interview, The Patch sat down with "Animal Kingdom" cast members Shawn Hatosy and Jasper Polish to talk about the final season of the show and filming in Oceanside.

Patch: We really appreciate that you keep coming back to Oceanside to support us throughout the years of filming here. Not very many actors will do that.

Shawn Hatosy: Well without Oceanside, the show wouldn't be as big of a success. Oceanside is a character like Pope and Darren and Julia and Smurf. I mean it represents our show and the people have embraced us. So for me, when they say come to the Oceanside Film festival and talk about Animal Kingdom, you know, I'm in.

Patch: We've been fortunate to cover some of your Oceanside film shoots. I'm just curious what were some of your more challenging ones? Like your skateboarding shoot. How did that go?

Shawn Hatosy: I thought it went really well. You know, it's weird coming here because we'll have five days to shoot, sometimes six episodes worth of stuff and we come to Oceanside to work outside scenes with the ocean and stuff with all of our big set pieces and lots of action always seem to happen. So over like a five-day period, it gets exhausting and it's always really tough when we come here. But the skateboarding for me was just sort of like a childhood thing and I was just thrilled to be able to experience it on the show and work with Mike McGill, who is a professional skateboarder and get out there and just skate.

Patch: The skateboard scenes were for the flashback episodes where Jasper joins the show playing Julia, Finn's mom, right?

Jasper Polish: Yeah, Julia. So we haven't seen her since 1st Season, 1st Episode. In these flashback scenes, I think this is the closest in age you see me as Julia to the first episode. In the early scenes, you see Julia I think she's seven or eight years old in that season and now it's like she's an actual person with her own emotions and opinions on the situation.

Patch: Going back to filming in Oceanside. What was it like returning to the same location over all these years?

Shawn Hatosy: We were talking before about how saying goodbye to the show is bittersweet and emotional and all of those things, because yes, we're not gonna get to play poker or spend time together working.

But also for me, I've been coming to Oceanside with my family for seven years, sometimes three times a year. My 16-year-old turned 10 here and we went to Legoland. So it's hard to say goodbye to that when it has been such a major component of our life for seven years.

Patch: Do you have favorite spots that you're gonna miss in particular?

Shawn Hatosy: Lots of places, but we always go to LTH. Yeah, Local Tap House is like my go-to place. They have always been really good to us and made us feel at home.

Patch: So what's coming up next? Do you have something in the works?

Shawn Hatosy: Yes, I've been developing a show with the same showrunner, John Wells, who was the producer on Animal and was also a producer on the show I did called Southland. We've been developing a TV show, which you know, it takes a little while, but so I've been working on that and that's been a lot of fun.

Patch: Are you looking forward to doing more directing?

Shawn Hatosy: I am looking forward to doing more directing. It's different and it's challenging and it's a very collaborative process. As a director that comes from acting, I think I understand characters and I understand performance really well.

Patch: Do you see yourself focusing on directing or continuing to do both acting and directing?

Shawn Hatosy: I don't mind doing both. I will say that when we did the flashback scenes and got to work together in a different way because Pope, my character, wasn't there. It was my first real opportunity to direct and not to have to act in it, too. Where I can actually be on the outside of it and watch it. And so that was my answer to your question. Yeah, I would like to direct and not also be acting at the same time, too.

The Patch would like to extend our thanks to Shawn Hatosy and Jasper Polish for taking the time to talk with us and to the Oceanside International Film Festival and Visit Oceanside for hosting the Animal Kingdom premiere event.

View Animal Kingdom on TNT Network Filming Locations in Oceanside

"Animal Kingdom" ranked as a top 10 cable drama of 2021 and stars Shawn Hatosy, Ben Robson, Jake Weary, Finn Cole and Leila George.

Founded by the Oceanside Cultural Arts Foundation in 2009, the Oceanside International Film Festival is an annual opportunity for independent filmmakers to have their work competitively screened and juried. To learn more visit www.osidefilm.org

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