IN CONVERSATION WITH FORREST WEBER

interview by JANA LETONJA
photography by STEPHANIE DIANI

Forrest Weber delivers a breakout performance alongside Jude Law and Jason Bateman in Netflix’s highly anticipated gritty drama ‘Black Rabbit’, premiering on 18th September. His scenes opposite Academy Award winner Troy Kotsur, performed in ‘American Sign Language’, draw on his own fluency in ASL from growing up with a sister who is deaf. With a background in Boston and New York theatre and a resume that includes ‘Law & Order’, ‘The Blacklist’, and ‘Gotham’, Forrest is poised to make ‘Black Rabbit’ one of the year’s must-watch dramas.

In ‘Black Rabbit’, your character Junior starts as a hotheaded henchman but reveals unexpected layers. What drew you to the role?

When I first read the audition material, within seconds I told my wife that this was a special one.  The words fit and lived naturally within me, which is probably a credit to the great writing more than anything, but every so often a character comes along that just clicks. As an actor, we’re simply trying to convey truth in the people we play, and I felt like I could understand where Junior was coming from. There were things about Junior that I recognized in other people, there were things about him I recognized in myself, and there were things about him I recognized in society as a whole. 

In a way, I believe you can only bring as much to the table as your life experiences have provided. I felt lucky that the creators Zach Baylin and Kate Susman, as well as Jason Bateman who directed the first two episodes, instilled in me early on that they trust my knowledge of who this person is, and when you feel supported and trusted, it allows you to really focus on doing your best work. So, besides working with some of the most talented names in the industry, the depth of the character really drew me in. 

How did you approach balancing Junior’s toughness with his vulnerability?

Being vulnerable on stage or screen is always one of the most interesting things to an audience, and what intrigues me to this day about Junior is that he could usually understand when he was vulnerable but didn’t always understand why he was vulnerable. When you feel one step behind or like you’re the only one left out, it hurts, right? That’s where a lot of his bravado comes from. Hurt people hurt people. 

Without giving away spoilers, what can audiences expect from Junior’s journey across the season?

When you first meet Junior, and Babbit, you might think you’ve met these types of criminals before, but a lot of first impressions are challenged in this show. Junior is a hotheaded unpredictable pinball of a human, always taking the biggest and boldest swings. Underneath this tough outer layer is a kid just trying to find his place in the world. He’s fueled by a desire for approval and validation, and as the season goes on, we see how this desire continues to shape his choices every second that he’s awake until he reaches some sort of tipping or breaking point.

You’re sharing the screen with Jude Law and Jason Bateman. What was it like working alongside such a powerhouse cast?

It’s not hyperbole when I say it was one of the greatest experiences of my life so far. At first, it was a little intimidating to think that I’d be working with names like Jason Bateman, Jude Law, Laura Linney, Troy Kotsur, etc., but when I found myself in the room with Jason and Jude for an informal rehearsal way before we ever started shooting, the passion in which they spoke about their vision for this project was contagious. They welcomed me to the table, made me feel like I belonged, and we never looked back. The attention to detail and collaborative spirit they both share made ‘Black Rabbit’ an absolute dream to work on, day in and day out. 

Your ASL scenes with Troy Kotsur are some of the most emotional in the series. How did your personal history with ASL shape those moments?

It was emotional at first, just to work on a project that will hopefully be talked about in a significant way in Deaf Culture, mainly because of how incredible Troy is in this show. I also found it easy to tap into emotions surrounding my career and my journey so far. I finally landed a dream role and I get to use ASL, which is so important to my family. On top of all that, getting to work with and know Troy Kotsur on a personal level was a true privilege. I remember watching ‘CODA’, in a big theatre actually for a special screening, and Troy brought tears to my eyes. It’s such a cool, full circle honor to be sharing the screen with him now.  And I haven’t even mentioned yet the layers upon layers of emotional baggage that’s present in the storyline, but, no spoilers.

Do you feel ASL changes the way you perform or connect with another actor on screen?

One hundred percent. I should point out that ASL isn’t a direct translation word for word from English. Many signs are concepts and the grammar and syntax are totally different. So, when I’m signing and voicing in a scene, I’m speaking two different languages that structure their sentences in different ways. ASL in general has heavily influenced me as a performer. It’s a huge reason I became a good communicator, as sign language is spoken with the whole body. There’s subtext in body language, there’s punctuation in facial expressions. I’m not the world’s most skilled signer by any means, I got rusty over the years after moving away from home, but it always feels good to get in a groove again.  It’s one more layer, one more level of communicating, that deepens the storytelling.

You started in theatre before moving into television. How has that stage training influenced your screen work?

Allow me to nerd out a little bit to answer this one. For me, acting, whether on screen or on stage, could simply be broken down to being defined as believable reacting in a set of given imaginary circumstances, while balancing obstacles vs objectives, amongst a set of predetermined yet ever-evolving relationships. So, I think the art form at its core doesn’t change too much hopping from stage to screen, but some technical and practical aspects do. Is my audience a 4k lense standing 8 inches from my face? Or does my voice need to reach the last row of a 2.500-seat theatre? I think all of my training as an actor has shaped my habits as an artist, but a lot of life on a film/TV set is so nuanced that it’s very hands-on and learn-as-you-go. I would’ve been thrilled if I got an opportunity like this ten years ago, but I couldn’t have brought the same amount to the role as I was able to now.

You’ve appeared on some of TV’s most iconic crime dramas. How did those experiences prepare you for ‘Black Rabbit’s’ high-stakes storytelling?

They definitely helped a lot. Every time I talk about the trajectory of an acting career, I like to remind myself of a Jacob Riis quote that was made even more popular by Gregg Poppovich. The quote is about a stonecutter hammering away at a rock 100 times without so much as a crack showing in it, yet on the hundred and first blow, the rock splits in two. He knows it was not that blow that did it, but all that had come before.

Right out of college, I took a couple of background roles to see how sets work, and kept working in theatre until I finally got my first TV gig. I came close to something happening with a couple of pilots that didn’t end up getting picked up, but I had to pound away at the rock, from the one-liner roles, to the one-scene roles, to the characters with 3-4 scenes, then work my way up to the guest star spots, then recurring, and so on. All of that experience heavily influenced how I navigated bringing Junior to life. The higher the stakes get, the more the intricacies of it all come to light, and that’s where the real fun begins. The devil’s in the details.

‘Black Rabbit’ is already being called one of Netflix’s most intriguing new dramas, where do you see yourself exploring next, both as an actor and as a storyteller?

I got to say, this collection of people on ‘Black Rabbit’, top to bottom, left to right, inside and out, couldn’t have possibly meshed any better. The environment they created, the love everyone felt for each other, it makes me wish ‘Black Rabbit’ wasn’t a limited series. While I wish I could stay with that crew forever, projects like this are what I want to be doing for the rest of my life. I want to challenge people’s preconceived notions, I want to tackle ideas and relationships and problems that make people change and feel and think and talk and hate and love and change again. I just hope I get to keep doing that with people who are willing to dig deeper and go an extra mile or two, whether that’s in film or television, on stage, or even with music. 

Outside of acting, what are you most passionate about in life, and how do you enjoy spending your downtime?

If I’m not on set, I’m probably at the beach with my amazing wife and creative partner Lauren Jaimes, and with our two rescue dogs, Delilah & Winnie. We moved just outside the city to a beach town a few years back and we love it. That being said, we’ve been spending more and more time in Nashville getting heavily involved in the songwriting circuit there. I recently co-wrote a beachy country 8 track EP that Lauren will be putting out this fall, which I’m really excited about.