Jimmy Hemphill may be blond, but he’s not dumb. He’s an award-winning filmmaker who has garnered much props for his rape/revenge horror film Bad Reputation, and for his film journalism endeavours at sites like American Cinematographer. So, he’s not dumb, but he’s a lot of fun anyway. Los Angelean Jimmy grew up in Chicago and then ended up at USC where he studied film. I can’t imagine Jimmy caring about whether the Trojans win a game, but maybe he went to the games and got drunk, or something. It’s pretty much the only way to make college football (or football, period) tolerable. Jimmy graces our site as Mr. November, flashing beautiful baby blues at us in wanton studliness. He looks like maybe the most cutest stud of all, if you’re into hugging, cuddling, and heavy drinking. Read on as Jimmy dazzles us with his wit, charm, and useless pop trivia knowledge the likes of which have hitherto been unseen in the Earthly realm...
Pensive
What is the BEST date that you've ever been on?
I’m not sure if she would consider it a “date,” but at a Karaoke bar I once sang a duet with Vinessa Shaw from EYES WIDE SHUT. Being a huge Kubrick disciple, I found it to be an intensely fulfilling experience, since it is probably the closest I’ll ever get to Him now that He is dead.
Funny
How old were you when you lost your virginity?
I didn’t lose it until I was eighteen. I was waiting for the perfect moment and the right girl; specifically, for the moment when I looked old enough to buy the alcohol that I needed to get a girl drunk enough to have sex with me.
Shamed
Do you think people should eat the fish they catch, or just let them go?
They should feed the fish to me. I like eating fish more than anything, except for Del Taco and a part of the female anatomy I won’t name on a family website.
is this photo shoot over yet? I'm bored.
Do you blow dry your hair? or just let it dry on its own, or towel dry? Any hair products? which ones, and what do they do?
Are you sure you didn’t accidentally slip one of Ryan Rotten’s questions into my interview? In any case, I would no sooner give away the secrets of my flawless coiffure than I would give away the plot twists in my next movie. Some things are best left a mystery.
Angelique Hennessy being directed by Jimmy in a gorgeous still from the set of Bad Reputation
Name three uses for Hemp:
1) As paper for historically significant documents, like The Constitution or my memoirs.
2) As an ice-breaker when hooking up with goth chicks I’ve met on Myspace or in the Pretty Scary forums.
3) A little known fact: hemp was used in the parachute that saved George Bush Sr.’s life during WWII (now that I think of it, maybe it SHOULD be illegal)…
I can't believe you missed this screening! yes, You! Reading this!
Which one of the following is not the actual title of a K.C. and the Sunshine Band song: “Shake Your Booty,” “I'm Your Boogie Man,” “Boogie Shoes,” or “Boogie Till Your Booty Drop”?
Do you really think I’m so culturally illiterate that I wouldn’t know this? Boogie Till Your Booty Drop, of course! Harry Wayne Casey is still the funkiest white boy I know of, with the possible exception of Shriekfest co-founder Todd Beeson.
Jimmy don't take no shit.
In Bad Reputation, your lead character is raped and then shunned. What are the consequences of rape for a woman in modern day Saudi Arabia? Don't you think that makes your movie seem a little, well, comparably socially irrelevant? I mean, even a little?
It hurts me that you would say that, Heidi, since I pride myself on making the most socially relevant rape-revenge films possible. In fact, I chose my distributor on the basis of their socially progressive black and Latino films like My Big Phat Hip-Hop Wedding and The Watermelon Gang. That said, I do think the sequel, BAD REPUTATION 2: SAUDI SLUT MASSACRE, will pacify those who feel I didn’t dig deep enough in the first film.
Jimmy, on tour doing his famous Michael Jackson impression. Which, oddly, is not so popular now as it was in 1989.
I hear you have a rigorous workout routine. Describe it for us.
Is this a reference to the fact that I use the word “exercising” as a euphemism for masturbation? Ever since I was a kid, if I wanted to be left alone to pleasure myself, I’d tell people “don’t bother me, I’m going to be exercising,” and then go in my room and shut the door. And yes, like most horror directors, I continue to exercise rigorously.
"Do you know what it's like to fall in the mud and get kicked, in the head, by an iron boot? Of course you don't--no one does--that never happens."
Lots of people say you made Bad Reputation as a way to get chicks naked and watch them in sexually helpless positions, only to take the footage home later for your own private use. Doesn't that suck?
Getting chicks naked and watching them in sexually helpless positions is the primary reason any man becomes a director. At least that’s what Ang Lee told me. Actually, I’m not sure where that theory comes from, since there’s no nudity in BAD REPUTATION. I can only figure that people must be talking not about the film but about my auditioning process, in which case there must be a leak in my organization. I’ll have to investigate who let the tapes out.
The thug side of Jimmy. This is a real picture.
What's the sexiest thing a woman has ever done for you?
This interview.
