I fumbled into The Fire Pit, a fast paced pizza joint in North Hollywood’s artist district, and pushed my way through the crowd of rehearsing actors and sweaty dancers on break before squeezing into a booth across from Joshua Bitton. If you didn’t know him, you would quickly gather from a short glance that he’s not the guy you’d pick a fight with in a bar. His unmistakable New York swagger frames his presence and demands your attention. But don’t worry, from the moment he begins speaking it’s clear that he is one of the more sincere and genuine guys you are likely to run into while breezing through LALA Land.
So just who is Joshua Bitton? This is a question I have a feeling is losing it’s weight as quickly as he builds an impressive Hollywood resume. Working side by side with film giants like Tom Hanks and Jon Seda in addition to coaching some of hip-hops hottest names including Sean ‘Puffy’ Combs, the Queens, NY native will without a doubt become a household name.
Joshua Bitton spoke with blackfilm.com on his experiences in the world we know as Hollywood!
You played Sgt. J. P. Morgan in the HBO series ‘The Pacific’. How was that experience working with Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks?
Joshua Bitton: To get a job with Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks is the biggest “stamp of approval that you are doing the right thing” that I think an actor can get. And it was the only thing that ever impressed my Grandmother. That Steven Spielberg, with her being a Holocaust survivor, gave me a job. He’s the uber Jew and she was really impressed by that. That was great.
This was an intense war drama with complex battle scenes. Tell me a little bit about the training and preparation for a project of this magnitude.
Joshua Bitton: We were flown into Australia, which is where we did all of the shooting. I got there maybe about a month or so before we actually started. We had a week of regular preproduction like costume fittings and then we went to boot camp. There were about 65 of us. I think about 21 of the principle actors and about 44 or 45 of what was called the A core. They were the military specialist extras. We went through an intense nine-day boot camp. We sleep about four hours a night. We slept in the middle of the rainforest in two man hooches, which are little tents. Tiny little tents! We did everything from learning how to operate and handle the weaponry to remarkable amounts of PT, physical training. There was a Japanese boot camp that was going on at the same time. Every now and again, somewhere in the middle of the night, machinegun fire would open up on our machinegun post and we would have to “battle them,” lol. But it was all blanks. It was pretty intense. I lost 12 pounds in 9 days. Captain Dye and his cadre of the Marines who ran the boot camp were pretty intense and remarkably knowledgeable. We had to operate like a platoon. We had to take care of our guys and our guys had their jobs to do. Captain Dye was on the set along with the directors. There were loads of explosives going off all of the time and he just led us through it. The set was so specific that you didn’t really need to act because it felt probably as close to real as it could without someone actually trying to kill you.
So you are reunited with your costar Jon Seda and Producer Tom Hanks for ‘Larry Crown’, which is also starring Oscar nominated actress Taraji P. Henson, Pam Grier, Julia Roberts of ‘Eat Pray Love’, Wilmer Valderrama and Cedric the Entertainer. How exciting is that?
Joshua Bitton: Oh, it was pretty amazing. I was having lunch with my friend, Kat Foster. We were just grabbing a bit to eat and my phone rang and it was Gary Goetzman who is Tom Hanks producing partner over at Playtone. And he said, “I’m just calling to confirm that you and Jon Seda are going to be the officers in our new film.” And I said, “Confirm what?” I had no idea what they were talking about so it was kind of mind blowing. Tom is directing it and he is super easy and super laid back and lets us play. Jon Seda and I, after going through boot camp and ‘The Pacific’ together, I don’t know if there is an actor I have more fun working with or any of those guys from ‘The Pacific’. It was just like getting back on a bicycle. The two of us had a blast being on set together. I got to work with Bryan Cranston who is amazingly giving and remarkably talented. And just to be in a cast that has that remarkable list of human beings is pretty humbling. I feel super duper lucky!
You were raised in NY.
Joshua Bitton: Queens, NY. Your little card says Brooklyn.
That’s why I didn’t say it! LOL
Joshua Bitton: Don’t play games. (Smiling)
You were raised in QUEENS, NY and are of Moroccan and Jews decent. How does this unique and extraordinary blend of cultural experiences color or influence you as an actor?
Joshua Bitton: I’m not really sure. I think NY in general culturally is so multi-racial and inter-racial that there are no real lines. The places I would go and hangout as a kid had people from all over the world. You’d hear different languages. I went to high school in Manhattan to this really remarkable public high school, called Stuyvesant High School. I was surrounded by not just people of all different races and cultures, but some of the smartest artistic kids in the city. I think that was a constant influence. Personally, my father, who is Moroccan, is a pretty emotionally explosive human being and I think that I inherited some of that. I do my best to channel that into some of my work. My mom is very much a lover of the arts. She was taking me to Broadway plays when I was 6 so I was exposed to it a lot. And my father was a photographer when he was younger. He embraced my move from what everyone thought I was going to do, which was be a lawyer for the ACLU, into doing something artistic. Both sides of my family are very open emotionally. They share love. My fathers Moroccan side is very passionate, kissy, lovey, angry and explosive so all of those things help for sure.
You studied with revered acting coach William Esper and you’ve also put your training and experience to work as a coach working with quite a few well-known actors in the past. How has that experience been for you?
Joshua Bitton: William Esper is the greatest acting teacher alive as far as I’m concerned. What he gave me and what he pushed me to changed me not only as an actor but also as a man to be honest. He made me really come in touch with the person that I was and the artist that I was.
Me as an acting coach to some of these people, it’s a funny little trip because I grew up a hip-hop kid in NY. My friends were a part of the underground hip-hop scene. I saw biggie perform at a small little place called The Grand right before his record ever released. Before his first album dropped. So that was like the world I rolled in with my brother. Then one day I found myself through this strange series of events being Eminem’s acting coach on the set of 8 Mile. Recently I worked with Puffy and Columbus Short. The knowledge that Bill gave me is why I am able to try and help people when they are working, but I think my background in NY has lent me the ability to communicate with people of the same kind of vibe. It’s weird. It’s funny.
We’ve been seeing you and more and more of your work including a guest appearance of the FX series Justified. Is there anything else we should look out for? What’s next for you?
Joshua Bitton: Well obviously Larry Crown will be coming out probably in the spring, I recently had a couple of guest appearances. One on a CBS show called Miami Medical and I shot a pilot for ABC called Detroit 187. My friends and I produced a play last year and we are in the process right now of getting the funding together to move it to NY for an off Broadway run so hopefully we’ll get to do that. It’s a role that is completely different for Sgt. JP Morgan or most of the roles I’ve done.
Congratulations and we look forward to seeing more.
Joshua Bitton: Thank you Robert.
by Rob Smith
