Currently playing on Quibi as one of their “Movies in Chapters” is ‘When the Streetlights Go On’ starring Chosen Jacobs, Sophie Thatcher, & Queen Latifah
From creators Eddie O’Keefe and Chris Hutton, When the Street Lights Go On is set in a suburban town that’s rocked by the murder of a young girl. The victim’s sister and friends struggle to find a sense of normalcy while the investigation into the killing hangs over them. Latifah plays Det. Grasso, who is investigating the case.
The regular cast also includes Chosen Jacobs (It), Sophie Thatcher (Chicago Med), Sam Strike (Nightflyers), Ben Ahlers (The Village) and Julia Sarah Stone (Aftermath). Mark Duplass (Apple’s Morning Show), Tony Hale (Veep), Kristine Froseth (The Society, Looking for Alaska) and Nnamdi Asomugha will recur, with Asomugha playing the adult version of Jacobs’ character.
For Jacobs, who is best known for his recurring role as Will Grover on the CBS television series Hawaii Five-0 and his role as Mike Hanlon in the 2017 film adaptation of the Stephen King novel It, and its follow-up It Chapter Two, the Quibi series represents his first lead role.
Blackfilm.com recently spoke exclusively with Jacobs as he spoke about his role in the series, how he relates to the characters and working with the cast.
How did this series project come to you?
Chosen Jacobs: It came in the way I get auditions. My team had told me about the project and that it was coming out on this very new and innovative new platform called Quibi. They were pretty excited for the project. When I read the script, I thought it was phenomenal. I was excited to go in and audition for it and probably auditioned about three or four times and I got the call that I received the role for Charlie and was very excited.
How would you describe Charlie?
Chosen Jacobs: I would describe Charlie as a strong, silent type, but I think his character evolves throughout the show, and I think that’s what’s going to draw people to Charlie Chambers’ character, because he’s very observant. But he’s the last to say something. As he matures through experiences, his confidence grows.
How would you say you relate to Charlie?
Chosen Jacobs: I’m a pretty observant person as well. I feel the nuances in my friends are different situations and just trying to see what makes something tick. That was the main thing I felt with Charlie. I hope to think that I’m a good friend. Charlie’s an amazing friend to everybody he’s involved with so I feel like those are two main things that connect me and Charlie and those were the things that helped me build the character from the ground up.
This is an ensemble series so how was it working with the cast?
Chosen Jacobs: Phenomenal. We all got to work together in one way or another, at least for my character. I had a scene with basically everyone. But it was an amazing experience. We were in Vancouver, and we were all mainly in the same hotel. We would go out to get dinner after after shoots and we had a lot of long nights. I think we very much bonded as friends. That helped us when we went on set because we were very comfortable to unleash and experiment with new things without fear of rejection or anything like that, because we knew each other.
You’ve done films. You’ve done TV series. You’ve appeared in episodes, but was shooting this any different because you’re shooting each chapter for seven or eight minutes as opposed to a full one hour episode or a movie.
Chosen Jacobs: The main difference for me was this is my first time being the lead of a show. The amount I was on set was drastically more. But other than that, I would say the only difference was for being a series we shot it as if was a feature and the sense of the focus and the timespan. Of course, we were shooting it mainly in chronological order episode by episode. Because it is short episodes, we were able to keep the focus and with an hour long episode, it’s sometimes hard to keep focus on what’s happening next and why are you making this choice for vice versa. We’re shooting this in a couple months span. I felt I was able to actually grow with Charlie, the same way I would in a feature.
Was it ever a challenge knowing you are taking on a lead role?
Chosen Jacobs: Whenever you care about something, there will always be a fear just because you love it. My main goal as an actor is to not just be good, but just to grow. I understand that it’s a marathon, not a sprint. The best thing I could do was just prepare myself to take on that role to see if this is something that I want to do. As an actor, I want to grow and do more enterprising and interesting characters. This is one of the ones I will remember for the rest of my life. I was nervous to an extent but as we started going, I learned a lot about myself. I stretched myself and I’m very pleased with how it came out.
As there are many options on TV, cables, streaming platforms and now Quibi, what’s a good reason for people to start watching this?
Chosen Jacobs: Quibi has its own niche because is taking the movie quality content and putting it into short consumable bites. I can get a full episode in a short amount of time without having to dedicate all this time to it from start to finish. That’s the very cool thing is because we’re so accustomed to using our phone, especially this generation. Being able to take something that you’re used to seeing in a movie theater or on a Dolby screen and putting it on your iPhone or your Samsung, it gives you the flexibility and speed to actually jump between eating dinner, watching quick episodes and getting back to whatever else I need to do. It has its own pocket and that’s why it can be successful. I love the shows on the platform other than mine as well. I’m very happy with that.
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