Good Neighbors: Oakland actress pursues Hollywood, Internet

0 Comments | Oakland Tribune, Apr 27, 2009 | by Dave Newhouse

Jules Bruff has a Hollywood face that would look perfect in any decade, from the silent screen era to now. She has that smart, sophisticated, attractive look, a cross between Barbara Stanwyck and Catherine Keener.

Bruff is an aspiring actress from Oakland who, interestingly, might be playing an actual silent screen star in a movie projected for 2011 at the latest.

She's keeping the name of that megastar a secret for now, but she is co-writing the script for what would be her first major leading- lady role. She's obviously excited.

"That would definitely be a big breakthrough," she said.

Meanwhile, she isn't biding her time. She is half of a new venture, with working partner Kelly Knox, that represents the next wave of cinema -- movies on the Internet.

Imagine watching movies on your BlackBerry, iPhone or computer. Plug your computer into a television set and watch the Internet on TV. What will they think of next?

"I can actually put my content on the World Wide Web," Bruff said. "Then if one of the big companies buys it, there will be a lot of advertising behind it, and more links to it so that people will be able to get to it easier.

"That's where we're going. That's where everything is going."

Bruff and Knox have co-created, co-produced and co-starred in a Web series, "Destined to Fail," that's nearly complete. However, the Internet is such an unknown commodity for movies that it's regarded as "The Wild West" by aspiring film and TV artists.

"Instead of waiting in line (for Hollywood roles), it's create your own work," Bruff said recently at a Berkeley coffee shop. "You can't wait for someone to give it to you. It's a waste of time and talent."

Especially when agents, managers and directors have sometimes been negative about her acting ability. Of course, rejection is a way of life in Hollywood. One manager even advised her, incredibly, to marry a plastic surgeon. She was 29.

Having control of her future is the better, and wiser, alternative.

"There are so many avenues to getting your work seen," she said. "And I'm doing what I want to do, creating projects I feel that are good. Maybe I'll lose money, but "... I've accepted that this is what I'm going to do for the rest of my life."

In the interim, Bruff has taken on a Hollywood name. She was born Julie Bruff, but changed to Jules, a distinctive nickname given her by her father, Clyde, a character actor himself.

Jules Bruff sounds like an actress. Julie Bruff sounds like a country singer. But just like an actress, Bruff prefers to conceal her age. She still looks like an ingenue, though.

When she was 7, she read an advertisement for the American Conservatory Theater's Young Conservatory. She told her mom, Anne, an Oakland real estate agent, that she wanted to take acting lessons. That's how it all started. She did the usual school plays, but her parents insisted she finish college first (University of Colorado) before turning professional.

Then she learned, as others have, that Hollywood brings as much heartbreak as hope.

"Somebody told me two things when I moved into town," she recalled. "The first was, 'Don't wake up in 10 years next to a swimming pool, having done nothing (filmwise).' The other thing was, 'Acting is like being in line at a supermarket: You have to wait your turn.'"‰"

Bruff has persevered, but she was fortunate early to get enough commercial work (Kenmore, Burger King, etc.) to pay the bills. She's also been a personal trainer, taught adult English classes and baby- sat to make money.

Gradually, she moved on to stage ("Equus," "David and Lisa," "Fast and Loose"), and then into television ("Eleventh Hour," "Eli Stone"). Her most recognizable film role to date is "Zodiac."

Talent people have told Bruff her "selling point" is versatility, being able to handle both drama and comedy. Another selling point: a look that spans decades.

"Once I accepted that, I decided I'll go with that," she said, "instead of trying to look like a modern woman -- a Pamela Anderson or a Reese Witherspoon."

Bruff is "definitely" encouraged by her film progress.

"I feel like every year, I work a little more," she said. "I wake up in the morning, and I have an offer next to me. I meet more people, and I get to collaborate more."

But will Internet movies be the death of movie theaters?

"I think that's what's happening," she said. "So Hollywood is doing its darndest to figure out that, OK, everything is shifting, so how are we going to provide content and make money simultaneously?"

One way: showing commercials at the movies.

"In five years," Bruff predicted, "the landscape of the entire industry will have shifted, just like the music and newspaper industries. It's all going online. People will still go to movies, but it's just as easy to sit at home. That's how it's going, for better or for worse."

Dave Newhouse's columns appear Mondays, Thursdays and Sundays, usually on the Metro page. Know any Good Neighbors? Phone 510-208- 6466 or e-mail dnewhouse@bayareanewsgroup.com.