Written By: Jayme Face

We’ve seen Jaden Michael from modeling in commercials to the films Custody and Paterson. Now, he’s talking to us about his latest film Wonderstruck with Julianne Moore and growing up a New York kid!

upfrontNY: Tell us about Wonderstruck and your character Jamie.

Jaden Michael: Wonderstruck is a film about relationships and about these three children trying to find their place in the world. These children, they don’t feel like they belong anywhere and so as they center in New York City to find themselves there are things they have to face and things that they have to learn how to do. They make friends along the way and they make family.

 

upfrontNY: Wonderstruck premiered at Cannes were you able to be there? How was that experience?

Jaden Michael: Yes, I was and I was super excited! It was just an honor to be in Cannes around all of these stars and peers and especially since it was the 70^th anniversary. I had always wanted to go to the Cannes Film Festival, but I never imagined it like this. When I heard that I was going I was extremely elated. My mom was serious, I thought she was kidding. I got there and the whole time I was just thinking I was blown away. And again, I’ve never seen anything more beautiful in my whole entire life. And I’ve never seen so many movies before and I just love film.

 

upfrontNY: Can you tell us about any upcoming projects or other recent projects?

Jaden Michael: I did do a couple projects after shooting Wonderstruck, but they can’t be talked about. Other than that, I’ve been busy with auditions and running around New York City. Custody was fun to shoot, Paterson with Adam Driver, The Get Down with Baz Luhrmann and Jaden Smith.

 

upfrontNY: What is your favorite part about being from New York and growing up here?

Jaden Michael: Adventure and having all these places to go. And I am a skateboarder so I like cruising down New York City and adventuring and going into museums like the American Museum of Natural History and living the New Yorker life.

 

upfrontNY: Do you think you would ever go pro in skateboarding?

Jaden Michael: I don’t know about pro, but I go to the skate park every once in a while. I mostly do street skating where basically I just do things in the street like rails and stuff like that. Otherwise I don’t think I would go pro or anything like that. I think I’ll stick to acting. I think that’s what I’m better at doing.

 

upfrontNY: What do you want to do when you grow up? Do you still want to act?

Jaden Michael: I do want to grow up and keep on acting. And then I was thinking when I grow up I want to go to Harvard and get a law degree.

 

upfrontNY: How did you get into acting?

Jaden Michael: My mom put me in years ago, when I was 2 years old, she put me into modeling. As I kept on doing modeling, then into acting and she just said that I was very talkative and I loved telling stories. Then when I turned 5 or 6 I just kept doing this and she asked me “Do you want to keep doing this?” and I was like “Yeah, this is fun!” and that’s who I am now.

 

upfrontNY: You have done some amazing projects with veteran actors. Can you tell us about some of those experiences and what it was like to work with these big stars?

Jaden Michael: They taught me a lot. Learning sign language and I also learned so much from the actors. They’ve gone through what it is to become famous and just being around them and their aura just really gives you a good push and keeps you yearning for more and stay focused.

 

upfrontNY: And you said you learned sign language from somebody?

Jaden Michael: Yeah. I learned sign language from Millie, because of the film, because Millie is deaf. So, to be able to talk with her and converse with her I learned sign language. Basically, the whole crew learned sign language to speak with Millie. We all kind of kept it up. I’ve been working with Carole Addabbo. She was one of the actresses in the film and she’s a professor at NYU and I’ve had the pleasure of speaking sign language.

 

upfrontNY: What do you like to do for fun besides acting?

Jaden Michael: I like modeling, skateboarding. I surf, occasionally. I like writing songs.

 

upfrontNY: Is there anything you would like to share with our readers?

Jaden Michael: One thing I love about acting, I can influence people and I just want people to know no matter what you’re doing never give up and stay focused.

 

Favorite Fast Five

Snack– Clementines

App– Garage Band

Music– I like classic rock. I like any kind of music, but mostly classic rock.

Song– “Dear Prudence” by the Beatles

Color– Red

Don’t Forget to Follow Jaden!

Facebook: ItsJadenMichael 

Twitter: @ItsJadenMichael

Instagram: @JadenMichael