Christopher Jaymes, In Memory of My Father

Christopher Jaymes, the actor in and writer and director of the film In Memory of My Father, currently showing at the ICA, is a funny guy. And despite being a native of LA and , seemingly, a fully paid-up member of the city’s party scene, his movie ( and directing debut ) is a black comedy on the excesses of ego found in his hometown.

The plot : a Hollywood big-shot forces his youngest son into filming his death. The demise brings his other two sons into the house, along with  close friends and relatives, and highlights their dizzying heights of vanity.
“I’ve been an ass,” Jaymes, 34, admits, when I ask whether he’s indulged in the kind of behaviour his character in the film ( also called Christopher, all the actors use their own names) displays.
Yet he’s not an ass as we talk, and so easily could be.
Is he a regular at Paris Hilton’s barbeques?
“The closest I’ve come to celebrity is that I was engaged to Krista Allen, George Clooney’s ex.
But that played with my head quite a lot. I’d be driving in my car thinking “ I’m not good enough” or “ I don’t earn enough money” and a bus would pull up and there’d be an ad for Ocean’s 13 and George’s smug look would be staring down at me. It was like living in a Charlie Kaufman movie.”
You have to laugh. Can you imagine?  Living in the shadow of the bloke commonly regarded as one of the best looking on earth ( although, personally, I can’t see it.)
Anyway.

“ There’s lots of self obsession and narcissistic banter in the movie and I just placed a dead body in it,” Jaymes continues.
“The core of the film is  about people wanting to know that they’re good, but they don’t have the integrity or the finesse to be so."
Maybe. Or is that simply an excuse for rotten behaviour?  Is Jaymes describing his own journey, I wonder: the quest to be a better person.
Well, on his way to Thailand in December 2004 the tsunami hit and he got his hands dirty, literally, in helping the survivors and the clean –up operation.
“I wanted to help, to be a hero, for selfish reasons, actually. But then I was like holy shit, there are dead people, there are people really suffering.
I was touching people that were horribly deformed, the smell… I was thinking, “ I don’t have to be here, I can go to the party on the next island.”
Did he go to the party?
“Eventually, when the organised help arrived.”
It’s that brutal honesty again. You can’t help but admire it.

The movie has had mixed reviews : the indie and film press loved it and it’s won numerous awards ( including the Grand Jury Award at the CineVegas International Film Festival and the Festival Award at the San Diego Film Festival ) but, the UK broadsheets have slated it.
“ I think with this movie, which has had 60 or 70 reviews, there have been 10 negative,” he says.
“The papers were at the screening ( last Friday 6th June  ) all sitting together. I guess they were bitter they had to be there, they’d probably seen 12 other movies over the past week. Well, that’s my justification.”

But it can’t be denied that Jaymes has toiled on this movie.
He may have written it in four days and shot it in the same time, but it’s taken two years to edit and distribute.
“I had to wear all those hats because I had no money to pay other people. The only reason I got to do it is because my friend David Austin, who plays the father, lived in the house that Sam Goldwyn lived in, and he was selling it and told me it would make a good location for a film.
 But although it took just eight days to write and make the post production  was like a bad relationship that wouldn’t go away: you shouldn’t be together but you have a kid.
I had  no money,  so had to learn how to do every single process. I got hung up with money, people were saying yes to funding as they  were afraid to potentially miss out, but then didn’t write the cheque.
They say film-making is exciting with lots of glamour. It’s the antithesis of glamour. I would’ve been better off financially selling hot dogs or juggling.”
But Jaymes is used to the fickle nature of the business.
He’s reluctant to go into detail about all his acting work ( “ I’ve done mostly bad American television and was in the movie Father’s Day with Robin Williams and Billy Chrystal. It was the biggest flop.”)
But a quick Google search shows that he’s appeared in numerous TV and film including NYPD Blue, The Fresh Prince of BelAir , Chicago Hope, It’s Alright Ma, I’m Only Trying ) along with an array of theatre productions. And he studied piano at Berkelee , Boston and toured with various bands across the US. Not too shabby.

But he still has the nagging doubts.
“Since my early childhood, I’ve always been seeking validation on a larger scale,” he says.
“ Because I needed a massive amount of people to validate, it created an unfortunate road a lot of the time.”
Unsurprisingly, Jaymes has been on the couch. And his next project – Shrink Me -  is a documentary on why we rely on prescription and over-the-counter medicines for “ maintenance.”
“ I had an emotional crash at the end of my relationship with Krista. I went to a shrink and in less than 10 minutes he said I had a severe case of paranoid personality, ODD, Bipolar, ADD… and to take these tablets.
I’ve started this documentary where I’ll go on a psychiatrist’s diet for three months, and compare it to alternative therapies. It’ll be like the mental health version of Supersize Me.”
Why has he decided to film such a personal journey for TV?
“ I don’t really want to go on the diet of pills. But I’ve been given the money to make it.”
It sounds like it’ll be very watchable, and he may well get that elusive mass validation.
Lets hope it's been worth it.

Loma-Ann Bonner

In Memory of My Father at the ICA, The Mall, London, SW1Y 5AH, until June 19th, www.ica.org.uk
Christopher's book, Boxing Day, about his experiences after the tsunami in Thailand, is available on Amazon