A Conversation With Actor Robert Blanche and Actress Bethany Jacobs Of The Film “Tomorrow, Maybe”

By Lori Hoffman

“Tomorrow, Maybe” by Director Jace Daniel is a tragedy showing how we often hurt those we love the most. Lloyd (Robert Blanche) who has recently been released from prison tries to reconcile his relationship with his daughter, Iris (Bethany Jacobs), but she is reluctant to let him back into her life since she feels that he has betrayed her due to his lack of involvement during most of her life while he has been in prison. As Bobby (Grant Davis), Iris’ husband, increases his drinking and his abuse toward Iris parallels that, she turns to her father for help. Bobby is suicidal and nearly kills himself if it weren’t for Iris and Lloyd intervening during his attempt. However, since Bobby is a cop who is unwilling to come clean about attempting suicide, and Lloyd is a felon, Iris and Lloyd are both arrested and questioned, causing Lloyd to be the major suspect. As long as Iris is free, Lloyd will take the fall. This tragic ending portrays a father’s undying and unconditional love for his child. “Tomorrow, Maybe” Had its world premiere in Los Angeles at The 2017 Dances With Films Festival. The Art Of Monteque had the pleasure to sit down and speak with both actor Robert Blanche and actress Bethany Jacobs about the film.

Lori Hoffman: What was fun about playing the part of Lloyd?

Robert Blanche: Just getting to do the scenes with Bethany and Grant; it was fun to play him; a little antithesis to what you think of it as some guy who’s been to prison for a long time, but there are a lot of guys like that that you wouldn’t know and I didn’t want to play him as a stereo typical prison tough guy, so it was fun to give him a different look than I might have been asked to on another film. It was fun to have the room to explore him in a different way and of course because we had such a good working relationship with the director, Chase, and then Bethany and I really talked a lot about what we were doing and that just made it the most fun for me. It was a small project so we get to take a lot of collaboration and ownership.

LH: What was most difficult about playing the part of Iris?

Bethany Jacobs: The most difficult was actually kind of a funny thing, because we had such a great atmosphere and I found it very easy to show up every day and just collaborate with whoever I was working with, but we have one funny scene where Bobby really full on hits me and I fly into the back wall and the picture frame falls behind. We did it once and the picture fell and we thought oh that’s cool let’s keep it, so we tried to do it again and it took so many takes, like 20 takes or something to get this photo to fall. We kept [rehanging] it so it was just barely hanging there and we did it over and over again. I just kept hitting this wall and finally we got it fall. Yeah, so doing that scene over and over and just that dang picture was really the hardest thing about the whole shoot.

RB: For some reason it didn’t fall. It only fell about half the time. We thought it was hanging by a thread.

LH: What was it like working with the other actors?

BJ: It was really great. I think off and on sets you kind of get your script and your lines and you show up you shoot it and you’re done can you go home, but because this was so independent and we are we’re all working so closely together it was just a blast to show up every day and really collaborate with every person in the room and also to be heard and to be able to have an opinion on what direction things to go. It was just fun.

RB: You don’t always get to work like that form many reasons that make sense, but you just don’t always get to do that. People work very differently, so not all actors can you have a lot of communication. Some don’t like to do that; they don’t like to work that way. There is a lot of ways to get there as an actor. It was fortunate that we did like to really discuss things. We really like to talk about things at the beginning of the day; talk about the direction of what we are trying to achieve. I think that that effort was so collective that it was like being part of something as opposed to just an individual on a project.

LH: What do you hope the audience takes away from this film?

BJ: I think we are starting dialogues on kind of how society is structured and the pressures that are put on each person depending on who you are or what your gender is and just opening discussion more to allowing people to be who they want to be without having to feel like they’re compromising some standard that they need to live up to. I think that’s what I want them to take away. For someone like Bobby’s character, he’s struggling so hard with his own masculinity and why should that even be a problem? Why is he not able to feel comfortable just trying what he wants to try and being who he wants to be?

RB: That’s a pretty great answer so I don’t know if I have much to add to that. I’ve always thought I like films with a message. For me, this is kind of about telling a story and the entertainment aspect. I hope that it moves people and that they do find ways to say well it’s not simple; people are not simple and that if they take the message that people are not simple. We need to really listen and pay attention to each other and forgive people. We are all struggling with something or other; everybody in this film is struggling with something. If people feel like geez you know I’m not alone, everybody struggles through stuff, but we keep persevering. I think there’s a message of hope in it and I hope that they would take that away.

LH: What is the next project each of you is working on?

BJ: I booked a lead role in kind of like an 80s horror style werewolf movie, so we’ll see how that goes. I’m really excited about the character. Oh my gosh, it’s so silly fun and I get to play a character who is completely not like me, but I understand the comedy of her, so I am excited to do that and I’m also trying to produce a couple of my own projects that I’ve written.

RB: It’s good. I’ve read that script and it’s really good. She’s going to be great at it. I might actually be in that movie as well, in the werewolf movie. I have been approached about being in it and would love to be in it, so I think there’s a part for me. I’m reading several scripts right now, actually trying to decide. I definitely want to pursue more work like “Tomorrow, Maybe,” where I get to be more involved in more of the creative [aspect] because it’s really satisfying to just be involved in every step. It’s really satisfying creatively. So I’m just looking through scripts and I’m trying to find something that I would like to produce, possibly be in, maybe not be in, but probably I’d be in it. Then of course more reading for whatever comes up, whatever comes around.

LH: It sounds like we’ll get to see you both working together again.

BJ: Yeah, absolutely, I’d love to work with Robert again.

RB: Yes, I’m sure. It’s such a small world and we had so much fun working on this. I’m sure we’d love to work with each other again. [TAOM]