Jewel Shepard Biography
Jewel Shepard is an American actress, writer, and photographer who was best known for her roles in movies like Party Camp of 1987 and Return of the Living Dead of 1985. Shephard arrived in California in the early 80s, where she supported herself by working as a stripper in various Los Angeles strip clubs and modeling for car shoots.
In 1982, it was Shepard’s time to strip where she met a genre filmmaker who is Dan O’Bannon. She broke into film with H. B. Halicki’s The Junkman after the number of small television roles.
Her autobiography, If I’m so famous, how Come Nobody’s Ever Heard of Her detailing some of the less glamorous aspects of film making and her experiences working in adult entertainment was published in 1996. She has also been struggling with invasive breast cancer since 2011 and she has been treated with chemotherapy, a double mastectomy and lymph node removal.
Jewel Shepard Age
Shepard was born on January 3, 1957, in Flatbush, Brooklyn, New York. She is now 61 years old as of 2019.
Jewel Shepard Family
Shepard has not disclosed any information concerning her parents or siblings but soon will be updated.
Jewel Shepard Husband
There is no information found about Jewel whether she is married or single. She focuses more time on her career than her personal life.
Jewel Shepard Education
Shepard Jewel Career
Shepard began her acting career with minor parts in the enjoyably lowbrow pictures Kung Fu Cannibals in 1982, Zapped! in 1982, The Junkman in 1982 and My Tutor of 1983.
Shepard gave an excellent and spirited performance as the sassy and sarcastic Casey in the fantastic horror zombie comedy treat The Return of the Living Dead [1985]. She was likewise quite funny and appealing as the endearingly vacuous ‘Crystal Landers’ in both Hollywood Hot Tubs 1984 and Hollywood Hot Tubs 2: Educating Crystal in 1990.
Other memorable roles are luscious wealthy playgirl ‘Christina’ in the steamy late-night cable-TV soft-core favorite Christina in 1984, the sexy Dyanne Stein in the amusing Party Camp in 1987, ditsy prostitute “Wanda” in Roots of Evil [1992] and feisty prison-inmate Amanda in the sleazy babes-behind-bars opus Caged Heat II: Stripped of Freedom in 1994.
More recently, Jewel popped up in a small part as a hooker in the terrific independent movie The Cooler of 2003 and most recently been spotted at the ‘Flapper Starlet’ in the 2012 Academy Award Best Picture winner, The Artist. [2102].
Jewel Shepard Net Worth
Jewel’s net worth is $15 Million as an update of 2019.
Jewel Shepard Interview
Horror Geek Life – Let’s start with how you got into the film industry and what made you want to do it?
Jewel Shepard – (sighs) My mother never gave me attention. I was never loved. That’s one thing I believe makes actors. The fact that they feel insecure and they come from not very good situations in their lives and their family backgrounds. They seek the adoration of the fans. And once you get there, it’s a different story. If you get there. And yes, they love you. But they only love you for what they see you in. So what they’re seeing is your created persona of something and they love that character. They forget that there’s a real person in there that has the same issues as you or I or anyone. Mine was about wanting to get love. I wanted to be loved. That’s what everyone was telling me. “Oh, you’re so cute! You should be in magazines and model…” Well, okay!
And this was back in the time where you always had to have a backup career. Like, remember the typewriter? Everyone had to be able to type, like, 120 words per minute. You actually had typing classes in school. I could never get past 30 words per minute, so I was sucking there. But it was cute! So…
Horror Geek Life – Let me tell you, I’ve seen a lot of pictures of you, Jewel!
Jewel Shepard – Oh, I’m quite sure you have! They are everywhere now, aren’t they? But here’s the thing…that stuff happened a long time ago, back when I was underage thirteen, fourteen or so. Like I was saying, I came from a not very good family situation. There was no such thing as the internet. And this was back when they did Ektachrome and Kodachrome and they had 36 pictures per roll. So I thought that I had to be brave and call up the liquor store guy. Then this thing called the internet started. They had computers, like the IBM 286. Then the internet. Then the web thing. And I get on the web and I see that they were offering Christy Canyon’s pussy and my head.
That was the first 3,000 images. Because the porn people were ahead of the times on something they could make money off of. They had all of these chat rooms back then. Back then, in my innocence, I’d go, “Oh, no! That’s my head! Please take it down!” Before they even knew who I was! They hadn’t put a name to the face yet. Back then, they used to be able to Photoshop whatever they wanted to after it came out.
They would put anybody’s something and connect it to my body. And then, it came to the point where every dude who loved whatever movie I was in, from My Tutor to Hollywood Hot Tubs, all went to those book stores and magazine stores, looking through things to see if they could find me and those magazines were being sold for, like, $300. The forums would get set up where they would share the pictures. Literally, there’s a whole group of them that did that. To this day, there’s still that. It still shocks me when I see something new and I have zero memory of it. (laughs)
So the sad thing is, I can’t get those off the internet. I can’t even get them lowered because there’s a new law by Google for this type of situation, by being defamed or whatever by wives or ex-wives or blah, blah. And I say the same thing with these photos that come up whenever anyone Googles my name. It’s a “Wow!” moment if you happen to have that toggle off on your computer.
This has cost me, not only my job… but it does affect me, even now in- as they say- in middle age. What I did at 13-14, to this day, I still have to pay for. I don’t get job opportunities. I just had a TV series that turned me down that had been given to me- a very big one. But they thought their sponsors would not like how, if the show was to take off, then there would be that whole conversation which would take away from the show. And I get it!
So, not only, at my age, do I have to change my look because I’m not that cute little Bambi girl anymore. I have to do something different. But how do I still do something different- even just, say, a regular job- I can’t get one those. I mean, I’ve tried.
Horror Geek Life – I can imagine it’s pretty difficult.
Jewel Shepard – I mean, there’s no online dating site that I could go to because if you use a fake name, you’re already starting it off wrong with whoever you’re going out with. Or you have to say, “Please don’t Google me! Please!” And, of course, they always do, and they always believe what’s out there. Can’t you just get to know me first? Can’t you get to know who I am? I say that about jobs or anything. I’m very capable. I can do all of these things. But no one gives me that opportunity, so I have an even smaller potential of doing anything in my life as a whole. It’s frightening because most people at least have, “Well, I can do this!” or “I can do that!” Well, I don’t have that luxury. I’m literally Jewel Shepard, who you can see quite a bit of online.
Horror Geek Life – Not to mention the snake pictures that pop up…
Jewel Shepard – Oh, yeah! That one was very popular in its heyday. Now it’s even more popular all years later, even selling posters. And I have to hear about that snake every day of my life.
Horror Geek Life – Speaking of your line of work back in the day, is it true that that’s how you got involved in Return of the Living Dead? What was it like to work on such an iconic film?
Jewel Shepard – Well, I jumped at it because, as I said before, I was working at a strip joint. It was a private strip club. I guess what they would be called now would be dollhouses or gentleman’s clubs. But this was very, very ultra-chic and private. The bottom line was it was men looking at women (laughs) and Dan O’Bannon came in there. He just sat there and watched. I wasn’t his type. He would just solicit other people too. He would come in every day and nobody liked him smoking his cigars and he was so unkempt.
I ended up talking to him because I found him fascinating. He liked comic books, and at that time there was this kid called Matt Groening was coming out with this thing called Life in Hell before he ended up doing this crappy little show called The Simpsons. So these were the people who went to these lousy little comic book stores and we would meet all of these people like R. Crumb. So we got along well and he bought all the drugs, so that was alright with me. That’s why we got along even better! We were friends.
In fact, pretty much James Karen, Bill Stout and I were the only ones who could understand Dan’s way of thinking. So when this movie came out, it was originally given to Tobe Hooper, who at the time was working on, what was that… Poltergeist? He was the director of the moment and he was offered Return of the Living Dead and that was the plan, that Tobe would direct it.
He thought I would be really great for the character that’s now called Trash- who was called Legs originally- because obviously, I took off my clothes very well. But I didn’t want to be in a movie where I was naked for the entire scene. I was already naked in all these magazines. I was naked on a stage. Naked, naked, naked! So I was really excited about that, that Tobe was willing to hire me. And then Tobe got hired for Lifeforce. That was a bigger movie, in those days, for him so Dan basically cobbled together the cast that he wanted. Then we had to take a year off because he had to convince the production company that he could direct and rewrite John Russo’s script into a completely different story.
George Romero, who was John Russo’s writing partner at the time, found out that there was a movie being made, so of course, there was a lawsuit and it got put off for another year. Essentially all of us thought that we didn’t get the part. And then one day we got the call from the casting director asking if we were available next weekend. We were like, “For what?” (laughs) He said, “For Return of the Living Dead!” I didn’t even have the script anymore, I don’t know what I did with it. Dan asked me what I wanted to be called if I was going to play the non-party chick because, obviously, I couldn’t play the clean, innocent girl.
So I picked a nickname. You know, as a kid I used to call myself nicknames. I can’t tell you why I thought of it, but I thought Casey was a cool name. But, at that time, I was like, “Casey, yeah!” And now it’s worked for 30 years and it’s like that really is my nickname now. So yeah, be careful what you name things!
But at the time, it was just another movie. I had done quite a few by then. Before Return of the Living Dead, I did a film called Hollywood Hot Tubs and that had been the biggest one at that point. But I think the one thing that kept us together, that kept us bonded, were those two weeks of rehearsals and the fact that we had to hang out with each other for a few weeks- all day long, every day. Dan made us hang out. So we all got to really know each other and we kept in touch. Somedays I think that that was perfect casting because we are our characters.
If I had done the role of Trash, we would have gotten an X rating. Linnea is much more… she’s not as sexual. She didn’t have a “wow” body or much of anything sexual about her. I had more of a sexual thing and we were already having problems getting rated anyhow, trying to get the rating board to give it an R rating. If I had done it, it would have definitely gotten an X. I am a party chick in general. So I decided to play a character that was really pissed off about this whole goddamn party, even though I brought my own shit with me. You know that feeling like you’ve got to go out, it’s going to be a really great night but you’ve just got to get there? And then you wonder why you even bothered getting out of bed?
Well, that’s how I decided to play that character. You know, all over the place, doing drugs and drinking. So I thought that if I treat this nice guy like shit, it would work well. And then once we realize that all hell is breaking in… or zombies, I should say. They weren’t walking, they were running. We were actually running quite fast because Dan kept yelling, “Run faster! It’s zombies!” And I’m not a very fast runner. So when they caught us, we’d have to do it all over again. I just didn’t have that stamina of having to run a quarter of a mile for every take.
So the zombies are running after all of us and they caught me several times. And John would just say, “Oh, not again! Can’t you just run faster?” And it actually worked because when he’s screaming, “Run faster!” into the thing, I just got in there and went because I didn’t want to do another fricking take of this thing! Dan’s over there saying, “This is great!” And I’m like, “Why?” He says, “You’ve probably never been running before!” And I’m like, “But I have to run now!” He’s like, “I want your hair flying!” And I said, “But you hired a girl that doesn’t run well.” But I am so fortunate because John is an absolutely fabulous actor. He’s so low key. He’s like the perfect actor. A lot of acting isn’t done through dialogue, it’s done internally.
It’s like you’re really getting to listen in on this private conversation. And I’m a little more over the top in general, not just as an actor but as a person. So yeah. It was really nice to have that to work with. Some days the entire cast got along well. And then there were some days when we were working for 17 hours straight and I’m constantly being caught by zombies and everyone just wants to go home.
I don’t know why I couldn’t say, “Just go choke a chicken,” in the middle of that scene. Of course, I grew up on a farm and when I say, “Go choke a chicken,” it means you go up to it with an ax, you whack it and then you watch it bubble right up, right? So, I truly didn’t know what the true meaning was of “Go choke a chicken.” I just couldn’t get it through my head. So John had to take me over by the tombstone and explain to me what it meant. It took me three fucking takes before I got it through my head before I could finally say that line. Because I would look over and be like, “Where is the chicken?”
By the time we got to the 54th take… You don’t do 54 takes of anything anymore! I was over there crying because he humiliated me. Dan humiliated me about it like the way he humiliated most folks- mostly the women, not necessarily the guys. I mean, I should have been humiliated because it took us 54 freaking takes to get it! “Go choke a chicken!” What the hell is that line? To this day, I’m writing out posters and I can’t help but think of that line, like, what the heck? When I picture it, I don’t see the character saying that I see a chicken on a woodblock. Sometimes when I have a particularly sweaty person in front of me, I really can’t help but think of the chicken!
Horror Geek Life – Out of all of the people that you’ve worked within your career, who were your favorites?
Jewel Shepard – I would say that there are actually three answers to that one. When I worked on Garfield & Friends as a voice actor, I got to work with Jim Davis. I found myself sitting next to George Foreman and staring across the table to Mark Hamill and thinking, “Man, I have a cool job today!“ All I could think was, “Here’s the creator of the George Foreman Grill and I could remember something that Hamill guy had been in… My job that day had been to be a terrified sheep worker, so that was easy enough. And you sit there and you get paid for it!
Another recent one was Jean Dujardin from The Artist, where he actually won an Academy Award for being the artist. He was absolutely amazing and perfect. He has these great expressions and facial features. It was amazing to see what he could do with his eyes, even off-camera. And to be in a film where everyone was always dressing up from that particular time period, I was lucky because my face looks good for that time period. And to actually be in a scene with that man…he was just amazing. There aren’t that many people who can do that. It was amazing but also very subtle, and then that movie swept the entire Oscars. Yeah, and to stand on stage and hold that Oscar and it’s so crazy. So that was a moment.
Horror Geek Life – I can only imagine! How did you get involved with your newest release, Slasher.com?
Jewel Shepard – Actually, I met Ben (Kaplan), who was the lead in the film, and he is such a nice guy! I as in a TV show called Double Espresso right after the movie The Artist and he was hired for, I want to say backgrounds, but it really wasn’t. It might have been something like lights, but you get a bit more attention and you get a higher paycheck. But that was his job. He was the young photographer type of thing.
Ben says he’s going to be doing a movie coming up and wanted to know if I wanted to star in it. I kind of thought is this kid for real? But he’s a gentleman. I looked at the script and thought wow, this is actually really good. He sent me to Chip (Gubera) and he wanted to know what I thought and I told him I think there are a few links missing, like what is this woman all about other than being a serial killer woman? She’s from the South because it’s taking place in Missouri, let’s make her Southern, put her in a dress as they did back then- a tighter dress. She would have the fancy silverware that they used and I would jack off with the spoon to gross people out. I thought she could stroke her pussy hair or her “merkin.”
I also thought my underarm hair should be really hairy and you could see it in the bathtub scene. It was all a bit too much for Chip, though. But I thought since we were targeting a younger age group and I want to gross them out because of not only my age, but I’m crazy. If I sit there shoving food in people’s mouths with this spoon…they’re going like, “What is up with this lady?” even more after seeing me groom myself and jack myself off with it. They thought it was a strong choice.
But Chip is an amazing man because he co-wrote that, he directed it and he edited it. He did an amazing job because, once again, I had to face some of the traumas in my life. I was playing this woman that I decided was nuts and I had some personal issues.
Horror Geek Life – It was a strong choice, but it was one of the best parts. It really brought so much to the character.
Jewel Shepard – I wanted to go stronger because if you want to gross people out, you should really gross them out! I found out that it was considered Porn Horror. I didn’t really know the difference between that and other horrors, because I’ve only seen a couple of horror movies my whole life.
Horror Geek Life – I’ve always been curious, do actors ever watch the movies they’ve starred in? Do you?
Jewel Shepard – Most people don’t. If you ever ask anyone, they’ll tell you they’ve probably seen it once or twice by themselves. They’re freaking out because all they can see is where they made mistakes. I do have a panic about Slasher.com. I actually did not see the best movie of all time! (laughs) I only got up to the part where I was singing to the about-to-be-dead guy and I didn’t finish the movie. I don’t know how it ends, but people say they love the ending. But I’m not going to see it. There’s a sneak preview screening on Friday but I’m not going. I don’t like how I look. But I think about how I would help it over again.
I went through most of it saying, “Shoot me horribly, Chip. Make sure I look really bad. Shine that hard lighting on my face. We’re going to make this as creepy as we can.” In LA, they don’t have fat actors. If you’re not a size four, they don’t want you. I dared to go up to a size eight or nine. I decided to play this character in a certain way. We didn’t have the money for hair and I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my hair. I had to bring the character from where she started to where she was singing that nursery rhyme to that man. That wasn’t even written, I just made that up. As I was singing it, I was thinking, “Oh my! Where is your mind going this time, Jewel?” (laughs)
Horror Geek Life – But you did a great job. You really brought that character into her own. She’s really interesting. Fucked up, but interesting.
Jewel Shepard – My thing is, “Am I believable?” Did I get you to believe that this person really exists and that this wasn’t just an actor? Do you know? People don’t realize what goes into a character. Take the walking- this character was walking differently, swaying. When the camera’s behind you, you have to think about your walk and imagine, “Would this character walk this way?” But you start it off slowly. You give it away a little bit at a time. It’s also hard because movies don’t shoot in order. So at what point are you with this character in this scene? Of course, we shot the sex scene first.
I’m sitting there, I know this guy and his girlfriend is sitting right there. And I’m saying, “You’re not digging the knife into me hard enough, goddammit!” You might kill people in your style, but in my style, that knife needs to go in deeper. He’s like, “Well, I don’t want to hurt you!” You’re not going to hurt me! You think RA when he chokes me, he’s being gentle? No, he choked me! When you see that scene, you’ll see that he really did choke me. It’s weird because you think to yourself, “Okay, I’m being choked.” While I’m being choked, I have to try and figure out how to stay in character because these two guys have this sort of relationship.
After he’s done choking me, I have to start berating him, but when he was choking me, he had his moment. He was the man. But I knew what it had to look like. So I said, “Choke me hard, man!” He was like, “Okay…” But then again, be careful what you ask for. Most people, when they’re being choked, they’re not happy about it. But to these two, it’s a sign of affection. You have to think of your actual reaction and do the opposite.
He did a really good job, though. He really looked “movie” dead. You know how, when most people hear their alarm, they jump out of bed? But when someone hears an alarm in a movie, they just roll over and shut it off. Do you see them just out of bed? No! They’re trained that way. If they jump up, they’ll be out of frame. It’s the same way with being dead. But if you were really dead, it wouldn’t be that way at all.
Horror Geek Life – Do you have any upcoming projects you can talk about?
Jewel Shepard – I have yet to get hired for it but I did audition for that TV series. But because of the nudity online…I know the world is hard. I know it’s not always great. But if you dwell on the bad things, it only goes to make you feel even worse. You go to a dark place. You’ll stay at the bottom because you’re afraid to go to the top. You can’t allow your mind to think, What if something bad happens?” You just have to say, “Well, I have a plan and I’m just going to go for it.” Like me – I was terrified about the movie premiere. I do look very different in that film and my fans won’t be expecting that.
What if they don’t like me that way? But I can’t think about it. I have turned down roles. I’ll read the script and just not understand that humor so I turn the part down. It’s not like I have some kind of thing against it. I just don’t get it. So the audience may just not get me in this role. But after this, people may start to make U-turns when they see me. If I wanted to get a boyfriend, I might have blown my chances for that now (laughs). I don’t feel as old as I am. I get along much better with twenty-somethings. But I don’t know how old I look, but I still feel like I’m in my twenties, or at least really young. I mean, I love to party! What can I say? (laughs)
Jewel Shepard Twitter
Sorry LA. I meant that for Washington.
— God (@TheTweetOfGod) July 4, 2019