Who’s Jon Heder?

Who’s Jon Heder, other than the actor of Napoleon Dynamite? Jonathan Joseph Heder was born on October 26, 1977 – the year that gave birth to Star Wars as well (and took away from us The King) – in Fort Collins, Colorado, USA. Jon grew up in a family of six; a twin brother, Daniel, as well as three more brothers and an older sister. Being a twin, of course, he played some tricks on teachers in elementary school to make use of that situation.

Jon, a Mormon, graduated at the South Salem High School in Salem, Oregon, and later attended the Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. He started acting early on in a children’s theater production of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and went along with his brother to make a lot of their own videos. Later, Jon was a student of 3D animation and film, and always wanted to get into film, too. He wasn’t sure though in the beginning if acting was for him. There at Brigham, he met writer and director Jared Hess. During the shoot of Napoleon, Jon would audition for short student films on the side. Technically at that time, he just passed his quarter life crisis... or used the opportunity of the movie to help him doing so. In 2003, Jon graduated from Brigham Young University.

Now Jon didn’t just play himself in the movie, of course. For the role of Napoleon, Jon was partially inspired by the phrases used by his younger brother (like “Idiot!”). Still, in the movie he did all the “stunts” himself, and also created the slightly amateurish but well-intended fantasy drawings of ligers and such (a “liger”, as you probably know, is a mix between a lion and a tiger). Jon in his own school time was neither the complete dork, nor was he the super popular sports guy – he was sort of in-between; probably close enough to the “nerd” center to see it, but also far away enough to get a good outside look. Jon says that when he was around 14/15, he was awkward and did a lot of stupid things... but he wasn’t so stupid as to not notice that. This ambivalence is shown the most strongest when Jon/Napoleon dances the during the movie’s final. It took only three takes to get it right, and Jon did it all freestyle.

So in 2004, Jon had his breakthrough Napoleon Dynamite. This wasn’t his first film – he acted in The Wrong Brother, Funky Town, and Peluca before – but it was his first lead role, and from its appearance at the Sundance film festival onwards started his run to fame. Today, John is married to Kirsten Heder. In the meantime, he was even star of his own urban legend – telling of his death. As for the future, even though Jon considered Napoleon Dynamite the “role of a lifetime” and is not against sequels per se, he also said he had the desire “to get away” from this kind of role. I wonder if it’d be good to create a sequel to this kind of movie as that always risks ruining some of the magic of the original. For 2006, Jon is starring in Mama’s Boy, School for Scoundrels and The Benchwarmers.

Sources:
IMDB entry on Jon Heder.
Interview at FutureMovies.
The New York Times.
NetGlimpse.
CineCon.com Interview.

Philipp Lenssen on Monday, Dec 5 2005 reg. Napoleon Dynamite.