Jared Hess, Director of Napoleon Dynamite

Jared Hess was born in Preston, Idaho, USA on July 18, 1979. He’s two years younger than his lead actor in Napoleon Dynamite, Jon Heder. He’s quite tall at 1.96 meters (6’ 5”), says the Internet Movie Database.

Before his breakthrough movie, Jared worked as assistant camera and camera intern for some years; he did his first camera work at the young age of 14. Jared, who attended the Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, filmed a two-days shot called Seth on a budget of about $500 in grainy black and white. Seth was about a “super nerd extraordinaire” played by Jon Heder, who Jared knew from film class.

Jared himself, his younger brothers, and the people and experiences he had growing up, were a big part of the inspiration for Napoleon Dynamite’s characters. Jon Heder is actually wearing Jared’s moonboots in the movie, and there’s a lot of “embarrassing family material”, as Jared’s mother put it. When he was young, Jared had to move a lot so he was always the new kid in class, the total outsider. Growing up, Jared (a mormon) and his brothers were not allowed to swear so they’d come up with creative replacements like “flip” or “dang.” Jared says, “more than anything, it was me being able to look back on how awkward I was in high school and being able to laugh about it.”

On the inspiration for the name Napoleon Dynamite, Jared says that in the streets of Chicago he met an old Italian man by that name. Jared found this to be the best name he’s ever heard in his life and decided it would be the title of his first feature film. Napoleon was finally made for a total budget of just about $400,000, including post production. Jared enjoyed the full creative control he had over his first film... which was small, and still “the biggest thing to hit Preston since the rodeo”, as he says. Needless to say, the film was a gigantic success for him and his team.

At the moment, Jared – who’s living in Provo, Utah, with his wife Jerusha, the co-writer of Napoleon – is filming Nacho Libre with Jack Black in the role of a priest. Jared is a member of the FFA in Preston, and directs music videos and commercials for production company Moxie Pictures. You can take a look at some of Jared’s commercials; Nike [MOV], MovieFone [MOV], McDonald’s [MOV], and Land Rover [MOV]. Jared’s also involved in talks about turning Napoleon into a TV show, and said he thinks Napoleon would make for a great cartoon.

Sources:
Fox Searchlight.
DVD Re-run Interview.
Pixel Surgeon Interview.
Screenwriter’s Utopia.

Philipp Lenssen on Monday, Dec 12 2005 reg. Napoleon Dynamite.