CALLED TO DUTY
Work is a big game for Kaimuki High grad Jeremy Dunn, the ‘motion capture’ actor for the video game ‘Call of Duty: Black Ops.’ Here he gives MidWeek an exclusive look at his job
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video games, including Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands, UFC Undisputed 2009, Quantum of Solace, Spider-Man: Web of Shadows, Rise of the Argonauts, The Bourne Conspiracy, Turok, Conan, Spider-Man 3, The Shield, Desperate Housewives: The Game, Madden NFL 2007, True Crime: New York City and more.
“I was always a gamer, so it’s almost a dream come true for every gamer to end up being in a game,” says Dunn, who lists Madden, Legend of Zelda and Mario Bros. as some of his personal favorites growing up. “When I was a kid I never thought I’d be doing this for a living, nor did my dad think that if he bought these games it would actually benefit me in the future. But now more than ever do I have to play because I need to study my motion.”
Dunn, who lives in Venice Beach, Calif., was raised in Kapahulu and graduated from Kaimuki High School in 1997. A standout safety on the football team, he received the MVP award at the East vs. West all-star game his senior year, and was recruited by Western Oregon University before transferring to the University of Nevada at Las Vegas.
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Football was his passion with a goal to get to the NFL, but then the entertainment industry came knocking and the opportunities were too good to turn down.
“I took a voice class (at UNLV) and was cast in the 2000 ESPYAwards as one of five tenors who sang in front of 20,000 live,” he recalls. “It was one of the biggest rushes of my life and that’s where everything started.
“I had seven seconds of national television, and an agent backstage asked me if I wanted to have a (small) kissing scene in the movie Pay It Forward.”
From there, Dunn became a model, including work for The Gap and Armani. Then the terrorist attacks of 9/11 happened.
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“I was watching live when the planes hit and it was totally shocking, and I lost all drive to do anything else,” he remembers. “I didn’t want to go to school. I even contemplated military. I needed a change and wanted to get out.
“Then my cousin (Shaun Piccinino), who is an actor/director, called and said you need to come to L.A. and let’s make movies.”
Dunn made the move and started going to auditions. Needless to say, he got noticed, and with a background in sports, naturally moved into stuntwork. Last week, he was in San Diego working as a motion capture actor for UFC Undisputed 2011, and earlier this year grew a beard and shaved his head for a role as a stunt performer in Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, playing one of nine henchmen for Blackbeard. He also did stuntwork for Thor, scheduled for release next May, and The Green Hornet, scheduled for release in January.
Dunn, whose father Jeff lives in Nuuanu and sister Sonya lives in Hilo, says he tries to be in Hawaii at least once a year. His mom, Judy Chapman, lives in California.
“One time I didn’t come back (home to Hawaii) for three years because I was so focused on my career, and then a good friend of mine, Tautua Reed, said to me, ‘Jeremy, you have to come home so you remember why you’re up there doing what you’re doing,’” recalls Dunn. “Remember who you are, where you came from, who you love and where your loyalty lies.”
Part of that loyalty includes making time to cheer on his alma mater, including at the recent OIA White Division championship game against Kalaheo. Kaimuki won 48-12.
He also “hits up” his favorite eateries: Big City Diner, where he orders the kim chee fried rice; Hung Won in Kaimuki, which he believes has the best Chinese food on the Island, and Gina’s B-B-Q in Market City Shopping Center.
“Being in Hawaii makes you want to work harder for everybody back here, everyone who’s watching you and cheering you on,” says Dunn. “Hawaii is home and where my heart is. I think I’ll move back one day, but I’m not sure exactly when.”
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