Meet Jason Spector | Pro Wrestler, Stuntman, Actor, & Filmmaker

We had the good fortune of connecting with Jason Spector and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jason, why did you pursue a creative career?
I did not start out pursuing an artistic or creative career. I started out growing up with a dream of being a basketball player in the NBA. When I tore my knee up in college, I was lost as to what I wanted out of my future. I was not a great student, but my english teacher explained that whenever I had an assignment that allowed creative freedom, my essays were far better than usual. It allowed me to look back at my childhood and realized how much film had influenced my life. I was a big daydreamer thanks to watching “The Twilight Zone” at a young age. I found extreme satisfaction from each episode that made you think. I would imagine my own horror movies as I laid sleepless growing up, or make short films as school assignments with my buddies. But was so focused on basketball, I never thought about any of that as a future.
So at 19, with the advice of my english teacher, I began writing down any cool ideas I had. Eventually it led to my purchase of “Screenwriting for Dummies” and I started turning those ideas into screenplays. I was constantly writing as a hobby and started to realize how much I loved it, but still didn’t think much of turning it into a career. I was from a business-minded family, so while a career in film would pop into my head from time to time, I wasn’t doing anything to push my career in that direction.
At 25, my Grandma passed away unexpectedly. I was devastated since she was one of the biggest heroes in my life. We had shared a love of film, so when she passed on, I felt disappointment in myself that I never made that pursuit. So 2 weeks after her passing, I quit my high-paying job as a health insurance salesman, and accepted a minimum-wage job as a stuntman for the Pinnacle Peak Pistoleros (now known as Pistoleros Wild West Show). I spent 4 wonderful years with them where I realized how much I love being a creative and that entertaining people artistically was what I wanted to do for my career.
After the 4 years, I left Tucson, Arizona to move to Atlanta, Georgia. The film scene out here was booming, so I went to film school to gain all knowledge I could to attack this career. While doing this, I happened to stumble upon professional wrestling, which was a place where I could keep my stunt skills intact, while also practicing using my creative brain.
All together, I’m a little over 10 years of being in this artistic career. The biggest reason I do it, is I love seeing people’s reactions to what I bring to them. It brings me joy to get someone emotionally invested in what I’m bringing them creatively.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
In this case, we have 2 careers to touch on that cross into each other a bit. My wrestling career, and my film career.

Wrestling career-
This was a very unexpected occurrence in my life. I enjoyed wrestling as a kid, but never had dreams of being a wrestler. I initially joined wrestling training just to stay in shape. When I learned from AR Fox about the ways of wrestling, I saw an opportunity to showcase my creative side in a way that was different and unique. It was like going back to my Wild West Stunt show days, except I could create whatever character I want and explore whatever ideas I wanted to. I became the “Sinister Stuntman” Spectre. Since I’m not in wrestling for the same reasons most wrestlers are, I decided I’d try to be a very different wrestler. One with very out-of-the-box ideas such as using the Necronomicon (Book of the Dead from the Evil Dead series) to defeat my opponent. The biggest thing I’ve learned from wrestling is how to do business yourself and stand behind your brand in the face of adversity. To trust in the process. And while the wrestling business can be mentally brutal at times, it’s always felt worth it for the extreme highs you can achieve.

Film career-
Film is my goal in life. I’ve had the intention of using wrestling as a resume-building hobby for the film industry, and ultimately it worked out well. Wrestling landed me role on the Starz TV show Heels (which will be streaming on Netflix soon). I rode that success into working on other industry projects with Mark Wahlberg as well as the Russo brothers. My film career is very much in it’s early stages, but I’ve been very driven and motivated to keep it growing.

Getting to this position in my life was not easy at all. It took a lot of time, patience, and belief that what I’m doing now will all be worth it down the line, even if what you’re doing is only slightly related to where you want to be. When I first started working for the Pinncale Peak Pistoleros, I had no idea how working a live stunt show in Tucson, Arizona would get me on a movie set. But I knew that it was closely related and sure enough, 8 years later it happened. If you have a goal in life, go for it in any way you can. You have no experience? Then go start at the bottom. I basically restarted my life at 25 at the bottom to go after this career. I’m not at the level I want to be yet, but I am very far from the bottom now thanks to the years of work I put in. Now I’m at a point where when failures happen, I’m used to it after so many of them that I know how to keep myself moving forward through them.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Atlanta is great city for some Korean BBQ. Many great restaurants but my favorite is Iron Age. I am a movie theatre buff so The Plaza is one of my favorite places in the city as well. If you’re looking for a bigger theatre, you can’t beat the Regal at Atlantic Station. The Aquarium is a fantastic experience for out-of-towners as well.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
The Pistoleros Wild West Show in Tucson, Arizona – They were the beginning of this entire journey and the hard work and experience I had to gain to help keep this show running has made working with other places much easier of a task in comparison

Clayton State University & Georgia Film Academy
– I joined film school to learn the technical side of making movies and was given way more knowledge from these 2 places than I could ever have imagined. Big shoutout to CSU Professor Jonathan Harris and GFA teacher Akil DuPont

AR Fox & my WWA4 family
– My wrestling trainer at the WWA4, AR Fox brought me in and noticed I already had deep knowledge athletically and creatively. Instead of starting me where everyone else was starting, he trained me in a way that kept my skills growing from my previous experience.

My family
– I was nervous that deciding on this career path would have my family rolling their eyes about it. But they have all been nothing but supportive of everything I’m trying to do and I love all of them so much. I’m grateful and lucky to have the family that I have.

Website: https://linktr.ee/spineshatterspec

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/spine_shatter_spec

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jason.spector.39

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCu7pCuhmPCzFv3bLyRSy1QQ

Image Credits
RockStar Sports Photography