Former Wilmington actor gets starring role on the big screen in WWII thriller

When Jacob Keohane lived in Wilmington in the 2010s, he was a regular on the local stage, appearing in plays at the old Browncoat and Red Barn theaters, and elsewhere.

Now, Keohane is starring in a new movie, a World War II thriller set to hit theaters and streaming Friday, Jan. 27.

In "Condor's Nest," written and directed by Phil Blattenberger for Saban Films and released theatrically by Paramount Pictures, Keohane plays Will Spalding, an American soldier who witnesses a Nazi colonel (Arnold Vosloo) execute his crewmates on a bomber that had crashed in war-torn France. Later, Spalding goes on a hunt through South America for the colonel, killing other Nazis along the way and ending up at the war-criminal-filled hideout of the title.

It's the biggest screen role to date for Keohane (pronounced "kuh-hain"), who's also listed as a producer on "Condor's Nest." In Wilmington-shot 2021 horror film "Halloween Kills," Keohane had some key scenes as Deputy Tobias, who, in a flashback, encourages a fellow cop to kill the villain Michael Myers while making it look like an accident.

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"I've done some film and TV work in the past, but this is my first big rodeo," Keohane said via phone from Greensboro, where he's now based. Blattenberger and the film's other producers "put a lot of faith in me."

"It was not too long ago I was doing dinner theater," he added.

The ruggedly handsome Keohane isn't in every shot of the film, but he's in most of them. Early in the film, his character hides and watches in horror from an attic as his crewmates are killed. Later, he emits a steely-eyed gaze and metes out rough justice to former Nazis.

Along the way, Keohane gets to act alongside some well-established names in "Condor's Nest," including Michael Ironside ("Top Gun," "Total Recall"), Jackson Rathbone ("Twilight," "The Last Airbender"), Jorge Garcia ("LOST"), James Urbaniak ("The Office," "Henry Fool") and even Bruce Davison, a 1991 Best-Supporting-Actor Oscar nominee for his role in "Longtime Companion."

"It was amazing. You hear stories about Hollywood crazies, but these guys, they brought so much to their roles," Keohane said, adding that the name actors were constantly "coming at us with ideas about the characters," even before filming started.

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After being pushed back from 2020 because of the pandemic, "Condor's Nest" shot around North Carolina last year, with the Old North State standing in for both Europe and various spots in South America. (They did shoot some establishing scenes in South America, Keohane said, and shot in Utah for scenes set in Bolivia.) Wilmington even turns up in one shot: a scene on the patio of Front Street restaurant Rebellion, which portrays an Argentinian cafe.

Keohane's character is a man on a mission, driven by inner demons and past trauma, so in that sense "there's a lot of deep psychology," Keohane said. "But it's also a popcorn movie," a war action thriller influenced by directors like Steven Spielberg and Quentin Tarantino.

Keohane described Spalding as "the anti-Indiana Jones. The anti-James Bond. He's no John Wick." And while he's not hapless, exactly, he probably "can't just punch his way out of a situation. (He's) just a guy not cut out for war."

Keohane moved to Wilmington in 2010 to attend the University of North Carolina Wilmington, from which he graduated in 2014. During his time here he was given to meaty stage roles in plays by writers like Sam Shepard.

In 2014, he was nominated for his role as Harvey "Two-Face" Dent in "Gallery," a play about Batman supervillains that went on to win Best Play at the Wilmington Theater Awards in 2015. In 2019, he was nominated for Best Actor in a play at the WTAs for "Stones in His Pockets," a two-man show (with Braxton Lathan Williams) about the movie industry coming to Ireland.

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"Wilmington was the turning point, where I got serious," Keohane said. "I've got a deep love for theater. It's where I came up."

And while he used to prefer the stage, he said he now considers his love of theater and film to be equal.

"They're two different beasts," he said. "It's like a workout, working different muscle groups."

He's currently working on a new feature with some of his "Condor's Nest" collaborators, Keohane said, with hopes to shoot this year for a 2024 release.

This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: Former Wilmington actor Jacob Keohane stars in new movie Condor's Nest