'Hollywood' Star Jake Picking Had the Same Boston Teacher as Matt Damon and Ben Affleck
Hollywood is now on Netflix.
The series follows the semi-fictional lives of numerous real 'Golden Age' actors, including Rock Hudson.
Here’s what to know about Jake Picking, who plays Rock Hudson.
The film industry loves making movies about the film industry, and Netflix’s Hollywood (featuring stand-ins for Rock Hudson, Anna May Wong, Vivien Leigh, and others) takes the conceit to the utmost level: it’s a show about a movie about a movie. And so it features burgeoning young actors playing burgeoning young actors playing burgeoning young actors. (It’s just about one or two fourth wall breaks away from being a colossal Industry Self Pat on the Back.)
One of those young actors is Jake Picking. Picking plays Hollywood legend Rock Hudson, portraying his semi-fictional ascent into the industry and his very real struggle with his sexual identity—or rather, his masking his sexual identity while attempting to make it in Hollywood. (Hudson went on to be a multi-decade star.)
In Hollywood, Picking is a bit older than Hudson was when the legend scored his first role at 23. (the real Picking just turned 29.) Picking’s first Hollywood role came at 22 with a minor spot in The Way, Way Back. But like his character, Rock, Picking is still very much up and coming, mostly on the Hollywood periphery.
His chin-cleft face and stocky frame give him that indiscernible military-comrade-look in larger productions—he’s had minor roles in Only the Brave and Sicario: Day of the Soldado, and he’ll be appearing in Top Gun Maverick.
But Picking has also done much less conventional stuff, like Netflix's psychological thriller Horse Girl where he plays an Enterprise Rent-a-Car employee/rapper. Picking told WWD he did a little rapping in high school as well. He says he was actually more of a loner than a star.
Picking grew up around Boston, where he took an acting class with the same teacher who instructed other Bostonians like Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. Picking later dropped out of college and moved to L.A.
A post shared by Jake Picking (@jakepicking) on Apr 8, 2020 at 9:20am PDT
To combat loneliness during those early years, Picking would watch black and white films all through the night. “Forties, fifties, Paul Newman, those are the guys I really looked up to,” he said.
Now he’s got a chance to both portray the era that helped him through those struggling early years and maybe even pull the spotlight his way too.
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