Jerry O’Connell gets real about career chaos, unexpected pivots, and the brutal truth of Hollywood: you’re never actually in control. In this candid 10 Minute Take on Still Here Hollywood, Jerry opens up about feeling like a “failed actor,” the shows that got canceled before anyone blinked, and the weird comfort he finds in reading Rebecca Romijn’s prison fan mail (yep, still happening). He talks about trusting the universe, why rejection is baked into the business, and how a throwaway opportunity on The Talk became the most stable job he’s ever had. Plus, the surreal experience of meeting Tom Cruise — and why even royalty would probably go “whoa.” It’s raw, funny, and a must-watch for anyone chasing a dream and learning to roll with the plot twists.
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There's a takeaway from this podcast. I read my wife's prison fan mail. It's sort of like prison erotica for me.
What's a crazy like for me, crazy experience? You know I guess there; I can't give you like one experience. Like this crazy thing happened to me, but I have realized you cannot control a career. A career happens. It's funny, I see, I see younger people specifically through social media attempting to like, put stuff out and control where they're going and like, say like, this is what I want for my career. And really gunning for stuff, gunning for directions that careers will go into. And you can't control it. You like my suggest, like, the craziest thing to me is you have to be open to the universe and then you somehow end up still being here. It's funny that, that to me is the craziest, I think experience as a whole is that you really have no control over careers. You can do a great job, you can show up, you cannot be drunk at work. You can be prepared, but really you have no control over how long it lasts, where you're going with it or where it's going.
Steve Kmetko
Right. It's not like in, I'll say, the real world where, you know, it's not how many words dictation you can take or how fast you type or how good you are with numbers. It's all has to do with somebody else's opinion and impression of you. And, how are you doing?
Jerry O’Connell
Yeah. You know, I don't want to bum everybody out listening or watching this, but I'm a little bit of a failed actor. You know, I acted for many years. I was acting. I was acting. I still continue to act. But it's funny, I my acting career has gone through a couple of downturn downturns, you know, and currently I'm in an acting downturn. And luckily my representation has stayed with me and my representation are the ones who said Hey, someone, a seat just opened up on this show the talk. You should you should go for that seat.
And it's funny, when you hear that, your first reaction is, I'm not doing a talk show. I'm an actor. Like, that's not why I hired you as my agent. I hired you as my agent to get me acting gigs. And luckily I was open enough to the universe to say, oh yeah, I can sit there for a month or two. You know, they need someone. And then I, I guess I did a good job for a month or two because they said, we'd like to hire you to a multi-year contract and pay you money to do this. And you'll have a job. And so it, I think the most astonishing to thing, to me is how I have no control over my professional life. That's crazy. That's crazy. Because I thought coming in here as a young man, I was in con like, I control everything. I'm in charge of where I go.
Steve Kmetko
I'm in charge of me.
Jerry O’Connell
I'm in charge of me. I'm going to decide whether I'm acting or not. And I'll stop acting when I say I'm stopping acting, Steve. I have no control of anything.
Steve Kmetko
But you have something that other people don't in this town, and that's some stability. You know, if you're signed to a four or five year contract, you know, you're going to get a check for a while.
Jerry O’Connell
I have stability currently right now, but really I have no stability in the long run. I mean, I just don't, that's what I'm trying to say. I haven't, I have no control of this side.
Steve Kmetko
Look at it from the other side.
Jerry O’Connell
Yeah. It's that, that to me has been the most I, I wish I knew that when I was younger, coming out here to calm down a little bit, you know, when things didn't work out. I have a manager that I've been with for coming up on 30 years. Man, that's a long time. Yeah, it is. I have a manager who, I was in a TV show that got canceled. I was acting in a TV show that got canceled almost immediately. And this is really when TV and like right before streaming where shows were getting canceled, like left and right. And I was in like three or four of them in a row. And I was like, what am I, what am I doing wrong here? Like, what am I doing wrong here? And my manager said to me Hey man, you're, you're going to end up where you end up. I don't know where that is, but you're going to end up where you end up. And I didn't really listen to him at the time, but he, it's such a great piece of advice. You're going to end up where you end up, you know,
Steve Kmetko
It is what it is.
Jerry O’Connell
Yeah. It is what it is. It's, so funny. That to me is the most you getting back to, and I'm sorry it took me a half hour to answer this question. What's like something that shocked you or what's been something that was surprising? That I have no control.
Steve Kmetko
That's good to know. I would consider something that was crazy that you talked about earlier. And I mean, this is a good, crazy, but meeting Tom Cruise and having a conversation with him when you didn't expect to, you know, that's kind of crazy, but a good crazy. As it turns out.
Jerry O’Connell
Yeah. I don't, I don't care who you are. I don't care who you are. When you meet Tom Cruise, you are thinking the whole time, I can't believe this is Tom Cruise is this real life. It's almost like it's surreal. I mean, I don't care. I would even, I would imagine even Barack Obama, I mean king Charles meeting, Tom Cruise, it's got to be like,
Steve Kmetko
Whoa. Especially if you want to be an actor or you are an actor and you have dreams for yourself. I, you know, going on all these junkets that I did back in the nineties and early two thousands meeting some people, you know, you walk in and it's like seeing a statue or like seeing some kind of a monument. Oh my God, that's Barbara Streisand. You know, that's Betty Davis. You know, and, and then I know what you're saying to sit down and actually get to ask them questions. Yeah. Which is fascinating to me.
Jerry O’Connell
Yeah, it is funny. And listen I tip my hat to what you have to do. You have basically a five minute window to get someone to say something entertaining about the project that they're trying to sell. And a lot of times you're eliciting stuff out of them, and you have to make it like you've known them for years. And it's a lot. It's, it's interesting me working on this show, the Talk a lot of my job, half of my job is interviewing celebs will call them coming in and selling whatever project they're selling. I mean, they're only coming to us if they have something that they're selling. And because it's a live show, I a big a big problem for me is asking the questions I'm supposed to ask on the clock. Because we got to go to commercial. And I get into a lot of trouble going off topic. If somebody says something I sort of go down that road and I run out of time to say, oh my gosh, you have a movie that's coming out on Friday.
Steve Kmetko
And we'll be back.
Jerry O’Connell
Yeah. And I've gotten in trouble a couple times, so it's funny, like you just saying like, you know, I did junkets for all those years. Like, and I'm sure you have like a set amount of time with these people. I really it's,