Angela Sullivan’s
‘Jimmy’
Debuts at
The Bedford Playhouse!
Angela Sullivan is the first-time Producer of the new feature film Jimmy, with award winning Director Aaron Burns - which tells the remarkable true story of how Jimmy Stewart went from World War II bomber pilot to playing George Bailey in ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’. And, as Angela is a long-time proud Bedford Corners resident, the Jimmy worldwide debut will be on November 6 at
The Bedford Playhouse!
“I grew up in Westchester, and I started as an undergraduate at Fordham in Pre-Med, as I had every intention of becoming a doctor. But it took no more than my first look at how rigorous my first semester class schedule was for me to realize that Pre-Med wasn’t actually going to be for me!” Angela laughs. “It was in the day when you still had to fill out paper forms to get into classes, and the only area of study that was still open was Communications. And then, even as a freshman, I realized I actually had a feel for public relations and a bent for media and show business.”
“I got an Internship at Good Morning America during the summer between my freshman and sophomore years, and then an Internship at Live with Regis and Kathie Lee during the summer between my sophomore and junior years,” Angela chronicles. “Then I wrote a letter to Sony Pictures - there was no internet back then - and received a letter back saying that they really didn’t hire interns but that I was welcome to come in and see them if I’d like. …I remember walking-in and thinking ‘I want to work here for the rest of my life’! …And I somehow convinced them to give me an Internship in the Publicity Department for the summer between my junior and senior years - mostly doing stuff like answering phones and rolling-up movie posters and mailing them out, but I was hooked! It was the year of Jerry Maguire, My Best Friend’s Wedding, and Air Force One, and by the end of the summer they said, ‘Let’s just make a position for you so you don’t have to look for a job after college!’ And as I already had enough credits to finish college early, I started working at Sony full-time before I even graduated. …And I stayed with Sony for 23 years!”
At Sony, I got to work on five James Bond movies, five SpiderMan movies, and a raft of Academy Award-winning films!”
“I helped build the big strategy campaigns, organized premieres and managed publicity tours for TV and print media, and handled just about everything involved in promoting a major film. I had great bosses, and rose from being an Assistant, to being a Manager, and ultimately to running Sony’s publicity and promotions team in New York as a Senior Vice President. But when Sony asked me to move to Los Angeles in 2019…I said ‘no’. I wanted my kids to grow up in Bedford, and no job was worth leaving!”
“I started doing consulting work in public relations and marketing for a few film and TV clients who knew my work,” Angela recaps. “It was great! I was my own boss…and getting to work from home! …And then Covid hit!!! I was like, uh oh, this wasn’t the best idea! And as the pandemic began to take hold, my career was starting to feel pretty uncertain. ….And then Sony came calling again, saying that they have this faith-based streaming platform called Pure Flix, and asking me to help them design some creative and social marketing aimed at achieving an expanded audience…and allowing me to work from home. By 2020, I was a Sony employee again.”
“At Pure Flix, I marketed two films by director Aaron Burns, who’d produced and directed about a dozen movies. Aaron just wants to tell timeless, inspiring stories you can take your whole family to. We instantly bonded. We could talk all day about film and brainstorm ideas. …So, when I decided to leave Pure Flix and go out on my own again in 2024, he was my first phone call. He was like, ‘Oh no, that’s the worst thing ever!’. And then, literally an hour later, he called me back and said, ‘I just got the rights to the Jimmy Stewart story! - have you ever thought about producing?’. And, of course it was a blind ‘YES!’ for me - I knew I could figure out whatever I didn’t know and I relished the chance to work with Aaron!”
“Aaron had first come across the story years earlier in an article in Guideposts magazine. Rather than a cradle-to-grave biopic, Jimmy focuses on the most transformative years of Stewart’s life. “It starts when he wins the Oscar for The Philadelphia Story. Then he fights to go to war, but the military doesn’t want him because, among other things, he’s too skinny, and Hollywood doesn’t want him to go because it’s too dangerous. He eventually becomes a B-42 pilot, signs himself up for the hardest missions, loses men, and flies twenty missions. And it breaks him. He comes home…and Hollywood has moved on. Then his friend Frank Capra comes to him and says, ‘I’ve got this idea for a movie about a suicidal father on Christmas Eve and an angel named Clarence’. And Jimmy’s like, ‘That’s the craziest thing I’ve ever heard!’.”
“During the filming of It’s a Wonderful Life, Stewart had PTSD and nobody knew it,” Angela continues. “It was really Capra and Lionel Barrymore, who played Mr. Potter, who gave him guidance. And then he finds the love of his life, Gloria, and the film and his life have a happy ending. All of it’s true!”
“From the very start, the team worked hand in hand with Stewart’s daughter, Kelly. We didn’t want to do this unless we had her blessing, and she loved the direction we were taking. And Aaron and screenwriter Justin Strahan and I have developed into a pretty creative trio - we bounce ideas off each other and the best idea wins,” Angela reports. “I took on the role of Casting Agent and the biggest question, of course, was who could walk in Jimmy Stewart’s shoes. If it feels like an imitation, you’re cooked. But it has to be close enough. …We had an actor in mind who really looked like Stewart. He loved the script, but he said, ‘I can’t do this role.’ You have a big Hollywood star who goes to war, feels all those emotions, is broken, and then finds himself again, all in two hours. You need somebody incredible. …Then someone on the team suggested KJ Apa, the New Zealand-born star of Riverdale - which I had not seen, but as soon as I looked at his work I saw why they recommended him. And by the time Aaron, Justin, and I were off our first Zoom, we knew KJ was Jimmy. …He instantly lost all this weight, started working with a dialect coach, and immersed himself in the books and films. About six weeks later, at our first Zoom table read, the other actors thought we were playing actual archival Jimmy footage! Aaron, Justin, and I were side-texting each other ‘Holy Cow!’. …And the rest of the cast really just fell into place around KJ, including Jason Alexander, Christopher McDonald, Rob Riggle, Neal McDonough, and Sarah Drew.”
“KJ makes a damn good dad!”
Kelly Stewart, on set“The team filmed for six weeks last August and September around Skibbereen in West Cork, Ireland, on a $15 million budget, helped along by Ireland’s generous film incentive,” Angela explains. “Ireland had to double for California and England in the 1940s - who knew Ireland had the palm trees we used in the beach scenes?! There was no B-42 we could get, so we built one! We hired a predominantly Irish crew who were so talented and so excited. And when you’re filming there, you don’t have paparazzi in your face. I fell in love with the country.”
During filming Angela went on Facebook and found the five-year-old girl who played Zuzu, Karolyn Grimes, and brought her to Ireland for a cameo in the film. “Karolyn said being around KJ felt like being around Jimmy, and she told KJ, ‘You move your jaw the way Jimmy did’,” Angela relays. “…And Kelly Stewart visited the set, and has a small cameo in the film as well. She hadn’t been on a movie set since one of her father’s Westerns, she loved being involved, and standing at the monitors during filming one day she started crying and remarked, ‘KJ makes a damn good dad!’. And when Kelly and her twin sister, Judy, saw the finished film, they declared, ‘It’s absolutely perfect! Our father would be proud!’ - which is when I knew we’d done right by Jimmy.”
In thinking about marketing the film from the outset of production, Angela brought on a roster of brand partners with real ties to the era. “Bulova sent us authentic 1940s watches like the ones Jimmy and his men would have worn, and they’re reissuing their Hack Watch in this connection. American Optical, which made the sunglasses the pilots wore, has a Jimmy-inspired pair coming out. And MoonPies were sent overseas to troops during World War II, so there’s a special-edition MoonPie too! Even Tom Hanks’s coffee company signed on. And - because Henry Fonda was Jimmy Stewart’s best friend - we commissioned an original song for the film from composer Grant Fonda, a legacy of the Fonda family.”
“Most meaningful to me is the film’s tribute to the military,” Angela proclaims. “When Kelly was on set, I asked her what would be the most important thing to her father, and she said, ‘Whatever you can do to honor the military would be the biggest gift to him’. …Accordingly, the U.S. Air Force is a partner, the Glenn Miller Band in the film is played by an actual Air Force band, quite a few active-duty service members appear in the film, and Jimmy opens at military bases around the world on the same day it opens in theaters. …I’m proud to say that Vet Tix, Folds of Honor, Canine Warrior Connection, the Salvation Army and American Legion posts have all joined in to support the film in various ways.”
“When people find out you’re doing good, they want to participate,” Angela reflects. “This movie has a good heart and a good message. It’s not political. It’s an old-school movie that leaves you feeling hopeful. The kind of movie you want to see in a theater with your family and friends.”
“It’s easier to be kind than not.”
Angela’s first ruleNot surprisingly, Angela is already on to the next projects with Aaron and Justin. She handled casting for Hudson Taylor, which filmed in Malaysia and is expected in 2028, and is now casting Mythmakers, an animated adventure about the friendship of J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, based on a best-selling novel. Another film, not yet announced, will likely shoot in Ireland next summer. …And her dream project? “...Something fun and action-y... somewhere warm, like the Greek Isles,” Angela admits with a laugh. “Total selfishness, not gonna lie!”
Angela has two rules she’s passed along to every intern she’s had: “It’s easier to be kind than not. People were always kind to me, and I answer every email and LinkedIn message and phone call from any college kid looking for advice. And always have an opinion. If you’re in that room, you’re there for a reason, so speak your mind, be confident, own it. Even in a junior position, I’d be in meetings with the head of Sony saying, ‘I don’t get that. Why are we doing it this way?’. People may not agree with you, and that’s okay, and you also have to listen, but you need to have an opinion and express it. I think that’s why Aaron trusted me.”
life inBedford,
Angela says, “I met my husband, Chris, when we were both sixteen. I went to the all-girls Catholic school and he went to the all-boys Catholic school, and we both worked at the A&P in Bronxville. We chose to move to Bedford about fifteen years ago, before our oldest, Chloe, started kindergarten. We looked all over Westchester, but there was something special about Bedford. The people here are different. My daughter was in nursery school and obsessed with horses, and when our realtor drove us past West Patent Elementary and there was a horse right there in the field next door, I took it as a sign that this was the place for us! …Fifteen years later, Chloe is a freshman at USC and our youngest, Peyton is a sophomore at Fox Lane.”
“And so it’s only right that Jimmy premieres here in Bedford at the Playhouse!” Angela declares. “We’re doing an early release on October 22, with members of the cast, a red carpet, a Q&A and refreshments, and a portion of the proceeds will go to Vet Tix, so veterans, active military, and first responders can see the film for free at any theater. The film will then return to the Playhouse when it opens on November 6…and will start on Video On Demand on December 20 - the same date It’s a Wonderful Life opened eighty years ago!”
