ATX TV Festival’s Breakthrough Award recipient this year went to a multihyphenate star on the rise with seemingly unlimited potential – Devery Jacobs. One of the ensemble cast of the hit FX series Reservation Dogs and fresh from the success of Marvel Studios’ Echo, the past few years may look dreamlike from the outside. But during a Q&A moderated by GLAAD’s Raina Deerwater, it became clear that every step in Devery Jacobs’ career has been a hard-won battle.
(ATX/Stephanie Tacy)
With a youthful glow and exuberance, Devery Jacobs is known for playing teenagers, including in her new film, Backspot, now playing in select theaters and at home on demand. Wise beyond her years, Devery is actually 30 years old, but acting was not a late-in-life choice. Instead, booking roles was a revolving door of rejection, largely due to her heritage as an Indigenous woman. There’s a bit of a reclamation narrative in her journey, making up for lost time through the types of roles she would’ve been playing a decade ago had the barriers to entry not been what they were/are.
Make no mistake, landing the role of Elora Danan on Reservation Dogs was the opportunity of a lifetime and one Devery has not taken for granted. She shared her initial excitement for the pilot and the unique nature of the set that series creator and showrunner Sterlin Harjo manifested, which not only featured a largely Indigenous cast but also crew, many of whom were working on their first project in the industry. Devery was used to being the only Indigenous person on set, compounded by the fact that she also identifies as a member of the LGBTQ+ community. It was a magical experience, and when production wrapped on the proof-of-concept episode, Devery was in tears. She knew Reservation Dogs was special, but she’d also gotten used to Hollywood’s cruel nature. Getting the news that FX had ordered a full season was miraculous news to Devery’s ears.
Prior to joining the cast of Reservation Dogs, Devery was already taking her career into her own hands, writing and directing her own short films and submitting them to festivals. During the filming of the first season of Reservation Dogs in Oklahoma, Devery expressed her desire to shadow the writers and directors to showrunner Sterlin Harjo. While FX initially had concerns about the potential distraction, the opportunity finally arose in Season 2. By Season 3, Devery was a part of the writer’s room and wrote the episode where Elora meets her white biological father, a story partially inspired by her own mother’s experience with Devery’s grandfather, to whom the episode was dedicated. Her directorial debut on the series came in the sixth episode of Season 3.
(ATX/Stephanie Tacy)
Despite only receiving one Emmy nomination (for sound design), Reservation Dogs was both a critical and streaming success. It came as a surprise to everyone when, during production of the third season, Sterlin Harjo revealed that it would be the last. It was during the episode that Devery Jacobs directed that the showrunner shared the news, although the door wasn’t fully closed. The series creator had been toying with the idea of a potential spinoff, including one that would’ve been a prequel set in the 1970s. But Devery prepared to say goodbye to Elora, and she’s happy with both the character’s journey and her own. After all, Reservation Dogs opened doors for the actress, writer, producer, and director which had previously tried to shut her out.
Devery’s next big project was Marvel Studios’ Echo, which allowed her to lean on her gymnastics background for the choreographed fights and stunts. She recalled the audition process, which consisted of fake sides for a character created for the series. The foreign nature of the casting process was made more comfortable by a familiar face, executive producer/director Sydney Freeland. And like Reservation Dogs, the production really committed to respecting the culture it was depicting, both on screen and behind the scenes. Devery shared one of her favorite memories from the experience, participating in a Choctaw Nation ceremony to kick off production. She was also impressed by the fact that all involved, cast and crew, had to learn ASL to make the set as inclusive as possible.
Backspot, now playing in select theaters and available at home on demand, has been a dream project for Devery Jacobs for almost 7 years. Exploring the intersection of queerness and sports, the film touches on themes that are very personal for its star, including her Indigenous identity. That’s part of the reason why the film was so difficult to get made, with every interested party eventually backing out due to concerns that the film’s specificity would appeal to too narrow of an audience. Thankfully, Elliot Page saved the day when he found out about the film, joining as an executive producer and helping to attract other producers and talent, including Devery’s costar, Evan Rachel Wood.
(ATX/Stephanie Tacy)
What’s next for Devery Jacobs? Having just received the ATX TV Festival’s Breakthrough Award, the multihyphenate was getting on a plane to fly to Atlanta to film a Christmas movie for Amazon (Oh. What. Fun.), which also stars Michelle Pfeiffer, Chloë Grace Moretz, Eva Longoria, and Danielle Brooks. Because of the hard time she had breaking into the business, Devery Jacobs has felt the need to keep going, working nonstop, but following that project, she is planning to take a short break. But she can’t stop for too long, with many projects in development, including another film with Backspot director D.W. Waterson, a graphic novel she’s in the process of writing, and a film backed by Sundance Labs she developed called High Steel, which she hopes to direct.