On his website, Jon Lindstrom is described as a "multi-hyphenate." He is an actor, director, musician, athlete and a screenwriter. We know about the acting, having watched him in various daytime roles for over two decades, including, of course, the roles of Kevin and Ryan on both General Hospital and Port Charles. Now let's talk about the screenwriting, as Lindstrom shares the process of seeing his written dreams made into a reality.

This week marks the North American release of Lindstrom's film, The Hard Easy, which is now available on DVD, and it was a long time coming. "I'm happy that I got my first screenplay made. Most people don't ever get any screenplay made and I was able to get my first one made," he marvels, "I'm happy about the experience, I'm happy that we drew the cast that we drew. You know, I'm happy about it all!" The story, about two gangs of thieves who decide to rob the same jewelry store at the same time, boasts a witty and fast-moving script and a stellar cast, but Lindstrom says the road to actually making the film was a long one. "It did take a long time to get the movie made," he admits, "It was the first script, the first story that I had really written front to back. It was the first time I ever collaborated with somebody on a script. It was also the first time either one of us had written a script so we had to teach ourselves how to do it. After you've read about a thousand scripts in your life, you start to pick up a few things."

Of course, the rewriting of that script comes in when interested parties request changes. "The story started changing, because every time we would enter into a new deal, and we had three deals come together and fall apart," Lindstrom shares, "Every time somebody hands you a check or gives you an option for the script, saying they want to make it, they want to make changes. And he who has the gold makes the rules." Among those expressing an interest was Jean-Claude Van Damme, who wanted to produce the project and Lindstrom says, "We changed the whole last third of the script to accommodate him. Then somebody else came along and we made changes again. Then the guys who finally made it came along and they wanted other changes! So the ending we changed, the opening we changed, some of the character's relationships were changed. It was an interesting process, but that's how you get movies made."

Lindstrom is proud of the strong cast assembled for The Hard Easy and declares that Peter Weller, as Ed, "walked away with the entire movie." As for Lindstrom performing in the film, that was the original plan, but he bowed out. "By the time they came around to actually do it, I was actually too old to play the part (Paul), which is the role that went to Henry Thomas," Lindstrom says, "I felt it would do a disservice if we cast me in that role." He was later given a different role, that of Gene, but says, "What is interesting is that I never felt comfortable being assigned the role of Gene. I felt that I was too young to play that part and do it justice." Lindstrom saw Bruce Dern at a screening party - and inspiration struck: "I thought, 'That's who we should get to play Gene!' And by this time, I was already a producer on the movie. So I called everybody the next day and I just announced to them that I don't think I should play Gene. I think you should get somebody like an Academy Award winner or nominee to do it." Lindstrom pitched his idea of approaching Dern and was met with a combination of euphoria and skepticism, but about a day later, the euphoria took over. Luckily for Lindstrom, his idea proved to be a good one as Dern immediately signed on, and after that, Lindstrom admits, the "floodgate really opened" as far as casting the rest of the roles. "You can have investors with $80 million in cash but they're not going to spend one dime until they're assured that they have some sort of package that they can distribute in a profitable way," Lindstrom states, "There are no guarantees in this business. But they need to at least be assured of that, and they should be, because it's their money. So once Bruce came on, then Vera Farmiga signed on, David Boreanaz came on, Weller came on, Nick Lachey came on and Gary Busey came on. That all happened within a week and we were going to shoot inside of three weeks. It all came down very, very quickly."

"Once Bruce Dern came on, it was just a different thing," Lindstrom adds, "It's like suddenly signing Jack Nicholson!"

As for the lack of special features on the DVD, Lindstrom apologizes for their absence. "When Warner Brothers/HBO picked it up for distribution, they gave us a window of about ten days to put together anything that we would put in what's called an EPK, or an electronic press kit. And we just had no time to put that stuff together," Lindstrom says, "I think that all that will be seen will be an interview that I shot with Ari Ryan, the director, and I think that's it. There were two documentaries that we were pulling together: One on how to flip a car, and the other on making The Hard Easy. But there was just no way that we were going to get them done in time and have them be viewable. So we decided just to give them one interview and move on."

In the meantime, Lindstrom does have other acting and screenwriting projects in the works, including the feature The Double Born, with English actress Sammi Davis. "It's very dark, very creepy," Lindstrom says of the film, " I play one of the leads in it. It's a script that (director) Tony Randel wrote, based on a Bram Stoker short story." The role was offered to him by Davis, an old friend of his, about a year ago and after a meeting, Lindstrom agreed to take the role of Ephraim. "The original story is period. Now this has been contemporized and updated. How close is it to the original story? It's close enough in tone... It's very dark and very edgy." Lindstrom also has the Lifetime tele-film The Sitter on tap and good-naturedly describes it as "Fatal Attraction for Lifetime television!" That particular role came about based on Lindstrom's recent turn on Hallmark's McBride: Dogged, who also produced the Lifetime film. The busy, "multi-hyphenate" Lindstrom also has two more screenplays completed; one has been optioned and the other being presented on the day that this interview was conducted. Is a return to soaps on his horizon? "Sure. But there has to be a part," he says, and then adds with a laugh, "It's not like one will just magically appear if I say I want to go back to daytime."

"Thanks for all the interest and support," he says to his fans, "I really appreciate it. Even out here in my quiet little corner of the world."

Thank you very much to Jon Lindstrom for taking the time to conduct this interview.

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