Jacob Young knew one thing when he signed on to star in the Lifetime movie “Killer Vacation.” As a guy, he felt there was little chance his character would end up being the hero, as the cable channel tends to make movies that show women as the hero.
“The formula is if you are a guy in a Lifetime movie, you are either having an affair, you are killing somebody or you are being killed yourself,” says Young. “And, there’s nothing good that comes out of that.”
In “Killer Vacation,” Young plays Jake, a successful, fast-talking married businessman who has been having a sexual relationship with fellow office worker Lindsey (Alexa Havins). Jake keeps telling Lindsey his marriage is over and just needs to find a way to part ways with his wife. While that’s happening, Jake and Lindsey decide to attend a conference at a resort. What should have been fun in the sun turns into a life-or-death situation.
Playing a character as charming as he is manipulative is nothing new for Young as he spent years playing similar roles on the daytime dramas “All My Children,” “General Hospital” and “The Bold and the Beautiful.”
“Over the 21 years that I have worked in daytime television I think I have pretty much hit every kind of storyline that’s possible,” Young says. “Once I read the script, I knew exactly who this guy was. There wasn’t a lot of research required because the role was pretty straightforward.”
Cable movies tend to shoot faster than other productions, but Young had no problem with the speed “Killer Vacation” was put together because of his years in the daily grind of daytime TV. As with daytime, Young went into filming “Killer Vacation” knowing he had to be on his toes all the time and ready to make changes quickly.
Working on the cable movie was even more familiar to Young as during his years playing J.R. Chandler on “All My Children,” his Lifetime co-star played Babe Chandler, his character’s wife. Young didn’t know until the first day of filming that he and Havins were going to be reunited after more than eight years of not working together.
“Doing this movie wasn’t much of a stretch because my character on ‘All My Children’ actually tried to have her killed,” Young says. “We definitely already had that chemistry and we fell right back into that. We were able to really speed up the scenes and do a great job with them.
“When you work so closely with another actor for so many years, there is a real bond formed. You understand each other’s comfort zone. You know what is going on in their lives personally. So, you feel like they are part of your family and you are part of their family.”
Young’s interest in acting started when the Washington native was living in Colorado. But, he got very serious about landing jobs in TV and film when he moved to Southern California. His first TV role was the 2000 miniseries “The Beach Boys: An American Family” playing Dean Torrance. His other TV work includes “Hope & Faith,” “The Girl Next Door” and “Christmas Made to Order.”
There’s also a musical side to Young. He released a self-titled CD in 2001 and played Lumiere from May to August 2006 on Broadway in “Disney’s Beauty and the Beast.” Whether he is playing a cad in a cable movie or singing in front of an audience, Young gets the same satisfied feeling.
“There is something about doing a live performance that sets music apart but you are also doing a live performance every time you step in front of the camera,” Young says. “There is a very similar rush to both.”
And, Young was doing both at the same time as he was working on “All My Children” while appearing on Broadway. A car would pick Young up after his TV work was wrapped for the day and drive him to the theater. He would take a two-hour nap to have enough energy to sing and dance his way through “Be Our Guest.”
Young laughs and says, “I lost so much weight during that time.”
