Visual History with Jonathan Filley

Jonathan Filley was bitten by the acting bug while at boarding school in Massachusetts, where they would create and perform in their own shows. During his freshman year at Boston University, while at his family’s home in Martha’s Vinyard, that he saw an advertisement in the local newspaper seeking extras for Jaws (Steven Spielberg, 1975). He submitted his resume and to his surprise, he was cast a few days later. Although his speaking part was a great experience, he was drawn to the production side of the process. Throughout his studies at BU, he worked on various productions as a Production Assistant, including The Brink’s Job (William Friedkin, 1978) and Starting Over (Alan J. Pakula, 1979). After graduation, he worked as a PA on Wolfen (Michael Wadleigh, 1981), where he was unofficially trained as a Location Manager by Peter McIntosh. Filley made his transition to a Location Manager on Neighbors (John G. Avildsen) in 1981.

Filley continued to location manage throughout the 1980s on projects such as Easy Money (James Signorelli, 1983), Tootsie (Sydney Pollack, 1982), The Purple Rose of Cairo (Woody Allen, 1985), Brighton Beach Memoirs (Gene Saks, 1986), Another Woman (Woody Allen, 1988), and Crimes and Misdemeanors (Woody Allen, 1989), among others. In the 1990s, he made the transition to unit production management and career highlights include: Boomerang (Reginald Hudlin, 1992), Whispers in the Dark (Christopher Crowe, 1992), Searching for Bobby Fischer (Steven Zaillian, 1993), Bullets Over Broadway (Woody Allen, 1994), The Siege (Edward Zwick, 1998), Bamboozled (Spike Lee, 2000), Bad Company (Joel Schumacher, 2002), War of the Worlds (Steven Spielberg, 2005), American Gangster (Ridley Scott, 2007).

Filley has been a Guild member since 1982.