Real Estate Man Hangs Up New Shingle: Actor

With the current housing slump, Jason O’Malley isn’t the only person giving up a real estate career. He just has a better reason. The New Jersey native has hung a “sold” shingle on his realty business to make a down payment on a career as an actor and filmmaker.

A big, strong-looking Irish-Italian with piercing eyes and enough self-confidence to sell the Taj Mahal to a tourist, he has yet to prove whether he will be as adept at acting as at selling property.

One might say O’Malley is in escrow.

He wrote, produced and stars in the film “Backstreet Dreams,” which co-stars none other than Brooke Shields, a blue-chip property with a view. It is scheduled to open nationally Friday.

And he rented a couple of solid properties--Burt Young, Anthony Franciosa--for supporting players.

O’Malley’s acting experience had been limited to off-Broadway and off-off-Broadway. No TV experience. No movies.

He was not getting the breaks, so he decided to make his own break by financing his own movie debut.

“With Sylvester Stallone as my example, I decided to take a chance,” O’Malley said in pure New Jersey dialect.

“My case was different than Stallone’s. He didn’t have to raise the money.

“I went back East to people I worked with in real estate for seed money. It was only a couple hundred thousand, but that was enough to get other loans and put together a package.

“The budget kept changing as the picture went along. I set up limited partnerships to help with the financing. Altogether, the picture cost $6 million. . . .

“The guy I play is a tough character who breaks arms for a living for a bookie in Hoboken. He’s a petty criminal, but he has a heart of gold. He’s married to a woman, and they are the parents of an autistic child. His wife abandons him and the kid.

“Brooke plays an uptown psychologist who helps the child. My character falls in love with Brooke’s character, so there is a happy ending. Everybody in Hollywood likes happy endings,” he said.

O’Malley found it difficult to get a listing on his film property until he interested Shields in the role of the classy child psychologist.

“I wanted to star Brooke in her first adult role,” he said. “I sent her the script, and she called right back saying she thought it was terrific. After that it was easier to raise money.”