Jason Olive
(Model/Actor)

Tie to Hawaii - First Team All-American on University of Hawaii Men's Volleyball Team.

Editor's Pre-Interview Note: This is the area where I normally write how/where I met the e-Hawaii Star and my thoughts on them. This interview, however, came together a little differently. Through the power of the Internet, my entire "meeting" and interview process of Jason transpired via email.

I first went to JasonOlive.com a couple of weeks ago and thought I'd send him some Aloha via the feedback form on his site. Now, you've got to understand that these forms are normally either broken or never reach the intended "Star", so it was quite a surprise that I actually got a response from him... and so quickly. He was very cordial and articulate and actually took the time to compliment me on my "impressive" resume. Since he's currently not living in Hawaii, I told him that I would email him my questions that weekend. Well, things came up and suddenly the following weekend arrived. Embarrassed, I finally sent him my interview questions a few days later. Without a hitch, Jason followed through on his word and replied to every single question - no matter how ridiculous - in the interview you'll see below.

There's nothing I admire more than responsibility and follow-through, especially when it comes to the busy lifestyle of celebrities like Jason. I hope to be able to update this area if/when I get to meet him on his next trip to Hawaii...

-Ed.

Interview with Jason Olive
(2/16/04)

(Edward Sugimoto, e-Hawaii Stars' Editor) Growing up in Hawaii, one of the main questions one gets asked is what High School they went to. Next to that, is What is your racial/ethnic mix?... Since you're a local at heart, I thought I'd start by asking you those two questions.

(Jason Olive) I went to Daniel Murphy High School for one year, then attended St. Bernard High School in Playa del Rey for the remainder.

Well, every time I go deeper into my ancestry, I find a different colored fellow (or female) involved in my mix. I mean seriously, I am 11th generation American on one side and 6th or possibly 7th generation on another. My heritage includes German, Spanish, African, Irish, Jewish, Catholic, Hindu, Baptist, slave, slave owner, rebel, unionist, healers and soldiers. I am however the first volleyball player that I know of in the family.

(ES) Where did you grow up? How did it compare to your time in Hawaii? And your current living situation (L.A.)? How does that compare to your childhood? Hawaii?

(JO) I grew up in Los Angeles. I mean I feel like I had a great childhood. My mother was so good about making sure us kids were exposed To everything and especially nature, which meant we were at the beach a lot. My dad always loved playing sports with me a lot. So I had a great childhood.

Hawai'i felt like a natural extension of that. It was great. In Hawai'i, you don't have to get in the car though. You just step outside and you are immersed in natural beauty. I think coming from a place like L.A., one of the things that boggles my mind is that that the islands are not better cared for in terms of how the land and ocean are being used. It bugs me to see Hawai'i becoming one big Military base with a lessening sense of its history. Luckily, many Hawai'ians are working hard to keep the language and knowledge of how to live with nature alive.

I am back in Los Angels. I still spend a lot of time playing or helping my friends train for the pro tour. If Hawai'i had a film industry, I would be back in a second. My career aspirations keep me here for now though.

(ES) Are you married? Kids? What is your home-life like?

(JO) I have a fiancee. We will get married next spring most likely. Either in Hawaii or Oregon where my mother has a beautiful property in the redwoods. No kids yet.

(ES) When did you first pick up the game of volleyball? At what age did you really start getting serious? At what point did you know that you were destined for great things on the volleyball court?

(JO) I think all those things happened at once. It happened my sophomore year in high school. I wanted to play because my best friend was playing at his high school and I loved the culture and how it brought the family together for games and what not. Since my parents were separated, I always like that aspect of sporting events - everyone coming together.

Anyhow I knew nothing so I went home and tried to catch it on TV. I don't remember if I watched a tape or maybe if I caught some of the Olympics or something but I watched the guys play and how they swung and I went in the backyard, and, because I didn't know anyone who played, or was perhaps to shy to ask, I wrapped a volleyball in a bowling ball cleaning rag and tied it to the top of the basketball rim. I just practiced over and over again, hitting it and learning an arm swing.

At tryouts the next year, I learned 2 things. One was that the net was only 8 feet - that was great. The second thing was that volleyball is all about passing and ball control. Though it was a long hard process for me that I did not see results from for many years, I think the idea that if I passed the ball well I would get to hit a good set kept me going. Anyhow one of my coaches in high school was from Punahou and he was great. My coaches really supported me and made me believe I could play at any level.

(ES) I don't mean to embarrass you, but you were HUGE during your years here with the University of Hawaii Men's Volleyball Team. Not only did you lead the team to its first ever Final Four, but you also collected your fair share of individual accolades, including the Jack Bonham Award for excellence, the Governor's Award for academic excellence and First Team All American honors as well. Do you sometimes miss the roaring crowd and competing on that level? Are you still actively involved in athletic competition today?

(JO) The simple answer is yes. It is incredible to feel the excitement of the Hawai'i Volleyball crowd. But I have to take you back. You need to remember that I am one of the very lucky few to have played in Klum Gym and at the Stan Sheriff Center. I remember coaches being asked where the hardest place in the country to play was and the consensus was Klum Gym in at UH. That place was hot... I mean hot like Bikram volleyball man, and it was small and cramped. The crowd for the big games was all the way down to the floor and there were a lot less "safety/insurance" issues back then. A team came in there and it was like, I don't know, maybe like how Saddam felt the first time he crawled into that little hole they found him in.

And that team UH had before I got there was ridiculous with Adam Lockwood and Lyman Lacro and Damien Hardy (the original little middle) and Allen Allen and Carlos Briceno. They really created the legacy - Pono Ma'a - I also loved his energy. Anyhow then when we moved to the big gym, I was like damn this is going to be to playing what shouting is to the grand canyon. I mean the young guys were excited but I was like you don't know about the Klum magic with crazy auntie putting hexes on teams from the crow's nest.

Then, all of a sudden I was kicked off the team too that summer. (Mike) Wilton and I had a falling out. I mean really it was him not appreciating my growing process and he didn't want anything to do with me. I managed to get back on the team with a lot of support from the media and teammates and school officials, and I went home that summer and dedicated my whole life to beating everyone who stepped foot on that new court. We came pretty close to doing that with the help of some pretty talented Israelis (who I later found out were trained to play volleyball by the Musad) and all of a sudden, that gym was packed too and we set worldwide attendance records.

At the time, I made a point to be conscious of it and be present. I knew it was a once in a lifetime year. So it was natural to reach back out to the community and want to get them as involved as possible. I mean sometimes they would turn the lights out to get me to stop signing autographs but I was like these kids came a long way and you know what, in Klum we only had 2500-3000 tops so chill and respect the appreciation. I don't like the alumni games now where you see so little interaction with the teams and the security people etc. are so "Aloha-less." You know maybe the team should go back to Klum for a year to remember where we came from!

(ES) I know that the game of volleyball is still a big part of your life today. Tell me more about your Volleyball Foundation, the JAYO Invitational, and how people can get involved.

(JO) Yeah the JAYO Foundation has been a wonderful thing. People can go to www.jayoinvitational.com to find out more about us and what we do. We hold the largest and most prestigious volleyball charity event every year. People get to play on a 6 man team with a top professional or Olympian as their setter/team captain. It gets really competitive because for an extra donation teams can "Rent-a-pro" and stack their teams. It is like a real version of fantasy volleyball. The money raised goes to 2 different charities. One is volleyball related and the other is not. Last year we gave to (Gold Medalist) Eric Fonoimoana's Dig For Kids program and the foundation for the advancement of autistic persons. It was a great time. We also held it in NYC which was novel and a real good time. I would like to have one in Hawaii. We are trying to find interested sponsors now.

(ES) OK, time to embarrass you again.... Not only were you HUGE in Hawaii because of your volleyball prowess on the court, but you were also quite popular with the ladies off the court as well. Was it difficult to go about your day-to-day life (including your studies at UH) with all these ladies staring and screaming your name? Personally, I've pretty much gotten used to it, but how do you handle it? *grin* (kidding of course)... Is that how/why you transitioned into modeling? Was it a natural progression or did you have to work at it?

(JO) You know I was very focused in college. For the first couple years, I was in a relationship and after that well... You have to manage your time. Plus most of the volleyball fans screaming my name were 15. Harder now when they come up and say "Hey I used to love to watch you play... you remember signing my autograph?" Well now I am looking at this gorgeous 25 year old woman. I handle it the only way I know how. I look them up and down, then look them up and down again and say "Sorry, you have the wrong person."

(ES) How often do you work out to maintain your physique? How vital is that compared to maintaining a healthy diet?

(JO) Everyday. But not to keep a physique per say I just like playing ball and working out and playing golf and it keeps me in shape. Being in shape should be a fun experience. It is really the use of my body that I am into. Seeing what I can get it to do etc..

(ES) I hear that you are a Vegetarian. Does this have a direct relation to maintaining a great physique or is it just a lifestyle change that you actively chose? Talk to me more about Vegetarianism for those out there who need to be educated.

(JO) Well I became a Hari Krishna and my spiritual beliefs that were awakened from the great texts of the Bhagavad Gita and the Srimad Bhagavatam lead me to be a Vegetarian. I also was pretty much a vegetarian during my senior year. Though I was taking graduate level courses, I had forgotten to take health 100. I reluctantly took it (I hated going to auditorium style classes). It was great. I learned that certain foods like tofu and vegetables break down easier and faster than meats, giving you more energy as a result. Also the nature of the way fructose released in the body as opposed to refined sugars. I planned my diet accordingly and had great results. So I knew that you could lead a very active lifestyle being vegetarian.

But the strictness of my practice only came after my spiritual understanding, firm enough to hold onto through all that crud we all get brainwashed with from the time we are babies that humans are not only supposed to eat meat but that if they don't the effects will be disastrous. Well it is a terrible shame. It is untrue and unhealthy to live that way. Just look at the colon cancer rates. I mean think about it. If you came home and saw a bird in your dogs mouth (who is supposed to eat birds?) you would freak out and tell him/her to drop it right? But we eat birds and cows and pigs all day long. We actually rationalize that these animals were born to be put in out mouths. It is crazy. I mean why if I eat my dog do I go to jail but eating a cow is fine. A cow can keep a human alive on its milk and cheese and give fertilizer for crops. I mean I love them and I have one but the average city dog just takes up room on the couch running up the air conditioning bill waiting for you to get home from a hard days work so it can get fed right? Einstein, da Vinci, Gandhi... they were all vegetarians. So get those birds out of your mouth! Leave the animals alone!!!

(ES) You are also very Ecologically-centric, well aware of the world around us. Please share your thoughts on this subject for our readers.

(JO) Well this is something that at some levels is tied to vegetarianism as well. It takes approximately 10 tons of grain to raise a single cow (because idiots feed them corn which they don't naturally eat but makes things cheaper). Then this cow is killed and feed about 13 people if it doesn't have mad cow disease or the meat doesn't spoil in the truck on the way to the store etc., etc. Well 10 tons of grain feeds an awful lot of people. At the same time, a child dies of hunger every 2 seconds. If Americans reduced their intake of meat by just 10% there would be enough surplus grain in America to feed the entire world. But Americans have been increasingly eating meat and so meat farmers buy up tracks of forest land in South America, clear cut them of trees, killing off all the natural life there, plant pasture mix and raise cattle. The results are devastating to the environment and the local inhabitants, many of whom depend upon the forest and not a dollar to live or "make a living." It is really ludicrous.

The fact the the FDA allows animals to be fed to themselves the fact that they let meat, which will be eaten by humans, to be shot up with steroids, the fact that fruits and vegetables are routinely sprayed with chemicals that will kill or harm us is the mark of a culture that has literally lost its mind at the hands of fleeting desires and poor tastes. The oceans are a serious problem right now. Fishing industries will be crashing in the very near future. Fish supplies are seriously and dangerously depleted and 90% of the big fish are gone. Did you know that 50% of fish caught go to feeding house cats (cat food). All of this will hit in a very hard way. What can you do? Shop and buy organic produce (California not USDA). Support fair trade initiatives. Buy only items like coffee and tea that are certified as being fair market/fair wage products. Remember that "free range" means only that the animal has to be free for a one week period before slaughter.

You know you have to get informed and break out of the... Matrix... of advertising cloaked as knowledge. Remember the great/weak thing about capitalism is that where the dollar goes, so does the culture. Pick up a Mother Jones journal magazine and get a different perspective every once in a while.

(ES) Your career has taken you to many exotic locations (Costa Rica, Hawaii, Peru, Morocco and Sri Lanka, to name a few). As such, you're quite the connoisseur in global traveling. Besides taking a break from the day-to-day grind, what other benefits or treats do you find in journeying the globe over?

(JO) The greatest thing I have learned from traveling is that people are the same everywhere. For sure there are different classes of people but those classes exist everywhere. I don't mean financial classes I mean class in the sense of tastes - how people live their lives how they get along, or don't, with each other. Once I was with a Sheik and Mustafa, a Berber friend and translator in Marakesh. It was just us three and we were talking about history in what used to be the sheik's harem room when he was young. As a young man the sheik had fought against the Germans from the Casbah (castle).

"We hated them" he says. "Now they come and but up everything in the suhk and bring our artisans lots of money. Mustafa even has a German as a girlfriend. The main thing is peace." And that's it. Everyone in the world is trying to figure out how to live peacefully.

There are those that know to use their hearts in a manner of acceptance to achieve this and others who follow their minds which are full of fear and desires which are all material. The latter miscreants will always cause wars and strife because they will always be frustrated and upset that life does not obey them. You can't always get what you want in this world. So change your desires. There in lies the peace. This is the unifying principle of life no matter what part of the planet you are on. Being the peace you desire to see in the world.

(ES) I read that you have authored a book of poetry called "Balancing the Limbo." Talk to me more about your interest in poetry. Where can one purchase this book?

(JO) Yeah poetry is something I have backed away from lately. I would like to publish more additions of Balancing the Limbo. They are all love poems and photography from my journeys. I sold out of them and don't have anymore. People can send requests to my website. If I get enough requests I will print more.

(ES) In speaking with you and perusing your web site, I was delightfully impressed with your world knowledge and intelligent/eloquent qualities. As an athlete & model, do you sometimes gets ignorantly stereotyped into the "dumb jock" or "dumb model" categories? Does that frustrate or amuse you?

(JO) Yes all the time. I don't know if it is frustrating. I mean I really don't expect a whole lot from people and I am not attached to presumptions people may have of me. You can't live that way. When you take these things to heart, they can confine you. It is important not to allow your growth to be inhibited by others' shallow expectations or lack of vision. In the end you must be your own light if the world is to become bright.

(ES) Have you ever faced discrimination in this industry? How does that affect you, if at all?

(JO) I have and that is a part of reality for everyone. You know discrimination works both ways. For instance, with the history of blacks in America, the common consensus is "Man those poor blacks. Look how those white treated them." Well, I have always seen it the other way around. Like "Wow those unfortunate blacks have crazy Karma to have to deal with those terrible demoniac whites." I mean between a slave owner and a slave, who do you think is going to have a tougher time explaining their actions to God? But again you are talking about low class people trying to get something for nothing and when they can't get it through cheating, they get upset and kill and lynch folks over it. It is like Dr. King's sentiments toward the end of his life when he said he was sure [blacks] are going to kick down this door of oppression and get in and even get a seat at the dinner table. The only concern is that the house may be on fire. Everyone should read professor David Stannard's book called "American Holocaust" to get an accurate idea of the class of people we are talking about when we talk about discrimination in America. I had the great privilege to do a bit of studying under David at UH. It puts things in perspective. I mean these people are not discriminatory, they are indiscriminate in the sense they will screw over and lynch anyone if some nice land, fine tobacco or a bit of cash is to be had.

(ES) You are now pursuing one of your childhood dreams of becoming an Actor. Things seem to be going well so far. Is this your desired line of work or would you rather be modeling?

(JO) Modeling is something that has been a blessing to me but not something that seems to hold my attention to any degree. Only if I get to work with great photographers or designers. Acting is something I have always enjoyed and something I look forward to nurturing my talents in.

(ES) OK, you have your choice of becoming a world-renown actor, model or professional athlete... which would you most like to be and why?

(JO) Tom Selleck had/has it pretty good. He was a good volleyball player and is a great actor. I would like to have a life like that. I think I could take him on the court though!

(ES) What was the worst piece of advice anyone has ever given you? Best?

(JO) Worst advice: Only do one thing if you wanted to be good at it.

Best advise: Chant Hari Krishna

(ES) What advice do you give our young readers out there who wish to pursue careers similar to yours?

(JO) Follow your heart.

 

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