Jersey Shore. Few could have predicted she’d one day be calling the shots from behind the camera. Now, over a decade after reality TV fame, Jenni "JWoww" Farley is making her directorial debut with Devon, a found footage horror film that’s subtly been years in the making.
For fans, it’s an unexpected move—but for Farley, who has always been drawn to horror, this project feels all too natural. “Since the beginning of dawn, I’ve always loved horror movies,” Farley tells Complex. “I actually went to college for animation and software development, and my dreams were always to make a movie or be an animator in one.”
In Devon, Farley explores a passion she's long kept simmering beneath her bold TV persona. Unlike the unscripted chaos of the Shore, her work behind the camera introduces audiences to a different side of Farley, one with a fascination for cinema that dates back to her early love for films. This project represents more than just a career pivot; it’s a testament to Farley’s creative ambition and her willingness to tackle new challenges head-on.
We caught up with J-Woww to talk about her directorial debut, her inspirations, transitioning from reality to directing, and much more.
(This interview has been edited and shortened for clarity.)
You’ve mentioned being excited to “kick off this new chapter” in the horror genre. What motivated this transition from reality TV to feature films?
Jenni Farley: Do you want the long-winded or the short version?
Whatever your heart desires.
JF: Okay, so let me take you back to 1999. No, I'm kidding. But in all seriousness, many moons ago, during Snookie & Jwoww, I got the pleasure of visiting Pennhurst Asylum in Pennsylvania. I was in my late twenties, and I said to myself, “If I ever grow up, I would love to shoot a movie here.” And that sat with me for years.
I love reality. I love everything that it's given me and the opportunities, but I actually went to college for animation and software development, and my dreams were always to make movies or to be a little animator in one. So that always sat in the back of my head. And unfortunately for us, Covid hit and I didn't know if I was going to have a career anymore in reality. I spoke to my dad, I was like, “I don't know what I want to be when I grow up.”
Mind you, I'm 36 at that time, and my dad said, since the beginning of dawn, I’ve always loved horror movies. Ever since I was a child stealing his betas, I would watch them and I fell in love with horror. So I decided to take a very small budget of something that I was okay with parting with, and I grabbed a bunch of friends during Covid and went back to Pennhurst Asylum. I created a psychological thriller just to see if I could do it.
I never intended for Devon to see the light of day. I am very introverted, I'm very shy, and it's uncomfortable doing something new. I've been in reality for 15 years. Are people going to take me seriously? Do I have imposter syndrome? Am I capable of being a director? And I didn't want those feelings out there in the world, to be so vulnerable and humbled by real horror critics. So I was like, “I'm never going to, this is shelved.” And one day one of my friends was like, “No, you need to sell this and you need to be humbled and you need the criticism, and you need to show the world that you're capable just like everybody else to make a film.”
As a first-time director, what challenges did you face during the production of Devon?
JF: I would say one of the hardest challenges I faced as a first-time director was giving my control over to the cast. In a found footage setting, you're giving them the camera to set the tone, to set the angles, and to set the experience. I can only watch it after the fact, in lieu of a director watching it on a monitor and watching it in real time. I had to really trust them to make the process work.
And as my first time directing, I'm like, “Well, I'm really just trusting the process because I don't know what they're filming.” They're also not camera operators, but I also think that's the best part of found footage. It can be choppy, it can be just naturally organic, and if things falter, that's part of the story too. And me allowing everyone to be super collaborative and all of us going in with the director mindset, I find to be super helpful because I would ask my cast, how do you feel about doing this scene? Or what would you do differently? I wanted it to be super collaborative.
That’s good, I can imagine being overbearing isn’t helpful for that.
JF: And at the end of the day, I was not only a director, I was running to get lunch, with a small budget mentality. I'm helping with hair and makeup, so I don't have time to get in the way of myself because I want to be helpful to everyone. This was during a time of one of my biggest transitions, the least I could do for everyone on set was be their friend rather than their boss.
So we're going to see your name under every credit, right?
JF: Basically.
What inspired you to go the direction of found footage – and what films did you look towards for inspiration with this?
JF: Blair Witch is my be-all, end-all. There are a few, but it really just came down to money and what I knew from Jersey Shore. So putting those together, I know multiple angles always work in reality TV, I know security footage always works if there's a camera not available, and I know just getting every angle and every expression on camera, rather than stopping the take and then saying, “Let's go mid or let's go mid-wide and let's get a closeup or behind over the shoulder.” I wanted to go with the flow because I didn't want to disrupt how everybody was feeling. So the best way to conquer that is found footage.
What about the horror genre appeals to you and how did you want to incorporate that into Devon?
JF: So horror has been my childhood. My mom was diagnosed when I was two with schizophrenia and for my sanity and wellbeing growing up, I found a really big outlet in old school horror, 70s, 80s, and early 90s. My dad had this massive beta collection, and I would sit in my room and completely disassociate and disconnect from the world. And I found it to be calming. I don't know why. I can't tell you why horror movies just did it for me in the way that rom-coms and love stories just couldn't. And I think it's because I couldn't relate to those as well as I could relate to scary because I was growing up in a very different, scary situation.
I didn't have a mom. I had a dad that raised me the best he could, but to me that's very intimidating, especially in the 90’s when mental health wasn't very accepted. So I found solace in horror movies and growing up, that always became my natural.
Like, “Oh, there’s a murder-mystery on, or Terrifier is coming out, a new Saw movie. Speak No Evil and Long Legs, I’m like, ride-or-die for. Some of my favorite films and I pray one day I can work with them. So I always felt like that was my constant. And my dad always said, “You should turn your love for it into art.” I accept my demons, I accept my past and my childhood, and I totally think it made me the person I am today. But instead of just living with it, why not use it and turn it into something?
How did your experience in reality influence or prepare you for directing a horror film?
JF: Being on reality TV is an eyeopener for sure. I'm exposing myself in a humbling way, but also I'm in front of the camera. So similar to acting but not. I understand what it's like to be in front of the camera and the do's and don'ts. I understand what my production company on Jersey Shore goes through every day to make us be on camera. So I know those do's and don'ts. So I wanted to only bring the dos.
I really wanted to make sure I did right by the cast and right by the people that trusted to work with me. And I thought that was so important that I looked at it through everybody's lens. I have been on sets, unfortunately, where they either look at it through the production's lens or the talent's lens, and I really feel like those sets can just crumble in that situation. So I wanted to make sure, by being from reality and understanding, being on non-union jobs, being on union jobs, how significantly that can impact a production company and making the film.
So many behind-the-scenes details you seemed prepared for that others would be entirely unfamiliar with.
JF: Even if you don't know what the fuck you're doing, I'm like, “Well, at least I know how to be a human in this moment.”
Right. It's not your first rodeo.
JF: Exactly.
Have any of your Jersey Shore castmates seen Devon, and if so, have they said anything?
JF: So many moons ago when we were flying to Florida Keys for one of the seasons, I was editing Devon on the plane, and I actually don't know if they caught footage of it, but Nicole was watching it while I'm editing, and I was playing back a bunch of clips, and she's like, “Oh my God, this is terrifying. What are you doing?” And so I explained it to her. I sent them all the trailer early on. When Cineverse came to me and approached me to buy the film and put it on Screambox. And I'm like, “Oh my God, this is real.”
And I was filming Jersey Shore, so I had a freakout moment, which I hope airs guys. “Someone wants to buy my film. I don't know what to do.” So I showed everyone the trailer and they're like, “Wait, no, you should really do this.” But to me, again, I'm like, I need to protect my baby. I'm so scared for this move. But they all gave me the blessing that this is totally meant to be, and I need the world to see it.
Have you all talked about doing a movie together with everyone?
JF: I would murder them all in the first five minutes, I look at my cast and I'm like, “Vinny, you're dead. Nicole's getting axed, you're falling off a bridge.” I love them all so much, but I'm like, “You need to die in the first five minutes.”
Saw 2.0, the movie.
JF: Yeah, the movie is a short film on YouTube. That's it.
Do you have any plans to continue directing?
JF: I do. I do. So, throwing myself out there into the wolf's den right after Devon, during the edit, I wrote a script called Nanny Cam, and it’s based, again, on a psychological thriller. It’s based on when I had my daughter and I set up a bunch of nanny cameras in my house because I was so petrified to leave her alone at any moment. But as a new mom with sleep deprivation and lack of logic, you start seeing things that you might not realize if they're real or not. And you might think they are, but they might not be. So I am in pre-production for Nanny Cam right now. It's a bigger budget, it's a lot more pressure. But I find it to be another stepping stone into that psychological, mental illness warfare that we deal with every day, especially when we're getting in our own heads.
And I really want to tackle a way to break down and even laugh at just the stigma. I was raised with a mom with schizophrenia. I know what it's like to live in a household with those types of illnesses. So if I can put it on a platform that people can understand, watch, disconnect, disassociate, and just enjoy something petrifying that they live with every day, but remove the stigma of it and kind of see it through the eyes of the person that has a mental illness, that'll make me happy, that'll be fulfilling for me.