Save Willy: What happened to Jason James Richter who played Baby Jessie?

If you grew up in the 90s, you must remember Save Willy! Written in 1994 by Simon Winsor, this heartwarming story of the friendship between a little orphan boy and a 10-ton killer whale in captivity at a water park truly celebrated an entire generation of viewers.

But three decades later, do you know what happened to Jason James Richter, who played young Jesse in the famous feature film? Now 43, he seems to have great memories of Save Willy – which was his first shoot – and especially of meeting the orca Keiko. At least, that’s what he claimed back in 2013 on the site’s microphone The Daily BeastAnd we imagine he hasn’t changed his mind since:

“I remember it as one of those moments of pure and utter excitement as a child”That’s how he expressed it.

“You don’t see danger. When you’re 11, you’re just like, ‘Oh my God, a whale!’ It’s amazing! This is going to be awesome!” When I was 17, I might have thought, “This thing is going to blow my mind,” but at 11, you’re like, “Wow, that’s cool. Let me touch you.”

Chosen from over 4,000 children in 1993 to play Jesse, Jason James Richter found his character in two Save Willy sequels in 1995 and 1998. In the same decade, he was also seen in the sci-fi film Laserhawk, as well as The Neverending Story III, a sequel to the acclaimed feature film directed by Wolfgang Petersen.

Later, at the end of the 90s, the young actor decided to leave the set and take a big break with his other passion: music. Thus, he joined several different bands as a guitarist.

If he again played several roles in fairly private productions in the 2010s, and most notably in the 2018 western Last Rampage, he was also talked about in the tabloid press when he was accused of domestic violence by his girlfriend in 2018. Although he denies the facts, he was sentenced to four days in jail and 36 months of probation for the vandalism.

It was only in 2021 that he found his way to the set, participating in two larger projects. Thus, we can see him next to Bruce Dern and Jeremy Piven in the comedy “Last Call”, which has not yet been released in France, but also on the poster of “A Matter of Details”, in a small role. In this dark John Lee Hancock thriller alongside Denzel Washington, Rami Malek and Jared Leto, he lends his qualities to Detective Williams.

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