Johnathon Schaech SaysThat Thing You Do!Costar Tom Hanks Gave Him 'a Sense of Hope' in Career (Exclusive)

Mar. 15, 2025

Johnathon Schaech (left) and Tom Hanks.Photo:Neilson Barnard/Getty; Jeff Spicer/Getty

Neilson Barnard/Getty; Jeff Spicer/Getty

Johnathon Schaechnever thought he’d work again after moving from Los Angeles to Nashville to raise his two kids with wife Julie Solomon.

“I left everything behind,” Schaech, 54, tells PEOPLE. “Every day I’d wake up in horror, like, what have I done? I kept trying not to think that I could control it, to let the universe and God find my way again. And next thing you know, I got offered forBlue Ridge.”

Johnathan Schaech on ‘Blue Ridge’.INSP

INSP

The actor channeled his dad, who worked as a police officer in Baltimore, to help shape hisBlue Ridgecharacter.

“I was really delving into an old school police officer mentality like my father, so I was playing my father,” Schaech says.

Johnathan Schaech on ‘Blue Ridge’ season 1.INSP

Schaech’s father even makes a small appearance inBlue Ridge’s season 1 finale, which airs Sunday, Sept. 1.

Sunday’s finale also features another fun guest appearance: Schaech’sThat Thing You Do!costarEthan Embry.

“It was an honor to have him out there,” Schaech says. “When he got to the set, we had very difficult material to cover, very edgy and hardcore. We both have incredible work ethic, and it was from working withTom Hanks. We became very professional and we had this brotherhood, this love for one another, that’s very deep after all these years.He was fantastic. He blew everybody away.”

‘That Thing You Do!’ stars (from left) Tom Hanks, Johnathon Schaech, Liv Tyler, Ethan Embry, Tom Everett Scott and Steve Zahn.Getty

Getty

Schaech credits working with Hanks, 68, at the beginning of his career on 1996’sThat Thing You Do!with instilling a level of professionalism in him that’s allowed him to maintain an acting for 30 years and counting.

“Working at that level was a very high level, but no matter where I was, I always tried to maintain that level,” Schaech says. “Blue Ridgeis the first time I ever had my own series. I’ve always thought that I could carry a series and that I would be a leading man like he was. He was always giving a sense of hope, and hope is really the thing that I kept along all this time.”

Schaech says he and hisThat Thing You Do!castmates have all remained “buddies” over the years.

“Steve Zahn lives in Lexington, Ky. He was the big reason why me moving out here,” Schaech says. “He was like, ‘I don’t know why you didn’t move out 20 years ago. You don’t need to be in Hollywood.’ Ethan’s in Atlanta now. Tom Hanks comes out here a lot becauseRita [Wilson]is a singer-songwriter. Tom Everett Scott’s the only one that’s still in Los Angeles. We’ve been trying to get that band all together and unsuccessful for the last 25 years.”

Johnathan Schaech.Rob Klein

Rob Klein

But that doesn’t stop fans from constantly recognizing Schaech as Jimmy fromThat Thing You Do!

“If I’m clean-shaven and I go out in public without a baseball cap, people will say, ‘You’re that guy, Jimmy, in The Oneders,’” he shares.

Johnathon Schaech and wife Julie Solomon at Gurus Magazine’s #30VOICES30DAYS Cover Launch Party at The Godfrey Hotel Hollywood on June 1 in Los Angele.Amanda Edwards/Getty

Amanda Edwards/Getty

Schaech has brought his son to sets and believes that Camden “really understands what I do.” His 4-year-old daughter Lily has started to understand, too.

“I had a film calledMarauders, and it was No. 1 on Netflix, and she walked right up to the television — no one told her — and she pointed and she goes, ‘Dada,’” Schaech recalls. “It was really quite magical.”

Becoming a dad for the first time encouraged Schaech to get sober. “It’s not so much that I was such a drunk that I was always drinking,” he explains. “I was just consuming life in a different way, and I wasn’t present. Being a father, it’s given me so much of a different perspective on life and how to approach that.”

Now, without consuming substances, “I’m really with my children,” Schaech says. “Being present with my children and getting to truly experience them and hearing them and not being consumed with other things that really aren’t relevant, that don’t matter, I never thought life was so precious as I do now.”

Johnathan Schaech.Aaron Farrier

Aaron Farrier

In January 2018, Schaech opened up about another life-changing instance,writing for PEOPLEabout how director Franco Zeffirelli allegedly molested him when the actor was 22.

“By sharing it, I was able to take ownership of my story that I had been denying all along,” Schaech says. “I made a complete transformation with my life. People reached out endlessly, and they still do to this day, and I’m able to guide them to where they need to go.”

On Sept. 10, Schaech turns 55 — and he views that as the beginning of a new chapter.

“This is where I’m writing my story,” he says. “Having a beautiful family, a loving wife, being present with my child and having my own television series has a lot to do with me taking ownership of my story. I’m now the author of my own.”

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The season finale ofBlue Ridgeairs Sunday, Sept. 1 on INSP.

source: people.com