J. Smith-Cameron and Jefferson White Star in Jeff Rutherford's 'In Our Own Sweet Way'
J. Smith-Cameron and Jefferson White will lead the cast of In Our Own Sweet Way, an independent feature written, directed and produced by Jeff Rutherford. The film has already wrapped production, according to Variety.
The story is set in the spring of 1988. Its official logline: "Two discordant neighbors keep an eye on each other as love, desperation and yearning pull them into a strange, startling harmony." Smith-Cameron and White play those neighbours, though character names and further plot detail have not been disclosed.
Smith-Cameron is best known as the sharp-witted lawyer Gerri Kellman on HBO's Succession. More recently she appeared on HBO's Hacks and had a guest role on CBS's Elsbeth. White broke out as Jimmy Hurdstrom on the Paramount+ series Yellowstone, recently wrapped Amazon/MGM's Ally Clark, and is next set to appear in Lionsgate's The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping.
Rutherford produces under his banner Fred Senior Films, in association with Stoner Ranch Productions, Echo & Add, and Fair Oaks Entertainment — an independent financing structure in which multiple companies share production costs and, in turn, rights to the finished film. White also serves as a producer alongside Rutherford and Kyle Eaton. The executive producers are Alexandra Byer, Roger Mancusi, and Barry and Carmen Nordstrand; Alexander Spenser Gould is co-producer.
Behind the camera, Alfonso Herrera Salcedo is the director of photography, Erin Orr designed the costumes, and Dan Maughiman is the production designer. Rutherford studied at Gonzaga University before attending New York University's film school, Gonzaga University reports.
What makes the pairing interesting is the shared pedigree. Both actors built their reputations on prestige television — Smith-Cameron on the Emmy-laden Succession, White on the cable-ratings juggernaut Yellowstone — and both are now bringing that small-screen cachet to an independent film operating outside the studio system. No release date or distributor has been announced. The next steps for any finished independent film are typically a festival premiere and a sales agent — a market where distributors bid for the right to release the film — followed by a theatrical or streaming rollout.
For now, the film exists as a completed production with two familiar faces and a filmmaker making his feature. Where it lands will depend on who buys it.
