Although Netflix Hollywood Borrowed from history, his main character, Jack Costello, was not a real person. The aspiring young actor, played by David Corenswet, is the entry point in Hollywood& # 39; s alternative story of Tinseltown, but unlike many other characters, he is entirely the creation of the series' authors. Still, he plays an important role in highlighting what Hollywood really was like.
Jack Costello's character is fictional, but he's kind of a replacement for an archetypal young actor trying to make it through this Hollywood era. During the film boom, countless young (and not so young) people flocked to Hollywood in hopes of being "discovered" and making it big. Like many young men of that time, Jack is a young veteran who fought in World War II and came home to find out about his new normal. Indeed, some of the greatest stars of the time were World War II veterinarians, including Jimmy Stewart, Paul Newman, Henry Fonda, and even Rock Hudson, who also played a role Hollywood (albeit a fictional version whose life is very different from that of the real Hudson).
Jack is also half of the fictional version of the man who ran the real "gas station" that was infamous in Old Hollywood. Scotty Bowers was a former Marine who owned this "special" gas station in Hollywood in the 1940s and as a result learned all the scandalous gossip of the day. Since Bowers is not really a character in HollywoodHis role in the story is cast by two original characters, including Jack. Like Bowers, Jack is a young ex-military man who plays an important role at the gas station. The other half of Bowers' story, incidentally, is the character of Ernie (Dylan McDermott), who heads the station and coordinates all encounters between his customers and employees.
