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By Christina Radish
 Working non-stop since the hit television series Dawson’s Creek ceased production, 28-year-old Vancouver native Joshua Jackson is very proud of his latest release, the Regent Releasing film Aurora Borealis. In the film, Jackson plays Duncan Shorter, a young man who seems to have no goals. Visiting his grandmother Ruth’s (Louise Fletcher) new senior residence, Duncan jumps at the chance to become the building’s handyman, which will keep him close to his ailing grandfather Ronald (Donald Sutherland). Although still struggling with his father’s unresolved death years earlier, meeting Ronald’s feisty home nurse, Kate (Juliette Lewis), gives Duncan new purpose in his life.
“This is the first film that I’ve made that I look at and go, ‘I could actually be an actor as an adult,’” Jackson tells MediaBlvd Magazine. “The initial attraction to this movie was purely the script, before I knew anything about it, before I met with the director and before any of the other cast members were on board. I thought it was really well and honestly written. It felt real. It allowed me, as a reader, to go into that world. I didn’t feel like the interactions of the characters were stilted, or that the dialogue was plastic, as it can get sometimes, being too jokey or overly emotional.”
{quote_top}“And then, on a selfish level, the character was really multi-faceted, which is unusual for a character of that age. This was a guy whose journey I could understand intimately because it wasn’t too far from my own. Had a couple of different things changed in my life, I could totally see myself being in the place that Duncan was. Without the particulars of his life, everybody goes through that period of feeling static, or like they’re not living, learning or changing. And, if you live and work in the arts, and hope to someday become an artist, as every actor should want to do, that’s a place that we all either live in fear of or live in, in between periods of creative expression. It just spoke to me directly, at the age that I was when I read the script.”
As a child, Jackson’s mother, Fiona, was a casting director who took him on his first audition, in hopes of discouraging him. Instead, he landed a commercial for Keebler’s potato chips, and has since had a 17-year career, ranging from theater to television to film. The fact that his mother was the locations manager on the Donald Sutherland film A Man, A Woman and A Bank (1979) allowed Jackson to question his mother on what he could expect, working with the accomplished actor.
“She gave me the heads up. And, I have several friends who had worked with him. I had always heard that, with Donald, you have to be prepared because he knows his business and he’s not there to muck about. I was also told to be prepared to be challenged, in the best possible way. Here’s a guy who is still, after all these years, incredibly passionate about what he’s doing and he’s still very vital, which is not always the case, with young or old actors. If you’re willing to honor the material, which I very much was because I was so passionate about telling the story and being this character, you’re going to find someone to play with. I absolutely had a partner in crime on the set. And, he can tell you stories of 40 years ago and give you a little insight into the Golden Era of Hollywood, and wax poetic. He has that grace about him, and he has the feeling of the elder statesman, where he’s very witty and off-the-cuff.”
 The relationship between Duncan and his grandfather is one of strength and frailty. Jackson says that he did not have that particular relationship with Sutherland. “Donald is such a physically imposing figure. He carries himself with a lot of grace. He’s a very intelligent guy. He’s done it forever and ever, with everybody. Every time I go to a job and there’s an elder statesman, be it Donald or Louise Fletcher, if you’re not an absolute idiot, and you just open your eyes and shut your mouth, you do learn. I guess that is sort of the relationship that a child has with his parents, and with his grandparents. You learn by example. You can’t help but be motivated and changed by that.”
The biggest things that Jackson says he learned from Sutherland are longevity, grace and professionalism. “Here’s a man, at a stage in his career where he certainly doesn’t need me, and he doesn’t need my approval or love, but he’s a graceful personality. He was graceful to the crew and he was graceful to me. I look at someone like Donald, who has gone through all those years and all the trials and tribulations of being an actor, over the course of three generations of actors, and to see someone who’s still enjoying it and is still willing to call bullshit when he sees it and is still willing to be fired up about the project that he’s working on, is pretty impressive.”
{quote_middle}Although he’d been working steadily since he was a child, Jackson’s break-out came when he took the role of Pacey Witter on the teen drama series Dawson’s Creek. Looking back on that time in his life, Jackson says that he feels the show is still very much a part of him while, at the same time, he feels like it happened to someone else.
“I feel very removed from that time in my life because it feels like a lifetime ago. Being down in North Carolina, and being 18 years old when we started that show, it seems like this thing exists out there, but is no longer a part of my day to day existence, much like I think most people probably look back on their college experience after they’re a couple years out of it. At the same time, I do look back on it fondly. It was an incredible gift, in a lot of ways. As an actor, it allowed me to go and perform, almost every day, for six years -- an unheard of gift for a young actor -- with other actors who I think are very good.”
 “All any of us wanted was to make a good show. I was piss broke when I started that show, and I’m not broke anymore. I put food on the table, my sister got to go to college and I could pay my mortgage. I’m 28 years old and I own a house. That’s a beautiful thing. I’ve been able to travel the world. And, as far as the fan experience goes, I can’t describe to you how gracious people are, all around the world, in places that really surprise me. I was in the Tuscan countryside and had 80-year-old grandmothers coming up to me with their grandchildren and saying, ‘We watch the show every week.’ In the middle of Marakesh last year, I had a guy say, ‘Aren’t you that guy from that show?’ It’s a constant revelation, and always a surprise.”
Next up for Jackson is a role in the highly anticipated ensemble film Bobby (starring Harry Belafonte, Joy Bryant, Laurence Fishburne, Heather Graham, Anthony Hopkins, Helen Hunt, Ashton Kutcher, Shia LaBeouf, Lindsay Lohan, William H. Macy, Demi Moore, Martin Sheen, Christian Slater, Sharon Stone and Elijah Wood, among others), written and directed by Emilio Estevez, about the assassination of U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy, and 22 people who were at the Ambassador Hotel where he was killed on June 6, 1968.
{quote_bottom}“I saw the movie and it’s really good, which is always a nice thing. And, the cast on that film is kind of ludicrous. It’s the only poster I’ve ever sent home to my mother to be framed. I am so happy that it goes Hopkins, Hunt, Jackson, that I can’t even tell you. That’s a pretty good list to be on. It was a great experience. I had prior experience with Emilio because we made the Mighty Ducks movies when I was a little kid. To be able to go back and be a part of what is a wish fulfillment for him, because he wrote the script and stuck with it for a long time, was heartwarming. You always want good people to succeed, and he’s such a good guy. Everybody was there for love, and not money, and the amount of comradery and the lack of bullshit that we dealt with on the set was so relieving. Everybody wanted it to be as good as it could possibly be, so we did whatever we could to make that a reality.” |
