Joshua Jackson at the premiere of "Sicko" held at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences in Beverly Hills, Calif. on June 26, 2007.

In the 20^th Century Fox psychological thriller Shutter, a newly married couple discovers disturbing, ghostly images in photographs they develop after a tragic accident. For photographer Ben (Joshua Jackson) and his new wife Jane (Rachael Taylor), his new assignment, doing a lucrative fashion shoot in Tokyo, was supposed to be a working honeymoon. But, driving along on a mountain road leading to Mt. Fuji, their car smashes into a woman standing in the middle of the road, who has materialized out of nowhere, and who just as quickly disappears without a trace. When Ben discovers mysterious white blurs have ruined an entire day’s work from his expensive, glamorous photo shoot, Jane’s concerns escalate as she believes the blurs in Ben’s photos are the dead girl from the road, who is now seeking vengeance for them leaving her to die.

Based on the 2004 film of the same name, which became the highest grossing film in Thailand, the horror-thriller has been made more accessible to American and Japanese audiences, with an American starring cast and a Japanese director. Best known to audiences for his role in the long-running series Dawson’s Creek, Joshua Jackson watched the original film, prior to making the re-imagined version, but then tried to put it out of his head during filming.

“When they sent out the script, they sent the original film with it, with the instructions to watch it, digest it, forget it, and then read the script,” the 29-year-old Canadian tells MediaBlvd Magazine. “It’s similar enough that the structure is there and, obviously, the thrust of the spirit photography is taken across. And, we borrowed some of their better sequences. But, because you’re introducing Westerners to Asian culture, the first act and a half are radically different. You need to introduce Westerners to the idea of spirit photography. Because our film hangs a very different story on the same bones, we weren’t competing with the original. By having people who are culturally acclimated to the idea of spirit photography, their story starts at a very different place than people who have to be educated about even the very idea of spirit photography. Because we’re Westerners in Tokyo, when the supernatural starts happening to us, it’s on their terms and we need to be brought into their mythology, rather than having a shared mythology. It’s a totally different underpinning for the Japanese than it is for any Westerners.”

Transformers star Rachael Taylor also watched the original film, prior to playing Jane. “No one told me to watch it, but I wanted to see it,” says the 23-year-old Tasmanian. “I appreciate that remaking a film in the horror genre is a sensitive thing because people become very loyal to the original film. And, they’ve been remade in the West to varying degrees of success, so I wanted to know what I was up against. And, it turned out that I was up against a lot because the original is a very good film. One of the reasons why I wanted to do the movie was because it’s not just a horror movie about a haunted house. It deals with some really interesting issues, within a relationship. I felt there was enough for me to explore, as an actor. Also, the original Thai film is more of a male perspective. It’s about him running away from, and trying to forget, his past. And, the American version is more about the female character trying to figure out his past. It’s quite different.”

The phenomenon of spirit photography -- events in which images of the dead are caught on film -- is as old as photography itself, dating back to the 1860s. Once the actors signed onto the project, both Jackson and Taylor immersed themselves in the world of spirit photography, of which they admit to being initially skeptical about. “I’m just as distrustful of absolute belief, as I am of absolute disbelief,” says Jackson. “I’m a skeptic with the caveat that I think it’s completely within the realm of possibility.”

Rachael Taylor at ELLE Magazine's 14th Annual Women in Hollywood event held at the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif. on October 15, 2007.

“In terms of the world of the supernatural, I wasn’t categorically a non-believer, but I wasn’t categorically a believer either,” adds Taylor. “I sat somewhere in the middle of not being sure. And then, I started doing research on spirit photography, and it’s fascinating. It is a true phenomenon, and there are pictures that have these inexplicable images in them. I have the same personal thesis on it that the film does, which is that, if a spiritual message needs to make itself heard, then it will find a way to do that. If something is so emotionally potent that it needs to find a way to surface, then I think it’s absolutely possible.”

Working in a foreign country can be difficult. But, working with a Japanese director that doesn’t even speak your language can be nearly impossible. “It was certainly a challenge,” says Taylor, “but it was cool because they were the same challenges that the character was facing, so I got to use that. Jane is going through that fish-out-of-water, lost in translation experience of not knowing who she can trust, and what everything really means, and that’s the same experience that I had, personally. We had an incredible translator. Having said that, translation is certainly useful, but I really felt that I was isolated, in terms of performance. I really had to make my own choices, and was left stranded, on my own, which is not to say that (director) Masayuki Ochiai isn’t good at what he does. He’s absolutely good at what he does, and I think he understands how to create a creepy scenario, very expertly. But, it was good to be left on my own and have to listen to my own instincts, as an actor, and not just be a warm prop and be told where to stand, how to look and what to say. It was cool to have to lock into my own instincts. The character is going through a particular inner turmoil and doubt. She’s questioning her relationship and dealing with the issues of betrayal, trust, secrets, revenge and lies.”

“It was really challenging,” she continues. “You can never control the outcome of a film. All you can do is take care of yourself. You can nurture your character. No one knows your character like you do and, if you just protect them, then you’re doing what you’re paid to do.”

In terms of the story, one of the most important aspects was to make sure the relationship between newlyweds Ben and Jane was plausible. “It was important that they loved each other, and that it was an intimate, loving and trusting relationship,” says Taylor. “And, Josh was the perfect person to create that with because he’s an incredibly open, spirited man, and a great actor. More than being a great actor, he’s a cerebral actor, and I really enjoyed that. He likes to get into things, and he likes things to make sense. He likes to futz with the story to make it better. He’s very invested in his work, and so am I. He was a really great comrade to have, and he was so necessary. It was just Josh and I, in Japan. It was a Japanese crew and a Japanese director, so we had to hang onto each other and take care of each other. And, obviously, Josh has a lot more experience at this than I do. He’s done many films, and TV, and I haven’t. I’m still very new to the game, and still cutting my teeth, and he was so supportive.”

Jackson agrees that the chemistry was very natural between he and Taylor, right from the start. “I could lie and say, ‘We really worked on it,’ but we just immediately got along. We had two weeks of rehearsal to work out little things for their daily routine. When you’re in love, and you’re in a shared space all the time, there are those little things that happen, that you don’t even really know are happening. It’s usually somebody else that observes them. So, we were conscious about putting in those little things. But, the hardest nad most important part for me, when you’re dealing with a relationship where it’s not about people who are meeting each other, but who are already together, there has to be that kind of thing where you don’t even notice when you’re being physical, because that’s the way couples are. Thankfully, that just happened really easily for us because we’re just naturally compatible people. You can totally tell in a movie when someone’s bullshitting you about it. The most honest, or dishonest, moments for me, in movies, are laughing and kissing. When someone’s not really laughing, it’s very obvious. And, that half a second before two lips touch, you can really tell whether someone is enjoying it or not.”   

Since completing Shutter, Jackson has begun work on his return to television -- the J.J. Abrams sci-fi Fox pilot, Fringe. “If this movie is in the paranormal, that show is at the outside of normal. It’s the science side of science fiction. It takes the physical world that we live in, and then goes just past that edge. Fringe says, ‘Okay, so what you know about this cup, you don’t actually know because, if you look at it from over here, it’s something entirely different.’ That will be the thrust of the show. The physical world that we live in, without the addition of any magic or anything supernatural, is far more than we all see it as being.”

Returning to television for what could be a long-term deal was something that Jackson admits took some convincing. “Working in television is as close to a real job that an actor will ever have, and life has been pretty good for the last five years. It took me convincing myself, and really making sure that I was ready to make the commitment. The crazy thing about television is that you’ve got to sign a contract for six years, so you psychologically have to prepare yourself for that amount of time. And then, most things don’t make it past the second season, so it might be all over tomorrow. But, I had to be really ready to go back.”

Taylor recently wrapped the film Bottle Shock, with Alan Rickman and Bill Pullman. “It’s about the birth of the Napa wine industry, and it was such a pleasure to shoot. It was divine to shoot in Napa Valley, drinking wine and listening to Alan Rickman’s stories. He’s just a sublime actor. He’s probably the best actor I’ve worked with. He’s extraordinary. Since then, I’ve just been reading scripts and trying to find the next thing that really makes sense for me. The not-so-interesting roles are really easy to get, when you’re young and in Hollywood, and the interesting roles are less easy to get. There are movies that I’m offered that might be fun, but they might not be challenging. And, I’m in no hurry. I’m happy to wait and make the right choices. It means too much to me to just blow it on a dumb, disgusting comedy. What I do is important to me, so it’s about finding the next director, and the next set of actors, that can challenge me, and that are better than me, which won’t be too hard. I’m looking for people that I can learn from.”