Seeker: The Dark Is Rising, The : Jonathan Jackson Interview


Jonathan Jackson (The Walker)

Born 11 May 1982 in Orlando, Florida, Jackson was raised in Washington.
He started pursuing acting at the age of nine when he and his family visited L.A. for a vacation. His brother, Richard Lee Jackson, started acting first and he followed. Jonathan got a few commercials under his belt before he was chosen, from several hundred young hopefuls, for the sought-after role of Lucky Spencer on the Emmy Award winning soap, "General Hospital" (1963). Jackson won three Daytime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Younger Actor for his role as Lucky in 1995, 1998, and 1999. Jonathan left "General Hospital" to focus on his movie career. He has starred in movies Camp Nowhere, Trapped in a Purple Haze, The Deep End of the Ocean, Tuck Everlasting, Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights, Insomnia, and Stephen King's Riding the Bullet.

Question: How long have you been in Romania?

Jonathan:
a long while, it’s interesting, I have never been this far east in Europe. There is a real difference between Bucharest the city and Romania outside. It’s been a little bit of a culture shock.

Question: How far a-field has the film taken you?

Jonathan:
We drove five hours, I don’t know in which direction, to a town called Sighisoara, supposedly the birth place of Dracula. It’s a pretty cool town;it was in Transylvania.

Question: Who do you play in the film and how might it differ from the original book?

Jonathan:
The main difference with The Walker in the movie, is where he comes down in terms of his choices and how evil he becomes and how evil he isn’t. He kind of walks an interesting line in the movie, which is a little different to the book. He’s a very interesting character, but he’s kind of tricky to talk about because I don’t know how much I can give away. In vague terms, he’s a seedy, mysterious character. There’s a back plot that he has, that gets revealed throughout the movie, but he is a pivotal character to the story.
It’s a tricky one…

Question: Are you a fan of this kind of fantasy material?

Jonathan:
Oh yeah, but I hadn’t read the books, I’d read The Lord Of The Rings, those kind of things, those genres, I loved them. The themes, and particularly with this movie, of light and dark, those classic things. It’s a fun epic thing to be a part of. The Walker in a sense falls smack, bang in the middle of that, you really don’t know who this guy is and what he is doing there.

Question: How did you end up getting the role?

Jonathan:
I had met with David a few years prior and he had remembered me from that, and Mark Platt as well. It was a little bit more unique in that we met in LA and this was supposed to be a European role, so I had to do a Northern Irish accent. Something I had done on a film called On the Edge produced by Jim Sheridan. That helped in terms of having done that. I was excited to be doing it.

Question: What makes The Dark Is Rising different from other fantasy movies?

Jonathan:
That’s a good question. I have never seen Harry Potter, but I know about it, but only in a round about way. In terms of Lord Of The Rings, this is less creature mythology. It is more history and realism. As I was reading the book what interested me is that it lends itself to cinema in a great way, it’s so full of big ideas. The traveling through time and the history and all that. It creates this giant scope that they are living in. The themes are so big.

Question: How is Alex getting on with leading the movie?

Jonathan:
He’s doing so well, he’s virtually got the entire film on his shoulders. The Walker is basically stalking Will, so I get some pivotal scenes with him. He’s been doing a great job, not just as an actor as a person, he is a very optimistic person. So they made the right decision in casting him. The amount of work he is able to do, he isn’t burning out.

Question: How extreme do things get for you?

Jonathan:
I was really looking forward to it, sword-fighting and horse riding. But he’s called The Walker, there are no horses, he is just walking. There is a mystical supernatural quality to The Walker, David’s been doing some really great work with the camera. It’s been a real partnership with David, involving a lot of me asking what are you doing, so I can understand where he wants to place the camera. A lot of close-ups, special effect moments.

Question: What are your impressions of David?

Jonathan:
He’s a very creative, innovative guy, he’s got a different style than a lot of people I’ve worked with. I don’t know if you’ve seen any of his films but they are so full of energy. He is just so calm, there must be a creative storm under the
calmness, this creative eye. It’s been great working with him, he’s very specific about what he wants, but he is also open to things.


Dark Is Rising is released in cinemas nationwide on October 19th.