While Rob Pattinson and Taylor Lautner are wrapped up in the Twi-limelight, their co-star Jackson Rathbone is zooming along under the radar, carefully crafting his career as an actor, producer and
musician. We sat down with the 25-year-old rising star to talk about his
roles in not one but two of this summer’s biggest movies. First up, he
reprises his role as Jasper Hale in The Twilight Saga: Eclipse
and then stars in M. Night Shyamalan’s fantasy adventure, The Last
Airbender.
SNMag: Tell us about your role in The Last Airbender…
Jackson Rathbone: I play a young warrior named Sokka
who, along with his sister, discovers a mysterious boy trapped in the
ice; they free him and end up on a quest to save the world. It’s a very
fantastical story that originated out of the Nickelodeon cartoon and
now it’s a live action epic fantasy.
SNMag: Did you have to do any training or physical prep for the role?
JR: There was a good two months of kung fu training in
LA and then continued training while we were filming. But it was really
fun, I loved it. That’s one of the really cool things about being an
actor: you get paid to learn kung fu!
SNMag: What kind of stunts did you have to do?
JR: Mostly it was hand to hand combat. My character
doesn’t have any special abilities…so I’d do a lot of scenes where I
fight off guys with swords and spears and all I had to fight with was
the boomerang. It’s a little bit nerve-wracking, even when it’s a
plastic sword coming at you.
SNMag: How was your experience working with M. Night Shyamalan?
JR: It was amazing. The Sixth Sense is one of
my favorite thrillers and I love Night’s other work. So it felt like
great as an actor to be working with somebody I’ve respected and admired
for years.
SNMag: What was your initial reaction when you were cast in Twilight?
JR: It’s a great book series and Jasper has such a lush
backstory so I was just really excited. But then I started getting
calls from my cousins and they were even more excited than me so that
kind of upped the an
SNMag: Did you realize then it would kick-start your career?
JR: I don’t think it really hit me until I walked the
red carpet at the premiere of Twilight. That’s when it was
first like, “Oh wow, this is going to be a new experience for me.”
SNMag: What’s one of the most memorable fan encounters you’ve had?
JR: We were filming up in Vancouver for New Moon
and I was on my way to get Starbucks. A bunch of fans surrounded me and
so I was taking pictures and signing autographs and this woman comes
up to me with a 2-year-old child and, without saying a word, hands me
her kid and steps back to take a picture. It was just kind of awkward
because the kid’s looking at me like, “Who are you?” and I’m looking at
the kid like, “I’m sorry, man, I have no idea what’s going on either.”
So she snapped a photo, took her kid back and walked away. It’s kind of
odd to have a stranger shove a child in your arms.
SNMag: Do we get to see a new side of Jasper in Eclipse?
JR: Yes, we get to see Jasper back when he was a human which was back in the Civil War. So I got to ride a horse again – I
grew up riding so it was fun to get back to that.
SNMag: Were you at all into vampire movies before you were cast in Twilight?
JR: I’ve definitely been a fan of the vampire genre for
a long time. Interview with the Vampire is an incredible
film. I’ve always loved the Dracula films. And Nosferatu is a
beautiful, well-crafted film from the 20s that still holds up today, in
my opinion.
SNMag: What’s your relationship like with the rest of the cast? How do you spend your time on set?
JR: It’s fun because we play a family on screen and so
getting to come back and do these sequels is like a family reunion. A
lot of us are musicians as well as actors so we’d all get together in
the rooms and we’d have jam sessions and make up songs. I’d play guitar
and harmonica, Rob would play guitar and sing or Kristen would play
guitar.
SNMag: Who are some of your favorite actors?
JR: I’m just finishing Johnny Depp’s catalogue. I love his style of acting, it’s very organic and down to earth and then it’s
also very fantastical at the same time. Clint Eastwood’s the man. And
Jack Nicholson, I love his style.
SNMag: Tell us more about your band 100 Monkeys…
JR: We just did 61 shows out of a 100 city tour so we’re taking a small break. But it’s something that we love to do. I’ve
been playing music as long as I’ve been acting and I feel so privileged
to be able to have both those careers taking off at the same time. One
of the things I’m trying to get into is integrating film and music –
one of the band members and I produced a film that we both acted in
called Girlfriend and 100 Monkeys composed the score for the
film.
SNMag: We have to ask: Do you have a girlfriend?
JR: No, no, I am single. I got a lot of stuff going on so it’s hard to find time to even go on a date these days. But that
doesn’t mean I’m not looking. So every once in a while I’ll get a day
off and try to go on a date if I can…find a nice girl at a coffee shop
or something.
SNMag: What can you tell us about your tattoos?
JR: I’ve got six tattoos total. I am planning on getting a couple more maybe within the next month or so. I think my next
tattoo is going to be a line out of TS Eliot’s The Love Song of J.
Alfred Prufrock. It’s one of my favorite poems ever.
SNMag: What other movies or projects do you have coming up?
JR: Really excited about getting Girlfriend
into the festival circuit and putting out my next couple of projects
with my production company, Patchmo Entertainment. I’m really excited to
get on the other side of the camera, producing and hopefully directing
within the next year or two. It’s just a truly exciting time in my
life and I don’t take it for granted. I’d rather be working than
sleeping!
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