Over six seasons, Joshua Jackson effortlessly portrayed wisecracking slacker Pacey Witter on “Dawson’s Creek,” a role that put him on the map. The truth is, the charismatic Canadian actor couldn’t be more driven. At an early age, he began to soar in The Mighty Ducks and, ever since, Jackson has successfully navigated between film, television and stage. The triple threat is currently starring as Peter Bishop in the cult-favorite series, “Fringe,” and was busy in South Africa filming the political thriller Inescapable at the time of this interview.
“This is a first for me,” Jackson noted about doing a long-distance phoner from this part of the globe.
ComingSoon.net spoke exclusively to Jackson about Inescapable, past and future projects and of course, Fringe.
ComingSoon.net: You’re incredibly busy with “Fringe” these days, so what drew you to this independent film, “Inescapable,” instead of using your week off to relax?
Joshua Jackson: Well, the truth is, they don’t exactly go hand-in-hand. If it weren’t for this project, I wouldn’t have a week off. They reworked my schedule on “Fringe” to put all my scenes at the beginning of one episode, give me 10 days off and then put all my scenes at the end of the following episode. It created a window which otherwise wouldn’t have existed. It’s a great role and a great script and I thought it was a good group of people. It had all the things you were looking for in a film.
CS: There aren’t very many details about “Inescapable” out there. What’s the premise of the movie and where does your character fit in?
Jackson: The overall premise of the movie is a father trying to rescue his daughter, Muna. But I think the movie is really more about a man coming to grips with his own past and own story and the consequences or choices we make in our lives that lie dormant for many, many years, but never entirely go away. For myself, I play a Canadian man who works for the Consulate General in Damascus and gets himself involved in this world that quickly spirals out of control.
CS: In what ways has filming in South Africa given the movie a distinct look or vibe?
Jackson: Where we’re shooting is all in Johannesburg, and mostly in downtown Johannesburg. This is a country that obviously has had a very difficult history in the last 30 to 40 years. Even post-Apartheid, it seems Johannesburg was not initially the beneficiary of this post-Apartheid rush of development and money. It’s only come around since the World Cup was here in 2010 that the downtown of Johannesburg has really started to be re-examined as a place for people to live and work. It has that feel of sort of a failed city, which was very much the look they were trying to go for in recreating Damascus circa 2010.
CS: As an actor, what’s challenging about a tight production schedule like this?
Jackson: When you’re making a movie that quickly and on a budget, you need a lot of things to go right in order to get the film in the can. It seems like, particularly for [director] Ruba Nadda and [actor] Alexander Siddig, who have worked together before, there’s a short hand that really helps a lot of things. For myself, it really created an easy environment to step into. It’s a very relaxed set, everyone is here for the right reasons, so it’s been much more peaceful than my day job
