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Q & A with Josh Jackson

by Veronica Mixon
RoughCut.com, March 2000

Joshua Jackson is currently best known as Pacey Witter, the affable, sex-driven best friend to the naïve hero on the hit TV series, "Dawson's Creek." The former child actor is still accosted by fans of the Mighty Ducks trilogy and his other films, which include Andre the Seal, Magic in the Water and Crooked Hearts.

But Jackson, who stands over six feet tall and has a wild self of humor, has grown into a handsome, charming leading man. In his new film, The Skulls, Jackson plays an Ivy League pledge to a powerful secret society who discovers that the personal price he has to pay may be more than he intended. He is one of a new legion of young, talented actors pursuing big screen stardom. But, this Canadian born actor doesn't take himself or the business too serious.

Veronica Mixon:: Have you auditioned for Star Wars?

Joshua Jackson: No. Well, I guess me and every other white male actor between the age 14 and 30 got to meet with the casting director. I don't think there will be an auditioning process. I think he'll wake up and decide "Yeah, that's the guy." So Mr. Lucas hasn't contacted me--though I wouldn't turn the job down, believe me.

VM: What was your high school years like?

JJ: I went to a couple of high schools and took my GED. And, my college years have been on "Dawson's Creek."

VM: Did anyone ever try to pull you into a secret society?

JJ: I've had the experience by proxy. Most of my friends went on to college. I know what the fraternity experience is like, but it bares no relation to the secret society. In a fraternity, you get "rushed" and you "pledge," go through hazing ritual. With these guys, they pick you from day one. They know who you are, where you're coming from, and they wait until your senior year. You get rushed for your entire senior year. The rituals are intense, arcane and some of them are perverse. The stuff we put in the movie is tame by comparison.

VM: We heard they put two guys totally naked in a coffin.

JJ: Yeah, two guys totally naked in a coffin shot with sodium penathol and told to discuss their deepest darkest secrets. And that's how they cleanse themselves. The rebirth ritual is the guy laying in the coffin masturbating.

VM: Can you imagine George Bush Jr. lying naked in a coffin?

JJ: If that man gets elected President, I'll never ever take him seriously. "Come on, you were wanking off in a coffin."

VM: How about President Clinton?

JJ: You could see Clinton. "Of course, I was wanking off in a coffin." But George will say "There may not have been any actually masturbation. We'll have to check."

VM: Your character makes a difficult decision at an early age. Could you?

JJ: The first choice is the wrong choice and, once he's in, he realizes that he can't sacrifice his own will for the will of the organization. Then he makes the damaging choice to remove himself. Would I have the strength of choice to go out on a limb? Sometimes I've stood up and said what I've thought and there have been other times where it's simpler to just turn the other cheek. You don't feel good about yourself. What it is, you just don't stand up.

VM: You seem very, very comfortable with yourself.

JJ: I grew up in a single parent family so there is an inherit amount of freedom with that. By putting food on the table, she removed herself from my sphere of influence. I think I was given more responsibility--I think responsibility and freedom goes hand and hand--and my mother comes from a long line of non-conformists. My grandparents were opera singers in Ireland. My mother had many jobs--she was a model, a fashion photographer, a production manager and she was George C. Scott's assistant. She was very specific about the things she wanted to teach us. I could have told her that I wanted to do anything and she would have said, "OK. Go do it well."

VM: Do you have an affinity to the water? I read a couple of months ago that you rescued someone in the water.

JJ: [Laughs] Yeah, my friend and I helped this woman who had an asthma attack. She picked a foolish place to go swimming and got herself into a bit of a situation. But, all we did was act as flesh and blood floatation devises until the Coast Guard picked her up. But, I'm definitely a water baby. I grew up on the West Coast pretty much my whole life, with the mountains and water never more than fifteen minutes away. So, I definitely have an affinity. I've been waiting six months to be able to tell someone: Luke McNamara was not the original name of this character. They needed a last name to clear it for rights. Originally, it was yachting instead of sculling so when they asked me about a name, being the Irish guy that I am, so I asked them to use McNamara, which means 'son of the sea' in Gaelic. Yes, I do have an affinity.

VM: "Dawson's Creek" obviously changed your life. Did you have any idea it would, when you started this job?

JJ: Not a clue. I was so clueless that I had erased it from my memory when they called me and told me it had been picked up. The television pilot experience was foreign to me. I'd never experienced it and I didn't know what the process was. My experience with acting was: you do the work, you cash the checks and everybody goes home. If you are expecting something like "Dawson's Creek" to happen to you, then you're going to be sorely disappointed. It was just a freak, a phenomenon. An anomaly, really. I was just happy to be employed and have my job be acting.

VM: Will there be more kissing with Katie Holmes?

JJ: There can never possibly be enough kissing with Katie Holmes. They can't decide right now. They're either going to use me to bounce her back to Dawson or they're going to let me stick with her.

VM: They're still undecided?

JJ: That becomes his big issue. Personally, I don't want to be the "bounce back guy." Maybe I'm taking my job a little too seriously but no guy likes to be the guy that loses the girl. Dammit!

VM: Are you supportive of each other's projects?

JJ: Yeah. We've supportive to the point--well, nobody's truly supportive of anybody else. I've decided that human beings are callous, cruel human beings. We force you to go to your movie--with us and a flock of thirty people--and then we heckle you. My heckling is coming up. I shouldn't be laughing. I deserve some serious return fire.

VM: You played a gay character in Cruel Intentions. Did that trouble you at all?

JJ: Two things. That character's sexuality is really inconsequential. He's really just amoral. It's really not about being gay. It's more about being vindictive. But, part of the reason for doing that role was because it was troubling. It was something that as soon as they offered it [I said,] "I don't know, man. I'm a little freaked out by the whole idea. I don't want to do this. If my mother sees me gay "Oh, God." Part of the fun of it was having that fear and [asking myself,] "Do I put this out there? I don't know if I should. What if I suck?" No pun intended. I was just nervous to do it. And, "What if he [the director] wants me to do it as this flaming queen? I don't think [the part] needs that and I don't think it adds anything to the role." I just wanted to challenge myself. What I really wanted to do was to see if I was a personality or an actor.

VM: It seems like you work all the time. Are you afraid to stop and take a vacation?

JJ: There are some jobs out there that I really want to do but I'm not at the place yet. I'm not at the Mel Gibson phase, where I can say what I want to do. I'm in the process of trying to get the jobs I want to get and if I can't get them, then I'll just take a vacation. I could probably use that. That's like career planning stuff. My career plan is to enjoy myself and challenge myself as much as possible because you can't really count on anything. You can hedge your bets, certainly. But, if the career goals happen, they take second place.

VM: Do you have time for a personal life?

JJ: It goes in fits and spurts. There are times, when it's 9 to 5 "Dawson's Creek." Then, there are times, like the last two months, where it is unbelievably busy.

VM: Is it hard to keep a steady girlfriend?

JJ: Yes, it's hard to keep a steady girlfriend.