Jack Hutson interview

Jack Huston who plays Rosalie's fiance in Twilight Saga: Eclipse is gave and exclusive interview to iesb.net.  Enjoy the interview below.

Currently playing the mysterious Jamie on the new ABC television series Eastwick, that follows three witches (Rebecca Romijn, Lindsay Price and Jaime Ray Newman) and the seemingly sinister man (Paul Gross) who is encouraging them to use their new-found powers, British actorJack Huston also just returned from the set of The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, where he finished filming his role as Royce King.

As if that wasn't enough to make any actor envious, he also has The Garden of Eden, Boogie Woogie, Mr. Nice and Salomaybe?, written and directed by Al Pacino, all slated to be released in the future. He's even got his sights set on stepping behind the camera as a writer and director, and will be directing his first short in November.

In this exclusive interview, Jack Huston talked to IESB about all of these interesting and exciting future projects.

IESB: Was it just sort of a given that you'd get into acting because of your family, or is it something that you came to on your own?

Jack: I got into acting before I really knew about my family. I started acting when I was young, and did theater before I did films. It wasn't something that happened later because of my family. But, I guess I've always been influenced by my family and by movies. From an early age, I was probably shown things, and it was talked about more than maybe in other places.

IESB: Was there a moment when you realized that acting was what you were meant to do?

Jack: I knew it from the time I was about seven years old. I knew that that was my thing. I was doing plays from very young, and at seven I did my first lead. And then, I would be in touring theatre companies during my school holidays. I was always acting.

IESB: Did you find that being a Huston helped you at all, or did you have to prove yourself and your own talent more than another actor would?

Jack: Initially, it was very difficult because there's the naysayers who say, "Oh, it's just a name," so you have to work doubly hard to prove yourself and prove that you can do it. So, it was a difficult transition from England to America, coming from theatre and then coming out here, and then trying to get into movies and TV. But, once I got the first part, people were a little easier. It takes one person to really give someone a shot, and then people follow suit a bit easier. But, initially, it was incredibly difficult.

IESB: How did you get involved with Eastwick? Was it just through the regular auditioning process?

Jack: Actually, no. They called me because I went in for ABC a couple of years ago. I'd never really gone out for anything television before. I stayed clear of it because I knew the schedule. If you sign on, it can be for seven years, and you work every day, and I was liking the freedom because I write, I paint and I like to travel a lot. But, I got called up by ABC and David Nutter, who was the director, and they asked me to come in for a meeting to talk about it. And then, they quite quickly and kindly offered me the part, which was nice.

IESB: Jamie is a mysterious character and viewers don't really know what to make of him yet. How much were you told about him when you were cast, and how much have you just been learning as you go along?

Jack: I was told a bit. I was definitely told where he was meant to go and where he was going to be, and I liked what they told me. It sounded interesting and fun. It's a mysterious character where, every time you meet him, more seems to be revealed. Also, from what I knew in the pilot, he seemed like a very new character. He wasn't from the book or the film. It felt like there was something quite new and original about him, which I liked. All the characters have a new and original spin on them, but this one seemed particularly interesting.

IESB: What's it been like to work with Rebecca Romijn?

Jack: She's the nicest person. You hear that about people, but it's literally true. She's one of those girls you can go camping with. She doesn't complain, never has a bad word to say, is totally cool, has a laugh and is just the nicest person. And, her husband, Jerry O'Connell, is just like that as well. You can totally see why they're together because they're just the nicest people ever.

I was working with mainly her, in the beginning episodes, and she was so lovely to talk to. She'd done television, and I was a bit hesitant. The process of television and how it works, and how you discover things about the character, each week, was new to me, and that can sometimes be quite difficult. It's not like a movie or play, where you have a beginning, middle and end, and you know exactly who the character is, where he's going and where he'll end up. She would always kindly lend an ear and be very helpful and make me feel at ease, so that was good.

IESB: Are you signed on as a regular on the show?

Jack: I'm signed on for 13 episodes, at the moment. The show has been commissioned for 13, and I don't know what's going to happen after that. It was just revealed that I've come to town and I'm looking for my mother because I was an orphan. I don't know what happened to my mother, and I've just come to town because I traced my family roots back to Eastwick.

IESB: Now that you've spent some time on the show, is it something you'd like to continue to do?

Jack: Everyone has been lovely. It's been such a nice experience. I've had really, really, really nice days. It's been two or three days work, at the most, a week. At the moment, it's getting to be more and more, as the episodes continue, because it's getting to be bigger and bigger. But, it's been lovely. If the right stuff comes up, I'd do it. I wouldn't just do something to do it. If there was something fun with a good character, and they continue to write good stuff, or it's interesting, I would definitely consider it.

IESB: How did you get involved with The Twilight Saga: Eclipse? What is it like to become a part of that whole phenomenon?

Jack: I literally just got back last Saturday, from filming my last little bits on it. I went in for David Slade, who's the director, for another part that was written as a 19-year-old freshman who's blonde-haired and blue-eyed, which I knew I wasn't. That couldn't be less like me. But, I went in and took a very different spin on how the character was written, and went a little nuts in the room, and David and I really got along, so he said, "I wanna get you in this movie somewhere." So, he called me up a couple weeks later and said, "There's this other part. Would you like to do it?," and he offered me that.

IESB: So, who are you playing in the film and how does he fit into the story?

Jack: I play this guy called Royce King, who is the fiancé of Rosalie (Nikki Reed), before Rosalie was a vampire. It's her backstory. It's in 1933, during the Great Depression, and he's a wealthy son of a banker. He's a blue blood who takes a shine to her, but she's not as nice as she seems and he has his comeuppance.

IESB: When you play darker characters, do you like to keep the mood light on set, in between takes, to off-set that, or do you prefer to stay in character?

Jack: It depends on what the scene is, actually. If it's a really dark scene, then one tends to go to a bit of a darker place. But, even if you're playing a dark person, I don't think you can be dark, all the time. It depends on where you are. If you're in the middle of doing a scene and you're in between takes, sometimes you need to keep a bit of a distance, just so that your head space is fresh and not diluted by anything else. Normally, in between scenes, I'm fine.

IESB: When you work on something like that and you see how crazy it's become for the cast, does that make you hope you never have to deal with that, or is it just part of the job that you have to deal with?

Jack: There's two sides to that. When these kids first signed on, they probably didn't expect that, at all. They were doing what they thought was a little movie, and it turned into this huge franchise. The buzz behind it made it one of the biggest franchises ever. I think they were all very surprised by it, but they can all now go off and do any movie they ever wanted, and demand massive paychecks.

The flipside is that, for now, it must be very difficult walking down the street with everyone looking at you and paparazzi follow you. That's not easy for anyone to deal with. It can't be easy, and I wouldn't expect it to be easy, but I guess that's sometimes the price of fame. With this, no one expected it and it just all came so quickly and suddenly that it must be quite a shock, so I guess I'm sympathetic.

I don't think I would personally love the idea of being followed, everywhere I go. I don't want that type of fame. That's not something I'm looking for. I just want to do some fun, cool work and get really good roles.

IESB: Would you like to work with your family at all?

Jack: If the right thing came along, yeah. Danny and I have worked together before. We've never been in a scene together, but we were both in a film, called Boogie Woogie, that hasn't come out yet. I would absolutely like to do that, but I'd probably want to be the one that was either writing it or directing it, to be honest. It has to be the right thing.

IESB: So, you definitely have the desire to get behind the camera as well?

Jack: Oh, absolutely. I'm really looking forward to that. It's very early. I'm directing a short, which will be part of a series of shorts, in November. Six or eight of us are all doing shorts to put together into a movie, and that will be my first time doing it. But, I've been writing for awhile and I've got a couple projects that I'm working on, at the moment.

IESB: Are you more of a character-driven or story-driven writer?

Jack: It normally stems from the story, but I like to focus, very much, on the characters. I don't think a story can exist without very, very well-rounded characters.

IESB: Now that you've had all these different experiences with film, television and theatre, is there anything specific that you've learned that you can really carry over into your future work behind the camera?

Jack: To listen is the most important thing. Listening when you're in a scene, listening to what the other characters are saying, listening to other people's ideas and being very aware. Initially, you go into it and you're a bit caught up in your own head, but the more you listen, the more you take in and absorb because there are people that have been doing this for a lot longer and who have many, many brilliant ideas, all around it. So, it's about listening and learning.

IESB: Do you have any other films that you've done recently, that your fans can look out for?

Jack: Mr. Nice is a film that I did for Bernard Rose. That was fun. It's about international drug smuggler, Howard Marks, who Rhys Ifans plays, with Chloe Sevigny and David Thewlis. It's a really cool cast of people. And, I did Salomaybe?, which we're ever-waiting for Al Pacino to finish. That's a long process because it's 100 hours of film of documentary-style scenes. That's about Salome and Oscar Wilde. I did The Garden of Eden about a year and a half ago, and we're hoping that's going to get distribution soon. That's based on the book by Ernest Hemingway, and is with Mena Suvari, Richard E. Grant and Caterina Murino, and directed by John Irvin.

IESB: Is there a particular type of role or specific genre that you haven't gotten to do yet, that you're hoping to be able to do in the future?

Jack: I'm very into fantasy stuff. I'd love to do something with Tim Burton. I'm very interested in that sort of thing, where it's very character-y and you're not yourself at all. I like the Terry Gilliam and Tim Burton style of filmmaking a lot. I hope to, one day, do something like that. But, I'm pretty open to everything.

Source iesb.net

xoxo

Carrie