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Showing posts with label the last airbender. Show all posts
Showing posts with label the last airbender. Show all posts
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.
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 ante – playing a character that my family knows and are excited about seeing me portray on the big screen.
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.
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 ante – playing a character that my family knows and are excited about seeing me portray on the big screen.
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!
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!
Source via EclipseMovie
“The Last Airbender,” based off the popular Nickelodeon TV series, is directed by M. Night Shyamalan.“The Last Airbender,” based off the popular Nickelodeon TV series, is directed by M. Night Shyamalan.
“The Last Airbender,” based on the popular Nickelodeon cartoon series, is one of the most highly anticipated films to be released this summer. This live-action film revolves around a world where individuals can bend natural elements such as earth, wind, air and fire to their whim. However, chaos ensues as the Fire Nation attempts to gain worldwide control. It is up to one individual known as the Avatar, who possesses the rare ability to control all the elements, to restore balance among the nations. The Daily Aztec was recently able to interview Jackson Rathbone, who plays Sokka in the film, about his experiences.
The Daily Aztec: What drew you to work on this film, and how did you prepare for the role?
Jackson Rathbone: There was two months or so of kung fu training in Los Angeles that I was doing, which was a blast. I’d go for about three hours a day and kind of go through the rundown of kung fu and the various styles of it. And then we had two weeks of rehearsals in Philadelphia where we ran through the scenes and kind of had the big read-through and everything. And it was just — it was very natural because (director) M. Night (Shyamalan) is a very natural director and it was really amazing to get to work with him.
DA: What sort of things did you do in your off time while shooting this movie?
JR: Well I never really like to have off time. Whenever I was shooting “The Last Airbender,” I was also performing with the band I’m in, 100 Monkeys, as well as starting to produce a film that I produced with fellow band mate Jerad Anderson, and we both acted in “Girlfriend.” So I was kind of getting the pre-production process started on that from my trailer from my phone, as well as working on new songs with the band whenever I would come home at night. So I don’t really tend to have much off time.
DA: Once you were cast in this movie, did you go back and watch the original show that it’s based off of?
JR: Yes, I was always (aware of the) original show. I think I actually watched more of the original show during the auditioning process than I did during the actual run of the film.
I wanted to kind of step away from it a little bit and kind of make it as natural and as realistic as possible because that’s one of the difficulties in bringing an animated TV show to life in a two-hour movie. You’re condensing 16 hours or so of animated television to be put into a two-hour film. And especially with all the kind of extreme martial arts and the extreme element bending and all that, it’s a lot more serious, so I tried to stay away from watching the show. But I’ve always been a fan of the show and all my friends were excited as all hell when they heard I was going to be playing the character.
DA: Shyamalan is known for more suspenseful films. Do you feel this was more successful than and different from “The Sixth Sense” and other movies he’s done before?
JR: Well, I think M. Night made his name with “Sixth Sense.” However he had two films under his belt before that. Those weren’t necessarily suspense thriller films. It was more about kind of searching for meaning, and so he’s done a lot of different kinds of films. I mean you just look at “The Happening.” It was his first R-rated film, and now he’s doing a family film. I think he’s an artist trying to stretch his wings if you will and trying to kind of get out there. And he’s a family man, so you know he was bringing his kids to set like every Friday after school and whatnot, and that was just really cool to see. I think he’s definitely making a film that his kids can see which is really pretty awesome.
DA: Noah Ringer, who plays Aang in the film, is a relatively new actor and he’s pretty young. What was it like acting with him?
JR: Well, it’s an amazing experience to be acting with child actors. It’s interesting. They have a certain sense to them that is just completely natural. And as an actor, it’s your job to wear what they tell you to wear, say what they tell you to say and stand where they tell you to stand, but at the end of the day you can’t lie, and kids have a real hard time lying. If a kid knocks a baseball through a window, you ask him if he did it, you know when he lies about it; it’s pretty transparent. So it’s pretty amazing to be able to work with a younger actor who doesn’t really have that capability that we all get jaded with when we grow up to lie. So it’s very natural, and you know it kind of brought me to a certain place naturally as well within all the scenes that we worked on together. And it was just — it was amazing just to watch him grow as an actor and as a performer over the course of the film.
DA: The film is based on the Nickelodeon cartoon series so it skews to younger audiences. Why should college students spend their money to see this film?
JR: Well, it’s one of those things. A lot of my college friends were watching “The Last Airbender” whenever it was on Nickelodeon, and I mean, a lot of my college friends also liked it.
And it was one of their favorite shows when they were little because it was on a younger adult or children’s programming television station, but at the end of the day it’s a story and subject matter that appeals to everyone. It’s about being a hero and discovering yourself and it’s almost like a coming-of-age story set in this amped-up action world. And it’s one of those things ... like I’ve always loved kung fu movies and I’ve always loved action films, and the idea of manipulating the elements. And that’s just something that’s kind of been there throughout all time, the mankind dependency on the elements and the ability to kind of work with them or work against them and what that means.
DA: Assuming this movie does well, do you think there’s going to be a sequel?
JR: Oh, I definitely hope so, and I think that’s the plan. It’s waiting for the box office basically. As an actor, I’m not too privy to all that, but at the end of the day, from a speculative standpoint, I think hopefully this movie will do extremely well and people will want to see the next two books put up into a film format. And I’m really excited and ready for it.
thedailyaztec
via jacksonrathbonesource
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