New Q&A With Jackson

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 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.”

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