BOY WONDER At 16, Jonathan Jackson Is Already A Seasoned Superstar!
Daytime TV: The Best of General Hospital December 1998 Issue By: Ann Marie Allocca
Although he's 16 years old, Jonathan Jackson (Lucky) has two Daytime Emmy Awards on his mantle-a feat not unnoticed by his peers. Since joining GH as Luke and Laura's son Lucky in 1993, he's proven his talents in movies, TV and music.
Last May you picked up your second Emmy. How did that differ from winning your first in 1995? Jonathan: Well, it was a few years more experience. I just felt like I have grown a lot-not just heightwise-but as an actor I felt like I've learned a lot more and I knew more about it. I was just a little more proud of the work. I was still proud of the other one, but a lot of it then was more instinct. I didn't know as much about acting as I do now, so that part of it was pretty neat.
This summer your dad ran for Congressman in Washington State and you helped his campaign. What did you do? Jonathan: We went for wuite a few weekends doing parades and meeting people. We went on a bus tour with quite a few people and went door knocking and made alot of speeches. It was pretty ehausting but fun.
Did you make any speeches in suport of your dad? Jonathan: Yeah, I made a speech at a town he couldn't make it to, that day. That was my first political speech. It was nerve-wracking. If I were acting it would be easy, but this was really different.
Turned 16 recently? Jonathan: Yes, I got my license and got a '97 Eclipse. I'm a safe driver, I don't like to get too wild. It's a stick shift, so that's fun.
Your brother Richard acts. He's doing an episode of Ally McBeal. Jonathan: Yeah. It should be the first show of the season. It's a great show. And David Kelly is married to Michelle Pfeiffer who I just did Deep End of the Ocean with, so that was an odd connection.
Ever help each other with scenes? Jonathan: Definitely. We run through our stuff together quite a bit. If he has an audition or I have some stuff on GH that I want another opinion on. We're both very supportive and there for each other. It's really cool.
Tell us about the movie Deep End of the Ocean with Michelle Pfeiffer. Jonathan: Treat Williams is also in it, he plays my dad. He's great. Whoopi Goldberg also. It was a novel by Jacqelyn Mitchard, it was Oprah's first book of the month club. It's about a little kid who gets lost when he's about three at his mom's high school reunion. I play the big brother. My character is seven when his brother gets lost. It's basically about how the family deals with losing the kid. Then about 10 or 12 years later he comes back. My character, Vincent, hasn't had a stable mom because she kind of flipped out after losing her kid. He's fairly guilt-ridden about it deep down. He's kin of distant from people a lot. He blames himself for letting his brother disapera. Him and his mom blame themselves. It's a family drama and it's going to be touch for a lot of parents to watch I'm sure.
What was it like working with Michelle and Treat? It was awesome. She was just fantastic and incredibly nice. It was a huge privilege. Treat was really cool, he kept it light on the set. With such a heavy story and plot he kept us laughing.
Is there a release date? Jonathan: They tell me September 25th
Tony Geary (Luke) mentioned that you both don't run lines preferring to be spontaneous. Was that ever hard for you to learn that way of acting? Jonathan: We always memorized our lines, we just didn't memorize them to the point where we weren't spontaneous. One of the things he always did was change lines. I would have to respond to that in the moment and that was really good practice. There's something with Tony and I, a real chemestry and connection that happened.
The scene where Luke told Lucky about the rape was incredible. Jonathan: Those scenes were so heavy and in the back of our heads for months. For me in a lot of ways I was dreading it. I am happy in real life and I didn't want to go there. Tony was phenomenal. I just got to sit there and watch hime to a five page monologue. I felt like I was in the Actors Studio.
You and Rebecca Herbst (Elizabeth) look great together on screen. What is your off-screen relationship like? Jonathan: I remeber since the screen test I automatically thought she would do terrific. She's definitely lived up to my expectations. I just love working with her. She's a great actress. Constantly working on the scenes. Once in a while we run lines. The way we work together changes depending on the scenes. The heavy scenes with the rape, that was a day that we didn't run lines. It had been weighting on her mind for a month or two. She was kind of scared in a good way, anticipating that. She was getting the bruises on with make-up and we just did it. The look she had on her face was enough to get me there.
Anything new on the music front? Jonathan: We're planning on doing another album in December. We're trying to figure out places to play around here. With our busy schedules, it's hard to get together and rehearse.DTV
