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Joel Jackson’s star on the rise

With Deadline Gallipoli and a Peter Allen miniseries, is it any wonder Sam Worthington & Hugh Dancy have been singing his praises?

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With his compelling performance in Deadline Gallipoli, NIDA graduate Joel Jackson found doors had already opened in the US despite no footage being available to agents.

Whilst seeking international representation, Jackson discovered producer Sam Worthington and star Hugh Dancy had already been singing his praises.

“I was amazed at how much had gone on behind the scenes before I got to America,” he tells TV Tonight.

“Sam was saying a lot of things to a lot of people saying ‘You’ve got to meet this guy.’ I hadn’t expected that. I hadn’t told him I was going to America and he told the guys at ROAR who looks after the Hemsworth brothers ‘You’ve got to meet with this guy.’

“Hugh Dancy did the same with his manager at UTA and you walk in and they say ‘You must be something because he told me to check you out.’

“I was blown away by that.”

They were introductions that paid off: Jackson now has US representation.

Playing the pivotal role of Australian journalist Charles Bean embedded in the Gallipoli campaign, Jackson has his first television role. He performs in a cast including Charles Dance, Rachel Griffiths, Brown, Dan Wylie, Ewan Leslie and Anna Torv. With such formidable talent, it was very much a case of an actor prepares.

“Watching footage of Hugh I knew he was very intellectual, very subtle, very good at holding the emotion back but then it’s a huge release. Sam is a very passionate guy who wears it close to his sleeve,” he suggests.

“Bean wrote that he appreciated Ellis Ashmead-Bartlett’s (Dancy) style but he has a lot to learn about telling the truth. We really wanted to make that a big conflict point, but also make it seem like there was a friendship building.

“Bean was almost like a method actor putting himself in the men’s positions, but Ellis chose to sit back and watch it all like an opera.”

Jackson also lost 14 kilos for the role, in order to realise the decimation that impacted Bean and the soldiers during months of the extended campaign in Turkey.

“I wanted to get it right. The script said he was ‘rake thin’ in the last two episodes,” he continues.

“With the woollen suits and jackets you can add weight. So I worked really closely with the costume designer about making the jackets and pants in the first episode really well-fitted.

“In the later parts I asked to add a bit more fabric.

“But I did take it upon myself to lose the weight. I knew it would pay off on the screen and it does.”

Jackson is a stickler for accuracy. During his NIDA years he immersed himself in theatre, as much for its craft as its artistry.

“I fell in love with acting, art history, reading Marcus Aurelias, Aristotle, the poets, the basis of storytelling, Greek heroes, Freud, Jung and symbolism,” he recalls.

“I read The Empty Stage and technical books (on theatre). People said ‘You don’t need to read that’ but to me it was like knowing the rules of a football game or the chords on a guitar. You have to know the rules so you can bend them.”

He cites Sean Penn, Michael Fassbender and Daniel Day Lewis amongst his idols.

“They delve into what it means to sere the story, not you as actor.”

Deadline Gallipoli was also the first time close family members had ever seen him act, having grown up in Karrattha.

“I wasn’t in a high school show and I lived a long way from my nanna and pop. They’d seen me play music but they’ve never seen me play football or soccer either,” he says.

“My cousins have known me all of my life, almost like brothers. All of a sudden they are sitting next to you in a movie theatre saying, ‘You’re playing someone else?’ It was special.”

Prior to embarking on an acting career, Jackson played guitar in local pubs, supporting visiting artists such as Ian Moss, Jon Stevens, Ross Wilson and Hoodoo Gurus.

“We’d travel a lot down to Perth by car to play sport. All we had was music or conversation in the car. So you’d listen to whole albums of Paul Kelly or Creedence Clearwater Revival. That’s where my thirst for a story came through.”

Following a term as an exchange student in Brazil and a year in landscaping, his mother suggested an audition for NIDA and WAAPA (he was accepted by both). The musical skills have served him well for the title role in Seven’s upcoming Peter Allen: Not the Boy Next Door.

“People ask me ‘What’s next’ but I’m just excited to see what the public think of this,” he says.

“It took me a long time to watch Deadline Gallipoli because it was so emotional watching the (final) cut. The way it was condensed into two parts was great. I think the way they’re doing it on April 19 and 20 is really clever.”

Is he worried that viewers are not interested enough in the Gallipoli story? Do they feel they know it all already?

“I watched all the Channel Nine series, not just because I’m in another Gallipoli story but because ANZAC Day means a lot to me. And I think it does to a lot of other people, too.

“Word is getting around that this is a unique and untold story with a different perspective, well-known actors nationally and internationally.

“Hopefully that will bring a lot of people in different markets and they will be pleasantly surprised.

“It’s not behind the lines, it’s between the lines of what was written in history. It’s really special.”

Deadline Gallipoli airs 8:30pm Sunday April 19 and Monday April 20 on Showcase.

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