Joshua Jackson has been on a radar since we fist saw him on The Mighty Ducks and of course, when Dawson’s Creek came out, we knew he would be an actor that we would want to see in various series, films, etc. Whether we see him in The Affair, the reeboot of Fatal Attraction, and Karate Kid: Legends. We wanted to talk with him about his love for hockey, why he partnered with AstraZeneca for their intitiative to bring cancer awareness with the NHL, and upcoming projects that he is working on and where we can see him on screen.
ATHLEISURE MAG: We’ve been fans of yours since Mighty Ducks. In thinking about hockey, our current cover is Jack Hughes, which we’re super excited about! People are loving Heated Rivalry, and everyone’s talking about the Olympics and the Golden Goal. What do you love about this game as we know you’re a hockey fan as well!
JOSHUA JACKSON: I mean, I’m a Canadian, so it’s a sort of in our DNA. We’re raised with it. The whole culture of Canada is steeped in the game. I’ve loved it since I was a little kid. I love the sort of balletic violence of it. I love the grace that these men find on the ice. Somebody’s trying to take your head off, it is incredibly fast-paced. It is incredibly athletic and in a way that maybe, European soccer fans get and American hockey fans get in this moment - the passion for hockey is the joy of hockey. So, like when it gets to playoff time when it gets to Olympic time and the whole nation, just like stops what it’s doing. It’s so much fun to be a fan.
AM: You’ve partnered with AstraZeneca for their Get Body Checked Against Cancer, which is a part of their Hockey Fights Cancer Initiative. What do you like being about being a part of this campaign? Why did you want to join it? And can you tell us a bit about it?
JJ: Well, first, there’s the hockey connection, right? This is a campaign that AstraZeneca has already been a part of before I was able to join them. I find myself at this age now, where my family has been touched by cancer, colleagues of mine - their families have been touched by cancer. I was shocked to find out that 65% of men and I think in general, in my cohort, have not actually been screened for cancers. I thought it was a great thing to be a part of. I also love what they’ve done with that getbodycheck.com website that you can not only find providers, not only find suggested testing, but also a list of questions to get you into the conversation with your doctor, which I think is really helpful, because I think it’s a hard and scary conversation to start. Nobody wants to talk about the Big C and no one wants to imagine that it could be part of their life. I think that it is just a great way to get that conversation started because we have come a long way and the earlier that you detect something, the better off your chances are.
AM: What does your involvement in the campaign look like in terms of what we’ll see from a consumer aspect?
JJ: I mean, from the consumer side, you’ll see me and Gritty in a TV ad. You’ll see just a variety of different outreach of things that we’ll be doing here over the course of the next couple months just to spread awareness about the specific website and the people involved, but just generally to spread awareness right? To hope to inspire people like myself as I, you know, you get a little bit older –
AM: Right!
JJ: You get a little older and you’re like, “no I’m this kid!” And then you’re like, wait, they’re talking about me!
AM: Yeah when you start talking with people about things to look out for when you’re in older ages, but you don’t see yourself that way – it reminds you that you are getting older and they are talking about you!
JJ: Right, and so we all have that. I think most people feel that way. Like our brains don’t keep up with our body after a certain point. So for important things like this right for women’s health things for men’s health things for cancer screenings, it is just important to not be embarrassed to be in this conversation and to be proactive in the places that you can be and specifically for cancer with the screening that is available to us. Now you can, you can find things way earlier than in our parents’ generation. So, this is all just outreach to say, just be in the conversation. Hopefully, it’s nothing, but it’s better to know, than to not know.
AM: Our college nights were filled with watching Dawson’s Creek, because that’s when it, aired originally. We’d be running back from the Psych Department back to our dorms trying to get in and you could hear the episodes throughout the halls. We’ve enjoyed you in The Affair, Dr Death, Dr Odyssey, and more. What is it that you love about acting?
JJ: I love the opportunity to be in a scene with somebody and to be surprised. It’s a wonderful silly thing to do with your life. I bumped in today to like two actors that I absolutely love and was really kind of star struck in a way.
You said that you were a Psych Major or that you just took a Psych class?
AM: We just took a psych course as one of our majors was Sociology and that professor knew that his class was right before Dawson’s Creek and he would stretch it out as long as possible and you could hear it and since I would watch it on VHS – I didn’t want spoilers!
JJ: Back in the good old days!
There is a psychology and maybe even a sociology component, but there is something fun for me to be able to pretend. To use pretending in order to be somebody else to try to examine what it means to be a human being. When you’re in a scene with another person or a bunch of other people, to see another person’s interpretation and be genuinely surprised - I don’t know you, you just kind of lose yourself in those interactions. That’s what really keeps me coming back. I have been doing this a long time!
AM: You have had such a longevity. When we see your name attached to it, regardless of the subject or genre, we know it’s going to be good because you really do in many ways transform where you forget what we may have liked about you, like in The Affair versus how you present in Dr Odyssey.
JJ: Oh come on, you’re going to make me blush!
AM: You do have two projects coming up, Happy Hours, and How to Survive Without Me. Tell us about them.
JJ: Well, they weirdly share a connection with Dawson’s Creek, so Happy Hours is with Katie Holmes (Ray Donovan, Poker Face, The Wanderers). She produced it, she wrote it, she directed it, and she stars in it. She wrote this story for the two of us to be able to tell a love story after all these years, having not worked together since we were kids on Dawson’s Creek. We got to do that last Summer, and I was a little - I think we both were a little bit nervous after all these years to, like, see if that thing was still there. But that thing is still there, and it was so nice. I’m so thankful to her as my friend, and in that - my boss, right, for her to have created the space for us to do that. I hope the movie comes out well, and I hope everybody enjoys it. But more than anything, it was such a joy to get to do that, and also to be, you know, to, to be impressed and supportive of my friend. You know, we’re not just doing the scenes together, directing, producing, and she’s writing. She’s just a wonderful, powerful woman.
How to Survive Without Me – well not oddly, is written by one of the Executive Producers of Dawson’s Creek. So, Greg Berlanti (The Flash, Arrow, YOU), way back in the day, one of his first jobs was on Dawson’s Creek before he went on to become that I think is the single most prolific producer in the history of television, so he’s done all right for himself. This just came back around that he has the show and it shoots in LA, which is very important for me right now, so I could be with my daughters and take them to school. It’s a beautiful, sad story about family - adult family, right? That story starts six months after the matriarch of the family has passed away and it’s her trying to sort of reach from beyond the grave to make sure that her family stays bound together. She’s not sure that they have the ability to do it without her!
AM: Can you share 3 workouts or modalities that you like to do?
JJ: It depends. The most consistent piece of my life, is boxing. As I’ve gotten older, I started doing Pilates, which has been amazing because as it turns out, I’m like, stiff, as shit, and not very flexible. It just doesn’t work for you as you get older! Then it’s really character dependent, right? The difference between say doing something like Dr Death, where I had to go from being very underweight to play the younger version of that character and the to progressively put on weight and to wear a prosthetic by the end of that show – to something like, say, Fatal Attraction, where you’re dealing with a man who’s kind of a little bit past it, and dealing with the end of his masculinity – a little paunchy or a little softer. It just really depends!
PHOTOGRAPHY CREDITS | Matrie Lombardo
Read the MAR ISSUE #123 of Athleisure Mag and see CHECK YOUR HEALTH | Joshua Jackson in mag.
