Actor Joshua Jackson Makes His “Smart People” Debutby Brad Balfour
February 9, 2016
Such stellar actors as Joshua Jackson, Mahershala Ali, Anne Son and Tessa Thompson have been tapped for Lydia R. Diamond‘s Off-Broadway comedic play, Smart People — opening this week, February 11th, at Second Stage’s Tony Kiser Theatre (on 43rd St. and 8th Ave.). The New York production, helmed by Tony Award-winning director Kenny Leon (The Wiz Live!), tackles the quest for love, achievement and identity while questioning the role race plays in our lives.
Set on the eve of President Barack Obama’s first election, four Harvard intellectuals find themselves entangled in a complex web of social and sexual politics. Leading the quartet, as both its highest profile face and the guy at hub of the others characters’ lives, is the 37-year-old Jackson. His previous stage experience includes an appearance in A Life in the Theatre — with Patrick Stewart — in London’s West End theater district.
Currently seen on the small screen in The Affair, his substantial TV and film resume includes such roles as Pacey Witter in Dawson’s Creek, Charlie Conway in The Mighty Ducks film series, Peter Bishop in Fringe, and Cole Lockhart in The Affair. Though Jackson has become a prominent screen figure, this is his off-broadway introduction. And this interview took place shortly before previews began.
What or who did you tap out from your range of experiences for this role?
Joshua Jackson: The Harvard thing wasn’t a touchstone but… The process remains pretty simple when you’re choosing work. You read it and go, “Man, I really want to tell that story.” There’s an organic response and the truth of the matter is I find myself struggling with the questions being asked in this play.
And from life in general?
JJ: And, in life in general. [In this production] are these topics of race in America and how to navigate historical oppression, white privilege and these horrible, sensitive, completely nuclear issues in people’s lives; how to approach those, how to explain those things, and how to — in an healthy and constructive way — engage in a conversation that doesn’t feel like you’re trying to gloss over, white wash, or… simply overwhelm the conversation.
You can hear me right now, I’m struggling with this. So how do we go on with these conversations and this play is doing it in a way, that I hope is, accessible. It’s not a two-hour lecture, because nobody wants to come and see that. It’s not a comedy, but it is comedic in its moments, and bring you on this lighter-than-you-think journey of these people’s lives, to allow people an entree into conversations that are uncomfortable.
Was there anything in your background that informed the conversation or that you talked about with the members of the production? There’s a whole other scenario that affects Asians as well African Americans? Did you talk to other Asians?
JJ: Of course it does and that’s the thing, [Ann’s character] brings it up in the play. So often, particularly in America, we boil down race relations and everybody thinks it’s black or white. And I guess there’s a place on the stage now for brown as well. But “Asian” itself is a problematic term, because what does that really mean?
Asians don’t really get a seat at that table. I grew up in Vancouver, which is now 50% mainland Chinese and Hong Kong. Mainland Chinese and Hong Kong are a giant population base, so yeah, I’m very familiar with these ideas, especially the gender-specific roles Asian Canadian women are assumed to take and that role inside of society and how that can infect interpersonal relationships or romances or things like that. Like I said, we’re not giving a two-hour lecture, this is not a sermon on the mount, but these are topics that we are all grappling with.
Are you becoming an expert in relationships; it seems with the range of roles and series you’ve been in…
JJ: From totally destroyed and fucked up to nominally functioning?
You could write a relationship book, couldn’t you?
JJ: I’m the new Doctor Ruth.
You can explore relationships with your playwrights.
JJ: As long as I have a writer like Lydia [Diamond], I’ll be good. My words will be smart.
Was there a background conversation about Obama and the Oscars? It hasn’t gone away even while you were rehearsing and giving life to this play.
JJ: Of course it hasn’t gone away. That’s kind of the point of this play at this moment, that it hasn’t gone away. There are no answers to these questions, only questions, and we are choosing right now to be, as a society, in conversation about this, and that’s why I wanted to do this right now.
So after this play and after The Affair do you want to go back to some weird strange alien world?
JJ: I’m trying to think what the next thing would be. I’ve done the sci-fi, I’ve done the broken romance.
Horror?
JJ: I’ve done horror, now I’m doing light comedy. I have to say, I like comedy. A dramedy about race relations, I think we’re the only one. This isn’t a genre, we are the genre…
Was there anything about your roles in both Smart People and The Affair parts that hooked you as well?
JJ: In truth this story couldn’t be farther from the issues we’re dealing with in The Affair. But the similarities are that this is a psychologically complex story, and that is a psychologically complex story; it’s not told with the same narrative hook that we used on The Affair, but we’re dealing with issues of race and gender politics. Really hot-button, touchstones that sting, [it’s about what’s] going on in the States right now.
Season Two of The Affair just ended… Can you say something up it to tide fans over until Season Three?
JJ: I know nothing. Apparently [Maura Tierney] knows something… She was kind of teasing, but I know nothing.
The Friends cast is reuniting this year for a tribute honoring thelegendary NBC director James Burrows. What would it take for the Dawson’s Creek crew to get back together to honor somebody?
JJ: I guess Kevin Williamson [the show’s creator] would have to ask, but everybody forgets that Michelle’s dead [that is, Michelle Williams’ character Jen Lindley], so you’s got to work that out.
Or she could be brought back as a ghost [laughs].
JJ: Or do the Dallas thing where she just wakes up in the shower and
goes, “Oh that was crazy” [laughs].
I heard a rumor you used to moon people to ease tension on the set. Is there any truth to that and did you do that during this run-up?
JJ: I don’t have to get naked on this show [though there is one moment
when he shows a little flesh].
Nothing to ease tensions?
JJ: It’s tense because it’s going up in a couple of weeks, it hasn’t been that tense. The topic of the play is such that it could have been a very difficult thing for us to get into and be in company together, but I’ve got to say that I am very lucky — once again — to have a very strong, very intelligent, very hardworking cast to work with. And having Kenny and Lydia here has made this, so far, a classic experience.
Opening night who can we expect to be there cheering you on? WillDiane Kruger be in the audience?
JJ: I certainly hope so. Diane will be there, my family will be there. I don’t know if my little nephew [will], he’s a little young, buteveryone else will.
