Joshua Jackson: Unnerved and disturbed in "shutter"

“Dawson’s Creek” heartthrob Joshua Jackson is back on the big screen in the gripping psychological thriller “Shutter” based on the hit 2004 Thai film.

In the movie, everything goes drastically wrong for a young married couple Ben (Joshua Jackson) and Jane (Rachael Taylor), following a tragic car crash in Japan. After the crash, they find ghostly images on all their photographs and a series of hauntingly frightening events threaten their marriage and their lives. Spirit photography is at the centre of “Shutter” which poses the question:  “How well do we know those who are closest to us?”

Q: What kind of guy do we see when we meet Ben?

A: “I hope the audience will see a man who is in love and on his honeymoon with his beautiful wife as they start off their lives together. He’s a photographer and is just stepping into the place in his life where he is doing well in his career. He is his own boss with great assignments like this one in Tokyo.”

Q: Did you know a lot about photography before taking the role?

A: “I knew a little but I had to brush up and learn to load film and look like I really knew what I was doing so I shadowed a couple of Japanese fashion photographers while I was in Tokyo. I am comfortable with film and light because that is my job but it was great to have the time to be with fashion photographers.”

Q: There is great chemistry and tension between you and your co-star, Rachael Taylor. What was it like working with her?

A: “She is lovely and we had a great time. You can’t plan for that kind of relationship. It really is about chemistry. We got on well and enjoyed working together. We were both like fish out of water in Tokyo.”

Q: How did you find Japan?

A: “I have never been in a country that is so foreign to me. Tokyo is so fundamentally different from anywhere else I have experienced. It has a rich, deep, long history and there is a totally different understanding about everything; how people interact and people’s standing in society. I found it fascinating.”

Q: What was it like working with the director, Masayuki Ochiai, who cannot speak English? How did the language barrier affect you?

A: “I loved his direction, his style and texture. The way the Japanese directors work is so different. They bring such moodiness and creepiness to films like this and do it so well.

Q: Have you ever had any spooky supernatural experiences yourself?

A: “I think it is hard to say absolutely that this kind of thing is impossible. I don’t work with absolutes. I have never had a ghostly encounter but I do not deny that it is possible.”

Q: So many people around the world enjoyed DAWSON’S CREEK. Do you have cherished memories of it?

A: “Absolutely. We were in a tiny community in Wilmington North Carolina while making the show. It is a lovely little town, but we were never considered heartthrobs, by any stretch of the imagination, when we went work every day. We were just working. The connection that people have to the show and their view of the actors is completely different to the experience we had filming it. I had a great time and I am very proud of the show.”

Q: What are your goals and dreams?

A: “After DAWSON’S CREEK, I didn’t want to think about ambition, I wanted time for myself. Then when I did the West End Play, it reminded me that I am an actor, I love this job, there is no getting away from it. So now, at 30, my ambitions are becoming clearer and more focused. I want to work on challenging projects that are uncomfortable and I want to do work that I haven’t done before, like this film: playing a character who seems to be one thing but is completely the opposite. I just want to challenge myself and confront things that I haven’t done. I want to be open to experiencing new things all the time.”

 “Shutter” opens April 2 in Philippine theaters from 20th Century Fox to be distributed by Warner Bros.