Interlochen's Jackson Rathbone

Last Airbender's Jackson Rathbone and Nicola Peltz

By : Kurt Anthony Krug

Photos: Mike Chrouch / Paramount

airbheads When Jackson Rathbone, a 2003 alumnus of the Traverse City-based Interlochen Center for the Arts, went to Los Angeles to be an actor at the age of 18, he did odd jobs in the food service industry - bussing tables and working in catering.

After seven years, Rathbone now has two movies coming out during the long Independence Day holiday weekend – The Twilight Saga: Eclipse and The Last Airbender. Both are tentpole films.

Eclipse is based on the third of Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight novels. Airbender is based on the hit animated series, Avatar: The Last Airbender, and is directed by M. Night Shyamalan, who’s best known for helming The Sixth Sense, 1999’s runaway sleeper hit with Bruce Willis.

“I’ve got these two films coming out back-to-back Fourth of July weekend. It’s crazy, it’s a dream come true. It does feel surreal half the time, but at the end of the day, I’m an actor. I love it. I love doing what I do,” said Rathbone, who was recently at the MGM Grand Hotel in Detroit with Airbender co-star Nicola Peltz, 15.

He continued, “I don’t know if you saw it, but in (Shyamalan’s) The Happening, there’s a quick shot where a little girl puts on a backpack and it’s a Last Airbender backpack. When I saw that, I was curious (about what his next film would be). I heard from my agent that the script was circulating and it was based off the animated series that I was so aware of, that all my friends are huge fans of… I originally went in and read for Zuko.”

rathsign However, Rathbone was given the role of Sokka and Peltz became Katara, a brother and sister. The two are Waterbenders locked in a war with the Fire Nation, a tribe that is determined to dominate its fellow tribal nations: Air, Water, and Earth. They meet a boy named Aang (Noah Ringer, Cowboys & Aliens), who is the Last Airbender. A being who can control all four elements and is prophesied to stop the Fire Nation.

“Nicola and I read together and we just felt like brother and sister from the get-go. It’s just an amazing story. I love playing Sokka,” he said. “I have little sisters who are Nicola’s age… I love the fact that he’s a young a rebel. He goes after what he believes in with his heart and throws himself into it, no matter what the danger is, but he always looks after his little sister, even though sometimes she thinks he’s a little bit overprotective.”

Despite having these two movies come out at the same time, Rathbone doesn’t feel like he’s competing with himself.

“There’s a difference in the core audiences. With Eclipse, I think we’ll get a lot more fans of the series because it gets a lot more action-packed… We get to dive into the back-stories of these characters, including my character Jasper. We get to see this epic battle ensue with the newborn vampire army,” he explained. “With (Airbender), it’s a family film that has a lot of action that everyone will enjoy… It’s a different set of characters because Jasper’s this 200-year-old vampire who’s fighting his instincts at every turn, at every moment… He’s worried that he’s gonna let loose. Then with (Airbender), I’m playing the 17-year-old warrior who’s trying to come into his own. It’s just a difference in the characters, which I love. I was always a character actor in the theater. If one character’s different from the next, then I’m happy.”

hi5 Playing Katara is a dream come true for Peltz, who’s not shy of expressing her love for the animated series. To make the dream even sweeter was working with Shyamalan.

“I was so lucky to work with him because I saw The Sixth Sense and that is one of my favorite movies ever. He’s such a great director. And, he’s such a great person; he’s a family guy, he really cares about family morals and values, and it really shines in this movie,” she explained. “I love playing Katara. Like I said, I watched the series. I think it’s really interesting because I think Katara is such a great role model for girls, and even women. She has such a great heart, such a big heart, and she’s so mentally strong and physically strong. She’s a fighter and she really does what she believes in and I think she’s a great girl.”

“And she kicks butt!” added Rathbone, eliciting a laugh from his co-star.

Monroe Jackson Rathbone V – was born in Singapore in 1984. His father, Monroe Jackson Rathbone IV, is an executive for Exxon. As a result of his father’s job, the Rathbone family moved frequently. Rathbone lived in Texas before attending Interlochen in his junior and senior years of high school.

“What brought me there is I was doing some community theater in Texas and there’s an amazing community theater program in Midland, TX. I was with an acting troupe called Pickwick Players,” he said. “I got involved with them because my sisters were doing it. I was originally behind the scenes building sets and then I noticed there’s a lot of pretty girls that are actresses. In order to get to talk to them, I figured I had to join the whole acting thing. And then I kinda fell in love with it.”

During his time with the Pickwick Players, a friend praised his performance as King Herod in Jesus Christ Superstar and encouraged him to apply to Interlochen, which has had an impact on his life to this day.

“Two of my bandmates from my band, 100 Monkeys, are from Interlochen as well – Ben Graupner and Ben Johnson. Ben Graupner was actually my roommate at Interlochen and we’re still roommates now,” said Rathbone. “We did a music video, ‘Ugly,’ which directed by another Interlochen alumni – Will Schmidt… It was a school where a lot of artists came together and collaborated. That’s like making a film. With cinema, you have 100 or more artists coming together to collaborate on a 2-hour piece of art that will last far beyond any of us.”