Neil Jackson – Absentia

By: Jamie Steinberg

Q) What are the recent projects that you are working on?

A) About a month ago I wrapped a prequal to The Kingsman It’s set in WW1. It was an amazing experience to be a part of that franchise and film. I think it’s going to be a really fun and poignant film because it is set in WW1 and it’s about the origin of The Kingsman. So, it’s set 100 years before the last one. It’s got an amazing cast with Ralph Fiennes, Rhys Ifans and a whole host of fantastic actors in there. So, that was a real treat.

Q) What is in store for Jack this season on “Absentia?”

A) When we left Jack he kind of was just starting to heal. At the end of Season 1 he had just gone to his first AA meeting and was starting on the road of recovery for his alcoholism. The new season takes place about a year after Season 1 and Jack is now on his way to getting his medical license back. He’s become an EMT and a paramedic in hopes of being reinstated as a medical doctor. So, he’s back in the medical profession and doing the thing that he loves. The old demons are still there and with happens with Emily’s story starts to unfold and it starts to pick at the scab of his old demons and make him start to question what he wants in life.

Q) Do you have much of a say in how the character develops?

A) Not so much of as ay in terms of his plot and story. I have a say in terms of the way I play him and the emotional state of how he is. One thing early on that I loved to relate about Jack is that he is chiefly an intelligent person, but he’s also deeply insecure. He never really had the love of his parents. His mother died and his father adopted this woman, Emily, and she became almost the son he wished he had. She was physical and athletic and wanted to be a cop – all the things his father wanted. As a result, he poured a lot more love and attention into Emily (Stana Katic). Jack was more cerebral and wanted to go into the medical profession to be a doctor and surgeon. He always felt like he was playing second place to his father’s love. His father was never proud of him. So, that kind of underlying thing is that with everything Jack does he is very caring and also really just wants validation. He really just wants someone to see him and say they appreciate him. As a result, there is a loneliness in there. So, one of the things we talked about early on in Season 1 and has carried on into this is that dark brooding loneliness in there because he feels he hasn’t been seen and hasn’t been validated. He wants someone to say, “I see you.” He has searched for that in relationships and friendships. And he’s searched for that with his family, but he’s never quite found it. In this season, I feel like he’s starting to heal the whole part of what was missing. So, this season we see a lot more happiness from Jack, which is great.

Q) In Season 1 Jack was in trouble and questioning his relationship with his father. And there was the return of Emily. What season then is going to be the toughest challenge for him?

A) The toughest challenge for Jack this season is career-wise and love-wise. He starts a new relationship, which I can’t say anything about, that is (as we talked about) the hope of someone seeing him and loving him for who he is. But that relationship comes with a huge amount of baggage and problems. And also, this season he is desperately trying to get his license back to be a surgeon and a doctor. So, he’s desperately trying to put his life back on track. But, as I said, those demons that we saw in Season 1 are still there and he hasn’t dealt with them all. They start to surface and throw wrenches into the plans.

Q) What do you hope viewers will get to learn about Jack moving forward?

A) I don’t know about learn about Jack. But what I love about Jack this season is he’s got such a big heart and he wants to help people. He genuinely wants to help people. At the end of Season 1 we saw that with Emily where she reached out to him and he was the one who was able to save her life. That, in a nutshell, is Jack. He wants to be there and help people. The more he does that the more he blossoms. But, unfortunately, the more he does that the more he comes under scrutiny as well because he allowed himself open to criticism. It’s really interesting to watch his journey this season because we start to see him open up and see the person he might have been before Emily died. At the same point, the story and Jack doesn’t really let him have happiness. He can’t really let him have happiness. He can’t fully release himself and be happy. Hopefully, audiences connect with that and root for him to be happy and if they are sad that he doesn’t find it then hope he finds it maybe in Season 3.

Q) Going into this new season, was there someone in particular you were hoping to share a scene with?

A) It’s interesting because Jack is a completely separate character to the storyline. I’ve done probably over the course of two seasons maybe three scenes with Patrick Heusinger because he is Emily’s husband. He is very much a part of FBI. All of the FBI people, Jack is never a part of their storyline. We’ve got a fantastic new character named Cal, played by Matt Le Nevez, who comes on board this season. Our characters don’t share the screen once, even though he’s a great guy and we’re great friends outside of the set. It’s an entire world that is happening out of Jack’s world because he’s not part of the FBI, which actually makes it really fun for me to play and really fun for me to watch because I get to watch the show and watch a completely different show from the one that I was a part of with Emily and the FBI stuff being completely different. It would be fun if the worlds could intersect and Jack could fall into the FBI world a little bit. There was a scene at the beginning of Season 2 where a terror threat happens and Jack is a first responder as an EMT so at a certain time there is a very slight part of the worlds converging. It becomes this new investigation that Emily and the team are undergoing and Jack is there as a first responder. So, it’s the first time that those worlds crossed over and it was really fun to see all the pieces of the puzzle coming together.

Q) How did you shake off a long day of filming?

A) That’s part of the fun of doing a show like this. We’re all on location. We’re shooting in Bulgaria. Everybody is staying in hotels and apartments within a two-block radius. We were all very close with each other. We’d go for dinner or there are a couple of bars in the area that we’d go to and have a pint of a Guinness and sit and relax. So, the nice thing was that the cast and crew were all close. The cast and the crew were all staying in the same hotel. We’d all go out for dinner and drinks. We all bonded as this community because no one has their family there and that really forced us to bond as a team, which was really lovely. So, we all helped each other really unwind.

Q) What do you think it is about “Absentia” that continues to make it such a fan favorite series?

A) It’s just a very different premise. When I was pitched the premise, I loved the idea – that this FBI woman investigates serial killers disappears for six years and is believed dead but when she returns, we learn that she’s been held captive. Now, she’s got to clear her name and find out who her captor was. That’s amazing! Some of the stuff in Season 1 where Emily returns to her life and sees her dog for the first time and sees her son for the first time in six years and she realizes the world has moved on without her. It’s just so painful and emotional and something everybody can relate to – this idea of the world moving on without you and you coming back and realizing that as much as you have been missed the world has kept on turning. You have to fit into the world that has been created is a very sad, deep and emotional story. What I love about Season 2 is the extension that happens. Stana did such an incredible job in both seasons. This season looking at what would have happened to somebody who is now essentially gotten her life back on track. She’s found out who is responsible. She’s kind of back with her family, but at the same time she’s not really part of their world anymore because she’s emotionally in a very different place. Now, a year on from that, she’s trying to figure out who that is. She medicates and is struggling. I think it’s a story that everybody can relate to and add to that it’s incredibly tense. The way they have shot it, edited it and produced it. There is a cliffhanger at the end of each episode. We are constantly fighting a ticking clock to try and discover who the threat is. I just think it’s a really beautiful package with the emotional and the thriller aspect.

Q) You are a part of social media. Do you enjoy the fan feedback you receive to the work you do?

A) One of the things I love about social media is hearing from the fans and hearing stuff that they’ve connected to or not connected to. It allows an immediate response. It’s one of the things I miss in film and TV. I started out in theater and, obviously, with theater you get an immediate response and the audience is very much a part of what happens. If it’s funny and they don’t laugh, you get feedback. You don’t get that so much with film and TV. But social media kind of allows for that. I love the community around “Absentia.” They are really a strong, solid and supportive community. Often on Twitter I’ll wake up and sometimes there will be hundreds of messages. I’ve been part of a feed of this community talking and chatting about the episodes and what they liked, what confused them or what they are looking forward to. They’re all sharing theories or countdowns and fan art. They are doing graphic novels and there is a Face Mask Challenge that people have been doing. It’s a really wonderful challenge. It’s fascinating to see how much the show means to people, but also for us to show our gratitude to the fans for their support. So, I love social media for that.

Q) Is there anything else you want to be sure our readers know about this season of “Absentia?”

A) This season there are several unexpected twists. As much as you try to look for them, the creators of the show have done an incredible job of pulling the rug out from under. I couldn’t wait to get the new scripts. When we’d get the new script, we’d all sit down and read them and be like, “Oh my! I can’t believe they went there! I can’t believe they did that!” So, having that reaction makes me really excited. I mean, I have been excited because the show has been airing around the world so I’ve been hearing people enjoying it – everywhere from Portugal to Brazil – saying how much loved the twists, how much it surprised them or how much they love the characters. I’m really excited to see what people think when they watch it on Amazon. I think people are going to be surprised again about the show. They thought it was about one thing and then it’s about something else.

Q) What would you like to say to everyone who is a fan and supporter of you and the work you do?

A) Thank you. It’s incredibly humbling. We were on this studio lot in Bulgaria and a bunch of English, American, Australian, Israeli and Bulgarian people all working together to make this show that we’re all passionate about. To hear that people all over the world have been connecting with it too is incredibly humbling. I love the fact this community has sprung up around “Absentia” and love the show and have created a community around a mutual love and respect this thing we’ve been toiling away at over in Eastern Europe. So, I’m incredibly grateful to the fans and I really hope they respond to Season 2 and enjoy the show going in a new direction.