Australian actor Jason Clarke is so modest you’d never have him down as a man whose last four films made more than US$1.2bn. But then, unassuming or not, he’s made some great choices since relocating to LA, picking blockbusters (Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, The Great Gatsby) that put savvy ahead of size.
The son of a Queensland sheep-shearer, no really, Clarke first caught the eye in Zero Dark Thirty‘s near-unwatchable opening scene: a two-handed torture session so powerful it simultaneously won the film an Oscar nom and lost it the Oscar. It’s hard to imagine a bigger name accepting that part – or aceing it – but he’s about to go gratifyingly global, taking up the mantle left by Christian Bale, Edward Furlong and, er, Nick Stahl in Terminator: Genisys, out next year. “I can’t talk about the plot – I’ve signed documents to say I’m not allowed to – but I play John Connor. Do you know the story?” he asks, somewhat unnecessarily. Yes, we know the story.
“He’s Sarah Connor’s son, who’s supposed to save the world against Skynet. They’ve written three films, so it’s a trilogy. The script’s fucking super-cool, and that’s what I was drawn to when I first read it. [Producer] David Ellison and the Skydance team have brought on some fantastic writers and they’ve worked their arses off to come up with something that’s original but also plays within the world that exists.”
Though Clarke’s keeping quiet about the details, rumours abound of a Back To The Future Part II-style retrofit, with Game Of Thrones‘ Emilia Clarke (no relation) playing young Sarah Connor despite being 20 years Jason’s junior. Either way, “It’s an iconic role,” he enthuses. “It’s got a lot of paths and a lot of history to it, but I think we’re going to bring a lot more to this time round. John really features very heavily, particularly in this first one, and it’s going to surprise a lot of people with where it goes. The character of Arnold is written back into it, too, and it really works. It’s a big, massive epic, a huge film. Some of the sequences are the biggest things I’ve ever read.”
Clarke prepped for the role by reading Biblical epics, books about Napoleon and Alexander The Great, and futuristic tomes such as The Singularity Is Near. “It focuses on where we’re heading with technology, how eventually we’ll create AI that’s a lot smarter than us – yet how are we going to control it?” But as Zero Dark Thirty proved, he’s not afraid of getting his hands dirty either. “I went and trained with the New Zealand special forces,” he recalls. “It was great, we just went around the woods, camped, hiked and hunted for a couple of weeks – which really got me in the mood.” Having wrangled rampaging monkeys and machines, does he rate his adaptation skills? “It comes down to basics you know,” he says. “In the post-apocalyptic world it’s not just the strongest who survive, it’s also the smartest.” Seems the same applies in Hollywood, too.
