Hometown star loves local angle

On the wall at local cafe Dylan’s on the Terrace hangs a painting of actor Joel Jackson’s late grandmother, June Jackson, which is one of the cosy hometown feelings that he was looking forward to when he landed a role in H is for Happiness.

Jackson has starred in Jungle with Daniel Radcliffe, as Charles Bean in Deadline Gallipoli, and as Peter Allen in Peter Allen: Not the Boy Next Door. Now he finds himself on home turf with a role in the locally shot film.

Modest about his success, the 27 year old has been on the road for three years, chasing down work acting in major films.

Jackson said that if there was anything the industry had taught him it was that people put a glass ceiling on themselves too quickly.

“The sky is literally the limit, and any of us can do 150 per cent more if all we do is give it a go,” he said.

“I think that is what I am reminded of when I come home, and I used to live just across the harbour and now I am filming another movie there. You just need to keep pushing the door, otherwise it is never going to open unless you push it yourself.

“For Jungle I sat in a production office waiting room for a week every morning waiting to go in and talk to the producers, and I was just there knocking on the door until they gave me a go.

“I think that’s what growing up here taught me, I mean it’s hard to catch a wave at Mutton Bird but if you want it, go get it.”

Jackson is playing the role of the rich uncle Brian in H is for Happiness, the brother in the film to Richard Roxburgh.

He said that as soon as he heard the film was being shot in Albany he chased it up.

“I sent my audition in and I came back to visit my family before to do some stuff for Telethon, and funny enough I was sitting in the waiting area in Dylan’s when I got the email saying they were interested in me,” he said.

“I grew up in this place and I know the people and to tell a story from your hometown would be remarkable. It is nice to be able to walk back into town and hang the boots up and it still feels like home with all my family here.”

As for career highlights, Jackson reminisced about hiding in the jungles of Colombia with Daniel Radcliffe.

“I was walking behind him and I said, ‘Daniel I think I found it’, and he said ‘What’, and I said, ‘Your wand’, and he just laughed and said I’m an idiot.” Jackson will appear in Channel Seven’s Ms Fisher’s MODern Murder Mysteries early in the new year.