JACK LASKEY - SID MAGAZINE
In less than forty minutes Jack Laskey has revealed a childhood belief in Superman, confessed his admiration for Michael Winslow’s display of sound-effect prowess in the Police Academy franchise (whilst exhibiting his own merit in that arena by showcasing a flawless impression of a duck’s quack followed by his natural infectious laugh) - and in an earnest, candid conversation discussing his life and career, made an ardently convincing case of his thoughtful and dedicated passion to both.
When an actor describes their professional origins, indelible characters or classic films are often cited, described in rich and awed detail. Posited as to his own inciting moment, Jack describes conversations, those that took place in the car between him and his parents on the way back from the theatre returning to his hometown of Suffolk. “The theatre was something like 45 minutes from us and we’d sit in the car and talk about the show. I think it’s the sharing thing afterwards that I really relished. You realize everyone else’s perspective on something could be completely contrary and that’s really thrilling. I think there is something about theatre, when I realized it could be a job - I wanted it. ”
Upon graduating from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, Jack’s drive was singularly focused. Performing at The Globe, Punch Drunk, and the Young Vic. “I always really wanted to do that, to learn my craft, because I think you only really learn it totally in front of an audience.” After “doing theatre job after theatre job after theatre job, where I had maybe a week off in between,” Jack discusses waking up one day thinking “Oh, I better get on and do some [film],”- and while the timing may have had the semblance of being arbitrary, the transitory action had one of inevitability, “Because theatre was the thing I’d fell in love with it made sense to focus on that when I left drama school and I really wanted to do that. But- I always knew that I’d one day want to do screen work.”
Jack’s first marked experience in film would be in Guy Ritchie’s ‘Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows,’ inhabiting the screen alongside Stephen Fry and the A-list principals. “It was just an extraordinary experience being there with those actors and being with Guy Ritchie and being on sets like that. You have four people spraying the walls with water to make it like Victorian England, and they have fifteen dogs wandering around the set, and you’re walking over the bridge and there’s a staged cockfight going on around this barge. A lot of this stuff is barely even seen in the film but you’re there with it for a whole day. I just love that, the world it’s just there for you.”
Soon after leaving Sherlock and Victorian London behind, Jack would find another world to populate, one far more contained and reliant upon his presence to breathe life into. ‘The Secret Sharer’ was an all-consuming year of Jack’s life, transferring the setting of Joseph Conrad’s classic novella to the modern-day Chinese waters. Playing a protagonist by the name of Conrad was fitting in that much in the same spirit of the 20th century Renaissance man Jack’s duties in preparing for the role were absorbing to say the least. Conditional with capturing the character, Jack’s tasks included: putting on muscle, learning Mandarin, developing a Polish-American accent, learning a song in Polish, in addition to the accordion. “It was just an amazing and awesome task,” Jack adds with a laugh, “Just one of those tasks is probably enough.” Despite the sacrifice, the time, the preparation, and of course the challenge, Jack’s enthusiasm and captivation with the project in hindsight is evident, the kind of retelling inseparable from revelry. The setting, poised to dominate Jack’s recollection and memory for years to come, would define all else over the course of The Secret Sharer’s production. A motif found in many of Conrad’s best works, the environment’s overwhelming effect, possessing all within it and ultimately making immersion almost second-hand - would work out ideally for Jack and the film. The stage was set ideally for the role, with a foreign film crew on a rusting cargo ship on the sea, “It was filming in Thailand where I had always wanted to go, and it was just a very special, beautiful place. These incredible sunsets every night. Out at sea for filming about six weeks, it just felt incredible. It’s just amazing to actually be there in the situation.”
Shifting the conversation slightly, from his experiences on the film to his expectations of it, Jack’s tone remains on a similarly captivated, fulfilled course. Describing the upcoming June release Jack steers towards the future with the utmost optimism and belief. “We created something that I think isn’t quite like anything else I’ve seen before - it’s really unique, epic, romantic and tender. Obviously it’s quite difficult watching yourself. But it has a really distinctive flavor and people who’ve seen an early screening of it have said it carries on rattling on in their brains for days after which I think- that’s when actually I think it’s done something proper for you. And I hope it will do that in its kind of unique and kind of delicate way.”
