Jack as Patrick Sumner – Thursdays on AMC+
The North Water tells the story of Patrick Sumner, a disgraced ex-army surgeon who signs up as ship’s doctor on a whaling expedition to the Arctic. On board he meets Henry Drax, the harpooner, a brutish killer whose amorality has been shaped to fit the harshness of his world. Hoping to escape the horrors of his past, Sumner finds himself on an ill-fated journey with a murderous psychopath. In search of redemption, his story becomes a harsh struggle for survival in the Arctic wasteland.
Jack as Lion – Completed
A reluctant bare-knuckle boxer and his manager/brother must travel across the country for one last fight, but an unexpected travel companion exposes the cracks in their bond along the way.
Jack as Jude – Completed
A couple fights to hold their relationship together as a memory loss virus spreads and threatens to erase the history of their love and courtship.
Domains: jack-oconnell.com • jack-oconnell.net
Opened: January 8, 2015
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YOU get the impression that Jack O’Connell is pretty easy going from the moment you meet him. There’s no pretence, plus addressing someone by their first name before you’ve even met is always going to win brownie points. The Jack you see is the Jack you get. He’s relaxed and all-inviting handshakes, big grins and quick to banter, at ease even after a gruelling press trip that comes with the territory of taking a lead in blockbuster movies.
Money Monster, which is in cinemas now, was shot in New York and called for the streets of the city to be shut down. “For me, it epitomised the typical American film-making experience in the middle of downtown New York,” O’Connell confesses, not a sight of a transatlantic lilt in his Derby accent. While he isn’t willing to name names, shooting Money Monster was a different experience from those he has had in the past, and not just down to the sheer scale of the project.
“Shooting this was very fulfilling. I’ve been on sets before where you’re thinking this is bullshit, this hurts, people are getting treated horribly, and no one has got any money for the budget so no one can make you comfortable. If you do enough of that you stop expecting to feel comfortable when you’re at work. I’m very thankful for all those lessons, but when I was finally on this multi-million-dollar set in the middle of New York I could feel a real sense of gratitude.”
Another thing that you notice is that O’Connell is a genuine optimist and a thinker too, although not in the sense that he’s watching his words. On his first day on set, was he intimidated by acting alongside household names? “No more than anyone starting a new job amidst very esteemed colleagues.” Instead the 25-year-old focused on the opportunity presented. “You’re offered a level of confirmation that people are going to see your movie and this can make you feel very confident, which I chose to dwell on more.”
It wasn’t just his on-screen peers that may have been intimidating. Sat in the director’s chair was Jodie Foster, herself an Academy Award-winning actress with 50 years in the industry to her name who has done nothing but sung praises about her experiences working with O’Connell, telling Vogue: “He works so hard and he brings so much to the equation.” The film marks the second time that he has worked with an actress-turned-director. The first, Angelina Jolie, cast him in Unbroken, in which he portrayed Olympian and prisoner-of-war survivor, Louis Zamperini. He notes the film as his proudest professional moment. Describing Zamperini as a “hero” and a tale so epic that, “if you wrote it, people would chastise it.”