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TWICE BLESSED
by Steven Eramo
from Cult Times, January 2002
Manticore's creations are running wild in Seattle in the new season of Dark Angel; we caught two of the escapees...
Dark
Angel’s new heartthrob Jensen Ackles has worked in front of a camera for as
long as he can remember. He was a child model at the age of four, then he
stopped and started again when he was ten. A native of Dallas, Texas, the actor
appeared mostly in local catalogues and department store ads, but he also did a
few national TV commercials. Despite his success in the industry, Ackles decided
to call it quits for good when he became a teenager.
“My
friends used to bring these catalogues to school, pass them around and basically
make fun of me”, he recalls. “At first, I didn’t mind, but eventually I
got sick of it. One day I came home and said to my mom, ‘I don’t want to
model anymore’, and that was that. I’ll just add, though, that by the time I
was 16 I had saved up enough money to buy a real nice car. My friends were
extremely jealous and I was like, ‘Who’s laughing now?’”
On Dark
Angel, Ackles plays Alec, a ‘transgenic’ who comes from the same generation
of clones as the programme’s leading lady Max (Jessica Alba). Alec has spent
his entire life at Manticore and has remained a loyal soldier to the cause.
Before joining the series for its second season, Ackles guest starred last year
as Max’s genetically engineered brother Ben in the episode Pollo Loco.
“I had
a rather quick audition for Ben,” says Ackles. “In fact, I only read once
for the show’s producers, which was unusual. Normally, you go through a far
more lengthy process. However, I think they were running behind schedule insofar
as casting the character. They were seeing just a select few actors and I
happened to be one of them. I guess I was what they were looking for because
within four days I was on plane to Vancouver to start filming.
“Ben
was mentally messed u,” the actor continues. “He was a genetic soldier who
was trained to kill by Manticore. He eventually gained his freedom and ended up
in the real world. Unfortunately, after a few years Ben suddenly flipped out.
All his training came back to him and he started acting as if he was back in the
military. He began hunting down innocent civilians and killing them. It was like
a game to him. In Ben’s mind, this was what he was born to do.
“He
was a neat individual to play. I was up in Vancouver for a little over two and a
half weeks. It was a pretty complicated episode to film because there was a lot
to it. The scenes in which Ben is hunting his victims down were shot up in the
mountains and the forests around the city. It was March, so it was pretty wet
and chilly when we were on location. Overall, though, I had an amazing time.”
At the
end of Pollo Loco, Ben is killed and Manticore’s military strong arm,
Colonel Donald Lydecker (John Savage), picks up his body and carries it off. So
Ackles was naturally surprised when, a few months later, he received a call from
Dark Angel’s producers asking if he would like to become a series regular.
“I thought, ‘Wait a minute, Ben’s dead. Well, maybe they took him to
Manticore and either put him back together again and re-cloned him.’ I figured
being a sci-fi show, they must have some clever idea as to how to bring the guy
back to life.
“I was
overseas when the offer came in. My agency handled the logistics of the contract
but we never talked about what I’d actually be doing. I just assumed I’d be
reprising my role of Ben. When I returned to the States there was a script
waiting for me. I read it and then phoned my agency and said, ‘I’m not in
the script’. They called the Dark Angel office to express my concerns and were
told, ‘Oh, yes, he’s in it, except he’s not playing Ben, he’s playing
Alec.’ Once I heard that I flipped through the script and realized,
‘They’re right’. To my surprise I was stepping into this new role, and I
couldn’t have been more pleased.”
The
writers on Dark Angel decided to take full advantage of the actor’s natural
animal magnetism when introducing his character in the show’s second season
opener Designate This. “At the start of the story we discover Max is
being held prisoner at Manticore,” explains Ackles. “The door to her cell
opens and there’s Alec. At first she thinks it’s her brother Ben, but Alec
quickly explains that he’s a clone and very different from Ben. He goes on to
tell Max that he’s her breeding partner. Apparently, Manticore has a new
procreation programme that requires them to mate. Of course, Max doesn’t take
very kindly to this and throws a kick at Alec’s chest, which sends him flying
against the wall.
In the
second story of the show’s new season, Bag’Em, Alec finds himself the
reluctant mentor to a band of Manticore fugitives. Together, they save Max from
a group of company agents led by White (Martin Cummins), whose orders are to
exterminate all Manticore escapees. In the following episode, Proof of
Purchase, Alec becomes a pawn in White’s hands.
“I
really enjoyed doing Proof of Purchase”, enthuses Ackles. “Up to this
point, Alec has had a cocky, carefree attitude, which really goes against the
very serious tone of the show. Here, he gets into trouble and all of a sudden
can’t be his smart-ass self. Alec is ordered to perform a series of tasks that
he doesn’t want to do. By the end of the episode he’s really been through
the wringer. The script was written to give a great deal of depth to Alec. I
hope I portrayed him in a way that showed this to the audiences. I like how the
writers are developing my character. We’re almost halfway through the season
and I’m just as inspired as I was when coming into my first episode.”
Given
his convincing performance in Dark Angel, it is difficult to believe that Ackles
became involved in acting by chance. “I did a play in high school and there
happened to be a talent agent in the audience”, he says. “This man came up
to me after the performance and suggested I’d do well in Los Angeles. Now, my
dad has built a successful career for himself as a local actor in Dallas, so
I’m familiar with the ups and downs of the business. I knew I wasn’t going
to jump on a plane, fly to California and be ‘a star’.
“I
shrugged off this agent’s offer, but he kept calling me. His persistence
piqued my interest. After I graduated from high school I talked with my parents
and we agreed I could go to Los Angeles for two weeks and see what happened. The
agent sent me straight out on auditions and on the third one I was hired for a
small part on a Saturday morning show called Sweet Valley High. That job paid
for my trip and then some. I went back home and my parents and I
decided that I’d give myself another six months in Los Angeles. That
was almost five years ago and, thank God, things have been going very well.”
Dark
Angel fans may remember the actor from his three-season stint as Eric Brady II
on the daytime soap opera Days of Our Lives. He also portrayed an alcoholic
drugged-up playboy in the CBS mini-series about the life of Marilyn Monroe
called Blonde. “That was a bit of a stretch for me,” notes Ackles. “I had
to do my homework before playing that role.”
Although
still relatively new to the business, Ackles has his priorities in order as far
as the rewards of his career are concerned. “The money,” jokes the actor.
“No, I’m kidding! What I enjoy most is travelling to different places and
meeting new people. For me, it’s all about life experiences, and I’m very
grateful that acting allows me so many interesting and fulfilling ones.”
Copyright © Visual Imagination Ltd 2001
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