#i love no context to this. just terrorising a stage guy | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

ojcobsessed · 3 years

Photo

Oliver Jackson-Cohen, on Bly Manor and Other Things That Haunt Him

by Diana Colcer for Cosmopolitan Romania, 24 October 2020

Energetic, suave, and anchored in the reality of the problems around us, Oliver Jackson-Cohen is part of a generation of actors looking for something else, something that will remain imprinted in the collective memory. I talked about this with the actor you know from The Haunting - by the way, the latest season, The Haunting of Bly Manor, now on Netflix, is the ideal choice for a scary night, if you want to spend Halloween at home this year. Let's see what Oliver Jackson-Cohen has to say about Bly Manor and other things that haunt him.

"Why choose a role that's safe when you can take risks?" This is the question that came to my mind as I was documenting the interview with Oliver Jackson-Cohen. Because that's what I was gathering from the things we know about him. You first saw Oliver as Luke in The Haunting of Hill House - and now, just in time for Halloween, you can see him again alongside Victoria Pedretti in the even scarier second season, The Haunting of Bly Manor. In this adaptation of the short ghost story The Turn of the Screw by Henry James, Oliver Jackson-Cohen plays the charming and manipulative Peter Quint, a character who hides many scary secrets and… I won't give away more!

So you understand what I'm talking about: Oliver is used to playing characters haunted both by their own inner conflicts (PTSD due to childhood traumas, drug addiction, etc.) and, well, ghosts. And the answer to the question at the beginning of the text, which I did not ask out loud, was given to me while I was talking to him. Born in London, Oliver, the son of fashion designer Betty Jackson, has dedicated his entire career to a different philosophy of acting, starting from the premise that fear makes you grow, develop and get out of your comfort zone.

And that's exactly how most of his roles are. After the BBC drama Larkrise to Candleford, he starred in the Emmy Award-nominated mini-series World Without End, then in shows such as Dracula and Man in an Orange Shirt. In real life, when he "strips off" his characters, Oliver is a guy oozing charisma and sex appeal: he’s 1.91m tall and has a pair of blue eyes in which you can get really lost, an extremely attractive and a style of being (and, let’s face it, dressing) extremely cool.

So, he’s one to watch, and, as such, we invite you to read the interview he gave us exclusively for Cosmopolitan Romania, after which we found out spectacular details about the unseen parts of horror, fashion, lifestyle and what Oliver Jackson-Cohen has something to say about Bly Manor and other things that haunt him.

What made you determined, at only 6 years old, to become an actor? Simple! I saw Home Alone at the movies and suddenly I wanted to be Kevin McAllister. I just couldn't believe a child was appearing in a movie. I remember my father explaining to me that he was an actor and then I said to myself, "Well, I'll do all that, too."

Many people who discover their dream at such a young age change their minds later. How did you stay in acting?

Looking back, it was probably a stupid thought [process]. But I became fascinated by how you can disappear into another world and how you can become whoever you want. I still think that these things are what kept up my passion for acting. I love the whole process behind this job and the way you translate into reality something that is not, in fact, real. It's also been about luck, I admit - that people pay me to do that, and that's how I make a living.

You appeared in the first season of The Haunting of Hill House as Luke Crain. I was impressed with how you managed to get Luke away from the typical drug addict stereotype. How did you avoid this cliché? I have seen many portrayals of drug addicts over the years and I wanted to show what the person behind the addiction is like, the one who is not defined by this addiction. I think that's an extremely important thing. All over the world, people are struggling with drug addiction and, most of the time, they are excluded and marginalised because of this, but also because they are seen only in this way, as addicts. I didn't intend to do this with Luke. I felt that it was essential for the public to see the man in him, to see that he is someone who is really shaken inside, someone who has lost control of what is happening to him, but who is always trying to control his addiction.

As a society, we usually condemn or shun such people. We need more empathy in these cases, and these people need to receive the attention shown primarily to them, not to the addiction they suffer from.

When your work is so rigorous, so emotional, I imagine it consumes you a lot to play a character who has struggled with addictions all his life. How do you detach yourself from this intensity? I can't tell you exactly. I don't think you can, to be honest. For the series The Haunting… the filming was long and stressful for all the actors, but also for the crew. I think you have to gradually detach yourself from the story, as much as you can, when you get home, but at the same time, you have to stay in the character's shoes, because the next day you return to the set for a new round of filming. It was a demanding experience, but it was worth it.

Is there anything you wish you’d known before you started working a horror TV show? Or about a series with an intense family drama? Know that it's not that scary when you're filming. Not at all. I started working from the pre-production phase and I knew it was going to be a ghost series… and, initially, I had the impression that there was always “someone” in my Atlanta apartment. But from the moment you get on set, you realise that the series about ghosts is just another job. The coolest thing when you are part of a horror series is when you realise, in the end, that you can watch it [later] without any problems, because all the tension and panic are built up in the editing process.

I know you're a big fan of the horror genre in general. Is it an area you want to explore further? I think so. But I wouldn't say that I intended, from the beginning, specifically, to explore any certain genre. Everything is, in fact, in the characters. Always. If it's an interesting role, I definitely want it. But what I find incredible about this genre is that the dose of horror is often a metaphor for other elements of our lives. But when horror is done properly, it can affect us incredibly, which is true.

You're back to haunt us again in the second season of the Netflix anthology series, this time called The Haunting of Bly Manor. What can you tell me about the new character you play? I'm afraid I don't want to reveal too much and I'd rather you watch the show and form your own impression. All I can say is that the new series, Bly Manor, is completely different from the first, which I like. My current character, a young man named Peter, is the polar opposite of Luke, so for me, as an actor, he was wonderful. Ah, also don’t even try to watch this season at night, alone at home, because the plot is really creepy!

About The Invisible Man, another classic monster comeback, in which you play alongside Elisabeth Moss (The Handmaid's Tale), what can you tell me? The film debates the notion of ownership of a person (editor’s note: Jackson-Cohen's character is a sociopath obsessed with control, and we don't know if he terrorises his ex-girlfriend as a ghost or if he actually staged his death). I look forward to seeing how this film will be received by the public, because Leigh Whannell is an incredible screenwriter and director. He wrote a fresh story, which I find brilliant, which follows the Invisible Man in the context of connections with other characters, but also with real people. It's a very clever movie.

How would you best describe yourself using the title of a movie?

Hm… The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, the classic directed by Sergio Leone in 1966.

Are you into fashion? Yes, I really am. I was raised by my parents who worked in the fashion industry, which influenced me quite a lot over the years.

Do you wear high-fashion pieces in everyday life? Why not?!

Your mother is the designer Betty Jackson. Has he ever given you advice on clothing style?

I don't know if she gave me style advice in the true sense of the word, but it's great to talk to her about style and clothes. Her belief has always been one like "Wear something that makes you feel good,” so I adopted this perspective as well. She is an incredible woman, with a good eye for fashion, so she often helps me.

You divide your life between London and Los Angeles. How do men groom themselves in the two cities? Have you noticed different approaches?

Probably. LA is a more eccentric place in terms of style and fashion, with more pressure to that end, at least from what I've noticed. In Los Angeles, it's more important to look good physically. In London, on the other hand, it seems more important to combine clothes and accessories in a cool and smart way.

How do you stay in shape?

I honestly don’t care. I only exercise when I have to, and when I don't have to, I eat everything I can. I go to the gym if I notice that my weight is getting out of control.

What do you like to do in your free time?

To be the laziest person. Seriously. I would love to count all the hours I’ve spent sleeping or lazing around!

#oliver jackson-cohen #oliver jackson cohen #peter quint #luke crain #thobm #the haunting of bly manor #the invisible man #interviews #2020 #photo shoots #translated by me and google

36 notes · View notes

everygame · 4 years

Photo

Untitled Goose Game (Xbox One)

Developed/Published by: House House / Panic Released: 17/12/2019 Completed: 04/02/2020 Completion: Beat it, and did some of the extra achievements. Trophies / Achievements: 525/1000

I understand there are more pressing things in the world right now, but time for another round of “no, it’s the children who are wrong.” I suppose that would matter if this site had much of a reach, but it doesn’t. So I can get away with saying exactly what I feel. Although I did delete a paragraph about how Tetris 99 was actually like going to an orgy from the last review because it was… too gross.

Untitled Goose Game was a big story for a bit, memed out the wazoo. I hate it.

I think what I’m going to say is the kind of thing where people go “urgh. Just lighten up.” But frankly, fuck this game. Sure, you start it and it’s all a bit of a laugh annoying the first guy on his allotment, but your behavior in order to progress is just so shitty. In the next stage you spend a significant period of time terrorising and abusing a child.

Yes, I can hear you saying “urgh. Just lighten up.” But it’s alright that I don’t find that funny, right? I find it really unpleasantly arseholish, and I find everyone’s joyful reaction to this game at worst, totally unempathetic? Like… here we have this wee guy, out playing alone. He’s not got any pals. He’s specky. He’s got a wee plane and a football. And then you, the player, make him fall over, scare him enough that he has to call his mum, steal his things, etc. etc.

It’s horrible, and not in a “ha ha I’m playing a horrible goose!” way. It’s horrible in a way where I don’t know why you aren’t made sad when you are playing it. I was.

“Ah ha,” you say. “But what about all those games where you do lots of lovely scrummy murders? You like those. And murder is worse than making a child sad in a way that would scar him for life. Uh, probably.”

I mean, yeah. You could probably want to portray me as someone for whom “children are sacred” or whatever, but I’m not talking about something that’s at all interrogating the interior life of a child. It’s simply about abusing people for laughs, and I truly found it unpleasant once the initial shine of the game’s controls and physics wore off. I didn’t enjoy ruining people’s day as they just tried to enjoy their gardens, or a trip to the pub, either. The guy in the garden just trying to read the paper made me think of my dad. I’d kill any goose that took his slippers.

Of course, you could use that to praise this, I suppose! I mean fair play for them to humanise the characters in this game so much that I empathised with them enough to hate everything I was asked to do to them. I mean, in most games with scrummy murders our enemies are dehumanised totally, which is another conversation entirely.

So, alright. I didn’t like this at all from some sort of… moral standpoint. But also, I didn’t really like it very much from a play standpoint either? I mean it controls well. But the level design is tight in an annoying way (to me) the camera is largely zoomed in and has some terrible issues with zooming in and out wildly if you try to mitigate that by using the zoom out feature. Plus the game, as much as you’d think it would be playful, largely ask you to… do a to-do list. What’s the deal with the skeumorphic nature of that to-do list? I mean did the fucking goose write it down on some stolen paper in cursive?

I feel like--and they can say different, I’m just thinking out loud--that they felt a game like this “needed” some traditional play markers like that. Because really when you play something like, say, Noby Noby Boy you don’t have any clear things to do and it just feels like nonsense after a bit. I don’t really agree with that, but even here there’s such a nice, specific context and all of the things you do can still be done if they’re not explicitly demanded. Why not just ask us to create a level of havoc by doing the stuff we’d like to do rather than demanding we do this or that to move forward? I could have left the lonely little boy alone, then.

Will I ever play it again? Never.

Final Thought: While I’m sticking the knife in, I’m depressed that this has won a ton of awards, multiple GOTY awards, in fact, despite being a perfect example of something with no innovation what-so-ever in game design but, because it’s a bit surprising otherwise, it’s cleaned up. Once again: this game is a to-do list with pre-set events. But you get a honk button lol.

#video games #games #untitled goose game #house house #panic #text #txt #gaming #review #2019

0 notes