Brandon T. Jackson's showy supporting role as Alpa Chino in Tropic Thunder two years ago took Hollywood by surprise -- the young actor wasn't a real-life rapper or an Apatow troupe member, so who exactly was he? Turn out Jackson is a Chris Tucker-idolizing comedian from a religious family in Detroit, and he'll only increase his profile this week with the release of Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, where he plays best friend Grover to the titular Percy.
During a very busy Percy Jackson press tour that's found him criss-crossing the country, the 25-year-old actor made a quick call to Movieline to discuss action figures, green screen, and the one thing about comedy that he'd like to stop doing.
Is this the first time you've signed a contract for not just one movie, but several?
Yeah, first time. First potential franchise. It's cool, because I get to do action and all that, but also relationship stuff and comedy, too.
Well, I'm assuming you learned how to do all the action stuff from Tropic Thunder. Is that old hat for you now?
It was a little like that. The difference is the CGI, though. On Tropic Thunder, you had explosions, fire, all that...here, it's just CGI.
Is it kind of exciting to basically do all this pretend stuff in front of a green screen and hope it all looks good later?
Yeah, that's exactly what it was. It isn't just that, though -- I'm like the only young guy around my age and demographic working with CGI. You don't see many other young actors of my type doing that, so it's kind of cool. I'm being able to explore new things, you know what I mean?
You're playing a thirtysomething satyr who's undercover as a high school age human. How does that work?
He's 16 in satyr years. They're mystical creatures that are half goat and half man, and hormonally driven at the same time; the way I played him was just very cool, and with a lot of heart. I haven't seen any satyrs before, except in Narnia. [Laughs]
So I'd imagine you were basically working from scratch.
What they did is they gave me these little pins with dots on them, and then for the movie, they drew over me based on the motion of my legs. I had to perform a certain way, so I'm on my tippy-toes the whole time in these special shoes so that it looks like I have hind legs. It was really cool.
Did you get an action figure out of it?
Action figures, toys, games -- all of it.
Does it resemble you?
I don't know -- I gotta see it again. My Tropic Thunder action figure looks just like me, so we'll see if they get this one right.
How much improv do you like to do in a role?
Depends on the director. If the director trusts me, I'll go there, but sometimes I'll clash if I keep pushing it and they want me to stick to the script. Chris was for it, though. He was very collaborative.
Your dad is a bishop and your mom is a pastor. Does that have any influence on the projects you pick?
Not really. I mean, I try to do something for everybody. It's like being a politician. [Laughs]
When you moved to LA, you worked as an extra on movies like 8 Mile and Ali. What did you learn doing that?
I learned that it's long hours and a lot of concentration. It's an art form, you know what I mean? You have to get into that character, and it's one of those things you have to work hard at and train for.
Do you still do stand-up?
Sometimes, when it gets dry.
One of your stand-up heroes is Chris Tucker, who's worked exclusively on Rush Hour movies for the last several years. Do you want to be that particular?
Do I want that career path? No. I want the type of movies Will Smith does. First, I wanted to do action and adventure and I've done it, so now I want to do comedy. It takes people a little while to catch on, but they will. I want to do something for an older crowd, something edgier and sexier. I don't want to just be the young guy that's just yelling into the camera. [Laughs]