Trevor Jackson joined Shadow And Act’s Trey Mangum on the latest episode of the Opening Act podcast and revealed some of the biggest moments of his career.
Jackson said that before his role on American Crime as Kevin LaCroix, he was about to quit acting due to a bad experience with a casting opportunity.
“I was over it, I was sick of it. I was like, ‘I never want to act again,'” he said, adding that for one show, he auditioned at least eight to nine times before the show got recast.
“I got a call to do American Crime. My mom was like, ‘You gotta audition,'” he said. “…I didn’t even look at the script…I cold read…I’m reading off the page, not even putting nothing into it. They’re like, Oh my God, we need you to come back for network. After my audition, I was like, ‘What?’ That’s never happened to me before inside of the room.”
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His experience with SuperFly, in which he played the title role, was also another challenge he had to cross. Jackson said that the casting team originally didn’t want to consider him for the role because of his young age. But he was determined to get the role because of the influence the original 1970s film had on his father.
“I wanted to do it so badly because my dad used to make me watch it when I was too young to watch it…The way that he talked about it and wanted me to watch it that badly, that kind of connection to a project and that it stayed with him that long,” he said. “If it hit him like that, I know he’s not the only one. There’s a lot of black men out there…who were really affected by this film and it made them feel freaking fly…That’s what I was attracted to.”
Jackson said he was invited to producer Joel Silver’s home, where he learned he finally had the role.
“I remember Joel Silver called me to his house to read…I’m walking in, there’s pillars all through the house, oen of the biggest houses I’ve ever seen…and I get over to the little living room area,” he said. “…He comes in…[he] doesn’t even look up [from] his iPad and walks in the living. ‘So you wanna be be in this movie?’ I was like, ‘Yeah.’ He was like, ‘Okay, I just wanted to see you in person.’ I was like, ‘What?’ He was like, ‘I know you can do it. People have their doubts and that’s normal, but I see it and I think you can nail it.'”
Jackson can currently be seen on grown-ish and will star in the upcoming film Hate to See You Go, set for a 2022 release.
