INT: Burgess Jenkins

Last Updated on July 28, 2021

 

ARROW IN THE HEAD
INTERVIEWS
BURGESS JENKINS

 

You may
remember up and coming actor BURGESS JENKINS as the racist football
player in REMEMBER THE TITANS. If you don’t well you’ll get another shot at
retaining who the lad is via his performance in the upcoming Dark Castle
horror flick THE REAPING (now slated for a November 2006 release), starring
Hilary Swank and directed by style maniac Stephen Hopkins (Predator 2, Ghost
and Darkness). I got shot at jabbing Mr. Jenkins about the flick and here’s
what he left hooked my way!

 

Would
you call yourself a horror fan? If so what are your favorite horror movies?

 

I love a good Horror
film, but the thriller/horror crossover is more to my liking, which by the
way was one of the aspects of “The Reaping” that attracted me to it. Hmmm.
Favorites…I’d say “The Shining”, “the Ring” (scared the hell out of me),
and “Misery”.

 

You
play David Winter in the upcoming The Reaping with Hilary Swank. How long
and intricate was the auditioning process to lock that role?

 

It was
a matter of a couple weeks and a few meetings. I had originally been reading
for a different character, but when they decided to go older with that
character, the part of Hillary’s Husband was offered to me.

 

What
type of horror film are we in for with The Reaping according to you?

 

Cerebral…purely
entertaining…cheesy…LOL… certainly not cheesy. No “the Reaping” is, as I
indicated before, a horror/thriller and because of that it has a lot of
“edge of your seat moments, coupled with a plot line that has you intensely
trying to figure it out. I like to think of myself as somewhat skilled with
figuring out where a story is headed when I’m reading scripts, but the
reaping got me. I had no idea what the ending would be.

 

What
can you tell us about your part and its place in the storyline?

 

Well, originally I felt
it would be a bit more “hush hush” but all the pre-press info has detailed
parts of my character, so in short, Hillary’s character (Katherine), myself
and our daughter are Christian missionaries in Africa assisting a village
with their infirm. Through a series of events both our daughter and I are
“sacrificed” which leads to Hillary’s loss of faith in Christ. My character
and our relationship are chronicled through flashbacks and the like.

 

What
kind of preparations if any did you for the role before beforehand?

Though my role
wasn’t huge in scale, it was pivotal, so my Job was to be in touch with the
dire circumstance of the village as as well as the toll it was taking on
Katherine (Hillary). So mostly to be emotionally prepared and open to my
surroundings.

 

 

How
would you describe working with Hilary Swank as an actor?

 

What can I say, it was
joy. She is a complete pro in every sense of the word. As well as kind. she
has a warm demeanor that i believe is one of the reasons people enjoy her
work so much, it translates through her performances so well.

 

Being
that The Reaping is a horror film, did you at all have to be personally
subjected to prosthetics? If so how arduous was it for you?

 

I only had one scene
that required heavy makeup. mostly coagulated blood…and a lot of it. Its
never my favorite thing to be slathered in cold prop blood, but its
certainly not the worst experience. Besides at the end of the day it looks
pretty cool, and it just so happened that it was Halloween day, so I got
some extra mileage out of it scaring some of the kids on set…lol!

From
being on set, would you say that the special effects were handled in a
practical fashion, CGI or both?

 

Its not a big special
effects film, but they definitely brought out the big guns for the effects
where they were implemented.

 

What
was your experience in terms of working with Director Stephen Hopkins? Was
he an “actor’s director” as they say?

 

He definitely is an
actor’s director. I’ve worked with both and at least from my experience
there is no comparison. He allows the scene to unfold and then when
necessary “tweaks” in the subtle ways that bring about a full performance.

 

What would you say
was the most memorable moment of The Reaping shoot for you?

Believe it or not what
stands out was the scenery. In general it was amazing, we were filming in
remote areas of Louisiana, swampland that was not 3 miles from town looked
as if you were in another world, and some of the antebellum mansions we shot
in were a combination of beautiful and uber creepy. But what was most
impressive was the job they did with recreating the African dessert. We were
in a rock/sand quarry, and it was unbelievable. I took more pictures of that
than anything just from how impressed I was. You’d swear you were standing
in the Sudan.

 

Are
you signed on for a potential The Reaping sequel

As of yet there
is no word on a sequel, but here’s hoping.

I’d like to thank Burgess for
dropping by and wish him the best with THE REAPING. Hopefully Dark castle
will get it right this time!