A former child star and then a teen heartthrob in the late 90s (courtesy Dawson’s Creek), Canadian actor Joshua Jackson has come a long way and now stars in the Golden Globe winning TV series The Affair. He talks about the show’s intricate storyline
How do you describe what The Affair isIJ
I usually describe the The Affair in two parts. The easy part is obviously the title. It’s about an affair, centered on four characters, or really 10-15 characters, but a man and a woman who make that choice in their life to step outside their relationship. But then what’s it’s really about, the more interesting part, is the idea that each of us has our own version of the truth. We all live in our own story. And our show will constantly tell you the man’s narrative and then the women’s narrative. And sometimes they join up and sometimes they don’t. Because, as anybody who’s been in a relationship will tell you, a lot of things depend on the eyes of the observer, I guess. And so that’s really the central concept of our show, is that there is no objective truth. Nobody is actually right. You just live your own life.
Then how do we know whom to root forIJ
Well, you’ll choose. That really becomes your job, as the audience, to choose, and I hope, I think all of us hope that your allegiance will shift depending on what it is you are watching. Because there is no objective truth, because we’re not dictating to you who’s right or who’s wrong, you ultimately have to choose who it is you feel most sympathetic towards.
But how do we know what’s trueIJ
Well, that’s the point. You’re not supposed to know what’s true. You have to choose. The central concept of this show is that it expects the audience to have an opinion. It’s a lean forward show, not a sit back show. It expects the audience to be engaged enough to be making those choices for themselves rather than simple, sort of light entertainment.
As an actor, when you get the script, you must ask, how do you play an enigmaIJ
Neither of those two storylines are told from my perspective. So there is definitely a layer that makes it more complicated because you have to see your character though somebody else’s eyes. However, that being said, I’m eight years into a relationship. I’ve absolutely been in those conversations where something at quotidian as like, where did you put the car keys, can be remembered completely differently by two different people. And so, all of our characters are, as imagined by a storyteller, telling their own version of a story. So I tend to gloss over the darker parts and remember only the things that cast me in a favorable light. And so that’s part of the story we are telling.
Can you talk about how Montauk is another character in the showIJ
Montauk is a central character in the show. The idea of this place and it means something, just like the metanarrative of our show, Montauk means something different to everybody who is a part of our story. So, on the Noah side it’s a golden cage, I guess. You know, it’s this beautiful space, but when he’s there he’s shackled to his family and his in-laws and they provide a tremendous existence and yet it’s completely suffocating for him. For Alison, I think, it’s that in exactly the opposite way. There’s nothing glitzy or gilded about it, but she’s also suffocated by this space and the baggage and the memories that come with it. And so the town, the setting, the environment of Montauk is sort of the central character of our show really because it becomes the framing device that all of the rest of the story takes place in.
Can you share some facts about ColeIJ
Cole is Alison’s husband and they are, or they were, young lovers, and he’s part of this large ranching family and has very deep roots into Montauk. In a way that is only really possible here on the East Coast. And they’ve suffered through a tremendous tragedy together and are now in this place in life where they’re kind of going through the motions of their relationship and neither one of them either knows how or is capable of — I don’t know how you get past something like losing a child, but absorbing that and moving forward. They are just not in a happy or healthy place inside of their own relationship or, frankly, each one of them individually.
Does Cole have a temperIJ
Cole has a temper but when Alison tells her version of the story his temper is a less terrifying thing because she remembers him in a certain light as the man in her life. And I don’t think he is abusive, but when Noah remembers him without the shadings of the good parts — he does not see a monster, but a dark person.
Why do you love AlisonIJ
Because Alison represents to Cole the thing he could not tame. And I think that sort of the central dysfunction of their relationship is that he never wanted to leave this place. She wanted to leave that place, and his making her stay is how he exerts power over her. That’s why he loves her.
What do you think of Noah (played by Dominic West)IJ
I think it’s a brilliant character. The thing that attracted me right in the very beginning is that there is a simple way of telling the story where you make it easy for an audience member, for a reader, for an actor to make the choices. That there must be a reason, right, and his wife must be a shrew, or I might be a wife beater, or whatever it is. Our story is trying to be much more difficult than that. Each one of our characters makes sense. Noah’s wife makes sense. She’s a lovely wife. They have four beautiful children. They have a good life together. He has a good life. He’s just reached a place where he’s no longer satisfied. He’s suffocated by this sort of inertia of being a father, being a husband and he makes an objectively bad choice, which hopefully you will, as an audience member, go along with to realise that life is messy. That it is not as easy as the simple choice of like, our heroes must be good therefore that’s our story.
What is it that you want audiences to come away withIJ
Honestly, what I want audiences to come away with is discomfort. The show, if it’s working, doesn’t make choices for you, so you have to decide where you stand with these people, because they are telling you their own narrative. Normally you would be able to say objectively, this is the truth, so I root for this person or I root against this person. But in our narrative there is no objective truth. At the end of the episode you should feel disquieted because you will find yourself shading towards some character probably and once you do that you’re absorbing their choices so you have to get right with the morality of those choices.