Jack Huston. The very name makes one’s ears prick up, especially those of classic film fans. Is “Jack Huston” part of Hollywood royalty and THE famed Huston family? The answer is an emphatic, yes. His father Tony is an Oscar nominee. His aunt is Oscar-winner Anjelica. His uncle, actor Danny Huston. His grandfather John, is a double Oscar winner for Best Director and Best Writing – Screenplay for “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre”. His great-grandfather Walter, is a Best Supporting Oscar winner when directed by his son John in “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre.”
But Jack Huston was raised away from the brights lights and paparazzi of a Hollywood long changed since its glory days when Walter and John were at the top of their game. Thanks to Tony marrying British aristocrat Lady Margot Lavinia Cholmondeley, Jack, born in 1982, spent his early years on his maternal grandfather’s estate in the countryside of Norfolk in England, being a normal little boy living in a 19th century five-bedroom farmhouse on the property, riding daily, going shrimping in the local bay, camping. But at age 6, those acting genes kicked in with Jack’s first role – a school production of “Peter Pan.” That was all it took to spark his interest in the family craft. He continued to work somewhat steadily in film and stage once he hit his 20’s, finally hitting “name recognition” when cast in “Boardwalk Empire”.
LISTEN: Jack Huston talks the role of a lifetime
Now fast forward to 2016 and BEN-HUR with the role of Prince Judah Ben-Hur seemingly tailor-made for him given his lineage from both father and mother, as well as his upbringing. It begs the question as to whether or not Huston’s own family legacy and his knowledge and appreciation for the history of cinema would prove a deterrent to assuming the role. Quite simply. No.
“It’s really interesting because I’m someone who loved the ‘59 version and I know the [Heston] family, funny enough, very well. That, while being a story about revenge, and Charlton Heston approached the role in a much more sort of manly way, when you first find him the rivalry was already there and it turned into the revenge story.” But thanks to screenwriters John Ridley and Keith R. Clarke, any trepidation about tackling this legendary role faded away. “This, which was so lovely, was, when I got the script, I read it and I was like, ‘Oh! It’s completely been reimagined and it’s taken back so that actually I found the character in the beginning was sort of a lost boy. And through circumstance and the betrayal and the rest of it, he sort of does exactly do that – hit rock bottom. You see such a transformation right through to the end. And also, you’re given this really lovely backstory that these two brothers loved each other in such a strong way. You actually see that backstory between the two of us.”
Aiding in his immersion into the role of Judah Ben-Hur was the casting of Toby Kebbell. “It was great because Toby is such a great actor and we’re really good friends, so we really worked on that because that, in a sense, has got to carry you through all the way to the end of the movie.”
Describing himself as “someone who loves what I do in every aspect of life”, it was important to Huston that he “turn up to work everyday really excited and ready to do the work and really put it in there. This movie, I can’t tell you what a dream it was because it was the most collaborative group of people I’ve ever had the opportunity to work with. There was no bad idea. There was never a moment ‘just do what you’re told.’ It was a real moment of creation from every side and that was very much led by Timur [Bekmambetov] who from the beginning, I went for a meeting with, and he just said ‘Tell me about it’, and just wrote notes. That was it. He wanted everyone’s opinion. I was like, ‘What a beautiful way of dealing with something like this. Sometimes it’s right, sometimes it’s wrong, but we’ve got to hear it, we’ve got to hear everything. That’s sort of a dream.’ And then two studios [Paramount and MGM] who couldn’t have been more supportive, taking a jump with me.”
LISTEN: Jack Huston talks Legacy and Legend
Something else that added to the experience of BEN-HUR was the history of the very location of shooting, Cinecitta Studios in Rome, the very place where his grandfather filmed “The Bible” in 1966. “What a place! When you find out you’re playing Judah Ben-Hur, that’s a pretty special day. But then you find out where you are going to be shooting it, too! And it really is special to me because you feel the history at every turn in that studio. It hasn’t changed much. You’re on the sound stages and you know who filmed on these sound stages. You know the actors, the titans who were there before you. In a way that sort of carries you through each day. This was a brutal shoot. We really went there with it and I wouldn’t have had it any other way. But it’s always nice when you sort of feel like one’s ancestors. . .and in the greatest sense of ancestors . . . I’m talking about all those people were in a sense watching down on you.”
Call it the alignment of the stars or the divine intervention that played in this opportunity for him, Huston excitedly continued on. “[T]he great thing was that we shot it there and my make-up guy Luigi Rocchetti, his father worked on the original BEN-HUR! His first film set he ever went on to, not the original, the ‘59 version, was that BEN-HUR. It was the first one he ever went onto. There were lots of guys from the crew who had been a part of that. That’s such a cool thing because it was such an homage to the great book and the idea that we’re bringing it to a new audience. It was a very special time.” Notable is that not only does Rocchetti have ties to Cinecitta and BEN-HUR, but so does costume designer Varya Avdyushko whose grandfather worked on the ‘59 BEN-HUR, and stuntman Giorgio Antonini who whips Huston as Judah Ben-Hur in the galley scenes just as his father whipped Heston.
Never thinking he’d ever get the role of Judah Ben-Hur, Huston is reflective on his good fortune, citing his “passion and love” for the role and the project as the lynchpin in his casting. “ You look for great characters. I think you’d be hard-pressed to find a better one. And as an actor you want to go on a journey and this takes you there. Whatever you say, you can’t not go there for this role. That’s the best part about the job; when you find something which you feel you can fully immerse yourself in, in every way, and actually go on a journey of self-exploration yourself. I felt like that was what happened.”
BONUS LISTEN: Gallows Humor in the Galleys – Jack Huston
