Great White is a movie full of unexpected twists, suspense, and strong emotions. It’s one of those stories that makes you bite your nails waiting to know what’s next. We had the pleasure of talking with its star Aaron Jakubenko about his character Charlie and his incredible experience in this movie.
Here we go!
Before our exclusive interview with Aaron Jakubenko, some background never hurts. What is Great White about?
In GREAT WHITE, a blissful tourist trip turns into a nightmare when five seaplane passengers are stranded miles from shore. In a desperate bid for survival, the group try to make it to land before they either run out of supplies or are taken by a menacing terror lurking just beneath the surface.
TITLE: GREAT WHITE
IN THEATERS: July 16, 2021
ON DEMAND AND DIGITAL: July 16, 2021
DIRECTOR: Martin Wilson
WRITER: Michael Boughen
CAST: Katrina Bowden, Aaron Jakubenko, Kimie Tsukakoshi, Tim Kano, Te Kohe Tuhaka
RUN TIME: 91 minutes
RATING: Not Rated
GENRE: Action-Adventure/Thriller
DISTRIBUTOR: RLJE Films / Shudder
With this premise, we wanted to know if Aaron identified at some point with his character in terms of his personality and decisions.
“It’s an interesting question, because you know, as an actor, you want to believe you can play every character, but the reality is, you can usually get cast in the ones that you are more believable in. And, for me, you know, I’m an Australian grew up surrounded by the ocean, I have a love for the ocean.”
“So I definitely feel connected to Charlie, you know, I do have these carefree quality, but then, there is a need to be serious and to be focused. And, and I think that’s what Charlie’s story is about. It’s about him. Growing up, in a sense, you know, recognizing that things do require time and energy. And yes, I do [identified with his character] I definitely do. And I love playing in official.”
We love it too! Aaron just fits that role, he’s fantastic.
Great White is not an easy movie to bring to life, it has many scenes of tension and action, as well as some moments of anguish that only put your heart in your throat. But what was the biggest challenge for Aaron when it came to putting himself in Charlie’s shoes?
“The biggest challenge…I mean, firstly, filming on the water was very challenging, it’s probably more challenging than expected. We were in in coring pour, so you can’t even see maybe like two feet away from you. So that’s really tricky. But in regards to him as a person, you will actually this character, past characters I felt further from, I felt more distance, and I’ve had to work a lot harder”, he shared.
“This guy, it’s so a lot truer to sort of my experience in life. So the challenges were more so the physical stuff, you know, physically doing, what he did was, was tougher, you hold your breath for close to two minutes, in some cases, just so that they can get the shot. It’s a lot of work on that side”, he added.
We wanted to dig a little deeper into this topic and find out which particular scene Aaron had the hardest time shooting.
“Yeah, difficult for me, personally, would have been being underwater during the underwater scenes because the debris, so that brings its own challenges, that’s for sure. But for the actual film, one of the toughest things, which was hilarious, but also not hilarious, because it slows us down was…”
“We were all in the plane one day, it had been craned into the ocean, and it’s not a working plane. So it definitely has its struggles there. We had our safety team, by us at all times. So we’re totally fine. But the plane may have started sinking for real. And we were all on it. And started filling up with water, that was in real life. We had to scramble, and we’re all jumping off the thing. We’re all helping each other. And it was, honestly, it was a memory that I will never forget”, he comments.
Wow! Definitely that will kept us with a lump in our throats.
Great White is a suspenseful story and it only attracts you and hooks you, you want to know what happens the next moment. So we are curious to know why Aharon said “yes” to this role.
“Yeah, yeah. I do love the horror genre. I mean, it’s fantastic. But for me, what really drew my attention and what made me really want to do this is that it was a character piece. It’s a study of human behavior. For me, my favorite films, are the ones where we have studies of human behavior. Why did this person behave this way in this moment? Or why is this relationship like this, what’s blocking their relationship from blossoming into what it possibly could be or what’s making have really horrific, horrendous relationships, all those sort of things are what I’m interested in.”
“And, and when I spoke to Martin [Wilson] leading up to the film, they were the same things that he was interested in. He was interested in these characters, he always said that you could take out the shots, and they should feel the film. And, for me, that was really exciting to me. Because as a performer, as an actor, it really is about the characters. You know, so whether you’re reacting to certain scenarios, it’s what the characters have gone through that make it interesting”, he tell us.
We are glad that Aaron Jakubenko joined this crazy, different and wonderful adventure. It’s just a story you had to watch.
Great White has quite a few scenes that left me like “wow, how could that happen?!” So we wanted to know what scene left him speechless.
“The most shocking scene that I was like wow…I don’t want to get away the most shocking scene, but it’s a shock film. So you can imagine what what you’re going to find there. But, I will say some of those more shocking films were so much fun to film. I like this one where, you know, not giving away too much, but when that thing is flipped… that was just so much fun.”
“I was like going into a carnival riding. I was getting freaked out by that. So that was a lot of fun. But for me, again, what happened after those moments, and even before is what I found most interesting, the events leading up to it, the fear leading up to it. And then the pain, the great loss that followed.”
That was definitely one of the most shocking scenes for us too!
Photo courtesy of RLJE Films and Shudder.
You already know that we love to follow the careers of the artists we like and Aaron Jakubenko is definitely one of them, so what will his next project be?
“I just don’t have anything lined up at the moment. I’ve been renovating my house, which has been fun. And I’ve got two exciting projects that are potentially happening at the moment, but nothing is locked in. So we’ll see I’ve got my fingers crossed on top. So we’ll see how it goes.”
He is amazing, funny and charming. The interview just flowed wonderfully and it was so easy to talk to him about this movie and what it meant to him. You could feel through his words how much he loves this movie and how much he loved being a part of this adventure.
Talking with Aaron was absolutely great and I hope to be able to speak with him again in his future projects because he is full of talent and I’m sure he has many successes to come.
He deserves them all.
Do you like the interview with Aaron Jakubenko? Do you want to see Great White? Feel free to share with us in the comments below!
Great White is available In Theaters, On Demand and Digital July 16, 2021.
