Jackson Rathbone Dives Into 'Jasper's Backstory' For 'Eclipse'

Jackson Rathbone gave some details on Jasper, and how his powers will be revealed on-screen.

MTV: Are there training scenes in "Eclipse" along these lines?

Rathbone: It's interesting; there's a lot of cool scenes where Jasper trains the Cullen family on how to fight the newborns. He gets to train Emmett — and Emmett is a born fighter — so he's telling Emmett all these techniques, and Emmett thinks he could just best Jasper [during their sparring]. Jasper ends up getting the best of him, because it's a war mentality, not just a street brawl. It's about thinking ahead; it's a chess game.

MTV: Cool. Will we see the scene where Jasper gets bitten?

Rathbone: Oh yeah, we have to see that. It's going to be great. I've been studying up a lot on the Civil War and that era. It really was a crazy time. It was all-out war on our own turf and between countrymen. That's terrible. It's an interesting time to see when Jasper was actually human and what his human form was and, when he gets turned, how intense and how dark he is. Then [we'll see] his realization of what he's become, him finding Alice and being redeemed by love.

MTV: And is that the first time we'll see your powers?

Rathbone: Actually, in "New Moon," we get a little glimpse. Inside the school.

MTV: How was it to film scenes where you were influencing the emotions of those around you?

Rathbone: It was fun. I just played it very naturally, like, if you have these special powers — like Edward has the ability to read minds — it's not like he's going to [get overly dramatic] and go, "You're hungry!" No, it's a natural thing, like the human ability to smell or to hear is a natural ability. To affect the mental state of anyone around you [I depicted Jasper as] keeping it all right in the eyes. Just thinking it and transferring it through the eyes, which are the windows to the soul — even to the soulless.

MTV: And will it be clear to the audience that this emotion-manipulation is going on?

Rathbone: In "New Moon," when we see it? It's pretty obvious.

via MTV