Posted in: Exclusive, Interview, Movies | Tagged: Aaron Jakubenko, exclusive, Head Count, interview, ryan kwanten, SHOUT! Studios

Head Count: Aaron Jakubenko on Adjusting to Production's Frantic Pace

Aaron Jakubenko (Great White) spoke to Bleeding Cool about working in the Burghart Brothers' action thriller Head Count from Shout! Studios.

Actor Aaron Jakubenko has been developing a commanding presence on screen, especially on television, since emerging from the Australian entertainment scene, which includes his memorable roles in Conspiracy 365, Spartacus, Neighbors, Neighbours vs. Zombies, Roman Empire, The Shanara Chronicles, and Tidelands. While the pandemic has slowed productions throughout Hollywood, he's emerged as a leading man in the survival thriller Great White (2021) and his latest in the cerebral thriller Head Count from brothers Ben and Jacob Burghart, making their directorial theatrical debut. The film follows an escaped prisoner, Kat (Jakubenko), who finds his revolver pointed at his head by an unknown assailant. Each bullet is a puzzle piece revealing a wilder story. Jakubenko spoke to Bleeding Cool under the indie provisional deal with SAG-AFTRA about exploring the Burgharts' headspace, adjusting to the frantic pace of production, and costars Melanie Zanetti and Ryan Kwanten.

How 'Head Count' Has Become a Coen Brothers' Like Experience

Bleeding Cool: What intrigued you about 'Head Count?'
Jakubenko: I had a friend working with one of the producers to try and find some actors for it. He introduced me to the producers, Tristan [Barr], David [Gim], and the Burghart brothers. I was going over Jake and Ben's material and what they've shot in the past. One of their last short films was beautiful cinematically. It was gorgeous, so I was interested in that. The pitch for this, with all the movie references, was fascinating, wonderful, amazing movies like 'Blood Simple' (1984), 'After Hours' (1985), and all these incredible films. They drew a lot of inspiration from the Coen brothers. I liked their style and vision; they've done a fantastic job executing that.

How does this compare to your earlier work?
It's different in many ways and in the sense that many things I've done over the last ten years had somewhat of a [limited] budget. You might shoot one scene all day, giving you more time to play. This was fast. The whole crew was incredible. The production designer, Cory [Hinesley], I think this was her first feature, and she was making these incredible sets overnight. It was amazing that all the costume designers were incredible to see how fast-paced they were. When it comes to that, who [my character] Kat is and who this story is, it's different because it's focused on this one guy's journey. There's that element of it being his version of it and how he remembers it [laughs]. Sometimes, things might be too heightened, and other times, not as much. It reminds me of growing up when you flirt with people for the first time, and all you have is, "This girl likes me a little more than maybe she did." In some ways, Kat has a bit of that element; he's retracing his steps. He has a heightened sense of it, and that's so much fun to play with. It was an exciting journey, and I enjoyed that part.

Can you break down working with Melanie, Ryan, and your other costars, and what were they like?
They are truly wonderful people. I've never met Ryan before. It's funny; they are both Australian, so I wasn't expecting to have other Australians as a trio over in Kansas while filming. That was a surprise, but it was a lot of fun. Ryan was such a lovely, grounded guy. I'll never forget one night we were doing a night shoot, and I was looking across at him. He's sitting barefoot, eating a bell pepper. We call them "capsicums," he had a bell pepper and read the book, and I'm like, "This guy is just so chill and grounded."

[Ryan] flipped that for his character and brought this wild energy of a character who ends up being so fun on screen. He was fantastic; I loved working with him and as a human. Melanie is dedicated, sweet, and an incredible artist and performer. In some scenes, we were in this whirlwind of how fast we had to shoot. Some of our more intimate scenes were in the middle of the back end of the day, which was quite busy. We had to stick together, try to support each other, and craft this journey for ourselves. She's again an incredible human, and I'm lucky to have worked with them both.

Was there any sequence that stood out to you or a difficult scene?
The whole thing was fast, and before I signed with the brothers, they were like, "You're aware how fast this is going to be, right? We need to make sure we're hiring someone who can keep up with that sort of pace, and nothing can prepare you for how fast this will be." They were doing like 40 different setups a day. It was something wild that I don't know what they put in the water out in Kansas. The whole team was amazing, and they brought it from the camera and lighting teams to every department. Any challenging scenes, we got through them. So many things were challenging because they had more extras or had this or that. The directors did a good job of leading everybody on this journey. We had a lot of fun.

Shout! Studios, Continuance Pictures, and Method Media's Head Count, which also stars Chris Blysma, Addam Bramich, Polaris Banks, and Cinnamon Shultz, is in theaters and on demand.

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