Jason Clarke is having a moment. Within a two-week span, he’ll star in Apple TV thriller series The Last Frontier (premiered Oct. 10), Hulu drama Murdaugh: Death in the Family (Oct. 15) and reunite with his Zero Dark Thirty director Kathryn Bigelow for her big Netflix film, A House of Dynamite, which hit select theaters on Oct. 10 and will debut on Netflix on Oct. 24.
What does this packed streaming schedule mean for Clarke? Mainly, he has to do a shitload of press — sorry Bo, add The Hollywood Reporter to that list.
It is the Murdaugh drama, the one in which the “Bo” term of endearment is used liberally, for which Clarke is doing most of these interviews. The Erin Lee Carr/Michael D. Fuller-created scripted series is a prestige-TV awards play, and Clarke — and his body — have earned your consideration. Clarke put on 40 pounds the hard way to play disbarred South Carolina attorney and convicted murderer Alex Murdaugh.
“I remember going to dinners with him when we were in prep, and he just was just housing everything,” Fuller told The Hollywood Reporter. “He’s like, “Order some more of that,” or “Order some more of that,” you know? And like, “Does anybody want dessert?”
“I wore tracksuit pants for six months,” Clarke told THR. “Nothing else fit.”
The tracksuits masked (some of) the weight but not the fatigue, poor circulation and back pain. It was “unbearable,” Clarke said. “Your body can’t deal with it. You just kind of panic.”
It was all so uncomfortable, Clarke didn’t want to go out in public. The dyed-red eyebrows didn’t help.
“To watch Jason put on that hair every day, to do the makeup and the skin and everything — you look at the man and he’s almost, to me, unrecognizable,” Carr said. “So there would be some days where I was like, ‘My days are really hard.’ And then I look at him, and I was like, ‘Wooo! Alright, [at least] I’m not having to eat banana splits four times a day.’ Because you think you like it [until the second one].”
Clarke says he has since lost about 38 of those pounds — by the time this story publishes, perhaps more — by, primarily, “not eating much.” Like pretty much every weight loss journey, diet and exercise go hand in hand. That’s true here too, though Clarke says his doctor still doesn’t want him doing much cardio. The weight comes off before the cholesterol comes down.
“You destroy your metabolism,” Clarke said. “I’d finished The Last Frontier and I was in great shape. I had to destroy it. It was horrible.”
You’d need to be in great shape to do The Last Frontier, which is basically Con Air set in the Alaskan wilderness. And maybe a little crazy.
“Jason’s a lunatic!” the series’ co-creator Jon Bokenkamp told THR. “Riding horses, crashing snowmobiles, driving dogsleds on the side of a mountain … the guy’s a trooper and up for anything.”
It was a different kind of beating on the body.
“He took plenty of bruises during the action scenes but never once complained,” fellow co-creator Richard D’Ovidio told THR.
Well maybe he did a little bit when we spoke.
“Of course there’s injuries, dude!” Clarke said when I asked. “The shit hurts.”
Jason Clarke in The Last Frontier.
Apple TV+
The shit’s also appreciated by his fellow producers. (Oh yeah: Clarke also produces The Last Frontier and executive produces Murdaugh.)
“When he’s not throwing himself into the physical side of the job, he’s just a damned good actor and an incredible partner,” Bokenkamp added. “Jason wants everyone to succeed, which means there’s no room for drama. If we have an issue, we confront it head on, in scripts, on set, behind the scenes. That kind of no-nonsense mentality cuts right through all the nonsense and puts the focus on the work. I couldn’t have asked for a better partner.”
Jon, Richard is right there.
“Jason reminds me of those powerhouse actors from the 70s — guys like James Caan, Robert Duvall and Gene Hackman,” D’Ovidio said. “It was hard to find a note to give him, not because he wouldn’t take it, but because from the moment he stepped on set, he was Frank Remnick.”
