Soap Opera Weekly

Why Jonathan Jackson Won't Have Sex Until He's Married     Whether or not Liz and Lucky sleep together, Jonathan Jackson plans to wait until he's married to have sex. While he doesn't feel responsible for the choices his character makes, and rejects the notion that viewers would or should base their own life decisions on what they see on television, he welcomes the opportunity to use his fame to let others know that they have options about premarital sex.
    "It's a decision I've made, to wait until I'm married to sleep with somebody I want to spend the rest of my life with and have kids with," says Jackson, who turns 17 next month, and graduated from high school last fall. "I think it shows more respect for yourself and for the other person. I don't think sex was really meant to be something that you compared to eveyone you did it with. I think it was meant to be with one person, and you can only really compare it to that experience. I think that's kinda the way God intended it, and for me, I want to follow down that road. I'm not going to condemn anyone for making other choices, but for me it just seems that the benefits are richer, and it makes more sense to me in the long run. And I would be more pleased to find a woman who wanted to wait till she was married also."
    Jackson knows that his take on premarital sex might surprise people who hear and read about the lesser lifestyles of other actors (His critically acclaimed role as Michelle Pfeiffer's son in the recently
released film The Deep End Of The Ocean upped his status among Hollywood's young high-profile stars). "They probably think that if you're on TV then you're automatically just sleeping around, getting a bunch of women and things like that," he says. "I guess that just makes it even more fun to tell people that it doesn't have to be that way. Really, the way I live my life is going to be more important than what I say, because I can say all I want, but if I don't live it then it has no meaning. I really think people are hungry to see another side of the possibilities in life. I don't think they only want to see people screwing up their lives."
    Jackson credits his family with helping to shapr his ideology. "We talked about sex when I was really little," he says. "I was the youngest, too, so they had already gone through it. I was probably 7, and I understood what I needed to know about it, and it was just a constant thing. Every year if I had questions they would be completely open to talking about it. It's the same thing with drugs, with any kind of touchy subject. There was always a very open dialogue with my parents, and that was definitly a huge help to me."
    Jackson hopes Liz and Lucky's dilemma will encourage other teens to discuss sex with their parents. "Regardless of whether I think it should, TV does influence people, and if it was a perfect world, in my opinion, people would be able to watch TV and then discuss things with their family, figure out what they think is the right thing to do regardless of what was on TV. I don't think that goes on as much as it should, and I think people do kinda get influenced by what they see. That's kind of a touchy subject for me, because I don't think it is [television's] responsibility to teach, because there are people with different standards, and there's no one standard that the whole world
goes by."

Will They or Won't They?     Alone together in NYC, where they are forced to share a hotel room, Liz and Lucky are overwhelmed with a desire for greater physical intimacy this week on GH.
    Sexual tension has been building since their Valentine's Day commitment ceremony. Even before Liz and Lucky leave for NY, ''they start getting a little hot and heavy with the kissing,'' Rebecca Herbst, Elizabeth says. ''Then they both just kinda decide to take a breather. Liz and Lucky, for being 16, 17 years old are, like the brightest kids I've ever known. Their common sense, their maturity level, is way advanced, so if they continue with the touchy-feely-huggy-kissy thing, it's going to turn into something a little more dangerous. It's more like, you know, it's getting late and I better go home, yeah, you better go home; yeah, we better go home. It's kind of an understood thing, but we really don't talk about it.''
    They do confide in Nik and Emily about their growing physical attraction, however. Nik responds by giving his brother a condom ''to protect him,'' headwriter Bob Guza says. ''Lucky and Nik are closer than thay have ever been. They really are brothers now, so this is in no way Nik trying to say, 'Go for it, bro.' It's, 'You make your choices, and if you do, here's a way to protect yourself and the person you care for.'''
    Finding out about Nik and Kat's affair has sparked Liz and Lucky's curiosity about the status of their own sexual relationship. ''I don't think he is judging his brother's sexuality; I think he is intrigued by it and pressured by it, which is why he takes the condom,'' executive producer Wendy Riche
adds, ''Which is what Lucky ultimately has to face. That's what every kid today, yesterday and tomorrow is faced with: Do I want it, or do I think I should be doing it now? If I want it, is it really the right thing to be doing at this point in my life? If Im going to do it, am I being responsible and using protection? If Im using protection, is it the right kind of protection? So we have the opportunity with these beloved characters who have struggled together and who have loved together and now are exploring sexuality together to reach an audience that doesn't really want to be preached to, but wants to feel it.''
    Liz tells Emily that ''she's ready to do more that just kissing, but she's not sure whether she wants to make love to him or not,'' Herbst says.
    ''She really wants to please Lucky,'' Riche notes, ''she does not want to let him down, and she embodies the pressure that a lot of young girls feel, which is to love and be loved means you've got to deliver.''
    Although she confides in Emily, Lucky is really her sounding board. ''That's what's so neat about these two,'' Guza adds. ''They are so close and they can talk about anything because they have been intimate in so many other ways- her opening up to him in the aftermath of the rape and in the monthes after that. Dealing with the assault on her was some of the most intimate stuff two people can ever do with one another. They are very straight with each other and are each other's talk-to.''
    Liz'z rape weighs heavily on Lucky as he grapples with his conflicted feelings about sleeping together. ''Its not just teen-age hormone instinct,'' Jonathan Jackson (Lucky) explains. ''It's that, with a lot of love and respect and friendship and feelings he has for Elizabeth. So he's pretty much feeling every good emotion he can feel for a partner. At the same time, its overwhelming for him. I think the sexual tension just adds another level to something he's never fet tho that extreme before. A lot of things are running through his head: not wanting to scare her or take advantage of her because of the rape, and also his own feelings about if he wants to sleep with her.''
    Something else also preying on Lucky's mind is his visit to Tammy several months ago, and he decided to tell Liz about it. ''I think Elizabeth is always a little more forgiving than she needs to be,'' Herbst says. ''I mean, she has a right to be upset, but more that anything she just wants to know all the facts. It's like, well, why? Tell me what came out of it. All she can remember is him coming back to her on the docks that day saying, 'My appointment was cut short; lets go to the carnival.' He had this look in his eye, which she didn't quite understand then, but now realizes that when he first realized that he loved her. So she kinda overlooks the fact that he went to a prostitute. Part of it is because he has been like this incredible rock for her. You can hardly expect any guy, a guy his age, to do for you what he did in terms of helping her through the rape. He's almost been like a brother or a young father or an uncle. And he's treated her with the utmost respect. So her first
thoughts are not you betrayed me, you cheated on me, why would you want her and not me. She doesn't think like that because the reslationship is so very innocent and honest.''
    Riche and Guza believe the fact that they are ''regular kids'' makes Liz and Lucky the ideal teen characters to use in ordet to reach young viewers with an important social message. ''They are young people, but they are old beyond their age - very wise souls,'' Guza says. ''She spent an enormous amount of time trying to deal with a horrible act of violence, and she is physically and emotionally ready to be intimate. He lives on his own, has travelled around the world, at the age of 9 he travelled into town on his own. Arguably, he's 16 going on 36. It's not like these are street kids who are irresponsible and deeply, deeply in love witn each other. So the question of how they deal with the option of making love for the first time is very, very interesting - what happens whey you take a couple like that who are so connected and you bring up the question of sexuality as opposed
to a couple who weren't as connected and would be talking to other people and pretending one thing to each other and something else with somebody else. That's not this dynamic at all. Liz and Lucky don't play games with one another.''
    ''The purity of their love is exactly what raises the question of will they or won't they,'' Riche adds. ''It's not a given that they will because they love each other.''

50 Most Beautiful People Q: What is the most beautiful man-made thing, and the most beautiful natural thing you have ever seen?Natural: "Seeing any mother and child together in a loving way. Anytime I see that sight it's special to me. I think that's the core of what the whole big picture is about."
Man-Made: "Any baseball stadium. I think they're really cool, whether it's a Little League park in my hometown or a major-league ballpark. I love the whole aura that comes over the place when there are thousands of people in the stands watching the same thing. it's a great energy."

Guns and Robots     Jonathan Jackson (Lucky, General Hospital) doesn't hold the honors for most unique costume in his family. "My brother, Richard, was a baked potato. We wrapped him in tin foil," Jonathan says. But Jonathan did sport one that scared the heck out of his neighbors one year.    "I dressed up as Kevin Costner's character in Silverrado, a cowboy," he notes. "I had two guns. When people opened their doors, I'd say, 'Trick or treat', and shoot my cap guns. I freaked a lot of them out. Actually, it wasn't really smart, because a lot of people wouldn't give me candy after I'd just scared them to death."
    Tyler Christopher (Nikolas, GH) was "the coolest kid in town" the year his dad made him a robot costume "out of that tubing for dryer outlets," Tyler says. "It was this whole aluminum suit with lights that it up when I moved. I looked like the guy from Lost in Space."
    There was only one drawback: walking. "It was pretty hard when you're covered from head to toe in aluminum," Tyler says with a laugh. "But I was a kid, so I manged. I walked miles in that suit."

Applause, Applause: Jonathan Jackson, Outstanding Performer for the week of Sept. 7 10-6-98     This week on general Hospital, Lucky -- estranged now from Luke and Laura -- did battle with the urge that separates men from boys, and attempted to lose his virginity by having sex with a hooker. Jonathan Jackson -- without Anthony Geary and Genie Francis, the co-stars he has publicly lauded as his mentors -- stepped up to the plate and hit a home run.    There have been a few weeks in the past several months when Jackson was a prime contender for accolades in this column. Mostly, these performances were in scenes Lucky shared with Luke and Laura. While the strength of Jackson's presence and response made him more than simply a prop in those raw and seditious parent/child encounters, the thrust of those scenes truly belonged to Geary and Francis, who can talk into a paper bag and give a viewer goose bumps.
    There wasn't one false note in this young actor's performance from the moment Lucky arrived at Tammy the hooker's room until he left and leaned ever so briefly on the door he'd closed behind him. Thanks to a sensitivity and maturity that have surpassed his chronological development, Jackson played Lucky's emotional ambivalence and the awkwardness of his sincere but misguided mission with dignity and tenderness. Speaking words that had been selected and strung together with impeccable care ("You must have to beat off girls with a stick," Tammy flattered. "I don't beat girls," Lucky responded soberly), Jackson's attitude, eyes and tone of voice underscored the pain of Lucky's conflict and highlighted with touching poignancy the unexpected discovery of what he values most about his feelings for Elizabeth, his first true love.
    Luke and Laura, Geary and Francis, and Jeanine and Richard Jackson must be bursting with pride.

First Kiss for GH's Liz and Lucky 9-22-98     Music hath charms for General Hospital's Liz and Lucky this week. After he serenades her with the song Elizabeth, which he wrote, they kiss for the first time.    "She finds a decorated acoustic guitar in the attic and decides to give it to him," Rebecca Herbst (Liz) explains. "It's his most favorite gift in the world, because now he has access to a guitar 24 hours a day. He just thinks it's the most touching thing, so, of course, she asks him to play the song he wrote for her."
    Liz doesn't have romance on her mind when she gives Lucky the guitar or asks him to play the song, "which is the cool thing about it," Herbst says. "There is no setup to it whatsoever. They just have a really sweet moment and she's about to leave. He helps her down from the boxcar, and she just kind of falls into him -- and the next thing you know, they end up in a kiss. Neither one of them knows how they really got there, but they just end up there."
    For several weeks, Liz and Lucky had stopped just short of kissing a few times. "That definitely was because of the whole rape issue," Herbst explains. "It was a feeling of, 'I can't let myself get close to him. I physically don't want to be touched, but I want to. It's weird: I want you, but I can't.' A lot of it is a mental thing for her. That's why when they finally do kiss, and it just happens, it's an OK thing.
    "It's a little kiss at first, then Lucky looks into her eyes to make sure it's something she wants to do, because he's been wanting it but he's been very sensitive to what she's gone through," Herbst adds. "At this point, if she were to think about it seconds longer, it would have bneen about the rape. But it happens so quickly, it's more because she's falling in love."

Like Father, Like Son 2-24-98 Portraying General Hospital’s unconventional Luke Spencer and his spirited progeny Lucky has inspired a special closeness and camaraderie between Anthony Geary and Jonathan Jackson. When SOAP OPERA WEEKLY proposed that the actors interview each other, both were eager to tackle the assignment. Relaxing in a friend's Hollywood apartment, the pair discussed a wide range of topics, including predestination and their personal pet peeves.

TONY GEARY: The characters that you and I play come from a place of rebellion. I grew up in the late '50s/early '60s with a lot of protest in the air. It was easy to access social dissatisfaction; the older generation didn't know us, just like James Dean talked about. You're growing up in the '90s. Where do you access rebellion?

JONATHAN JACKSON: I think the '50s, '60s and '70s took care of all the shocks. Musical groups out there doing wild things isn't really a shock anymore. It's been done. What you are forced to do then, is go for things that are constant, that are always there, like the conflict between families.

AG: You are saying that rebellion is ever present?

JJ: Yes. Rebellion comes from needing to be heard and understood. When you talk and they're not getting it, it's frustrating. The communication isn't there. That's constant throughout every generation.

AG: You don't rebel against your family; you don't have conflict there. So what are you fighting against at the tender age of 15 that accesses you to the bizarre life of Lucky Spencer?

JJ: My struggle, personally, is more [about] my relationship with God, who I am, who I want to be and the struggle of trying [to get there]. I use that a lot with Lucky - the fact that he's searching to figure out what's right, what's wrong.

AG: So when you play Lucky, you're dealing with Jonathan and "the Ultimate." You're really going to soul depth?

JJ: Yeah. My preparation is praying a lot of the time. It's saying, "Help me through this. Help me figure this out." Now, let me ask you a question. How did you come about creating Lucky?

AG: I think you created the character of Lucky. But if you would like to go there, sure, I had something to do with the story that brought us all back. But Lucky was a historical fact. The last show on General Hospital on which the audience saw Luke and Laura together, Laura was pregnant. She told Luke about it. I'll never forget doing that scene. Genie (Francis, who plays Laura) had no children at the time, and it was the first time she ever said those words to a man. She was so incredible that day. So beautiful. I'll never forget how excited she was. I got swept up in it and thought afterward: I'll never forget that. Nobody will ever tell me they are going to have my baby, and if they ever do, I will never feel like that. But the feeling of the moment was extraordinary. That's why you are such a living, breathing miracle of fantasy. What question led me to this rhapsody?

JJ: About creating Lucky...

AG: I didn't have anything to do with him, except that scene. When we talked about coming back, there was, of course, one child.

JJ: Wasn't that kind of scary, bringing on a kid?

AG: It was terrifying. It remains terrifying.

JJ: Did you guys have a backup plan, if it didn't work out? Would you have killed him off? Recast?

AG: In the original story Lucky needed a bone marrow transplant. You weren't even on the canvas. You were still wherever [Luke and Laura] were, and Bill Eckert's son, Sly, was your only match. Interestingly enough, that was later used with another baby for which those who conceived of [the idea] were not recompensed. But are we bitter? Nooo!

JJ: Do you feel a responsibility to be a role model to the audience?

AG: People should not be looking to people on television, politicians, nor public figures of any kind as role models. People on TV do not love you, folks. You must connect with the people you know. Whenever I can say, "Don't do it," that's my mission in life. I'm an actor playing a character. I'm going to bring you some diversion. I'm not bringing you the answer. I'm the juggler in front of the king. I have no desire, incentive nor raging need to guide my audience anywhere.

JJ: What is something that really ticks you off?

AG: What I hate most in life is prejudice; having made up your mind about a person, a group or a situation before you have actually experienced it. You form this opinion and therefore the world is that. Don't make decisions until you do it or at least are in the room where it's being done. What peeves you the most in the world?

JJ: Something that not necessarily ticks me off but saddens me is that a lot of people go through life and don't examine it. They just live. My opinion is that the unexamined life is not worth living.

AG: I would concur with that. I would also add that art unexpressed is art destroyed. My art is life, my total experience. It's me.

JJ: Do you believe in predestination?

AG: No, I believe in free will. I think conditions are such, and environments are such, that the stress can create a very loaded deck and ultimately you're the guy that lays the cards on the table. But I don't care if you were abused by your family, that's no excuse to go and shoot your mother. I don't care if they threw you out. That's not an excuse to burn down their house.

JJ: Amen. People are responsible.

AG: They have to be. I am responsible in my life, and there is a great joy in it. I take my good choices, I take my bad choices, and at this stage in my life, I go, "You know, it wasn't so bad."

JJ: My opinion is that you shouldn't dwell on either the good or the bad. If you dwell on the bad, you're stuck in a realm of guilt. If you dwell on the good, you get your vanity so high you can't see a thing.

AG: When I was 15, I lived in a small town. It was not unlike your life in that I had a strong, moral family structure. But I was in Utah, in a town of 800 people, and you're here on this show. What does it cost you to do what you do in terms of being 15?

JJ: Privacy, that's the No. 1 thing. Not as in not being able to go to high school or the proms, but in not having privacy with the possible women [I meet]. There is a lot of odd insecurity that comes from wondering what they want from you. But I have to come to a point where I'm not going to put weight on finding the perfect woman.

AG: I would hope that at 15 you wouldn't put the pressure of finding the perfect woman on yourself. I'm 50 and not ready to look at that.

JJ: I know that as long as I can keep my faith in god, then I will be OK no matter what I find. Because I don't need that.

AG: What happens if she couldn't share your faith?

JJ: Then, it's not going to work. That is the most important thing in my life. That's No. 1.

AG: When would you like to get married? I assume that you'd like to.

JJ: I would love to have a family. There's nothing greater than that. I've always seen myself getting married young.

AG: Let me tell you something. I lost my mom this summer, and my father died five years before that. They were high school sweethearts ... the perfect soap opera. I swear. They were never with another person. I know that. And I know that when my father died my mother knew that she would see him again, because they were eternal together. She was like a woman waiting for a bus at the time my dad died. Then the bus came along, and it was a beautiful thing. So I of all people would never dismiss or have any sly feelings about young love. I've seen it, benefited from it and believe in it. So god bless you. I hope you find her. Just don't do it this year. We've got a story to tell.

JJ: I'm in no hurry.

AG: Is there any thread of you that feels exploited?

JJ: That is what this business is about.

AG: You're like a product, as opposed to a person...

JJ: Sometimes. In certain situations, especially being my age. People don't listen to me a lot of the time. People I work with. That's frustrating. But you always listen to me.

AG: I hope so.

JJ: From day one you listened to me. It was incredible. Know what the weirdest thing was? That didn't shock me. It shocked me when people didn't. But that's not really exploitation. Give me an example.

AG: OK. Your face, your image, your hard work and the positive feeling that people in the audience have for you is being used to sell magazines, exploited by tabloids and TV programs. I don't experience it as much as I used to, but it used to make me nuts. I felt like my face - without my agreement, without my participation, was used to sell a magazine, a TV show, and things that I had no interest in. If it doesn't bother you, god bless you.

JJ: No, it bothers me, but what can you do about it?

AG: You can't do anything about it. That's not the issue.

JJ: What I dislike is when I got into this business and I didn't do it for any fame or recognition, I just enjoyed it - I was very uncomfortable with people recognizing me. I couldn't like it. I was short with people, so they'd leave me alone. Or I would purposely look intense, so that they wouldn't confront me. I was in denial for 3 1/2 years that I was on TV, that I was out there for millions of people [to watch]. Then, I realized what an amazing opportunity it was, and my attitude changed. I have been put in the position that people want to listen to me for just that fact. If I wasn't an actor I couldn't go on TV and have millions of people listen to my opinions.

AG: So you feel OK with people like Robert Redford and Jane Fonda using the public forum as a political platform for their own views?

JJ: I definitely agree with that. Personally, there would be no other way to deal with [fame] for me.

AG: That's the difference between us. I will sit with, "I am being exploited," and you will turn it around to, "I have a forum." That's great. I think you'll get a lot further in this business than I did.

JJ: I think definitely in the future I will get more frustrated with it as it gets bigger. Then, there's the issue of privacy.

AG: What's amazing is people don't realize how precious privacy is. I have an apartment I bought in Copenhagen about a year ago. My grandfather comes from Odensk. What do I like about it? They don't know General Hospital. Nobody knows me. At 50 years old, after playing this game for 30 years, I have found a place where nobody knows me. Nobody cares. You can't explain to somebody whose privacy has never been invaded how important it is. They don't get it. And if you're on TV, they figure you're not entitled to it. That's what burns me.

JJ: Oh, that's the worst.

AG: Don't come up to me, folks, when I'm in a restaurant and interrupt me and fight over my lamb stew. I'm not happy about that.

JJ: I completely respect that. On the other hand...

AG: You can be invaded.

JJ: I hated it for a long time. I still dislike it, but I have chosen to turn around and say "How can I make this into a positive?"

AG: Know why, my friend? Because you're going to have to do this a lot longer than me. It sounds silly, but you'd better learn to do that because you're just starting this game. But my time is so limited on this planet. Do not interrupt me during dinner. It comes down to that. I hate to cut the romance out, but I have always done that.

JJ: You have.

AG: I've never painted life as an actor as fabulous.

JJ: No, I don't think it is.

AG: Good. At least I've given you that start. I think it's amazing that after this time of working with someone as cynical as me, you still have a joy of acting. About a year ago Genie and I were talking about this. She felt we should be careful around you, as a young man just starting in the business, not to [subject you to] all these sour grapes. It's not quite fair. But I think you’ve managed to push that plate away very well.

JJ: Believe it or not ... what's the word?

AG: Cynicism.

JJ: Through all your cynicism...

AG: A cynic is a romantic who's seen the world. In years to come you'll remember that.

JJ: Yes, I will. But through all of your cynicism, you and Genie have been the best part of what I've done so far as an actor. I've always felt support from you guys. And whether you admit it or not, you still enjoy it. You enjoy rewriting some of the stuff, even if you act like it's a pain in the ass.

AG: I do like a good line.

JJ: And you like a good scene. It still fills a part of your heart.

AG: You know what, Jonathan? You see that because often my cynicism won't play with you, because you're fresh. You're alive. You're looking for the reality of the moment. And that's a gift to the cynic anytime of day. So the gift has gone both ways, and Genie would agree if she were here. Genie is a much more idealistic actor than I am. She needs more truth out of the moment than I do. My life is more a fantasy, therefore I can tap dance around the moment. She can't, and I love her for that. I think you're more like her. Idealistic is good. I do enjoy it. I am idealistic, but I'm also ... old!