Jackson Rathbone is doing it all at TIFF 2010

Jackson Rathbone’s latest movie Girlfriend is just about the furthest thing possible from Twilight, but you probably won’t hear him complaining.

“I don’t expect to play a vampire all my life,” Rathbone joked, sitting down with Tribute’s Toni-Marie Ippolito at the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival.

Producer, musician and actor, Rathbone’s latest film Girlfriend portrays the complex, layered relationship between Evan (Evan Sneider), a young-man with Down Syndrome, and his high-school crush, a debt-ridden mother, Celeste (Shannon Woodward).

Rathbone plays Celeste’s abusive ex-boyfriend Russ, a role that took him to some unusual, and dark places.

“I was a little bit worried about it,” he said. “I’m a Southerner, I’ve never raised my hand to a woman before in my life.”

“But I just loved the story, I loved the idea behind it. So I signed up to do it,” he said.

Rathbone felt much of Girlfriend’s success was due to his co-star, relative newcomer Evan Sneider. “Evan was the heart and soul,” Rathbone said.

“Just the first scene we had together, there was a certain thing it was much more reactive, just natural moments that happened.”

"It wasn’t in the script, it was in Evan’s eyes. His performance is fantastic,” Rathbone gushed.

In addition to acting as a producer and star in Girlfriend, Rathbone’s band 100 Monkeys is producing the film’s score. “It’s darker, childlike. A lullaby gone wrong,” he said.

With his own short film in the works, and bevy of other projects on the horizon, Rathbone doesn’t seem content on slowing down anytime soon. How does he juggle it all?

“No sleep, and lots of coffee.”

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