The Orville: Mark Jackson Unmasked at Wizard World Chicago

While at Wizard World Chicago, Mark Jackson unmasked and spoke to the fans of the hit show, The Orville.

While it must have been strange for fans to see him face to face — and hear him with an accent — it didn’t stop them from lining up and picking his brain on various topics.

One of the first questions asked of the star was about the show’s constant comparisons to Star Trek and Star Trek: The Next Generation. Jackson admitted he feels that is a compliment.

“I don’t know if all of you know this, but Seth went to CBS a few years ago and said he would like to make the new Star Trek. They said no, so he said, ‘Alright, I’ll make my own show,’ and that turned into The Orville,” Jackson told the audience. 

He went on to explain that he connected with Seth McFarlane over these classic shows. “The first thing we bonded over was Star Trek: The Next Generation. His love for that show shows itself in The Orville“

“We stand on their shoulders is a good way of looking at it,” Jackson concluded. A phenomenon like Star Trek is a great show to try and emulate. Lucky for them, fans were receptive to it.

Next up was the subject of his favorite moments on the show. While Jackson couldn’t pinpoint an exact moment he preferred over others, he did have an installment that stood out. 

“I kind of have a favorite episode, which is “A Happy Refrain,” where the doctor and I get it on. That was just fun to film — it felt like the perfect episode in every way.”

Jackson elaborated, “The writing was tight, the structure of the episode was great. It just felt right.”

Going into a deeper description, Jackson said, “One day we were all dragged to the shuttle, which is on a different part of the stage than where we film. We needed the space to film the rain at the end of the episode.”

“They put us all on a giant green screen and dumped shitloads of water on us. It was amazing. We all went up one at a time to do our reactions — we were just drenched,” he exclaimed.

“With Issac, we only had so long because he was going to short circuit. There is a lot of wiring in the suit,” Jackson told the fans with a chuckle. 

Being soaked in buckets of water sure doesn’t sound like a good time to me. I’ll just take his word for it.

When Jackson was asked about his preference over being in Issac’s full costume or just having plain makeup on, he took the question in a slightly different direction, referring to moments in Season 2. “In terms of humanizing, it is great to be able to play one character in two different ways. That is unusual — I guess it is kind of like being the Hulk.”

Getting closer to the heart of the question Jackson said, “When I do a rehearsal, I don’t do it with the mask on — because why wear a mask if you don’t have to?”

I can only imagine how hot and stuffy Issac’s mask can get. That thing doesn’t even have a mouth-hole!

Someone then asked about how he can speak through Issac’s helmet without having any echo or negative effect on the sound. “There is sort of a ‘Madonna’ mic in my helmet,” Jackson explained.

He then went on to disclose this wasn’t the first plan. “The idea originally was that we would use the live voice recordings. Seth said when he did Ted, he would be just off-camera, and they would use the live voice recording when they animated him.”

“He wanted that for Issac, but when we got around to doing it for the pilot, it was just so echoey. They thought that we couldn’t use it,” Jackson continued. “We still record it live for reference for when they cut it together.

Another audience member asked Jackson what it was like for him to act on a green screen.

“What helps with green screen is if you have a creative team that has their shit together beforehand,” he said.

“They can show you the outlook of what it is going to look like behind you, or what the starscape is or whatever. That helps because then you can sort of internalize it and put it into your performance,” Jackson told them.

I’m sure it takes a lot of imagination to put yourself in these kinds of scenes whether the creative team is extremely helpful or not.

As the panel came to a close, one of the final questions revolved around how Jackson decides on what roles to take. Jackson explained, “A character arc is something I look for.  A character arc is good because there is nothing more boring than playing a character that does the same thing the whole movie and doesn’t go anywhere and doesn’t change.”

“If you have a character that goes through a change and becomes a different person by the end of the film, that’s a winner,” he deduced.

Jackson then said with a laugh, “After this show, there will be no masks!”

Character growth is often what holds a movie or long-running television show together. If the character doesn’t matter, then neither does the story.

The line of fans eventually dwindled as time ran out for Mark Jackson to speak. His busy schedule still consisted of signing autographs and professional photos to finish out the weekend. Jackson said his thank-yous and goodbyes to many of his fans while leaving the room.

Everyone seemed satisfied with the answers Jackson gave, that is until The Orville Season 3 hits Hulu in 2020. 

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