How Two Of The Darkest Movies Ever Prepared Jason Clarke For The Last Frontier [Exclusive]

If anyone was under the impression that actors aren't aware of being typecast and pigeonholed into similar roles again and again, allow Jason Clarke to dispel those rumors — along with any doubts over whether this is truly a negative or not. As the lead of the Apple TV+ series "The Last Frontier," the longtime character actor portrays Frank Remnick, the U.S. Marshal of a small Alaskan town. Thrust into a central leadership role when a plane transporting some of the worst and most violent criminals in the nation comes crashing down in his backyard, Frank quickly discovers that he's only on the fringes of a series of events much larger than he ever thought possible. It's not a role that Clarke is unfamiliar with, to say the least, having made a career out of playing various cops, soldiers, and other straight-laced military men over the years. And, to his credit, he knows that this comes with its own benefits.

During a recent interview, I asked Clarke whether he's able to bring over certain traits from one role to the next. Whether it be verbally accosting Cillian Murphy in "Oppenheimer" to within an inch of his life or channeling a similar interrogation energy as a CIA intelligence officer in "Zero Dark Thirty," both of these spiritually linked performances (and more) all helped lead Clarke to an individual as nuanced and fascinating as Frank — a man who lives by a strict moral code in his work, even as this leads to complications in his personal life. As Clarke explained:

"It was inside me. You carry them all with you, and they sit inside you. There's a lot of my father in this, a sheep-shearing, hard-working man. There's the simplicity and the beauty of that, the decency of it. 'Zero Dark Thirty,' the interrogator, the scenes of interrogation in this, they all kind of add into it and that leads to 'Oppenheimer' — the ability to sit there and listen in an interrogation, the ability to needle a little bit to get something out, but you got to be friends, as well. All of them, they all kind of come into something else."

You're not going to believe this, but Jason Clarke has yet another role in an upcoming film where he plays — you guessed it — a military admiral. "A House of Dynamite," which deals with the U.S. government's response to an impending nuclear attack, sees the performer reunite with his "Zero Dark Thirty" director Kathryn Bigelow for a movie all about power structures buckling under the weight of extreme scenarios. After spending so many weeks and months living in Frank Remnick's skin in "The Last Frontier," however, Clarke found himself in the perfect headspace to transition to his role in "A House of Dynamite." And, speaking more practically, his past history with consulting real-life figures who've been actual admirals or police officers or soldiers in their line of work also tends to come in handy, too. Clarke went on to say:

"And then, there's a lot of cop shows, a lot of military people. There really are. Kathryn Bigelow, to [cast me to] play an admiral in ['A House of Dynamite'], I was able to fly in there and just hit the ground running because I've worked with a lot of them, I've met a lot of them."

For those who've yet to see the upcoming Netflix film, rest assured that it boasts another believable Clarke performance in a role he's uniquely well-suited to play. Luckily, we'll be able to enjoy even more of the actor in hourly doses throughout the weeks ahead in the Apple TV+ show. New episodes of "The Last Frontier" stream on Apple TV+ every Friday.