Jon Mack - Born To Wear Blood

She was in the most recent installment of the Saw series of films, and in March of 2010 you’ll be able to see her starring in the SyFy Channel movie Mongolian Death Worms. To say Jon Mack’s been having an interesting couple of years would be a bit of an understatement. Mack, who’s first name is pronounced with a soft J, also has a band, Auradrone, and a very impressive geeky side to her. Being that I’m always down to spend some time with gorgeous geek, and I can’t possibly resist a movie titled Mongolian Death Worms, I caught up with Mack to find out more about her film work, including her extended resume of films that involve blood and screaming, her music, which involves significantly less blood and screaming, and the geeky things she enjoys most.

Adam Bernard: Your IMDB page is sorely lacking in biographical information. Let’s fix that. Tell me the Jon Mack story. Where are you originally from and what were some of your early inspirations growing up?
Jon Mack: I’m originally from a small town near Detroit, and I started doing theater and acting when I was five. My mother was a drama teacher and directed theater so I grew up on stage. I’m an only child, so I spent a lot of time with my imagination and movies and doing plays. That was kind of the start of it all, I think. I started doing music when I was a teenager and was sort of self-taught on that. I painted and drew and designed things. I always tried to be creative in some way.

Adam Bernard: Your resume includes a film with a title one can’t help but be interested in - Mongolian Death Worms. Was this movie, which will hit SyFy Channel in March of 2010, as much fun to make as it is to say the title of?
Jon Mack: Yeah, it was a lot of fun and I’m looking forward to seeing it, to seeing the creatures and the whole thing, when it’s completed. It should be really great.

Adam Bernard: Other than the obvious, what’s it all about?
Jon Mack: It’s about this mysterious plague that hits this poor Mongolian village and we’re out there as doctors trying to take care of the villagers that are getting sick from this mysterious illness. Little do we know it’s caused by these creatures, these giant worms. It’s basically us trying to figure out what’s going on, and then once we figure out what’s going on we have to battle these gigantic worms.

Adam Bernard: With Mongolian Death Worms, Saw VI, and the upcoming Unearthed, you seem to have a very specific genre of film you end up in. Do you think there’s something about your headshot that makes producers and directors go “I bet she screams well?”
Jon Mack: I know, right? That’s a good question. I’m not sure, but it seems like it’s been going that way lately and I’m fine with that, I think it’s great. I love horror movies when they’re done well and I’m a huge fan of sci-fi, so for me it’s really cool because I love both genres and I think it’s really fun to do those kinds of movies because you get all kinds of special effects and you get to really stretch your imagination. The sky’s the limit. It’s cool.

Adam Bernard: It would be funny if they had been in a meeting and said “that one! That one looks like she’d be good with some blood on her.”
Jon Mack: Yeah, exactly. {laughs} “She was born to wear blood.”

Adam Bernard: Since you’ve done some scary movies, I’m wondering, what scares Jon Mack?
Jon Mack: I like a good psychological thriller, so Saw, in some ways, can be pretty scary. I like movies like The Shining, which is a classic psychological horror kinda thing. Those kind of movies scare me more than the giant creatures because those things mess up your mind.

Adam Bernard: So you’re not afraid to take on the Creature from the Black Lagoon, but Patrick Bateman from American Psycho...
Jon Mack: Yes, I love Patrick Bateman. {laughs} It’s totally wrong to love that character, he’s such a despicable character, but he’s also very charismatic, so there’s something quite fascinating about that kind of character, I think.

Adam Bernard: What are some of your favorite films of all time?
Jon Mack: I love A Clockwork Orange, Bladerunner, again more psychological and more sci-fi kind of stuff. Ridley Scott’s earlier films are great. The Godfather trilogy, I love all those classics. I just saw District 9 last summer, which I really enjoyed. That was one of my favorites of the year, but I’m more a fan of directors and their particular styles; Paul Thomas Anderson, Darren Aronofsky, I like a lot of what they do, Quentin Tarantino, the Cohen brothers.

Adam Bernard: If you were to work with any of those directors, what type of role would you like to have?
Jon Mack: With Tarantino I know it’s gonna be something edgy and interesting. I love edgy roles, they’re so different from me in person. I kinda like somebody who’s tough and kind of off their rocker a little bit. To me those kinds of roles are fun. Or maybe even some kind of space creature, something crazy, that would be kind of neat to play, too.

Adam Bernard: Are you saying you’re not edgy at all in reality?
Jon Mack: I’m a little edgy, but I don’t know if I’m psychotically edgy.

Adam Bernard: So you’ve never woken up like “I don’t how this knife is in my hand.”
Jon Mack: {laughs} No, not yet.

Adam Bernard: I’m glad you threw “yet” in there to leave the door open to the possibility.
Jon Mack: Yeah, you never say never, right? {laughs}

Adam Bernard: You also have some musical skills. Tell me about your band, Auradrone, and what you get to express through your music that you can’t through acting.
Jon Mack: The music itself is a hybrid of dance, electronica and post modern rock. It kind of pulls from Nine Inch Nails, Blondie, even a little bit of Bowie, and Underworld. It’s kind of a hodgepodge of all that. With music, the thing I love about is that it’s my expression. With acting you’re handed a script and unless you’re the writer, or producing it, you’re hired to do a certain thing, which is act. With music I do it all. I compose, I write, I play, I sing, so it’s really my conception from birth to the end. I do collaborate with other people, but ultimately it’s my conception because it’s my project.

Adam Bernard: I really love the name you chose, Auradrone. Hit me with the meaning behind it.
Jon Mack: Aura is a human energy field and the drone is a continuous tone, so for me it’s another way of saying sympathetic resonance, getting everybody in tune energetically and harmonically.

Adam Bernard: Have you been able to place one of your songs in one of your films?
Jon Mack: I have one in a SyFy Channel movie called Ice Twisters, it’s at the end credits. We’re looking to get more, maybe even in Unearthed. We’ll see.

Adam Bernard: So far you’ve told me your music is electronic, mixing everything from Nine Inch Nails to Blondie, you like Bladerunner and other psychological sci-fi flicks... Jon Mack, are you a geek?
Jon Mack: A little bit, yeah. {laughs} I’m proud of it.

Adam Bernard: What other geek qualities do you have? Did you have to put down a comic book to pick up the phone?
Jon Mack: I haven’t looked at a comic in a while, but I appreciate all of that stuff and I think that I have a secret, or not so secret, geek inside of me. I’m definitely a geek with my computer. I run Pro Tools and Reason and Live and I spend a lot of time on my computer geeking out. I just picked up something really cool that’s an early Christmas present; an Eventide vocal effects processor for the my live shows. Most girls want diamonds, I want a vocal effects processor. {laughs} I like gadgets, I like little sonic gadgets, that’s where I geek out.

Adam Bernard: Hypothetically, let’s say you’re getting married, which stores would you be registered in?
Jon Mack: Oh gosh, that’s a good question. The Apple Store and Guitar Center. You can always make me happy at Guitar Center.

Adam Bernard: “Screw the gravy boat, I need an MPC.”
Jon Mack: Yeah, I’d rather have an MPC than a gravy boat. Are you kidding? {laughs}

Adam Bernard: “I serve beats way more than I serve gravy!”
Jon Mack: Yeah, you can put gravy in a bowl.

Adam Bernard: Is there anything else you’d like to add before we part ways?
Jon Mack: I’m pretty into green causes and vegetarianism and veganism and stuff like that. I produced an electric car calendar a couple of years ago. There’s that side of me that’s kind of like an urban hippy rocker chick. I gotta throw the rocker thing in there.

Adam Bernard: Who was born to wear blood.
Jon Mack: {laughs} Exactly. There it is. That’s my whole epitaph right there. I like that.

Related Links

IMDB: imdb.com/name/nm0533023
Website: auradrone.com
Twitter: twitter.com/auradrone