Wisdom comes with age. At least that’s what Shawn Ashmore has found out with his latest acting roles.
In “Darkness Falls,” Ashmore plays Jeff Anderson, a police detective who is certain that his wife didn’t commit suicide but was murdered. His life falls apart as he becomes obsessed with his investigation that leads to a father-and-son serial killing team.
Anderson’s determination to stop them takes him away from his son. That part of the character was the easiest for the 40-year-old Ashmore to understand.
“I have a son who is almost 3 years old. That opened a whole new level of exploring the character and a whole new understanding playing a father and husband. As a younger man, I didn’t understand or have that knowledge,” Ashmore says. “What interested me about this film was that the focus is the story of fathers and sons.
“When I initially read the script, I saw that. It was such a huge part of my character that he is abandoning his son to complete his mission.”
Ashmore has been able to get a deeper understanding of what it means to be a father because of the forced break he – like so many others – has had to take to stay healthy. Before the outbreak, Ashmore had been moving at full speed in his acting career for 30 years. This is really the first opportunity he has had to relax since he was 10 years old.
“There have been spans in my career where I have not been as busy as I would like to be and things aren’t necessarily happening,” Ashmore says. “But, everyone else is also on pause so I don’t feel that pressure.
“That means right now I am in full dad mode and it has been amazing to have this time that I wouldn’t have had if I was working somewhere else.”
Ashmore was very busy before the quarantine. Not only did he film “Darkness Falls” but also had a recurring role on the ABC drama, “The Rookie.” He’s never sure when he will be needed to play attorney Wesley Evers but is happy to show up when called.
A bonus of working on “The Rookie” is that it films in Hollywood. Most of the work Ashmore does for TV and film has him working in other cities. Getting to work near home gives him more chances to be near his family.
Of all the work the Canadian film and TV actor has done outside Los Angeles, he’s best known for playing Bobby Drake / Iceman in the “X-Men” film series. He’s also portrayed Agent Mike Weston in the television drama series “The Following,” and starred as Sam Spencer in the ABC series “Conviction.”
Ashmore agrees that in tone, “Darkness Falls” has a lot in common with “The Following.” They both deal with serial killers, a search for justice and the obsession with stopping evil.
“Those two projects live in the same space,” Ashmore says. “As an actor, it is certainly challenging when you are playing a role that is similar to something you have played.
“There is only so much I can do when something feels similar. But, I think that’s why finding a root to the character that is different from something else you played is so important.”
And with “Darkness Falls,” that all came down to the father-son element and deciding what extremes a parent would go to protect a child.
Along with films and TV projects, Ashmore also gave voice to the main character of Jack Joyce, in the 2016 video game “Quantum Break” as well as Conrad in 2019’s “Man of Medan.”
Most of his work has been too mature for his son to see. But, Ashmore will have another father-son decision to make in a few years. Right now, his young son has been told that his father is an actor. Ashmore’s not certain when it will be right to let his son know his dad played a super hero in movies.
It may not matter by the time Ashmore’s son is old enough to understand that acting credit.
“By the time he’s old enough before he really understands. I am quite excited but all this stuff I have done will be so dated by the time he gets to it that he won’t think it’s cool,” Ashmore says.
“Darkness Falls” will be released through Video on Demand and other digital platforms on June 12. Those platforms include iTunes, Amazon, Apple TV, Google Play, FandangoNow and all major cable/satellite platforms.
