To Generation Y, Twilight's leads are the Beatles, and Rathbone is Ringo, puckish and down to earth. With his deadpan performance in Eclipse, Rathbone's Jasper moves from the background to foreground, and the actor is poised to seize the day.
Last year the descendant of Confederate Gen. Stonewall Jackson spent nearly four months in Philadelphia filming M. Night Shyamalan's The Last Airbender. In this martial-arts fantasy based on the Nickelodeon cartoon, he plays Sokka, warrior of the South Water tribe, trying to neutralize Fire Lord Dev Patel. If Airbender strikes box office gold, then Rathbone will be a player in two profitable franchises - which would be comparable to Will Smith having both a Bad Boys and a Men in Black picture released the same week.
The throng of 750 at the Piazza at Schmidts on Saturday, where Rathbone introduced a twi-night doubleheader of the first two Twilight pictures, suggests his base is female. Not so, as he was cheered by 44,000 fans earlier in the day when he hurled the first pitch before the Phillies-Blue Jays game.
Listen to the clutch of teens who came to the Piazza at 5 a.m. to secure seats for the 8 p.m. Rathbone show.
"Jackson Rathbone is hot," said Nora Wilson, 12, a student at Collingswood Middle School.
"He's amazing!" cooed Kim Alfonso, 14, an incoming freshman at Bishop Shanahan in Downingtown. "I love his serious face as Jasper, calming down people with his special powers."
"He's really hot and makes really good music," chimed in Morgan Socorso, 14, an incoming freshman at Downingtown East, referring to Rathbone's sideline as a singer in the alt-rock band 100 Monkeys. (Fans identify as "Monkeyjunkies.")
