"The Last Airbender" star Jackson Rathbone is having the kind of week most actors both dream of and dread.
The 25-year-old actor reunites with the Cullen family as Jasper in "The Twilight Saga: Eclipse," which opened Wednesday.
On Thursday, M. Night Shyamalan's cartoon-adaptation fantasy-epic, "The Last Airbender," also opened. Rathbone has a starring role as Sokka, who, with his sister Katara, played by Nicola Peltz, teams with the protagonist Aang (Noah Ringer).
So while Rathbone gets attention and press for both movies, he also has to run back and forth between press events and the occasional film premiere, like the one for "Eclipse" on June 24.
"It was a wonderful time," Rathbone said in a phone interview. "There were probably about 6,000 people watching the movie all at once. We got to see it with all the fans, hooting and hollering."
The scheduling of these two major-studio feature releases puts Rathbone in the interesting situation of being in competition with himself. However, the actor remains optimistic and speaks kindly of both movies.
Before signing on to play brother and sister in "The Last Airbender," both Rathbone and Peltz had watched the cartoon, "Avatar: The Last Airbender"; Rathbone watched with his friends, and Peltz with her younger brothers.
"It reaches an extremely broad audience, everyone from parents to young kids to guys my age really love it," Rathbone said.
Rathbone spoke well of Shyamalan, whose involvement with "The Last Airbender" marks a considerable departure from the mystery-thrillers ("Signs") and twist endings ("The Sixth Sense") he is known for.
"This is a very different film than anything he's ever done," Rathbone said. "I think one of the main elements is his daughters recommended he make the film, so this is really his first family film. His daughters were on the set all the time. It was a very happy atmosphere."
Rathbone also praised Peltz, who has previously been seen in the films "Harold" and "Deck The Halls," and is preparing to film "Unbound Captives" with Hugh Jackman and Rathbone's fellow "Twilight" actor Robert Pattinson.
Rathbone, who is preparing to tour with his band, 100 Monkeys, before returning to film the two-part "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn," also can be seen in "Girlfriend" and "DaZE: Vol. Too -- NonSeNse," both due out this year.
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