Two Rathbone flicks top U.S. box office

NEW YORK, July 5 (UPI) -- Hollywood actor and musician Jackson Rathbone humbly admits it's a good time to be him.

Born in Singapore and raised in Texas, the 25-year-old film star appears in both "The Twilight Saga: Eclipse" and "The Last Airbender," the top two movies at the box office for the July 4 weekend in the United States.

"Eclipse" is the third film in the film franchise based on Stephenie Meyer's wildly popular vampire novels. "Airbender" is a live-action adaptation of the mystical, animated TV series by the same name.

"It's definitely an interesting time," Rathbone told reporters in New York last week, shortly before the blockbusters opened. "I'm blessed to be in one film that gets seen, let alone two coming out back-to-back. I moved out to Los Angeles when I was 18 with my car and my guitar and just really hit the pavement and tried to pick up any job I could, catering, mostly. I love art and I love getting the chance to make art because, at the end of the day, it's going to outlast me. And it's great to be part of something that's bigger than you, especially with these two franchises. I never in a million years would have thought I'd be in one franchise, let alone two. I always pictured I'd be a character actor in indie films my entire life."

Rathbone said he was thrilled to get the opportunity to work on "The Last Airbender" because he was already a big fan of the show.

"I was really digging it and then I found out down the wire that M. Night (Shyamalan) was going to be directing a live adaptation of it and the 1-2 punch of these two things had me clawing at my agent's door, saying, 'You better get me in for this,'" he explained.

The actor went on to say his martial arts training for "Airbender" also helped him immensely when he started work on "Eclipse."

"I had all the background training from 'Last Airbender," which really served me well when I went into 'Eclipse,'" Rathbone recalled. "It was cool because we were going through the motions and everything and I'd already done it, so I was able to work with the other actors and say: 'You don't need to punch this close ... Please don't punch this close.'"

"The Last Airbender" and "Eclipse" are in U.S. theaters now.

SOURCE: UPI