Joshua Jackson shares billing with a bike

Joshua Jackson stars in the upcoming film One Week, but some might argue that he should share top billing with a motorcycle.

He portrays a cancer sufferer who rides from Toronto to Tofino, on the west coast of Vancouver Island, on a 1973 Norton Commando 850.

The Vancouver-born actor, who played Pacey in the long-running TV series Dawson's Creek, has enjoyed a road trip or two on his own motorcycle.

"I couldn't have taken this job I don't think if I didn't know how to ride a motorcycle because nine-tenths of the film is on the bike and about what being on a road trip is and feels like," Jackson, 29, said in an interview on the movie's Toronto set.

The vintage black Norton belongs to the movie's production designer, Malcolm Byard, whose uncle bought it in 1977 for $300.

The bike, some 30-plus years old, was built in the first month of production. It still has most of its original parts, although it sports a Corbin seat and was outfitted with a Mikuni carburetor.

"It came to me looking pretty worn," said Rick Harrett of Highway Cycle in Flamborough, who years before had rebuilt the engine and did restorative work for the bike's starring role.

"I stripped it down to the bare frame and built it back up. Basically just did cosmetic work."

The British bike, with "one up and three down" gearing and its rear brake and gearshift reversed, took a bit of getting used to for Jackson, who usually rides a Triumph. "When you expect to be braking, you accidentally shift, and then you expect to be shifting and ... whoa!"

But once accustomed to the differences, he added, he enjoyed his time on the Norton.

With only one "finicky" motorcycle available for filming, the crew was well aware of the careful handling required – to the point of wrapping the Norton in Byard's grandmother's quilt when it was tethered inside a trailer for portions of the Toronto-to-Tofino trip.

That tender swaddling actually saved the paint job when the bike rocked loose and toppled over due to some particularly rough roads in southern Manitoba. Unfortunately, there was other damage and finding a replacement for a broken pivot casting became a priority.

"I contacted the Canadian Vintage Motorcycle Group," explained Byard, "and they were responsible for me connecting with a guy in Calgary. He took a part off a museum bike. It took 10 minutes to fix."

Back in Toronto, with some 1,290 new kilometres racked up on its odometer, the Norton seemed none the worse for the wear. One Week is a Mongrel Media production; no release date has been announced.

Jackson, who lives in Los Angeles, has had roles in movies such as The Mighty Ducks trilogy, Cursed and Bobby. He told Wheels about his experiences riding and driving both on and off the set.

Q: When did you get your motorcycle licence?

A: I got my B.C. motorcycle licence in 2000 or 2001. And then I found out about two weeks before we started One Week that I had let it expire without noticing – my whole driver's licence. So I, in a panic, got my California motorcycle licence the day before I came up here.

And you own a motorcycle?

Now I own a 2004 Triumph Speedmaster. That's my second bike, my second Triumph, but that's my most recent and that lives in Vancouver most of the time.

Did you pass your driver's test the first time?

I failed the first time. The motorcycle test I did pass the first time, but I went to one of those weekend courses that give you all the hints and tips and all the rest of it, so I kind of cheated my way through.

What was your first car?

A 1986 Chrysler LeBaron convertible. It was actually my mom's car that became my car.

When you made it in this business, did you buy yourself a new car?

I did. Well, I hadn't had a car for a couple of years 'cause the LeBaron died an ignominious death ... I leased a Chevy Tahoe.

Now I drive a Chevy Silverado. But the diesel engine I run off biodiesel. After the two Tahoes, I bought a Prius 'cause the Tahoes were great for road trips, but then I was done the big road trips and it was killing my green conscience to be driving this Tahoe, so I got the Prius for a couple of years.

Are your vehicles coddled or cluttered, filthy or flawless?

The bike is pretty coddled, but my truck is not, and it's probably filthy right now 'cause it's been sitting outside for five weeks (in L.A.). The bike is all squared away, squeaky clean, polished, waiting for me, but the truck gets beat up pretty bad.

I understand the road trip for this movie hit a snag around, Upsala, Ont., when the bus in your convoy broke down, so you and some of the crew crowded into one vehicle for a 20-hour marathon drive.

We were pretty primitive by the time we pulled into Medicine Hat. Twenty hours! It was a good trip and we were having a lot of fun ... but man, by about 3 a.m. or whatever it was when we pulled into Medicine Hat, it was ugly.

What tunes are essential when you're on a road trip?

Well, it depends on the mood, but the truck has one of those little iPod attachments so it's everything all the time. (He also likes U.S. National Public Radio.)

This is how I tell I'm getting a little bit older ... you spend so much of your time in L.A. in a car, and you don't have time to read a paper, NPR down there is like my touchstone to the world.

On a long road trip you've gotta have the Clash and you've gotta have Zeppelin. Then you've probably got to have a little Manu Chao in there and then, because I'm of the age, you definitely gotta to have a Nirvana CD.

Do you sing along in the car? Weren't you once a member of a boy's choir?

Many, many, many years ago. You've done your research, but no, I never sing to hear the sound of my own voice. Sometimes a song comes on that you can't not sing to, but it's never for the pleasure of my voice that I sing.

You've done some road trips on your own, haven't you?

I've never done the trip that we did (for One Week). I've never done the Canadian Prairies, but I've done Vancouver to the Rockies and Calgary many times, mostly through the southern roads.

Have you taken road trips on your own motorcycle?

Yeah, B.C. trips. I did one trip up Vancouver Island and then I did one trip up the mainland until you can't go any farther north before you get on the ferry, and a couple sort-of southern B.C. trips, a day and two-day rides, nothing big like this one.

In your movie roles you've been able to drive some pretty nice cars, the '63 Thunderbird convertible in The Skulls for example.

That movie was great because we had a brand-new (Porsche), a four- or-five-year-old Ferrari ... then there was a Lamborghini and we got to drive all of these cars, which was a ton of fun.

How about the BMW in Shadows in the Sun , a Z4, I think?

That was a very nice car because we were in Tuscany, it was the summertime, it was a convertible and it was my car while I was there, pretty much.

The on-camera stuff I didn't get to enjoy quite as much, but believe me, I was happy when they said, "We're going to move to another location." I'd say, "Oh that's fine, I'll just take the car. I'll meet you right there. In fact I'll probably beat you there."

For One Week, you didn't ride the Norton to shoot locations?

We would trailer it (mostly). The long distances, the things that make a road trip, the couple of hours being by yourself, being in your own head, we didn't do those things.

The longest trip that we did, I actually ran the bike out of gas one day. We were in B.C. ... in a little town called Princeton, going to shoot in Hope. Turns out there wasn't quite enough gas to get all the way to Hope ... but that was a beautiful ride.

Finish this sentence: I'm a pretty good driver but I have a habit of ________.

Always thinking I'm in the right.

Pet peeve of other drivers?

Mistakenly thinking that they're in the right.

Any tickets or haven't been caught yet?

Well, yes. I have had many, many tickets. I got a ticket the other day in Quebec.

For?

Speeding. I just went for a couple-day trip. I'd never been to Quebec City and my girlfriend (model/actress Diane Kruger) was in Montreal. So we drove up to Quebec City, and we went out to this very beautiful national park and we were driving back and the guy tagged us.

Do you know there's a new law in Ontario: 50 km/h over the limit and they take the car?

Well, this was the other issue. I'd just read about that, and so I was telling Diane, "I don't know if we're in a 90 or a 100 (km/h zone) here, and there's a strong chance he might have tagged me at 50 over. In which case, you're going to have to cry because we can't spend the night in wherever we are, Trois-Rivières."

But no tears were necessary?

No, no tears were necessary. He was decent about it, and I wasn't quite doing 50 over. Getting close, but not quite.

Any car-related incidents that stand out in your memory?

I had a beautiful classic ripped off once. One of the first cars that I bought: a beautiful (Cadillac) DeVille that had been garaged for most of its life and that got stolen.

I bought it in Pasadena and drove it to L.A. and it got stolen when I went away once. And that kind of sucked, especially since it was not in a high-money portion of my life, so it was definitely my primary mode of transportation and not just a cool thing to have around.

Worst day on the road?

The worst section of road – I think it might actually be the portal to hell – on the Sepulveda Pass. Not to be too L.A. here, but ... there's a place on the Sepulveda Pass between the 10 interchange and the 101 interchange on the 405.

There's only one exit. You go over a pass, it's 10 lanes and you usually do about 5 mph and not just at rush hour. That's the worst 10 minutes, 15 minutes, two hours on the road 'cause you just want to kill somebody.

Best day on the road?

The best thing is a new road, when you find those funny things you weren't even looking for when you're on a road trip. That's a real road trip, where you can sort of go, "Ahh, I want to take this road today and see what happens."

Those are the best things on a road trip – the unexpected.

I drove to Baja a couple of years ago. I didn't quite get all the way to Cabo San Lucas, so what I'd like to do is get all the way down to Baja. And then there's a ferry that takes you to the Mexican mainland and I have a friend who lives on the mainland, so I'd like to do that trip ... and then back up to Texas.

You obviously enjoy driving.

Yeah, I like road trips, it's great, you're totally free ...

I did this great seven-day trip with my sister and my dog and my buddy – in the Prius, no less. We drove down to Baja and some days we'd stay at podunk hotels, other days we'd just pitch a tent on the side of the road.

We went down for New Year's, and it turns out there's a place down there where the grey whales go to calf. So New Year's Eve we bought a bottle of the worst tequila you could possibly imagine, pitched a tent in a semi-regulated campsite, but it was just us. (We) woke up in the morning and went and saw the grey whale calves in a little place called Guerrero Negro, in a salt flat in the middle of the Baja coast.

Who knew?

But there it is. You know, if you just go looking, it's amazing the things that you can find.

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