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Pity the poor A-lister who tires of the constant round of air travel in making - and then promoting - their movies. But even for the great and the good it can become a grind, as Jumper star Hayden Christensen tells FOCUS.
It's easy to mock, but anyone who has endured the queues, heightened security and endless indignities of modern air travel can sympathise with the thousands of miles stars and directors travel in raising the profile of their films. Even if they’re not travelling in cattle class like the rest of us.
But after making Jumper, in which his character discovers he has the ability to travel anywhere in an instant through sheer force of will, Hayden Christensen admits to an understandable feeling of envy.
"Honestly the practicality of it is really appealing to me, to not have to sit on planes and be stuck in traffic and all the things that get under my skin. To just be anywhere whenever you wanted."
Curiously, man's age old dream of taking to the skies has resulted in less freedom rather than more. But it has meant that films become more international in nature, which is just as well for Jumper as the locations in Doug Liman’s film were as extensive as they were far flung.
Filming all over the world, from Manhattan to Egypt, the Czech Republic to Michigan, London to Rome, it was pretty obvious that a valid passport, a pair of DVT socks and a snug fitting eye mask were essential for this job.
"I really like to travel," enthuses the actor who got his break six years ago playing the young Darth Vader in Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of The Clones. "So I was happy when I read the script and saw all the different locations we were going to cover. We spent a lot of time on planes, in transit, we were all over the place.
"Doug's approach to filmmaking is quite unique. He would literally show up at my door with the camera and: 'let's go and film in Ann Arbor for the day,' or let's go walk round New York for the day,' or 'Paris for the day,'. We were in Paris for, I think, five hours."
Yet it was one crucial trip to Boston which unexpectedly lit an interest in the 26 year old Canadian into the science behind his high concept fantasy film.
"Doug and I actually got to go to MIT," he explains, referring to the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology, "and we sat down with two professors who were experts in quantum teleportation, which is a form of teleportation that actually exists.
"In a very limited context they’ve managed to teleport a photon, a particle of light, over a distance of a couple of kilometres which is pretty amazing. They spoke very intelligently about the actual science of it, it was very impressive and got me excited. So I'm really interested in it now."
What he might lose in air miles he'll make up for by saying goodbye to jet lag forever - and that's a trade off we'd all jump at.
ANWAR BRETT
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