'The Last Frontier' Exclusive Interview: Jason Clarke

Moviefone speaks with Jason Clarke about Apple TV+'s 'The Last Frontier'. "When they sent me the script for the pilot, I read it and I loved it," he said.

Jason Clarke stars in Apple TV+'s 'The Last Frontier'.

Premiering on Apple TV+ October 10th is the new thriller series ‘The Last Frontier’, which was created by Jon Bokenkamp (‘The Blacklist’) and Richard D'Ovidio, and stars Jason Clarke (‘Dawn of the Planet of the Apes’), Dominic Cooper (‘Captain America: The First Avenger’), Haley Bennett (‘The Magnificent Seven’), Simone Kessell (‘Yellowjackets’), and Alfre Woodard (‘Captain America: Civil War’).

The Last Frontier

"600,000 square miles. Nowhere to hide."

TV-MADrama

Audience
Score

Air Date: October 9th, 2025

Networks: Apple TV+

Starring: Jason Clarke, Dominic Cooper, Haley Bennett

Watch The Last Frontier Online

Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with Jason Clarke about his work on 'The Last Frontier', his first reaction to the screenplay for the pilot episode, his character’s pursuit of escaped convict Havlock, Frank’s reluctant partnership with CIA agent Sidney, and working with actress Haley Bennett.

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Jason Clarke in 'The Last Frontier,' premiering October 10, 2025 on Apple TV+.

Moviefone: To begin with, this is a fantastic series! Can you talk about your first reaction to reading the screenplay for the pilot and did you recognize immediately that Frank Remnick would be a great role for you to play in particular?

Jason Clarke: Thank you, mate. I do too and I love hearing that kind of response, man. We had a great time making it. I watch it when I don't normally watch a lot of things, and I kept watching it. I've loved it, I really did. Dude, when they send you a script and they send you the pilot, you read it, and of course, that's draft after draft. I'm now smart enough to go, “Well, this is, of course, their best foot forward” and I did love it. The plane crashing, the size and the scope, I thought, this is where Apple should be, and I want to be part of this. You know what I mean? I really did. I've been on a lot of sets in my career. So then, you know, it's set in snow. I thought, “Well, that's not easy.” I remember ‘The Revenant’ and I'm friends with Tom (Hardy) and Leo (DiCaprio), and I knew what they went through. So, I said, “Guys, how about the rest of them?” They sent me all 10 episodes, which was like, okay, they've done their work, because we're going to have to shoot out of order. Then you read through and you're just waiting with bated breath of when it's going to fall down the hole. Because now, your hopes are up, and I read all 10 in like no time at all. Normally I go through with a marker on my iPad, and I'll just mark that this doesn't make sense in orange, and red is like that's just not good. But I didn't have any. I just read it straight through. I thought, “Man, he took me on a wild ride and brought me up the other side.” Sure, there's a few things, I think some dialog, but I'm with that ride. That's what it felt like to me, and then it was like, let's get this 50 something year old body into shape and get on this roller coaster.

'The Last Frontier,' premiering October 10, 2025 on Apple TV+.

MF: Can you talk about the cat and mouse game that takes place between Frank and escaped convict Havlock and how Frank navigates that?

JC: Frank in a way, he's a very real person. You know, he's not a superhero. He's not the best fighter or the fastest gun. He doesn't have the level of training and abilities that Havlock has, and you find it out when you realize things. But he's cunning and his dogged, and he's decent, and he's going to get up more times and he gets knocked down. You know, you're going to have to finish Frank off if you want to beat him, and I love those parts. They're very human and it enables you to bring the audience in closer to the reality of who he is. I mean, when we talked about the fight sequences with (director) Sam (Hargrave), I was like, “I'm not going to be, you know, Chris Hemsworth or Spider-Man or something here”. Frank's going be beaten more times that he beats, but he's going to come back and that's how we leaned into that. So, he's learning from Havlock, and he doesn't realize just how far down the rabbit hole and into the dark that Havlock has led him. Then it starts to dawn on him. I love “No Country for Old Men’ that speech that Tommy Lee Jones makes about the dream. Frank starts to realize, he’s seen a lot of bad and dark in Chicago, and he knows what criminals can do, and big organized criminals. So, he starts to realize, “Oh, man, I'm in some dangerous territory.” Then his family's involved in it, too. That gets to the heart of it.

(L to R) Jason Clarke and Haley Bennett in 'The Last Frontier,' premiering October 10, 2025 on Apple TV+.

MF: Finally, can you talk about Frank’s reluctant partnership with CIA agent Sidney and what it was like working on that relationship with actress Haley Bennett?

JC: Well, Hayley bought a great, like a mist in terms of you couldn't tell where she's at. You know, I wanted to hold her, but then the next minute I feared her. You feel like with Frank, you're trying to work out what her involvement is, what she is hiding, and then you're also aware that she's super dangerous. Even though she's an alone operative, an alone agent and a woman in this foreign place, there's something about the way she operates. She makes you lean into her and frank leans into her, and then he needs her as well. You just you realize he's on a lake of ice, with her as well, too.

Jason Clarke in 'The Last Frontier,' premiering October 10, 2025 on Apple TV+.

What is the plot of 'The Last Frontier'?

A U.S. Marshal (Jason Clarke) in the outskirts of Alaska must protect his town while he investigates the plane crash that set free multiple fugitives, now on the loose.