Bordered by a winding tributary of the Black River, surrounded by lush forests and rolling mountains, Briggsville, Arkansas (population: 119) is the dictionary definition of rural bliss. The actor Jacob Lofland, an only child, spent his youth using what existed around him: cruising around on dirt bikes, commandeering boats and observing the bustle of his father’s saw mill. “After getting off work, the guys would have a beer around the fire and tell stories,” he recalls with evident nostalgia. “I spent my childhood sitting there, listening, understanding that there are more ways to look at life than the way you’re seeing it in the moment. I think that has a lot to do with who I am.”
Of the few short paragraphs that make up Briggsville’s Wikipedia page, the third is dedicated to its status as the actor’s hometown – he has lived there his entire life. “I just recently bought a house here, a couple miles from where I grew up,” he explains. “I like to stay close.” Lofland, now 23, is taller and lither than the kid we were introduced to in [italic]Mud[/italic] (2012), the film he starred in with Matthew McConaughey at the age of 15 – though he shares his character’s quiet sense of purpose, and passion for the natural environment that he grew up around.
“I was home-schooled,” Lofland says over the phone in the soft southern drawl that has won over myriad directors, from Wes Ball, who cast him in the dystopian [italic]Maze Runner[/italic] franchise, to Ty Roberts, who harnessed the actor’s talents for his forthcoming American football drama [italic]12 Mighty Orphans[/italic]. “(Sometimes my) mom would look for stuff for me to fill out online that she could grade me on. One day she found an (open casting call) for [italic]Mud[/italic], with the headline ‘Hollywood Comes to Arkansas’. They wanted a kid that could drive a boat and ride a motorcycle. It didn’t say anything about acting! So I filled it out, we sent it off, and I thought nothing of it.”
