The first time actor Akira Jackson filmed “It Ends,” she was 19 years old. Now, promoting the film – which finally hits theaters in Atlanta this weekend – she’s 23.
Directed by Florida State University alum Alexander Ullom, “It Ends” follows Jackson, Phinehas Yoon, Noah Toth and Mitchell Cole as a group of friends who, during a roadtrip, end up on a two-lane highway that seemingly leads to nowhere.
Ullom did two rounds of reshoots on his directorial debut before the film premiered at the South by Southwest Festival in 2025. In December of that year, the movie-based social media app Letterboxd released the film as part of the launch of its Letterboxd Video Store, then a platform for releasing underseen indie films. Just a couple of weeks later, Neon picked up the film for distribution.
For Jackson, the ride from making the film in Northwest, FL, to finally seeing it released wide has been a wild one. I recently spoke to the actor about how she learned about “It Ends” through Ullom’s former TA, her love for Keke Palmer, and more. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
I know you were raised in Georgia, but I’m curious about your journey to acting. Is this something you always knew you wanted to do?
Akira Jackson: I was born in Alabama, raised in rural Georgia. I was raised primarily in the Augusta region, but I have had family in Atlanta since I was like, three, four years old. We would go up to Atlanta quite often, and that was my introduction into the entertainment industry. I’ve always kind of known that I wanted to be an actress, but I would see Tyler Perry and his movies on TV, and China Anne McClaine – I was like, “Oh my gosh. She looks like me! I think I can do this as well.”
I’ve always been, for lack of a better term, dramatic [laughs], and really keen on entertaining my family. I love to make people laugh, I love to perform. So when I finally pulled the trigger and told my parents that I wanted to act, they were very, very, very supportive.
About how long ago was that? How old were you?
Jackson: Oh my goodness – that was 10 years ago. I started acting – well, the love for acting and performing started a little bit before that, when I was maybe around 10 or 11. When I turned 13, I started acting full time.
Was there a specific movie or actor or performer that you saw around that age that made you think, I want to do this?
Jackson: There are so many. But off the top of my head, Keke Palmer and China Anne McClain. Watching China Anne McClain in the film “Daddy’s Little Girls” was me and my sister’s performance awakening. We thought she was so incredibly good in that film. And Keke Palmer, we were Nickelodeon kids, so we were watching her on “True Jackson, VP,” starring in her own show and how hammy and comedic she was – it was a wake-up call. I can do that too. Those are my top choices.
I feel like Keke has been having a resurgence lately, with “Nope,” and “One of Them Days.” She’s the best.
Jackson: I spoke with her a while ago. She did not know I was an actress at the time, but she’s just so incredibly down to earth for somebody who started acting at such a young age. She has such a good grasp on reality and who she wants to be in this industry, and it’s really admirable to me.
Moving to the movie itself, what drew you to the role and how did you come across this project?
Jackson: I think that this was all very serendipitous, because the first ever job that I ever took was for a film called “Girl Beast. It was from an FSU alumni named Zoe Deleon. We filmed it, it was an amazing experience. I built such great connections on that set, and then four years later, she approaches me via Instagram DMs. “Hey Kira, hope you’re doing well! My student that I taught awhile ago is holding auditions for this feature film. I think you’d be an amazing addition to the cast. I think you should audition.” I was fully convinced that she had talked me up to Alex [Ullom] – you know, like the nepotism route. So when I got in the chemistry read, and he was asking me, “How did you find out about the film?” I said, “You didn’t talk to Zoe?” He was like, “Who’s Zoe?” I said, “Your teacher!” He said, “From film school? Oh yeah, I think I remember her. So that put like some stank on my shoulder, because I got it on my own merit. He genuinely really liked my performance.
The script was really good as well. It was very natural, and I feel like, as an actor, my go-to approach is a very naturalistic dialect and tone. And Alex really loves improv.
That comes across, I think.
Jackson: Yeah, you can definitely see that in the film, and it’s my bread and butter. When I read the script – you know, it’s gone through a couple variations over time, but it became a lot more improv-heavy. Even though Alex wrote an amazing script, he was really willing to work with us as actors as we developed the script. As we filmed it some more, we learned the characters more and were able to make it our own. I think there’s a lot of Akira in [my character] Day, which really helps me scratch the improv bug.
One of the things that is super interesting to me about this movie is that the specifics of everyone’s relationships to each other are not explicitly told to us. We kind of know the bare basics, but the nuances have to come through in the performances. You touched on this a bit with the improv part of things, but did you guys have a rehearsal period? How did you go about forming those subtle attachments with the other actors?
Jackson: We did have a rehearsal period. It was about a week and a half, but I was not there the full time. I came into this film a little bit later than everyone else, so they had all met and had about a week to get to know each other. But the week that I joined the cast, they were sort of still establishing their dynamics with each other.
Me and Noah [Toth] clicked instantly. Noah plays Fisher in the film. Over time, over this rehearsal period, we went through the entire script, we were annotating. Noah, I credit him a lot in terms of who taught me how to act. I knew how to act before I joined the cast, but Noah’s process is so thorough that whenever I was watching him develop his character Fisher, I felt like I wasn’t doing enough. He had a diary for Fisher, you know? He has a very hands-on approach to acting. I had my little Pinterest board of what I thought Day would look like, the playlists and everything, but it wasn’t until I started to really dig deep into the script that I really felt connected to Day and was able to make her my own.
That was all in the rehearsal period, so when we got to filming, we were just like boom, boom, boom – if Alex wanted to add an extra line, we knew where it was coming from. And when you film a movie almost three times, you start to get things. We had the privilege of watching the previous cuts of the movie, like football highlights. So we knew the characters like the back of our hands. It was very beneficial.
This movie is being billed as a horror movie, and it certainly has some of those elements. But when you sit down and watch it, it’s not, really. It kind of fakes you out a little bit. Looking at your IMDB, you’ve done a good amount of action, horror, and other genre movies. I was curious about your connection to the genre in general before this film, and then coming into this film how you played with the subversion of those tropes.
Jackson: Coming into the movie, I didn’t quite see it as a horror film. Like, it would be horrible if it happened to you. It would be scary if it happened to you. But I feel like it’s more existential horror. Because when you’re having a mirror held up to your face about your character, and what you’re doing in life, and what road you’re on – that’s a very scary thing, you know what I mean?
My relationship with horror is that it’s not my favorite genre. But when it hits, it hits. I gravitate more towards existential horror, things that make you think about your own life and put yourself with the characters rather than jump scares. When I read the script and I started getting it for myself, it got pretty freaking scary. Which helps you connect to it. You know, we’re actually in the car. We’re actually on the road while we’re filming this movie. That really helps you get into it.
What was it like being in the car? What were the challenges that came about filming in such close quarters?
Jackson: Girl, it was so hot! Even in October. We filmed in Tallahassee. That part of Florida pretty much gets all the seasons, but it’s still hot. We filmed in an old Jeep – an old Jeep Cherokee – and sometimes the air conditioner didn’t work. Sometimes the car wouldn’t start itself. [Laughs] So it kind of feels like you’re method acting a little … We’d eat in the Jeep, I’d be asleep in between takes in the Jeep. We were definitely on that road together.
Filming this with this particular group of people, we were all figuring this out as we went. They’re incredibly talented. The cast and crew, they’re all FSU alumni for the most part, and they’re very hands-on in their approach. Like Carrie [Carusone], the producer – if somebody wasn’t there to run the slate, she would pick up the slate and we’d get it done, because that is the beauty of indie filmmaking, you know what I mean? It was very much a team effort, very much a passion project. I think that comes across when you watch the movie, especially in terms of our chemistry. That was all being built over those three years of filming and just getting to know one another and develop our characters together.
I know this is Alex’s directorial debut. You’ve touched on this a little bit, but what sort of director was he? How did he work with you and the other actors, as far as helping to mold your performances?
Jackson: With the timing that we had to do everything – I’m sure other actors can resonate with this – it’s really hard to get to those more intimate and emotional scenes when you’re on time crunch like that. But Alex, being such an amazing writer, he allowed us to fully put ourselves in the characters, even so far as going to rewrite certain lines the way I would say it, rather than how he imagined Day would say them. That really helps you get into character. Also, he was just willing to work with us. He was willing to give us that moment to ourselves to go put our headphones on and just, you know, walk around the woods a little bit so we can really feel what we’re doing rather than just – action, go! He was very much accommodating to our personal feelings about the matter. Even though you don’t always get that extra take on an indie set, Alex was the one to fight for it, definitely.
I love the fact that he brought y’all into the creative process. I was watching an interview with the showrunner of “Sterling Point,’ Megan Park. She was talking about how she would often let the actors figure out how they would say certain lines. I think that’s really helpful, particularly when you’re dealing with a certain age group, and you want it to sound natural.
Jackson: Yeah, that Gen Z slang. I mean, Alex is Gen Z, and he wrote an incredibly funny script. But when he saw all of us together in the audition process and during our chemistry reads, I could see the little gears in his head turning. Like, whatever I would ad lib, I’d see him go like this [mimes writing something down], trying to really mold it for us. So that was really, really helpful.
Remind me when you first filmed this?
Jackson: We filmed the first round in 2022, when I was 19 years old. Now I’m 23. It’s been such an incredibly strenuous journey, but it’s so worth it when you see everything that we were able to create and the bonds we were able to build. When you film something for that long, you kind of – I don’t know. You film movies with people, you go to different sets, you meet different actors. But this set definitely held a standard in my mind for what chemistry and camaraderie is supposed to be on a set. I always have “It Ends” in the back of my mind when I’m working on these different projects, because that is literally where I came of age. I was 19 years old. I was on my own for the first time. I was away from home. Being in Florida, it’s not that far from Georgia, but it was far enough for me to just be like, dang – I’m really here by myself! It kind of served as my college experience, in a way. It’s just really cool. I wouldn’t trade that experience for the world.
I believe it was one of the first exclusive films when Letterboxd started doing their rental service, and now it’s picked up and getting a theatrical release, getting good reviews. That must feel pretty vindicating, to have worked on it four years ago.
Jackson: While we were in the process of touring it around film festivals and trying to get it bought, there was the common concern that it would become dated, or that we wouldn’t have an audience. But you can’t really run out of Gen Z, if that makes sense. I feel like we’re all very consistent across the board. There are so many different personalities in this film that [you could] latch onto someone like Tyler, who’s serving as an older Gen Z, or maybe even a Zillenial. There’s a character like Fisher who’s more erratic, or a character like Day, who’s more jaded, or James, who’s very straight-laced. You can latch onto either one of these characters and be able to find yourself in them. I would often remind the crew that there’s always going to be an audience for this, because the movie is supposed to be about you. You’re supposed to find yourself in this movie, and I think we do a pretty good job at showing those different types of people.
