money The Oval's Daniel Croix Talks Playing a Character Everyone Loves to Hate — Who Will Be Jason's Next Victim?
Of all the duplicitous ghouls skulking the halls of Tyler Perry’s The Oval, First Son Jason Franklin is unquestionably the most depraved — and fans of the BET drama wouldn’t have it any other way.
“With Jason, I just learn as I go,” actor Daniel Croix tells TVLine. “Every time I get a new script, I’m just as surprised and just as hooked as our audience is.”
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And Croix’s character is certainly full of surprises, to put it mildly. Here’s a quick rundown of the many sins Jason has managed to commit in less than three seasons: he exposed himself to his mother’s stylist, he beheaded his father’s mistress, he strangled a White House maid and stuffed her corpse under his bed, he spied on both of his parents having sex (with other people), he ejaculated on his therapist (and a very expensive marble table), he urinated on a Secret Service agent, he attempted to rape the press secretary, he pleasured himself under the table during a family luncheon, and he choked his grandmother to death.
“Jason killing his grandma was so over the top, I remember reading it and almost laughing at the absurdity,” Croix says. “At that point, he had fully taken a turn into serial killer territory. No remorse. I mean, how much worse can you get? Who would kill their grandma? It was so insane, and I wondered what people would think.”
But all that worrying turned out to be for nothing, as fans swiftly embraced Jason as someone they now love to hate — and in some cases, believe it or not, just plain love.
“People actually root for him,” Croix says. “If there’s a character someone isn’t too happy about, they’ll tweet, ‘I hope Jason gets them!’ It’s interesting how they’ve given him that role. I’m also amazed at how some people are rooting for Jason to kill Victoria. Some people are like, ‘I hope he gets her next!’ It’s just so absurd, and I’m really happy that our audience is loving it.”
And while we can’t possibly imagine anyone taking out The Oval‘s unbreakable FLOTUS, we look forward to seeing Jason try. It certainly seems to be the direction in which their relationship is heading.
“Jason took a turn when he finally told his family that all he ever wanted was love and that they were completely unavailable to him,” Croix says. “When he realized that his family has done nothing but teach him hate, he reached a new level of apathy. Earlier on, he was trying to make sense of it all. But now he’s totally gone over the edge.”
New episodes of The Oval air Tuesdays at 9/8c on BET. Now tell us: How do you really feel about Jason? Drop your thoughts in a comment below.
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