Joshua Jackson Can't Pick Best Part of Being a Dad: 'Every Single Day'

Joshua Jackson is all in on dad life.

At the Wednesday, September 18, premiere of his new show Doctor Odyssey, Jackson, 46, exclusively told Us Weekly that he couldn’t pick one best part of being a girl dad to his 4-year-old daughter.

“It’s not a part; it’s the whole thing,” he gushed. “It’s every single day. She is a joy.”

Jackson, who shares his child with ex-wife Jodie Turner-Smith, noted that he’s even “trying to learn how to French braid hair.” The actor also takes his daughter into consideration when deciding which projects to do.

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“I have a four year old. She’s in school. I need to work here, and I want to be able to be, like, a dad. That’s really honestly my main priority,” Jackson told Us of signing on to the ABC medical drama Doctor Odyssey. “I really wanted to do something where it was lighter, where I didn’t have to go home as a head case every night, brooding and heavy.”

Jackson plays Dr. Max Bankman, a doctor on board a cruise ship, in the new show, which is set to premiere on Thursday, September 26. He plays a very different kind of physician in the Peacock series Dr. Death, which is based on the true story of Christopher Duntsch, a neurosurgeon convicted for intentionally maiming a patient. (Dunstch, 53, who is currently serving a life sentence, was accused of injuring 33 patients in less than two years.)

For Jackson, Doctor Odyssey’s tone is a welcome reprieve from the dark subject matter of Dr. Death.

“I told [cocreator Ryan Murphy], ‘I would like to play something light so I feel good when I go home at the end of the day.’ And he was like, ‘Great. I have the show for you,’” Jackson recalled, noting that the show is not “cynical” or “ironically detached” in any way.

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“It wears its heart on its sleeve, and it’s action packed, and there’s romance and drama,” he said.

Jackson noted that he wanted to work with Murphy, 58, who has cocreated beloved series including Glee and American Horror Story, because of the producer’s passion for television.

“He writes from the perspective of a person who likes television. He likes the format of long-form storytelling,” Jackson explained. “For [our show], it’s a little different [from] some of his other shows in that each episode is its own story. And I’ve never worked on something like that before where the idea is, like, each [episode] is its own movie.”

Doctor Odyssey premieres on ABC Thursday, September 26, at 9 p.m. ET.

With reporting by Lanae Brody