Joshua Jackson Says Daughter Janie, 2½, Is ‘Very Opinionated’: She’ll ‘Fully Express What She Wants’

Joshua Jackson at the Barbara Berlanti Heroes Gala benefiting the non-profit organization Fuck Cancer, held at The Barker Hangar on October 1, 2022 in Santa Monica, California. (Photo by Gilbert Flores/Variety via Getty Images)

Gilbert Flores/Variety via Getty

Joshua Jackson is enjoying all that comes with being a first-time father.

While speaking with PEOPLE at The Barbara Berlanti Heroes Gala Benefitting F— Cancer in Santa Monica on Saturday evening, the actor discussed his fatherhood journey after welcoming his first child — daughter Janie, 2½, whom he shares with wife Jodie Turner-Smith — in 2020.

“The work [of being a parent] is constant because she’s constantly a new version of herself,” Jackson, 44, explained of being a father to his little one.

“So I think [you have to be] open to the fact that you have to rediscover your child all the time,” he continued. “But the greatest piece of it right now is she’s so hyper-verbal, and she’s very, very opinionated. And I’m just enjoying the ability to be in that conversation with her.”

Jackson said, however, that his daughter has never been one to shy away from making her feelings known. “The thing is, the opinions were there before the words were. There was never any doubt that she knew what she wanted, but now she’s able to fully express what she wants,” he said.

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Jodie Turner-Smith and Joshua Jackson

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As for the future, the Dawson’s Creek alum said he thinks Janie is going to challenge him in a fun way as she grows older. “I’m so looking forward to that,” he told PEOPLE.

Jackson and Smith’s daughter was born in 2020 just a few short months after PEOPLE confirmed the pair had tied the knot in December 2019.

During an interview with PEOPLE last month, the British actress shared she was so psyched to watch one of Jackson’s first films with Janie.

“We are 100% going to play Mighty Ducks for her. I can’t wait,” Smith, 36, said while speaking alongside Jackson. “Not yet though. I want her to be a little bit more older. There’s more older kid themes in that.”

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“Also, we got to figure out how weird it’s going to be for her to see her dad as a child,” she added, laughing.

Centered around a ragtag hockey team, the first The Mighty Ducks movie was released in 1992 and starred Emilio Estevez as Coach Gordon Bombay, along with Joss Ackland, Lane Smith, Josef Sommer, Jackson and Elden Henson. The hockey flick spawned two sequels — D2: The Mighty Ducks (1994) and D3: The Mighty Ducks (1996) — and an animated series.

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“The amount of times people come up to him and be like, ‘Mighty Ducks changed my life’ or ‘It’s so important to me,’ [is] so cute. It’s the cutest thing,” Smith marveled at the time.

Now, with their family in mind, Jackson and Smith said they’re “choosing” to do more things together as a unit.

“We have probably the most amazing collaboration you could ever possibly hope for in your life, which is being husband and wife and parents,” Jackson told PEOPLE.