Q&A with Alice Greczyn of ABC Family’s “The Lying Game” (J!-ENT Interviews and Articles)

As part of J!-ENT’s coverage of “The Lying Game”, the latest Q&A is with actress Alice Greczyn.

Alice has starred on several TV shows such as “Quintuplets”, “Windfall”, “Privileged”, “Lincoln Heights” and also starred in a three-episode arc on the ABC Family TV series “Make It or Break It”.  Alice also stars in the hit ABC Family drama series “The Lying Game” as Madeline “Mads” Rybak.

Alice plays “Mads”, a cool and very intelligent high school student and one of the best friends of Sutton Mercer.

In “The Lying Game”, two twins (Sutton Mercer and Emma Becker, both played by actress Alexandra Chando) were separated at birth.  Emma Becker grew up in foster care, while Sutton Mercer grew up with a loving, wealthy family.

The two have come face-to-face and realize that both are sisters.  Emma agrees to impersonate her sister while Sutton goes to Los Angeles to find her real biological parents.  But for some reason, when Sutton is supposed to return back home, Emma feels that something may have happened.

Mads does not know that her best friend Sutton is actually now Emma.

So far in the series, Mads had to deal with her brother Thayer  (played by Christian Alexander) moving to Los Angeles with their mom, leaving Mads behind with her father (who may or may not be abusive towards her).  Recently, she started to notice a few things about her father and that he may be tied into something mysterious.

To help promote the second season, Alice Greczyn recently took part in a media Q&A to discuss her role on “The Lying Game”.  Here is the transcript from the media Q&A interview with actress Alice Greczyn:

Moderator    You have a Twitter called @alicefood, and on there you tweet a lot about food.

Alice    I certainly do.

 

Moderator    What is the most exotic dish that you have ever sampled?

Alice  The most exotic dish I’ve ever sampled, probably—it happened when I was a toddler, and I can’t really remember—but according to my parents we were in South Korea, and they fed me dog.  That would be the most exotic.  The most exotic food I’ve ever eaten of my own accord was probably barbecued alligator in Louisiana, which was actually really good.

 

Moderator   Do you ever see in the future of you doing a complete TV show about food?

Alice  You know, people have asked me that.  People have asked me if I would even do my own web series about food.  I’m not very comfortable being myself in front of camera, but I love to write about food.  I used to do restaurant reviews as a side hobby in L.A., and I love writing about it.  I love food journalism, especially travel and food together.  I am working on a cookbook, so I think my passion for food will manifest itself more in writing than in front of the camera.  But who’s to say, you know?  I am open to the possibility.

 

Moderator     How do you think things are going to change for Mads and other characters now that she knows the big secret?

Alice   The biggest thing that changes for Mads is that being let in on the secret opens up a door for her to find out a lot more about her dad and his possible involvement in all the mysteries on the show.  For the rest of the season, Mads is pretty much just uncovering more and more about him, and it brings a lot of tension between Mads and Thayer, and Emma’s sort of in the middle of it.

Mads kind of acts as an ally to Emma because she’s really upset with Sutton, and now that she knows Emma’s not actually Sutton, she and Emma can be friends.  But at the same time, Emma’s also the one telling Mads thing she doesn’t want to hear about her dad, so there’s still some tension there, and that plays out through the rest of the season…

 

Moderator   Is ballet a part of your life too?

Alice   No, but I am so flattered that they even asked.  That means I’m doing something right if it’s not extremely obvious.  No, I’m not a dancer.  I was a competitive figure skater when I was a kid.  I think I did, maybe, six months of ballet at some point in there in my childhood, but when I moved to Austin for the show, that was one of the first things I did.  The first two, three weeks were filled with intensive days with a choreographer that the show hired to help work with me, since they weren’t going to use a dance double, and it was pretty brutal.

I’m naturally thin, and people tell me I have a ballerina’s build, but I’m not naturally—my muscles were not trained to hold themselves in the way that they must for ballet.  To even just hold your arm right is very difficult and painful.  I have so much respect for dancers now after, kind of, putting myself in their shoes for a little bit.

 

Moderator    What are the similarities between you and your character on the show?

Alice   There aren’t many.  I’m from a big family; I have four younger siblings.  My parents are still happily married together.  I grew up moving around a lot, and my family was certainly not affluent.  So on face value, there’s not much I have in common with my character, like the whole—I was going to say we could get into the whole nature versus nurture argument, but that’s a different conversation.

Basically, your environment brings you up when you’re a child, kind of shapes who you are.  I think Mads and I had very different upbringings, and so we don’t really have a lot in common.  Even if we were the same age and I met Mads, I don’t even know if we’d necessarily be friends.  I think we tend to socialize in the circles that we’re raised in to an extent, and I don’t have that much in common with her.  But that’s what makes her so fun to play.

I’ve enjoyed putting myself in the shoes of this rich girl who has a father that is the villain of the show.  And for the first time (I think) in my career, I’m playing a character that has a sibling, which is really cool.  I really enjoy having scenes with Christian, who plays Thayer.  It’s a fun dynamic to play with.

I think the only thing, maybe, me and Mads have in common is that we both are very loyal and very keen observers, I guess.  Mads, from day one, has always been suspicious of Sutton’s new behavior, and now she knows that it’s Emma.  So all the dots are starting to connect, and everything’s starting to make sense.

 

Moderator   What do you admire most about Mads?

Alice   I admire her sense of confidence and discipline.  I think anyone who dances ballet has to be a very self-disciplined person, very motivated, and very hardworking.  She’s also a good student, and I think she prides herself on being a good friend.  She’s very there for her friends.

Char is not really in the show so much anymore, but I think with Char you really got to see what a loyal friend Mads was to her, and very caring.  I think there’s very few people Mads lets in, but the ones that she does let in, she cares very deeply about.  So that’s why it’s very wounding to her when, all of a sudden, Sutton is—she’s gotten used to Emma’s version of Sutton, who’s been really sweet and really kind, and I think that’s really meant a lot to Mads—and all of a sudden, real Sutton comes back, and before she knows it’s real Sutton, she’s so thrown because they’re two completely different people, and being inconsistent she’s obviously aggravated her.  But now that she knows that there’s two of them, she and Emma can work on their own relationship, and Mads will have to deal with Sutton totally separately.

 

Moderator     When you first read the role of Mads, what was it about this character that made you want to play her?

Alice    When I first read it, the role was a lot different than it is now.  When I first read it, she was sort of the edgy, punky one in the group, and she wanted to be a writer.  She had a possibly abusive relationship with her dad.  Her brother was gone and she seemed much more like a loner and much more of the darker one of the three girls—of Mads, Char, and Sutton.

Obviously, that storyline has changed a lot.  Once a pilot gets picked up, the network gives their notes on what they want to see happen, and so I guess, to be honest, a lot of things that initially drew me to her are no longer very apparent to a viewer.  I know they’re there, but the storyline, dialog, and writing doesn’t shed so much light on it.  But I’ve also found other things that keep me still drawn to her.  I love that she was a dancer.  I love playing someone that had a passion and a talent outside of just being an average high-school kid.  I like that about her.  And like I said before, I like that she had a brother that she really cared about.  I loved playing with that sibling dynamic.

I like working on a show that always keeps me in suspense.  It’s really fun for me to see what the next episodes are as I get the scripts coming in.  So that’s fun, you know?  It’s a drama/suspense show, and I think as far as TV goes, that’s probably the main genre I’m interested in.

 

Moderator    Do have a favorite memory or moment from either on the show or behind the scenes that you could share with our fans?

Alice  Well let’s see, last summer when we shot the first 10 episodes, that was a really special time because we were all new to Austin.  We were exploring all over the place and getting to know each other.  On Fourth of July, we rented a boat on Lake Travis and went tubing, and that was a blast.  We all really do have a lot of fun together.

Let’s see, I think we might be going off-roading this weekend as sort of a little last hurrah for ourselves.  Texas has a lot to do and a lot to explore, and so we all have fun doing that.  And of course, I’ve made everybody explore every possible restaurant that they can.  If anyone’s going to go eat with me, there’s lots of eating to be done.  They’re all used to me taking pictures of their food before I allow them to eat it so I can either tweet about it or just have it for my own personal collection to inspire me in my cooking.

As far as the show goes, I really had fun shooting—I remember I had a lot of shooting the homecoming episode.  That was really fun.  I think that was episode 105 or 106.  But really just—I mean, it’s hard because I feel like I know each of the cast members so well individually, but I work with very few of them.  I have very little scenes with Allie, and Allie and I are very good friends off-screen, but we hardly ever get to work together.  If we’re in a scene together, we never have dialog.

I have a lot of dialog with Christian and Alex.  And Alex, (poor thing) she’s the one who works more than any of us, so I rarely see her outside of work.  I see Christian quite a bit outside of work and Tyler, who plays Dan, he and I hang out.  I mean, a lot of the guest stars that come through—like Randy—I’ve known Randy for a while, Misha—who’s playing Ryan right now—he and I hang out.  And then one of my best friends from L.A., Andy Fischer-Price—he plays one of the guys in Laurel’s band and has no on-screen dialog—but when he’s around, he and I hang out too.

So I don’t know.  I wish the fans could—or I should say I wish the writers—could give a little a lot more scenes where all of us are together.  I’d love to be able to have more dialogue with Allie.  Blair and I were laughing the other day; I think we said two lines to each other in the entire season, and we hang out a lot outside of work too, so it’s like—how do you know that if you’re just watching the show?  But it is fun.  We are all very close.

 

Moderator You recently did a guest-starring appearance on Make It or Break It, where you performed as an anorexic character. Can you tell us about that experience and how it may have affected you personally?

Alice   I certainly did not realize what I was walking into when I did that role. Obviously, eating disorders are a very hot topic, and that’s one of the things that fans asked me the most about on Twitter or Facebook. It seems everyone wants to know if I have an eating disorder, and playing an anorexic character on Make It or Break It probably didn’t help much.

To set the record straight, I certainly do not have an eating disorder. I think as anyone can gather, I love food, and it is not just a front to cover up the fact that I don’t eat any. I do like that. I think that arc on Make It or Break It—I was in there for three episodes—it was interesting to play that character because she did have an eating disorder and was in total denial about it and had been in and out of rehab for anorexics and bulimics and knew how to work the system and play along so that she could get out, and then she’d go right back to being anorexic again.

I’ve never played a character like that before, so that was really interesting for me personally and the aftermath of that was what affected me personally. I had girls tweeting me saying that they—one girl, she taped a picture of me on her water bottle when she went jogging to inspire her to stay thin, and that made me feel really sad.

On one hand, I think it’s great that people are talking about it. I always try to encourage everyone to be happy and healthy and fully accepting of who they are, but it’s a very sensitive subject to talk about because it’s very easy for someone like me who’s naturally thin to be like, “Oh, well just eat in moderation, blah, blah, blah.” But a lot of people don’t look like me naturally, and so they must assume that there’s something very wrong with me mentally and physically, and that’s been difficult for me to deal with personally.

There are times that I feel very angered by a lot of the responses and questions, and I think a lot of people project a lot of hateful jealousy in their comments. I’ve definitely gotten some nasty ones, and I’ve gotten some very troublesome ones (some disturbing ones) of girls who were trying, like, “Oh, I need to make sure my ribs show like hers do, then I’ll know I’m skinny enough.” It’s not about ribs showing or not. If they show, and you’re a naturally healthy person, you just have really prominent bone structure or you’re just naturally healthy. Just be healthy.

That has been a very troubling topic to me. I could go on at length about it. It’s a very big deal, and I recognize that. I don’t take it lightly. I don’t take viewers’ comments lightly. It definitely does affect me, and there’s not much I can really say except to just encourage loving of yourself, and there are bigger things to worry about than whether or not your ribs are showing.

 

Moderator How did you get into acting?

Alice   I never anticipated being an actor. When I was a kid, I competed in figure skating, and I thought I might go that route, and then by the time I was high-school aged—I got my GED when I was 16, and I was in college for nursing school—and I really wanted to be a nurse and travel the world and do that. But then I fell into acting through modeling—because I’ve done quite a bit of modeling as well—and a talent manager from L.A. was like, “Oh, you should be an actress. Come to L.A. for pilot season.” So I did. I did not plan to stay. I did not plan for anything really to happen, but I started booking work. So long story short, I just thought, “I guess I’ll just see where this goes and see what else I book,” and it’s been a very fruitful career.

I’ve been very fortunate not to have to have a second job since I started, which was nine years ago. I’ve made my living from acting, and a little bit of modeling too every now and then for fun. Yeah, I think I’m pretty committed to it now. The longer I’m in it, the harder it would be to imagine doing something else as my primary career, even though I have a lot of other different interests.

 

Moderator When you found out you booked the role of Mads, how did you research to play her? What preparation went into that, and is it different from the ways you’ve researched your other roles?

Alice   It is different. One thing I always do for all of my characters is I—I’m not sure if you’re familiar with the Myers-Briggs temperament test, but I’m kind of obsessed with psychology, and I love taking personality quizzes. The Myers-Briggs test, I take as each one of my characters, and it kind of tells me, in a nutshell, what type of personality they are, [what] they’re like in life and family and work and love, and I kind of start from there.

So when we were filming the pilot, I kind of felt like, “Oh, I think Mads is an ISTP artisan. I know that’s a very clinical-sounding word, but basically I thought she was more of an introvert and a lot more observant. She’s a dancer, and so she’s very technical and very artistic and very disciplined. That kind of filled me in a little bit about her.

In the beginning of the season, I had a crush on Eduardo (my dance teacher) who I probably grew up having a crush on, and as we all know that ended disastrously. So I think Mads is at a very fragile time in life right now where she’s still learning about herself, as many teenagers are, and I think these events are happening to her right now in this season—losing Eduardo, having suspicions about her dad, not being able to trust her best friend—I think all of these are very much going to shape the woman she is going to become. I think Mads is an internal processor and thinks about things very deeply, and things affect her very deeply even if she doesn’t necessarily let it show.

 

Moderator Yes, it does. It tells us you put a lot of thought into it.

Alice   I do. I do. And of course, it changes too, because sometimes I think like, “Oh Mads wouldn’t handle a situation like this,” then I read the next script and it’s like, “What? Now she’s emotional?” I’m like, “Oh, wait a minute, now she’s strong?” It’s a little confusing sometimes because the writers—we have a lot of different writers—and I think episode to episode, Mads evolves, which people do.

But sometimes it’s a little bit frustrating and I find inconsistencies with character, but fortunately we have a great team of writers who are very collaborative, and we can talk it out and work on it, and find a happy medium where the network is pleased or the director is pleased, the producers, and me as the actor. And I really value that about this particular TV show. It’s very rare to have that in TV.

 

Moderator   How is it that food became your passion?  You can seem very passionate about it from a lot of different aspects.

Alice   I am.  I was raised in a family where food was very central to our lives.  I have a mother who’s a great cook, and she was always trying new recipes from all different worldly cuisines.  We’d have Moroccan food one night, and then the next night she’d try a Vietnamese soup, and then the next night it would be a casserole.

My mother’s half-Asian, and she grew up with a lot of Asian food, and so therefore I grew up with a lot of Asian food, mainly Korean dishes.  We love bulgogi, and there’s a Korean potsticker, and that was a family favorite.  So I think from a very young age, even though I grew up mainly in the Midwest, I was exposed to a lot of different types of ethnic cuisine, and that sort of set the bar for my palate as an adult.  And then now as an adult, I try to take it even further.

I love traveling.  I think travel is probably how I found my own individual love for food separate from my family because when—you don’t know what you’re missing until you find it, you know?  You don’t know what you don’t know about.  I didn’t know that I didn’t know about schnitzel or … until I was in Austria, or blood pudding in Ireland, and I think food symbolizes culture to me because food is the centerpiece of any social gathering.  It would be very weird to have a social gathering where there’s not food, and so I think food is just a symbol.

Yes, I love food in and of itself.  I love flavor.  I love texture.  I love fragrance.  I love playing with all of those.  I think it’s a beautiful science.  It’s a perfect example of art and science merging in one, and it’s something that you can share.  So I think what it symbolizes to me is the facilitation of social gathering, and then in that, I find it to be—I love observing people.  I love learning new things, and I think food is a great way to do that.  It shares someone’s history.  If you ask anyone what’s on their family’s Thanksgiving menu, you learn a lot about their culture and where their family comes from, whether they’re Swedish or Turkish or anything.  So I think that that’s why I love it.  I love what it symbolizes, and I also just love it for its own sake.

 

Moderator    Do you have a favorite dish that you like to cook for yourself or friends, or anybody?

Alice    For friends, I love cooking—I guess my go-to recipe if I know I’m going to host people over for dinner, and it’s sort of like a last-minute thing, and I don’t have time to browse over new recipes, I love making a butternut squash ravioli with a sage and brown-butter sauce.  I use the recipe from Todd English—that’s a chef and owner of Olives restaurant, which has the dish.  My favorite Olives restaurant is in Vegas at the Bellagio.  That dish, when I eat it, it was—stars were in my eyes. He was a generous chef enough to share the recipe online.  Anyone can find it.

It sounds really overwhelming, but it’s actually fairly simple to make, and it’s always a hit with vegetarians and carnivores alike.  That’s a pretty easy recipe.  Then I love baking.  Baking is my favorite thing to do.  I love making pies, cobblers, cookies, cakes, anything.  I’ll try anything.  I subscribe to a lot of food magazines, and so those always give me new inspirations and—so yeah.  It’s fun.

I love hosting.  I rarely cook just for myself.  I always have to have a group to cook for to really motivate me.  If I’m just by myself, and I’m home at night, I usually order takeout Thai or Indian food or I’ll just have cereal or Ramen Noodles.  I’m shameless about it.  I love Ramen, loaded with chemicals, but I love that parmesan chicken Ramen.  I love it.

 

Moderator   Perhaps maybe you should think about opening your own restaurant later.

Alice      Oh, I have plans one day.  One of my big dreams is to have my own bakery/tea house.  I’m equally obsessed with tea as much as I am with food.  There’s not enough tea houses, and the ones that there are, they’re usually, like, stuffy and English-themed and just not that great, or they’re too Zen Buddha-themed.  I’d like to have an international variety of tea and a beautiful setting, and I’d also like to have baked goods.  So that’s one of the things on my list of things to do.  I figure, maybe, when I’m in my 50s.  I got to save something for me to do later on in life, can’t do it all now.

 

Moderator    You were talking about Mads’ suspicion of her father.  Do you think she will ever figure out that Alec had anything to do with Eduardo’s accident, and how will she react?

Alice    I’m not sure.  I think, maybe, she probably already has, but you would not see that on the show.  I think the way the disaster with Eduardo ended, she did find out that her dad did pay Eduardo to leave town.  Emma, as Sutton, confirmed that.  I’m not sure.  I imagine it must have been a story line issue where they couldn’t devote that much time to Mads’ story line because there were so many other things going on with the other characters on the show as well.

I think we just have to assume that Mads does know her dad paid Eduardo to leave town.  I don’t think she thinks he deliberately ran him over with a car, but I think Mad chose to move on, deal with it.  Eduardo’s gone.  I think she has a  very steely resolve, and I think family’s important to Mads, and she just wanted—there was a scene with Thayer at the end of the first 10 episodes where she was like, “Look, you know, let’s just be a family.  Let’s just get along.  That’s all Dad wants.  That’s all I want.  Let’s just stop thinking these bad things about Dad.”

I think Mads, she’s very aware her dad’s not a very savory character, but I think she has just sort of accepted it and would rather focus on more positive things and just not deal.  I think it’s very difficult as a teenager, especially one who’s so close to leaving the house—I know for myself, you just kind of go into just dealing mode, and if you try to challenge and it doesn’t get you anywhere good, you just stop, and you just deal with it internally.  So I imagine that’s probably, to an extent, what Mads is doing with the suspicions about her father and his character.

 

Season 2 of the Lying Game airs on ABC Family, Mondays 9/8c

Images courtesy of 2011 Disney Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved.

 

Q&A with Carol Channing for “Carol Channing: Larger Than Life” (J!-ENT Interviews and Articles)

Carol Channing.  She is indeed… “Larger Than Life”.

The American singer, actress and comedienne has received three Tony Awards (including a Life Achievement award), a Golden Globe and an Oscar nomination and have won audiences over with her musical-comedy performance as Lorelei Lee in “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” and as Dolly Galagher Levi in “Hello, Dolly!”.

She has earned the title of “First Lady of the American Musical Theatre” and at the age of 90, she continues to perform but also raising awareness and money for the arts in the public school system the Dr. Carol Channing and Harry Kullijian Foundation for the Arts (www.ChanningArts.org).

A 2012 film titled “Carol Channing: Larger Than Life” was made in honor of Carol Channing and is now being distributed in theaters.

The story of legendary performer Carol Channing’s life is as colorful as the lipstick on her big, bright smile. In “Carol Channing: Larger Than Life” , director Dori Berinstein (“ShowBusiness,” “Gotta Dance”), with co-writer Adam Zucker, captures the magic and vivacity of the 90-year-old icon – both onstage and off…past and present.  The film is both an intimate love story and a rarefied journey inside Broadway’s most glamorous era.  It is, above all, a look at an inspiring, incomparable and always entertaining American legend.

The film directed by Dori Berinstein and is distributed by Entertainment One US features interviews with Carol Channing, Harry Kullijian, Lily Tomlin, Chita Rivera, Barbara Walters, Tyne Daly, Debbie Reynolds, Phyllis Diller, Loni Anderson, JoAnne Worley, and Bruce Vilanch.

Here is a Q&A featuring the “First Lady of the American Musical Theatre”, Carol Channing:

Q: What do you think of “Carol Channing: Larger Than Life?” Did you enjoy the filmmaking process?
A: Oh, it’s wonderful.  There have been many who have approached me over the years, asking to do a documentary.  However, they discovered how much work it was going to be and it never happened.  Oh, Dori Berinstein was so patient with me as the director.  Sometimes my schedule would change at a moment’s notice and I’m sure it would completely mess up her plans.  I don’t think most actors think in terms of looking at what we’ve already done, rather than what can I still do now.  They don’t write their memoir until someone pushes them and it takes a very special person to go through all the archives … or junk, and I have a lot … to weed out the important things that the audience will want to know.  I’ve always relied on those around me, knowing and caring about what they are doing to make me look good.  It’s a team effort.  You don’t take those people for granted.  The really good ones truly love what they’re doing and believe in it.  I was just lucky enough to have someone like Dori, who believed enough in me, to do it.  And do it so well.  There were times when I thought, isn’t it done yet?  But, Dori wanted it to be perfect and I think she accomplished it … even if I wasn’t wearing my eyelashes in that one scene.

Q: Are there any roles you would have liked to have played, in either a recent or a classic musical or play? What are they, and why?
A: I don’t know that I’ve ever had time to think about what or whom I would like to have played.  I would, of course, dearly loved to play Dolly in the movie version.  I remember thinking, Oh Jerry’sMame would have been fun.  But how could you top Angela’s performance?  Although she and I did switch roles ever so briefly… oh years ago, during a tribute to Jerry when she came out as Dolly and I as Mame.  Oh, that was fun!

Q: Which performers today do you particularly admire, and why?
A: I wish I could answer that with more knowledge.  So many times I’m introduced to someone whose work I know I should know and I don’t.  I’m always so embarrassed that I haven’t kept up better.  I’m awfully impressed with Catherine Zeta Jones.  It’s pronounced Zeeeeeta, you know … Oh, and Kristin Chenoweth.  I’m impressed with her.   There is also a young man I met from a show called “Glee”.  I’ve never seen him on the show, but have worked with him on stage.  Oh, what’s wrong with me? Why can’t I remember his name.  Anyway, him.

Q:  Had you not become a performer, what field would have interested you?
A: Oh!  Ahhhhhh, I don’t know.  I’ve wanted to be a performer since I was 7. I imagine if I hadn’t, I’d have found something associated with the industry.

Q: You’ve led an extraordinary life, on stage and off – what continues to inspire and motivate you?
A: Others.  When I see someone who’s passionately working on something, whether on stage or for the community, it inspires me.  My motivation is always that next show, that next character or that next appearance.  I’m always so sure that it will be my best performance or my greatest accomplishment.

Q: Imagine if they were real people who met each other, what would Lorelei Lee have thought of Dolly Gallagher Levi, and vice versa?    
A: Isn’t that odd, no one has ever asked me that before.  I imagine they would have gotten along wonderfully.   They were both and are such strong personalities that I think off stage they would have been tremendous friends, but on stage …well, the poor audience would have difficulty focusing on just one of them.  They would overpower each other.

 

For more information on “Carol Channing: Larger Than Life”, please visit:

Website: http://www.carolchanningthemovie.com
Facebook Page: http://www.facebook.com/CarolChanningtheMovie
Trailer: http://www.fandango.com/movieblog/exclusive-carol-channing-larger-than-life-trailer-and-poster-premiere-688087.html

Q&A with “Real Steel” Animatronic Supervisor & Co-Founder of Legacy Effects, John Rosengrant (J!-ENT Interviews and Articles)

With the release of “Real Steel” on Blu-ray and DVD on Jan. 24, 2011, J!-ENT has featured actors Hugh Jackman and Anthony Mackie, producers Don Murphy and Susan Montford and director Shawn Levy.  In our final Q&A, we feature “Real Steel” Animatronic Supervisor & Co-Founder of Legacy Effects, John Rosengrant.

John Grant is well-known in the film industry for working on Hollywood’s blockbuster films.

It all started back when Rosengrant was majoring in fine arts at Louisiana State University.  Rosengrant relocated to Los Angeles to pursue his dream of working at a special effects studio. In 1983, John joined effects maestro Stan Winston to work on the classic sci-fi action film “The Terminator”, establishing relationships with some of the most important filmmakers. For over two decades, John played a pivotal role in the creation of groundbreaking effects for some of Hollywood’s biggest productions.

Following Stan’s untimely death in 2008, John, along with his esteemed colleagues Alan Scott, Shane Mahan, and Lindsay Macgowan, founded Legacy Effects, where the legendary team of artists could continue to innovate and ignite the imaginations of the industry’s brightest talent.

However, making the transition from SWS to Legacy Effects proved to be no easy task. While Shane and Lindsay were shooting overseas, and Alan was leading the blooming commercial department, John was in the midst of supervisory duties for James Cameron’s record-breaking Avatar, as well as McG’s franchise follow-up: “Terminator Salvation”. Yet somehow, they accomplished the move to their new space in San Fernando, CA, where the studio is thriving today.

Now that Legacy Effects has made a name for itself, John is waist-deep in a slew of exciting projects.

Recently, he led a crew of more than fifty artists in the creation of all robot animatronic effects for “Real Steel”. Subsequently, John supervised the character designs for John Carter, Disney’s production of the Edgar Rice Burroughs adaptation, directed by Andrew Stanton and scheduled for release in 2012. John’s talents and passion have earned him the respect of some of the world’s most legendary filmmakers, who credit him with making their experiences inspiring, rewarding, and most of all, unforgettable. As Jon Landau, producer of Avatar, explained, “We went to them exactly because they had the John Rosengrant’s of the world”.

Current work by Legacy Effects can be seen in the upcoming films “The Muppets”, “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn”, “Total Recall”, Marvel’s “The Avengers”, “The Amazing Spider-Man”, “Neighborhood Watch”, and “Life of Pi”.

J!-ENT recently took part in a media Q&A with John Rosengrant, who received news earlier that he and the crew at Legacy Effects have been nominated for an Academy Award for Visual Effects for their work on “Real Steel”.

Q – What was your favorite part of working on “Real Steel?”
John Rosengrant: My favorite part of Real Steel was bringing the characters to life and hopefully developing iconic ones.

 

Q – What are the challenges of mixing CGI and animatronics?
John Rosengrant: I think the challenges are you want to make it seamless. Shawn Levy, the Producers, and the team over at Digital Domain lead by Erik Nash, we all went into this with a team mentality that we are going to help each other and really make it believable, even in shots where it wasn’t going to be practical and was going to be CG. The practical robot gave it great lighting and size reference. In the shots that it was practical, it also helped the performance all around by giving the actors something to react to.

 

Q – How long does it take to make and prepare animatronics as the ones you see in this movie?
John Rosengrant: The process took five months. Six weeks of it was designing and sculpting the robots digitally and breaking down all the pieces to be rapid prototypes. Each hero robot consisted of about 300 parts. The remaining time was the actual building of the robots.

 

Q – Was there any technology you had to force into existence to make the movements work?
John Rosengrant: As far as new technology, we used what is called our stealth control system. We developed a special hydraulic pump that was very portable and light weight and, coupled with an intuitive control system, enabled us to set the robots up for shooting in about ten minutes.

 

Q – How different is to work with animatronics than to work with actors?
John Rosengrant: The challenge with animatronics is to get a believable performance from something that is a machine. And our background, besides being artists and engineers, is that we are puppeteers and performers too. So we sort of channel that energy to bring the characters to life.

 

Q – Which robot was your favorite?
John Rosengrant: They are all your babies. You put just as much time and energy into all of them. But I think Atom in this case displayed a lot of heart and soul for a robot. So I guess I lean towards Atom.

 

Q – Which was the most complex sequence you had to face while making the movie?
John Rosengrant: As with many special effects movies there are many. But one that jumps to mind is when they first power-up Atom when he is pulled from the junk yard. We had to cover the hero robot in mud, and make him sit up. There wasn’t as much prep time as one would like to have had, but I think the scene turned out terrific. And I’m very proud of it.

 

Q – How did you end up working in the movies and in your particular field?
John Rosengrant: Ever since I was five years old, I wanted to make monsters. I was an art major in college but I really wanted to do this type of special effects. I moved out to California to pursue that dream and Stan Winston hired me on the first Terminator and gave me that opportunity. I worked for Stan for 25 years until his untimely passing. With my three other partners that ran Stan’s shop, we formed Legacy Effects in his honor and to carry on his legacy.

Q – Can you explain your job as an Animatronic Supervisor?
John Rosengrant: It’s building of the animatronic robots by sculpting, molding, engineering, selecting paint finishes, developing control systems and managing the overall performance of them on set.

 

Q – What are the robots made of?
John Rosengrant: The panels and shells are made of fiberglass and custom blend of urethane. The mechanical structure inside is a combination of steel and aluminum and there are several of the robots that are machined aluminum parts. The Heroes are a combination of hydraulically powered and rod puppeted.

 

Q – Did you have to work closely with the actors too for the scenes?
John Rosengrant: Yes, we definitely work closely with the actors. The three hero robots that we made (out of the 27 total) were the ones that Hugh Jackman and Dakota (who played Max) were going to interact with specifically. It was very helpful for Dakota, who was 10 years old at the time, to really have a functioning robot that he could perform with. I think you can see a magical spark on film that you can see between the two of them.

 

Q – In your opinion, what did Stan Winston bring to the business and the art of cinema? What is the essence of his… legacy?
John Rosengrant: The essence of Stan’s legacy is that he taught me what our job is to create characters. It’s not so much special effects, but more so to create a memorable character. Stan was a makeup artist and a fine artist, but he originally came to Hollywood to get into acting, so I think he really stressed the performance aspect. Whether it was the queen alien or the Terminator, or the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park, they always had an attitude and always seemed to be alive.

 

Q – Congratulations for your fresh Academy Award Nomination! How does it feel?
John Rosengrant: Pretty damn good! Hats off to my terrific crew and all their hard work.

 

Q – How did you work to mix animatronics and CGI in Real Steel? What was the criteria to choose one instead of the other in each shot?
John Rosengrant: The guideline was whether the Robot was really going to interact with the actors in a touchy feely way or other things such as that which would be really difficult to do in CG. For example, when Atom sits up with mud crumbling on him. The other thing was when Dakota needed to interact with Atom, when he’s in shadow mode and when he’s mirroring his moves, everyone felt that it was very important to give Dakota something to react to.

 

Q – In what way did your work change since “The Terminator”?
John Rosengrant: On this movie, we built real robots and on the first Terminator we were pretending to build real robots. Also, the state of the art technology that has allowed us to sculpt robots and their parts digitally and rapid prototype them into the real world has allowed us to do things that were never possible back then.

 

Q – When you signed up for the project, did you already have a clear vision of the robots’ design? Or was it more like a developing-process?
John Rosengrant: The design had been worked out between Shawn Levy and Tom Meyer, the production designer. What we did was take Tom and his team’s designs, sculpt all of those parts and work it out so that we had a mechanical armature that would really function and work. We added our own embellishments and flurishments but it was a great starting development from Tom.

 

Q – Congratulations for the great work on ‘Real Steel’. What was the most challenging character to make?
John Rosengrant: It was Atom. There are a lot more parts to him than others and more complicated scenes to do with him.

 

Q – Did you come up with anything new for “Real Steel?” Some kind of technology or technique that hadn’t been used before?
John Rosengrant: We improved vastly upon techniques that were used in the past. One thing in particular was what we called our stealth control system which entailed a custom made lightweight portable hydraulic pump and intuitive puppeting control system that allowed us to set up these 8 foot tall, two hundred pound robots and have them camera ready in about 10 minutes. The other innovation is our in-house pipeline that enabled us to go from digital sculpture to rapid prototyping parts in a really short amount of time and allows us to virtually preplan all of the mechanical engineering before we create anything in the real world. This helps us to avoid any sort of retrofitting and stops us from making any structural mistakes ahead of time.

 

Q – What is the most exciting part of your work?
John Rosengrant: Watching the characters we build come to life.

 

Q – Who got to keep the robots after the movie?
John Rosengrant: We keep the robots at Legacy Effects.

Q – For a person who dreams of wanting to get into your line of work, what advice would you give them?
John Rosengrant: You have to be artistically rounded. Nowadays that includes knowing digital art programs as well as practical, and art techniques. If you’re coming at this more so from a mechanical side, you need machining skills, welding, and a sense of robots and computer control systems.

 

Q – What do you think is the future of animation and animatronics?
John Rosengrant: It has a place because we figured out on Real Steel that it provides a fantastic reference for the CG robots and gave the actors something to really play off of and react to. Good acting comes from reacting. By having something real there, the actors can connect to something.

Q – I agree with Steven Spielberg, that having robots built rather than CGI’d, made a big impact in the film, but I’m curious, from start to finish…how long did it take Legacy Effects to create nearly two dozen robots?
John Rosengrant: We spent a total of five months and six weeks of that five months was sculpting. The rest was actually producing them.

 

Q – Steven Spielberg, Shawn Levy, Hugh Jackman, and Evangeline Lilly…what do you think about working with them?
John Rosengrant: I had the honor of working with Steven Spielberg on two of the Jurassic Park movies and the last Indie movie. It was a pleasure working with Shawn Levy, I love his creative energy. Hugh Jackman is a great actor and a true gentleman.

 

Q – Who are some of your mentors and do you still refer/consult with them very often?
John Rosengrant: My great mentor is Stan Winston who I worked for 25 years. He was a great artist, was an effects genius and, most importantly, he was a great man to know.

 

Q – What film or previous experience do you think prepped you the most for Real Steel?
John Rosengrant: I have been prepping for Real Steel since the first Terminator. We’ve done our share of robots. Technically we’ve made a lot of advancements in probably the last four years that enabled us to pull this off at this level in a very short amount of time.

 

Q – Do you think that animatronics and practical effects could add something that digital fx cannot give to a movie?
John Rosengrant: In this movie, they gave something for the actors to react to besides just a tennis ball for an eye line. It was crucial to help with their performance. Having said that, I think that the CG robots are so seamlessly done to match my animatronic robots and that is what’s really successful about the visual effects in the film. It’s a great mix of both CG and practical.

 

Q – In the feature “Building the Bots,” director Shawn Levy talks about how Steven Spielberg emphasized that the use of practical effects was important to the film’s success. Do you feel as if filmmakers with that sort of insight into practical effects are a dying breed? Also, has Legacy Effects been approached to go back to robots for Spielberg’s upcoming “Robopocalypse?”
John Rosengrant: Animatronic effects still have a very important place in this type of filmmaking. Some of the young filmmakers don’t have any experience with practical side of visual effects, but once they see what it can bring to their film, I think they embrace it. Spielberg’s “Roboapocalypse”, would be an amazing project to be part of.

Q – What was it that interested you about the “Real Steel” project?
John Rosengrant: Obviously it was a chance to create robot characters. Beyond that, and very importantly, I really like the story and the heart felt connection between the character of Max and Atom, the ‘bot’ that we helped to bring to life.

 

Q – Would you say your task has been made easier with the improvements in technology?
John Rosengrant: The technical innovations have allowed us to create at a high level and with efficient speed which was not possible in the past. The dilemma with this is everyone expects more, even quicker, each time!

 

Q – In 1983 you joined Stan Winston and worked in Terminator, so your experience with robots is long. What can you tell us about the challenges posed by ‘Real Steel’ for you initially?
John Rosengrant: The amount of robots that we needed to build in a relatively short amount of time. There were a total of 27 robots which were each 8 feet tall. Three of which we hydraulically controlled and needed to perform with the actors in a believable fashion.

 

Q – What is the role of animatronics in our contemporary CGI-filled movie world? What are its peculiar strengths which still hold up?
John Rosengrant: It gives the actor something to react to that’s real and it provides a terrific reference for the CG counterpart. This helps the effects to look more real as they do not have to make up anything. The information of what the character should look like is there for them.

 

Q – What’s a specific example of something you do that’s actually much harder than most people realize?
John Rosengrant: In this movie we created 27, 8 foot tall robots. Some hero, stunt and background. But there were literally thousands of parts that had to all fit together and look like real metal and had to perform like a real robot. Noisyboy for example, had nearly 2,000 LED lights alone that were programmed with random sayings in Japanese which appeared on his forearm. That’s an example of one small complicated thing that may go unnoticed when you watch the film.

 

Q – Is there any fun trivia that happened on set you can tell us about?
John Rosengrant: All of the LED lights used in the Atom animatronic were surplus LED’s from a car manufacturer in Detroit. We filmed Real Steel in Detroit so they made their way back home.

 

Q – With what software tools do you work at Legacy? How is your pipeline set up?
John Rosengrant: We do a lot of work with Z Brush, Maya, and a program called Magics which is all part of our main pipeline.

 

Q – You have worked on Iron Man, all Jurassic Parks, and the Terminator-Series – can you describe what improvements have been realized through the time until your recent work on Real Steel? Have the mechanics or the hydraulics gotten more faster as a result of a faster filmmaking?
John Rosengrant: Some of the big improvements have been the digital programs we work with to sculpt and create, in this case robots. It allows us to completely visualize what each and every part will look like and we can preview how the mechanical structure will work within the robot, as we can pre- plan and make sure all of those parts already fit within the structure properly. We can test for movement to see if any of the body shells would crash and this avoids any retro fitting or wasted time in the assembly process later. There are more materials at our disposal that are strong and light weight that we have customized to get to the exact properties we need and we’ve really perfected ways of simulating metallic finishes on plastic parts. On this film in particular, we came up with a light weight, very portable hydraulic pump that allowed us to set up very quickly on set. Today’s filmmaking moves very fast and no one has time to wait to set up or fork lift in a huge hydraulic pump and hoses that take hours to set up. We had to be camera ready in about 10 minutes.

 

Q – Do you have any possibility to alter and/or suggest different aesthetics / changes in art direction of the animatronics?
John Rosengrant: In the case of Real Steel the characters were developed in collaboration between Shawn Levy, the Director and Tom Meyer the production designer. It was our job to bring them to life. They were very open to our suggestions and tweaks but all of us wanted to preserve what had been created. On a lot of films, we also design these creatures and/or characters, so we’ve had a ton of input from the start.

 

Q – You have worked on many major blockbuster films, but I’m curious…which were your favorite films to work on?
John Rosengrant: They all are your babies. You work just as hard on the small budget ones as you do on the large budget ones. Of course, it’s extremely rewarding when the movie-going public really responds to a character that you helped create. There’s no better feeling than sitting in a movie theater that’s cheering and/or frightened for your work when they see it on screen.

 

Q – Can you talk about how stars approach CGI? How was Hugh Jackman on Real Steel? Did you have any kind of support from him?
A – John Rosengrant: In this case, I would say the stars like having an animatronic robot on the set as it helps them to have something to visualize when the shot is going to be CG and perform to something when the shot is real. As far as Hugh Jackman, he was terrific to work with when interacting with the animatronic robot.

Q – How many people are involved in Atom`s creation?
John Rosengrant: There was a couple from my team that were really imperative to brining Atom to life. Jason Matthews was the key artist in charge of Atom. Ian Joyner was the key digital sculptor that translated Tom Meyer’s production design artwork into 3D. Of course, there was a team here at Legacy of engineers, mechanics and model makers led by Dave Merritt. Mold makers, artists and painters were also involved in the total execution of Atom.

 

Q – “Real Steel” is more of an intimate father-son story with a Sci-fi element to it, than it is a big blockbuster effects spectacle. Was this a part of the allure to the project for you? As other projects you’ve worked on like “Avatar” and “Terminator 2” have placed the effects in a similar situation story wise.
John Rosengrant: I love when we can help create a character that is integral to the story. It’s first and foremost a good story that touches the audience. If we can do a great job with effects to bring that story to life, then I feel like we’ve made a great contribution. That’s the key to a great movie. All the special effects in the world won’t make a good movie if there is not a good story behind them.

 

Q – John, any final thoughts on Real Steel?
John Rosengrant: It was a real pleasure to work on this film as it felt like a harmonious team effort from the start. Everybody understood their role, and everyone’s part of the film was treated with great importance. Shawn Levy, the Director, had a great energy that he brought to the film. The producers were very effects savvy. I’ve had a great history working with Producer Josh McLaglen who has worked on epic effects films from Titanic to Avatar and effects producer, Ron Ames was integral in bringing us together and organizing all of the visual effects on the film. My colleagues that I’ve been nominated with were outstanding in their contributions. My team here at Legacy worked tirelessly in creating the robots. I’d like to give a special nod to my right-hand man Jason Matthews who became Atom. Last but not least, thanks to my great mentor, Stan Winston, who gave me a great opportunity in this business.

 

REAL STEEL was released on Blu-ray & DVD January 24^th!

Q&A with “Real Steel” director Shawn Levy (J!-ENT Interviews and Articles)

With the release of “Real Steel” on Blu-ray and DVD on Jan. 24, 2011, J!-ENT has featured actors Hugh Jackman and Anthony Mackie, producers Don Murphy and Susan Montford and now we feature director Shawn Levy.

Shawn Levy (Director/Producer) is one of the most commercially successful film directors of the past decade. To date, his films have grossed over $1.6 billion worldwide. His youthfully enthusiastic approach to filmmaking is evident in the storylines and characters he creates and reflects his joyful intensity for each project at hand.

In 2010, Levy released “Date Night,” a film he directed and produced. Levy’s production shingle 21 Laps also produced the hit comedy “What Happens in Vegas,” which went on to earn over $200 million worldwide.

Levy both produced and directed the blockbuster “Night at the Museum” franchise. To date, the global success of this franchise has netted more than $1 billion in worldwide box office.

Previously, Levy directed the hit 2006 comedy “The Pink Panther.” Levy also directed the smash hit “Cheaper By the Dozen,” which went on to gross more than $200 million worldwide.

In addition to his directing slate, Levy is producing the feature-film comedy “Neighborhood Watch,” and his production company 21 Laps/Adelstein is producing the ABC sitcom “Last Days of Man.”

Levy graduated at the age of 20 from the Drama Department of Yale University. He later studied film in the Masters Film Production Program at USC, where he produced and directed the short film “Broken Record.” This film won the Gold Plaque at the Chicago Film Festival and was selected to screen at the Directors Guild of America.

Q:        How did you go about creating the world of 2020? 

A:         The key was to not to create the same futurism that we’ve seen in other movies.  If I had just wanted to make a robot-boxing spectacle, I would have gone deeper into the future. I wanted a future that felt within a relatable radius. I love “Blade Runner” or “Minority Report” as much as the next guy, but “Real Steel” was going to live or die on audiences connecting with the characters. For an audience to connect with the characters, they need to connect with the world. If the world feels vaguely familiar, I believe the characters will feel relatable.

 

Our catch phrase was “retro forward.” In other words, your cell phone looks different than it did five years ago, right? My laptop does. But a diner still looks like a diner and a landscape is still a landscape. The world isn’t changing in its core visuals. I wanted a timeless, iconic America rather than a temporarily specific America. We’ve seen that before.

 

Q:        What was the biggest challenge about working with robots in the film?

A:         Honestly, it all went pretty smoothly.  Obviously, the decision to build real robots was a bit unusual. In 2011, when everything can be done digitally, it was a throwback notion to build real remote-control robots.  But we felt that building them would give the movie a certain look and feel and give the performances a reality, so it was key. I’m very happy we did.

We had amazing remote control puppeteers. We only had a real problem once and that was when we were in the middle of a take with Ambush. He was standing on a lift gate with Hugh at the County Fair and his hydraulics went haywire. His chin crushed into his collarbone and the whole bottom half of his face got stuck in his chest plate.  That was very scary because it meant twenty-five minutes of standing around and waiting to see if Ambush could be saved. Fortunately, the folks at Legacy Effects were able to save him and we carried on.

I also have to say that at the time we started shooting it felt like a scary choice to make our hero robot, Atom, the only robot without a face. Not only was he our hero, he was our most human robot. We made the decision because I knew that what mattered more than Atom’s personality was his magic. Sometimes magic is created by ambiguity.

A lot of people have asked me if he’s alive. They swear they see him move and they think he’s a sentient being. Some people don’t think he is, but I felt like the questioning, the ambiguity, and the uncertainty would give Atom his soulful quality. In fact, when I was reviewing the robot designs with [executive producer] Robert Zemeckis, he said, “The mesh on Atom’s face is going to become the screen that people project their feelings onto.” The absence of features means that people, both in the movie and in the audience, are going to project their opinions and their feelings onto him. Sometimes he looks like he’s smiling, sometimes he looks like he’s proud and sometimes he looks sad and lonely. I find people’s reactions to Atom a really interesting litmus test of people’s reactions to him. The range of things that people read into a titanium mesh is fascinating.

I was also amazed at how well the puppeteers moved Atom and were able to humanize him. Based on the reaction we get from audiences, people love him as much as they love Hugh or Dakota.

 

Q:        Can you talk about the motion capture and Simul-Cam B process?

A:         Motion capture is when an actor does something physical in a data-sensing jumpsuit and the computer stores that movement and converts it into a fictional character. For instance, in “Avatar,” Sam Worthington became a Navi by wearing a motion capture suit and doing all of the movements in real life that his Navi character did on the planet Pandora in the film.  In our movie, every robot was a boxer or a Mixed Martial Artists fighter and we converted them instantly into their robot selves. “Avatar” took their captured performances and put them on Pandora, which was a created digital universe. We took ours to Detroit and put them in real fight venues and then added a Simul-Cam B.

What that means is that if I were doing a shot in an empty ring, I would look through my camera and see the robots fighting in it. If I decided that I didn’t like the shot and wanted to put one of the robots in a different corner, I could put my camera in a different place and the computer Simul-Cam B recalibrated the perspective that I was seeing the shot from. The shot actually matched that corner. It’s crazy. The reason that the fights in “Real Steel” feel so visceral is that I wasn’t in a situation where I was guessing or assuming what an animator would draw into the scene later. I was able to look at and shoot the fight from an infinite number of angles.

Do you remember the feeling you had, sitting in chemistry or physics class in high school, of being so lost that it made you giggle? We’ve all had that feeling and that’s normally when you talk to your friend who sits next to you or you doodle or think, “I’m dead.” That’s what it was like for the first few weeks on “Real Steel.” I would sit at the head of the table in these motion capture, Simul-Cam B meetings and say, “Mmhmm, Mmhmm,” and I was totally faking it.

Eventually, after a couple of weeks of being completely lost, I went to my team, which, thank God, is the same group of people who work with James Cameron. I said to Josh McLaglen, who is my executive producer and my assistant director, “Brother, I need a crash course. I’m going to open my mind and we’re not giving up until I understand it.” He taught me every day, just him and me, and I had no shame about saying, “No, no, go back.  What is that word you just used?  I don’t even know what that word means.”

It was great, because once we’re over twenty-five, how many of us learn something brand- new? On the one hand, it was no fun at first because I felt like a dummy and we build our lives so that we feel pretty good about ourselves. On the other hand, I put myself in a position where I felt lost and then gained some mastery, so that was great.

 

Q:        What decisions did you make to help Hugh play the retired boxer, Charlie Kenton?

A:         In the early meetings with any actor, no matter how big a star they are, they always want to know how they’re going to look in the film. For instance, on “Night at the Museum,” the question Ben Stiller asked me was “Am going to be wearing a hat? Does a night guard wear a hat?” Actors just always get fixated on that stuff as they’re developing a character. When Hugh and I first met, I had two ideas for his role as Charlie.  I said, “First of all, let’s get rid of your hair.  I want a Tom Cruise in “Minority Report” buzz cut.” I’m very happy with how his hair looks in the movie, actually.

The second thing I said was, “Let’s buff things up a bit, man. You’re an ex-fighter, so let’s put a few pounds on you and go big up top, with big shoulders, a big chest and maybe even a little paunch.” He thought that would be great, that getting him that look would subvert expectation. Then, as we were halfway into pre-production and he was starting to work towards the paunch, I said, “You know what? Skip that. I think people want their Hugh Jackman looking good.”  So we scrapped the paunch.

 

Q:        What is it about Evangeline Lilly that elevated the role of Bailey?

A:         I auditioned a lot of women. Everyone told me to forget Evangeline because she had quit acting when she finished “Lost.” I have friends who offered her big roles in big movies, movies that are coming out in the next four months. She turned them all down because she just wanted to live in Hawaii. I sent her the script anyway and she showed up in L.A. a few days later. I said to her, “Everyone said you’re done acting” and she said, “This script made me cry and it’s going to make other people cry. I want to put stuff like this in the world. I want to be a part of it.”

Evangeline brought everything I hoped she would. She’s magnificent to look at, she’s soulful, and she’s sexy with Hugh. I needed someone who you believed had grown up in a man’s world. Bailey needed to have a strength and a toughness that was not at the expense of her being womanly. I also wanted the relationship between Charlie and Bailey to have a lot of subtext.  We don’t say very much about what went on between them and I like the elegance of not quite pinning it down. I wanted romance, not sex, and she brought all that.

 

Q:        What attributes were you looking for when you cast Dakota Goyo in the part of Max?

A:         I was looking for something other than acting talent. I needed that, of course, but I also needed a kid who could be interesting to watch when he wasn’t acting. In some ways, with Dakota, it was less about how he said the lines and more about what he exuded between the lines. In a movie like “Real Steel,” you need someone like Ricky Schroder in “The Champ” or Justin Henry in “Kramer vs. Kramer.” Steven Spielberg calls it authenticity and it’s something that makes you feel like you’re watching a real human being and a real kid. You root for that kid. If you feel that you’re watching a kid act, not only are not you rooting for him, you don’t even like him. He’s annoying.

I’d been looking all over the world for six weeks for an actor to play Max and I could not find him. I thought, “Maybe I shouldn’t make this movie, because even if we do everything right and the kid isn’t one-in-a-million excellent, the movie won’t be excellent.” And then we found Dakota.

 

Q:        What was it like working with Dakota?

A:  Even when I was a kid, I got along well with kids. To this day, if I go to a birthday party with one of my kids, I swear to you, I am so much happier hanging out with my kids and their friends than I am talking to the grownups. It’s become a thing in our family. My kids always end up saying, “Don’t you have to go talk to the grownups now?” and I say, “No way.  I’ll pretend you need my help or something.” I don’t know if it’s that my own childhood felt brief, that I grew up too fast, or that I was pushing myself too much at a young age, but I do feel like I’m clinging to a certain child-like quality in myself. I think it’s probably the result of a complicated childhood and the fact that I grew up fast by virtue of certain circumstances.

The other thing is that with kids, you have to change your modality day to day. There were some days with Dakota when I just stayed out of the way and he was awesome. There were other days we had to do ten takes to get something that was useable. And there other days when I could tell that he had said his lines too many times, so I would throw some improvisation at him just to make him say new words and hear them. Eventually, kids stop hearing the words.

Some of the lines in the movie were actually a result of that happening, like this one scene between Charlie and Dakota. Dakota says, “Charlie, we can go around and around on this all night long, but it’s not gonna happen.” That was me ad-libbing behind the camera. I said it, Dakota said it, I said it, Dakota said it, and then it was in the movie.

Ultimately, the craziest kind of technique I used, but the one that bore the most fruit, was for the climatic scene in the movie when Dakota and Evangeline are watching Hugh’s redemption moment. I didn’t let anyone talk to Dakota and I didn’t talk to Dakota. I didn’t tell him what to do. I said, “I’m going play some music. Just go with the music.  Whatever you feel is fine.”  The last thing you want to say is, “Now cry.”  If you tell an actor to cry, you’re dead, especially with a kid. It’s just too much and they tighten up.  But Dakota was great. I played a piece of music, he went with it and he brought that performance.  It was so beautiful.

 

Q:        Do you work with actors on the parts of their character that we don’t see, or do you leave that to them?

A:         It depends on the actor. Some actors don’t bother doing any work on their character and some actors do, but they don’t want to tell me. What people don’t get about directing is that every actor is different and that’s why the job is so interesting. Directing Steve Martin was a trip, but that’s Steve. It was 180 from directing Ben Stiller, Tina Fey or Hugh Jackman

Some actors want to spend weeks talking about character background that no one will ever know but will inform their performance. In that case, you do it even if you don’t want to. Other actors show up and fake it. That’s legit, too, if it works. With Hugh, it was somewhere in between. We talked about what his character Charlie Kenton was like when he was a fighter and I talked a lot about the kind of credo this guy would have.

I ended up putting his credo in the script—two or three key lines that I wrote because they were what I kept telling Hugh: “Win or lose, the fight ain’t over until someone’s on the mat. We may get our asses kicked, but we’re going down swinging.” Maybe it’s because I’m Canadian but I always embrace the underdog. “Real Steel” is also about having a good work ethic—that very specific, American work ethic. The rest of the world often lives very differently.  They embrace different core principles but that work ethic is at the core of Charlie Kenton. He was a slugger and sometimes to his own detriment he just kept coming at his opponent in the ring. He just kept pushing his luck. Hugh and I talked about that aspect of his character a lot.

 

Q:        Give us a little insight into your philosophy of directing.

A:         My job is to get my actors to where they need to go and figure out a way to get them there.  I may get to use one of the techniques I’ve used on other movies, or I may have to come up with something on the fly. Whatever it takes, the job of the director is to be the leader and get your actors where they need to go.

 

Also, my philosophy is that I’m not going to get what I need by saying, “Now it’s time to cry.” I’ve heard of directors who do that, but it wouldn’t work for me. I try to create a partnership with the actors. The more I become bonded with the actors and get to know them, the more I know what modalities are going to work in our process together. For instance, when I work with a really intellectual actor, I use music a lot because it short-circuits their intellect and bypasses their rational dissection of the scene.

My other philosophy is that I’m trying to put work out into the world that creates the feeling I want to get when I go to the movies. I’m never going to make a movie that’s nihilistic, gratuitous, cynical or undermined by it’s own ironic cleverness. That’s just not how I live my life and it’s not how I want to do my work. It’s not what I want my work to say.

 

Q:        Your sets have a reputation for being fun. How do you make that happen?

A:         Nobody wants to go to work and be miserable. I don’t want to and I don’t want the people who work for me to, either. When you’re directing, you’ve got a hundred and twenty people giving their talents to you knowing that there’s only one person who’s going to get all the glory. Two, if you count the movie star. I have craftsmen and artists giving their art and their talents in the service of my story and my vision and they deserve to be treated really respectfully.  I believe in that.

 

REAL STEEL is Available on Blu-ray & DVD January 24^th!

Q&A with “Real Steel” producers Don Murphy and Susan Montford (J!-ENT Interviews and Articles)

With the release of “Real Steel” on Blu-ray and DVD on Jan. 24, 2011, J!-ENT will be featuring Q&A’s with the cast, the director and a few involved in the making of the film “Real Steel”. The first two Q&A’s featured actors Hugh Jackman and Anthony Mackie.  And this third interview features “Real Steel” producers Don Murphy and Susan Montford.

DON MURPHY (Producer) was born in Hicksville, N.Y. He earned a B.S.B.A. at the Business School of Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., although most of his time in D.C. was spent at the Biograph Theatre, Circle Theatre and American Film Institute watching the collected films of Kubrick and Polanski. His father helped him get a job as a copywriter during the summers at the now-defunct Diener Hauser Bates, an advertising firm that represented over 70% of the film studios at the same time. While there, Murphy worked on the campaigns for films like “Blow-Up,” “Under the Rainbow” and “Ragtime.”

After college, Murphy was accepted into graduate studies at the prestigious film school at the University of Southern California. There, he met future friends and filmmakers such as Bryan Singer, Michael Davis, Gary Fleder, Scott Rosenberg, Jay Roach, Jon Turteltaub, Dan Waters and Larry Karazewski. Soon after completing the program, Murphy partnered with fellow USC alum Jane Hamsher to produce motion pictures. Murphy knew Quentin Tarantino from a video rental store in the South Bay area, and this acquaintance led to their first alliance, “Natural Born Killers.” Two more followed: “Permanent Midnight” and “Apt Pupil.”

Murphy then produced “From Hell,” “The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen” and “Bully.” In 1998, Murphy started Angryfilms with partner Susan Montford and went on to produce the high-profile “Transformers” trilogy and “Shoot ’Em Up.”

Angryfilms is currently working on multiple feature-film and television projects.

SUSAN MONTFORD (Producer) grew up in Glasgow, Scotland, where she acquired a B.A. from Gray’s School of Art. She became a practicing artist working with mixed media (sculpture, photography and video) and exhibited her work regularly with the Transmission Gallery, Street Level Photography Gallery and Women in Profile.

A childhood passion for cinema came to fruition when Montford was awarded several Film Council grants and produced and directed two short films, “Strangers” and “Hairpin,” which played in several international film festivals.

Montford then relocated to Los Angeles, where she has focused on screenwriting, directing and producing. In addition to “Real Steel,” she has produced “Shoot ’Em Up,” starring Clive Owen, and “Splice,” starring Adrien Brody. She wrote and directed “While She Was Out,” starring Kim Basinger.

She is also producing numerous upcoming films, including “At the Mountains of Madness” with Guillermo del Toro and “Gala Dali” with Roger Avary.

Currently, Montford is finishing writing a pilot for Fox TV Studios and a second feature that she will direct.

Q:        What was the genesis of “Real Steel”?

 

Don Murphy:               We’re always looking for projects that take place in a world that’s like ours, but different. One of our pet projects is the true story of a guy named Charles Beaumont, who wrote for “The Twilight Zone” and lived a great life until he died of old age at 37. One of his best friends was Richard Matheson, which was how we found out about his story “Steel.”

 

Susan Montford:         We fell in love with “The Twilight Zone” episode “Steel” and the short story by Richard Matheson that it was adapted from. Then we found out that the film rights were available, optioned them and set the project up at DreamWorks.

 

Don Murphy:               This project was a challenge, because the original script for “The Twilight Zone” episode was only 12 pages long. As we were figuring out how to adapt it and turn it into a feature film, we knew that we wanted to keep it in a near future where boxing is outlawed and a down-on-his-luck promoter of robot boxing gets one last chance at redemption.  There was a lot of room for us to play after that, otherwise the movie would only have been ten minutes long.

 

 

Q:        Shawn Levy is known for his comedies. As producers, what made it feel right to have him direct “Real Steel”?

 

Don Murphy:               Susan and I both felt that the humanity between the father, Charlie, and the son, Max, was the key to “Real Steel” that gave the story its heart. At a certain point, the movie felt like it was going to get made and we started making a list of people we had worked with before. Steven Spielberg proposed Shawn [Levy] and our initial reaction was kind of like, “This is going to be a funny movie now? I don’t understand.” Then we sat down with Shawn and from the very first lunch it became clear that he was the one to direct the film. He didn’t want to talk about how cool the robots were going to be or how we were going to do them.  That came later.  All he wanted to talk about was the relationship between Charlie and Max. The relationship had a very deep resonance for him.  We were also impressed with the job he did with the effects on “Night at the Museum.” He handled them beautifully.

 

 

Q:        What is Hugh Jackman like to work with?

 

Don Murphy:               The thing about Hugh is that his character, Charlie, is a bit of a jerk. We knew that if Hugh played him, the audience would like him anyway. Hugh is such a likeable actor that you’ve got a natural empathy and compassion for him no matter how difficult he’s being.

 

The other thing about Hugh is that he’s such a giver. He would come to the set every Friday with five hundred lottery tickets and give them out to the crew. He also handed out cigars if you wanted one. Hugh loves the whole process of filming. He’s one of those actors who sit on set taking everything in and watching everything. He never hides in his trailer trying to get away from everyone. He’s always game.

 

 

Q:    One of the most memorable aspects of “The Twilight Zone” episode is Lee Marvin climbing into the robot suit to fight another robot. You know he’s going to be pummeled. Did you ever toy with that idea for “Real Steel”?

 

Don Murphy:               The idea that anyone would climb inside one of those didn’t work. Having said that, we were waiting for a writer to give us the equivalent moment. For the first five years of development, we would get drafts of the script and be disappointed. It was very frustrating.

 

But then John [Gatins, screenwriter] and Shawn [Levy] put their first draft together. Susan was in her office and I was in mine. We were reading the script at the same time and ended up meeting in the hallway halfway. I think we were both on page 52. I said, “He’s going to win the fight by….” and we knew we had the moment. They nailed it.

 

 

Q:   What was it like to shoot the movie in Detroit?

 

Susan Montford:         It was absolutely the perfect place to make this movie. We used the old Ford auto plant and a lot of iconic locations. There were great people in Detroit, too. We had fantastic extras who were really happy to be working and gave it their all. It was a great experience for everyone.

 

REAL STEEL is Available on Blu-ray & DVD January 24^th!

Q&A with Anthony Mackie of “Real Steel” (J!-ENT Interviews and Articles)

With the release of “Real Steel” on Blu-ray and DVD on Jan. 24, 2011, J!-ENT will be featuring Q&A’s with the cast, the director and a few involved in the making of the film  “Real Steel”.  The first Q&A featured actor Hugh Jackman and here is our second Q&A featuring actor Anthony Mackie.

ANTHONY MACKIE (Finn) trained at the Juilliard School of Drama. After receiving rave reviews playing Tupac Shakur in the off-Broadway production “Up Against the Wind,” Mackie made his feature-film debut as Eminem’s nemesis, Papa Doc, in Curtis Hanson’s “8 Mile.” Spike Lee subsequently cast Mackie in the 2004 Toronto Film Festival Masters Program selection “Sucker Free City” and “She Hate Me.” He also appeared in Clint Eastwood’s Academy Award®-winning “Million Dollar Baby” and Jonathan Demme’s “The Manchurian Candidate.”

Mackie earned IFP Spirit and Gotham Award nominations for his performance in Rodney Evans’ “Brother to Brother.” In 2005, he appeared in “Heavens Fall,” which premiered at the 2006 SXSW Film Festival in Austin.

In 2009, Mackie was seen as Sgt. J.T. Sanborn in Kathryn Bigelow’s Academy Award®–winning “The Hurt Locker” (Best Picture), a performance that earned Mackie an Independent Spirit Award nomination. That same year, Mackie revisited the role of Tupac Shakur in Fox Searchlight’s “Notorious,” the biopic of Notorious B.I.G. He also starred as Maj. William Bowman in DreamWorks Studios’ “Eagle Eye.”

Last year, Mackie returned to Broadway, starring in Martin McDonough’s “A Beheading in Spokane.” He also starred with Kerry Washington in the drama “Night Catches Us.” Most recently, Mackie was seen in Universal Pictures’ “The Adjustment Bureau” and can be seen in the upcoming film “Man on a Ledge,” which will be released on January 13, 2012.

Mackie recently wrapped the films “Ten Year” and “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter” and is currently filming a pair of projects: the psychological thriller “Vipaka” with Forest Whitaker and the much-anticipated Ruben Fleischer film “Gangster Squad,” which also stars Ryan Gosling and Sean Penn. His other feature-film credits include “We Are Marshall,” “Half Nelson,” “Crossover,” “Haven” and “Freedomland.”

Q:        What attracted you to the role of Finn?

A:         I haven’t had the opportunity yet in my career to really do anything rambunctious and outlandish. When I read the script, I was like, “It’s time to have some fun.”

 

Q:        Is there something specific you look for in the roles you choose?

A:         I just always look for something different, weird and creative. I feel like I’m blessed because I get to do what I love. Why wouldn’t I go to work and have a good time and enjoy myself and do something different and challenge myself? Johnny Depp shouldn’t be the only dude having fun doing this.

 

Q:        Were you inspired by Don King for your character or did you want to add a whole new spin to your character?

A:         Finn is 100 percent Don King. When I was in high school I read a story about Don King and he said, “Set yourself on fire and the world will pay to watch you burn.” I thought that was the most amazing thing I’d ever heard. I wrote it on my wall and everything.

 

I feel like there’s an element of Don King that a lot of people don’t really pay attention to. Besides Muhammad Ali, he’s the second most charismatic and influential figure in the world of boxing. A lot of people take that for granted because of all the crazy stuff he has said and all of the words he made up, but I really feel like there is something beautiful about the art and craft he brought to boxing. He also turned it into a billion dollar business. I tried to turn Finn into that kind of character in case there’s a sequel so I could finally get Don King’s hair. I asked Shawn Levy for his hair in this one, but he said no.

 

Q:        You’ve been quoted as saying that you were a bit intimidated when you first saw a robot that was built for the film. Can you talk about that experience?

A:         It’s not every day you see an almost nine-foot tall robot just standing there. I mean, when I go to certain nightclubs or bars and see a six-foot-four black dude, I’m used to that. But when I see a nine-foot tall animatronics robot and he lifts his arm and puts it down, it’s very intimidating at first. I call it the Jack Bauer effect. When something is in the room and it’s not normal, I wait for that thing to go crazy and kill everybody in the room. Or it’s like going to somebody’s house and they have a Great Dane on the rug. It’s “Nice doggie” until he gets up and mauls my face. That’s how I looked at the robots.

 

Q:        What was it like working with Hugh Jackman?

A:         Hugh’s a great guy. We had a lot of fun and he was always open and responsive and really cool. The dude doesn’t have a negative bone in his body. It’s weird for somebody to play Wolverine and not be a rugby-playing, crazy dude but he’s not at all. That shows his versatility as an actor but also his humility as a human being.

REAL STEEL is Available on Blu-ray & DVD January 24^th!

Q&A with Hugh Jackman of “Real Steel” (J!-ENT Interviews and Articles)

With the upcoming release of “Real Steel” on Blu-ray and DVD on Jan. 24, 2011, J!-ENT will be featuring Q&A’s with the cast of “Real Steel”.  The first Q&A features actor Hugh Jackman.

HUGH JACKMAN (Charlie Kenton) is a native of Australia. He made his first major U.S. film appearance as Wolverine in the first installment of the “X-Men” franchise, a role he reprised in the enormously successful “X2” and “X-Men: The Last Stand” in 2006.

In the fall of 2009, Jackman made a return to Broadway in the Keith Huff-penned “A Steady Rain.”

On February 22, 2009, Jackman took on the prestigious role of hosting the 81st Annual Academy Awards® live from the Kodak Theater, he wowed those in attendance and helped ABC score a 13% increase in viewership from the previous year. Previously, Jackman served as host of the Tony Awards® three years in a row, from 2003-2005, earning an Emmy® Award for his 2004 duties at the 58th annual ceremony and a nomination for his 2005 appearance at the 59th annual ceremony.

In early 2008, Jackman was seen in the Twentieth Century Fox film “Deception” opposite Ewan McGregor.

In late 2008, Jackman appeared in Twentieth Century Fox’s romantic action-adventure epic “Australia,” directed by Baz Luhrmann.

Jackman has also starred in Darren Aronofsky’s “The Fountain,” Christopher Nolan’s “The Prestige” and Woody Allen’s “Scoop.” He has lent his voice to the animated features “Happy Feet” and “Flushed Away.” Other films in which he has had leading roles include “Someone Like You,” “Swordfish,” “Van Helsing” and “Kate and Leopold,” for which he received a 2002 Golden Globe® nomination.

For his portrayal of the 1970s singer-songwriter Peter Allen in “The Boy From Oz,” Jackman received the 2004 Tony Award® for Best Actor in a musical as well as Drama Desk, Drama League, Outer Critics Circle and Theatre World awards.

Previous theater credits include “Carousel” at Carnegie Hall, “Oklahoma!” at the National Theater in London (Olivier Award nomination), “Sunset Boulevard” (for which he won a Mo Award, Australia’s Tony Award®) and Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast” (Mo Award nomination).

 

Q:        Your character, Charlie, has a tough relationship with his son, Max. Being a dad yourself, was that hard to play?

A:         After a few days of shooting, Shawn [Levy] pulled Dakota and me aside. He said, “Look, Dakota, you’re obviously a very well brought up, polite kid.  And Hugh, you like children. Both of you need to stop it immediately.” After that, there were several times after Shawn called, “Cut!” that I’d see Dakota look over at his mom like he was going to get in trouble. It was kind of like, “They told me to say this, mom, so it’s okay.” It obviously went against the grain for him to talk to me the way he did.

 

Having said that, I do have two children and there are times when you want to say things that you’re not allowed to say. It was nice to be able to let it rip for three months. It was good therapy.

 

Q:        Have your kids seen the movie?

A:         Yes, they love the movie. It’s the first one of my movies they’ve seen. If you think about it, there hasn’t been anything else that’s really appropriate for them, apart from a couple of animated movies I’ve done. They can’t wait to see it again. They really got into the story of the robots. They were cheering for them and I saw both of them getting a tear in their eye. My mother-in-law was at the same screening and she was crying too.

 

Q:        Would you like to have a robot at home?

A:         I’d love to have a robot at home. I tried to smuggle one off the set, but it was difficult. They’re very heavy and hard to put in the trunk of the car.

 

 

Q:        Do you choose roles with your children in mind?

A:         Not really. It’s icing on the cake when they can watch it and love it. My kids are not that interested in my movie career, by the way. My son in particular just wants to be with his dad and never talks about it. It was great to sit and watch “Real Steel” with all three generations and see them love the movie.

 

Q:        What is your character, Charlie’s, biggest flaw in “Real Steel”?

A:         My character, Charlie, is impulsive, but I’m not like that. As my wife says, I’m a Libra and I’m just an even-Steven. I don’t really understand the lure of gambling. I don’t understand working hard for your money and then just giving it away. That’s just not my personality. Even when I was younger, if I’d go out with my mates and we’d go drinking, I’d be four or five drinks in and say, “Time to stop. Diminishing returns.”  All of my mates would say, “Come on!” but I just never really had it in me, which I’m actually kind of grateful for. Ironically, my wife is just like Charlie.

 

Q:        What is your biggest flaw in real life?

A:         If you ask my wife, my biggest flaw is my inability around the house. She likes to say that the only thing handy about me is that I’m close by. I also have a terrible memory and I’m bad at saying no. I often double book.

 

Q:        Did you impart any acting wisdom to Dakota?

A:         I really thought I was going to have to do a lot more with Dakota, but Shawn is a master of directing younger actors. He’s done it before and he has four kids himself. He really mentored Dakota, and there were things that I did, too, from the very beginning. I wanted to give him the feeling, very quickly, of, “Hey, this is your set as much as it is mine and we’re in this together. There’s no delineation of power here. We’re all actors.” Dakota caught onto that. I kept telling him that he was doing everything right and I always asked him what he thought of a scene when we were done shooting it.  We also did quite a bit of improvisation, even if it was a bad idea, and Shawn would encourage him too. It kind of gave him the feeling that he wasn’t “the kid” on set.

 

The other thing was that Shawn and I really played with Dakota. We didn’t want him to feel an adult/child vibe because that’s not the dynamic in the movie. I would play practical jokes on him all the time and we just knocked around. We hung out on weekends.

 

Q:        Did you learn anything from Dakota?

A:         I always learn from child actors. They’re a great reminder of the simplicity of acting. As you get older, you can sometimes complicate things a little more. You can become too aware and start to think, “This is the scene emotionally and this is what I have to do. Okay, we’ve got the climax coming up….” You can start to analyze it too much. Kids are happy just to be and to listen. They have a real natural ability just to listen. Dakota is a very natural actor. It was easy to be in scenes with him.

 

 

Q:        This is the second time you’ve worked with Kevin Durand, correct?

A:         Yes. We were both on Broadway at about the same time and we met there. We’re kind of kindred spirits and he’s a great friend. I think he’s one of the most underrated, talented actors in Hollywood. People haven’t even begun to see the extent of what he can do. He took a character in “Real Steel” that could have been kind of uninteresting and made it very memorable. I’m happy to be in any movie with him.

 

Q:        Is it in your contract that you have to take your shirt off in every film? 

A:         It’s funny, because when I started filming “Real Steel” everyone was asking me if it was in my contract to take off my shirt and it really took me aback. I told Shawn I didn’t want to do it and he agreed. He said, “This movie isn’t going to be about that,” and then we never thought about it again. But there’s a scene in the script where Charlie changes his shirt in the boxing ring and he does it because all of his clothes are in his bag and he’s living out of his truck. He has no bedroom, no house, no anything. We thought that was a great story point, so it turned out that I had to take my shirt off.

 

Q:        Talk about your workout regimen for this film.

A:         I was already doing a movie called “Sumo” with Lee Daniels and had put on a lot of weight for that. Then it got canceled about three months before we started “Real Steel,” so I was big, I was overweight. I called Shawn up and said, “My weight is going to work for this film, too, right? I’m playing an ex-boxer and you need to believe that he could have been in the ring.” Shawn said, “That’s a brilliant idea. In that first scene, when you fall out of bed, you’ll have a paunch and it will immediately signal to people that you’re not Wolverine. I love it. It’s going to be perfect.”

 

I came in for the fitting a month before the film started and I was twenty pounds heavier than I ended up being in the movie. It’s not easy for me to be that way, but I was eating a lot and pushing a lot of weight. Low reps, heavy weights. I hadn’t told the costumer that I was coming in heavier, so it was literally like I was putting on my son’s clothing. I could barely put the jeans on. I remember Shawn saying, “This is just too much. Let’s pull back on the realism.”

 

Q:        Is there a difference in your approach to theater and film work?

A:         Not really. As an actor, you have many tools—your body, your voice, your emotions, your mentality. If you’re performing in front of twenty-five hundred people, you need to get to the person in the back. There’s a mental process to that. On film, you’re going to make everything quieter. Your eyes are very important because they communicate your thought process. In fact, in film, what you don’t say is more important than what you do say. That’s not so much the case onstage. I’m forever grateful that I did theater first. I think it’s much easier to distill the technique from theater than to say, “Oh, let’s just add water to film.” There are definitely muscles that you need on the stage that you don’t develop in film.

 

Having said that, if you haven’t done your work as an actor and you don’t know what’s going on internally for the character you’re playing onstage, particularly if it’s a musical, and there’s no real thought behind the song, no one will feel anything.

 

REAL STEEL is Available on Blu-ray & DVD January 24^th!

Pacific Media Expo 2011: Special Pictorial by Nergene Arquelada and Gilbert “Realm” Aquino (J!-ENT Interviews and Articles)

Every winter, Los Angeles is the host for the Asian pop culture event known as “Pacific Media Expo.   The 8th annual event took place back in November 11-13, 2011 at the Hilton Los Angeles Airport hotel and attracted many people from all over the globe for the live concerts, panels, cosplay and more.

And to cover the event, J!-ENT’s Nergene Arquelada and Gilbert “Realm” Aquino were on location to cover the event.

Click here to download the special pictorial

Q&A with Allie Gonino of ABC Family’s “The Lying Game” (J!-ENT Interviews and Articles)

Actress Allie Gonino is no stranger to ABC Family.   Having starred in the ABC Family TV series “10 Things I Hate About You” (2009-2010), Allie was also a member of the girl group “The Stunners” created by recording artist Vitamin C and the group was the opening act for Justin Bieber’s “My World Tour”.

While Allie is now in a new band known as “The Good Mad”, she’s on a different ABC Family’s hit TV series titled “The Lying Game” playing the role of Laurel Mercer, Sutton’s adoptive sister and the biological daughter of the Mercer family.

“The Lying Game” is a one-hour drama series starring Alexandra Chando, the actress plays two characters. Emma Becker grew up in foster care, while Sutton Mercer grew up with a loving, wealthy family. And the two have come face-to-face and realize that both are sisters. Emma agrees to impersonate her sister while Sutton goes to Los Angeles to find her real biological parents. But for some reason, when Sutton is supposed to return back home, Emma feels that something may have happened. Now Emma may have to come clean and risk her own safety in the hope of uncovering her twin sister’s whereabouts.

To help promote the second season, Allie Gonino recently took part in a media Q&A to discuss her role on “The Lying Game”.

Here is the transcript from the media Q&A interview with actress Allie Gonino:

 

Moderator     What do you continue to enjoy the most about playing the character of Laurel?

A. Gonino    I think the thing I enjoy the most about playing Laurel is that with every episode, as her storyline develops, she’s learning new things about life [and] I’m learning new things about life with her and new things about myself too.  I feel like I have a chance to grow myself by playing Laurel.

 

Moderator   What do you feel it is about a show like The Lying Game that resonates well with viewers?

A. Gonino    I think there are so many elements.  I think the romantic love triangle between Sutton and Ethan, you know, is probably stirring up some excitement.  And obviously, the fact that like we have no idea whether Alec is a creep or if he’s a good guy.  And we have really cute clothes which I’m going to say is probably a big reason why young girls watch it or even, you know, women.

There’s so many elements, though, and just like the mystery aspect.  I think there’s so much going on in every episode and I think that’s what keeps the viewers coming back for more.

 

Moderator    Now that Sutton is back in town how will that sort of change things in the Mercer house?

A. Gonino    Well, I know in the next episode they’re still wanting to keep the twins anonymity.  Like, they don’t want anyone to know that the twins are twins and out and about because there’s a killer on the loose and they don’t know if that’s provoking the killer to go out and find them.  So the next episode is basically just both of them taking turns playing Sutton.

 

Moderator   What has been the most challenging episode that you had to do so far?

A. Gonino  That’s a good question.  I guess probably the episode that was just aired.  That’s the first time that I’ve ever had to really break down in a scene and cry.  So, I’d have to say that one.  It was just a very emotional episode for Laurel.

She never really shows that side of herself.  She’s usually very strong and happy and zealous.  So I’d have to say that one.  I just plugged in my iPod and put on a sad song and thought about something really awful and then the tears came.

 

Moderator     Is there going to be a repair in the relationship between Laurel and Justin?

A. Gonino   Yes.  There’s definitely some trust issues that will be coming up in the next couple of episodes you’ll be able to see.

 

Moderator     What makes your character so appealing to the fans?  And how do you identify with your character; similarities and differences?

A. Gonino       I think what’s most appealing about Laurel is that she is such a real character.  I think young girls can identify a lot with her.  She’s just a regular girl trying to get through life and still remain true to herself, while also trying to be a good sister to a nightmare of a sister.  I think there’s a vulnerability to Laurel that I felt when I was 16.

So I think she’s just really relatable.  I guess our sense of humor is sort of similar.  So I would say it’s a similarity.  But the difference between us is, I guess, probably just our lifestyle.  Laurel goes to high school and I’ve been doing music and acting for my whole life.  That’s probably the biggest difference.

 

Moderator    Do you think maybe in the future Laurel will affect Sutton as realizing she’s kind of snotty?  Or do you think that maybe with all the stuff going on with Justin, Laurel might do some of the lying games herself?

A. Gonino    I know that the real Sutton and Laurel have a conversation.  And Laurel says something to the effect of like, you’ve been different lately.  And I think Sutton is taken aback by it because she’s just now figuring out what a cool person Emma is and, of course, that only like sparks more jealousy.

I’m not really sure if Laurel is going to be in on the lying game.  I’m sure she probably will at some point.  Everyone on the show is playing the lying game. [laughs] So I don’t know about that one though.

 

Moderator   Do they spend a lot of time with you guys in the fitting rooms with your wardrobe?

A. Gonino    Yes.  We do have a great stylist, Mimi Kaupe.  She, basically, just pulls in a big rack of really cute things.  We get to try them on, play dress up for like an hour and say what we like best.  And then, it just all kind of comes together.  We don’t have like a huge budget for our clothes.  So I think it’s really, really amazing that we’ve been able to stylize the show so well.

 

Moderator    In which direction would you like to see your character go in?  What would you like to see your character do more of?

A. Gonino     Well, I think she’s been very enthralled with the boyfriend sort of situation lately.  And in the next episode you’ll see she gets to perform on stage for the first time.  And so, I’m really glad that she’s kind of getting back into being Laurel, you know, not Laurel plus boyfriends.  And she’s getting a little bit of her sass back and getting to express herself through music.  So, I’m hoping in the future that they’ll show that it’s possible to balance both having a boyfriend and pursuing your own thing.  I think that would be really cool for the viewers.

 

Moderator  Is there anything else you can tell us about future episodes?  Any tidbits you can spill about?

A. Gonino   Yes, without giving too much away.  Laurel finds out in the next episode on Monday (1/16) what the big secret between Justin and Ted is.  So it has to do with the bracelet and it’s going to rock her world.  So definitely look out for that.  It’s a pretty jarring episode.

 

Moderator   So, Laurel is going to find out what Justin’s hiding.  Can you tell us a little bit more about that?  Does that mean they’re going to repair their relationship after she knows the truth?

A. Gonino    I can’t exactly say.  I have to be very careful.  But it’s definitely going to put a huge a dent in the relationship.  You know, they just broke up.  So now the truth is coming out and Laurel is going to have to decide whether to trust him again and try to repair the relationship or dump him.

 

Moderator   You also mentioned that you’re performing on next week’s episode.  Are there any plans in the work to come back and perform again with your band?

A. Gonino    Yes.  We are performing in episode, I think, it’s 116.  So, like three episodes after this Monday we’ll be performing again.

 

Moderator   Are you ever surprised when you get your next script, who else is holding a secret and who else is involved in this whole game?

A. Gonino   Definitely.  I’m just as surprised as the viewers are with each new episode.  We don’t really ever know what’s going to happen until we get the script.  We’ll hear like rumors about what’s going to happen and then they’ll change their minds and write something totally different.  So yes, it is the mystery sort of surprise element to the show is what makes it so successful.

 

Moderator      Do you think that these characters are a pretty accurate depiction of 15, 16, 17 year olds today?

A. Gonino  I hope not.  You know, television we exaggerate everything.  But that’s why we do it is to escape the hustle and bustle of everyday life.  And entertainment is there for us to just let go and forget about everything else and get involved in lots of drama without actually doing it in real life, you know.  I think that’s the good thing about it.

 

Moderator     I have one more question in regards to the wardrobe.  You guys wear some pretty high heels.  Is that tough on you guys on your long shoot days?

A. Gonino      Well, I’ve been wearing high heels for awhile.  I’m a dancer.  So it’s not too bad unless the shoes themselves are really uncomfortable and then it’s a pain.  But, you know, I like wearing heels.  They make me feel sexy.

 

Moderator   When you first heard about the role of Laurel, what was it that made you want to play her?

A. Gonino   I think it was just that I saw so much of myself in her.  And I probably just felt some deep desire to live that stage in my life again and probably relearn some lessons that I didn’t necessarily remember.  And learn new things about myself.  And I just love her wit.

She’s so funny and energetic.  That’s just like the type of character I want to play.  And it is my first, like, big role.  So I wanted to pick something that would really allow me to learn acting and being in front of the camera and all that kind of stuff.

 

Moderator   Do you have a behind the scene moment or memory or something that you could share with fans that they wouldn’t know about from filming or just some little tidbit?

A. Gonino  Well, I guess, we rarely get to do scenes where it’s all of the cast in one scene.  But the scene where we had the dinner party when the parents went out of town.  We were joking and it’s just a fun set.  Like, we really do get along and all the actors are really intelligent people and want to do good work and are here to tell a story.  I think the fans would like to know that all these characters that they’re seeing are not as evil as they appear to be on television.  They’re really–they’re really good people.

 

Moderator     You started off appearing on Disney Channel shows Cory In The House and The Suite Life On Deck. How did that help you get your role in this show?

A. Gonino   Well I think every role I’ve ever done, up until now, has helped me even since being on stage in ballets as a little girl.  I think with every new job that I get it’s really about just being more comfortable to be in front of the camera as opposed to get in front of the camera and feel tense or something.  Those roles, like The Suite Life On Deck role I guess that was my first big guest star.  And it just helped me to loosen up, make choices and stick to those choices as an actor and believe in my ability as an actor.

 

Moderator  What exactly would you like see happen with Laurel’s character in relationship to Justin?

A. Gonino    They don’t even know where they’re going with that storyline.  But I think if she does decide to stay with Justin it needs to be like full-fledged trust.  Relationships are difficult.  If you are going to choose to spend at your youth with someone, like, that’s such a big decision to spend your high school years with someone.

So, I think I just want her to remain true to who she is and true to her passions.  And I want her to be ambitious and go off and do her own Laurel thing.  And be able to have a boyfriend.  But I don’t want it to be all about him.

 

Moderator     According to Episode 16 that’s going to change.  You’re going to be playing a Dixie Chicks song I think.  Are you excited about that?  Can you tell us which one?

A. Gonino    Yes.  I’m going to be playing “Top of the World” which was written by Patty Griffin, but sung by the Dixie Chicks.  They’re the reason I got into music in the very first place when I was like four years old.  So to be able to play one of their songs on a TV show is, like, really weird but really awesome.  And I feel really honored to be able to do that.  It’s like, it’s my own little homage to them.  So I’m excited.

 

Moderator    What was your first love; acting or performing as a musician?

A. Gonino     I would say music.  I think it has always been something that I’ve just been in love with.  I think it’s universal for everyone.  You know, it’s been around since forever.  But I was, like, probably three years old when I watched The Wizard of Oz for the first time and that really, I think, inspired me to be an actress.  And I would come home from day care every single day and dress up like Dorothy, watch the movie and act it out.  So I was, like, definitely an actress from a very young age.  But I don’t think I knew it until I actually started booking.  But I would have to say music is where my heart will always be.

 

Moderator     Besides the violin what other instruments do you play?

A. Gonino     I play a little bit of Mandolin.  And I can play a little piano but not very well.  Just a little by ear.

 

Moderator    Have the fans recognized you more since The Lying Game and is there any fan experience that stands out in your mind?

A. Gonino    I definitely have been recognized a bit more since the show came on.  The one I was most surprised to find out about that she even watches the show.  My band and I when we were in L.A. we play music for this private children’s hospital,   and I walked in to this one girl, Angela, who we actually wrote a song about.

So we walked into her room and she was just chilling and watching ABC Family and our guide was like, “Angela, this is Allie.”  And she was like, “Were you on The Lying Game?” I was like, “Yes, you watch that show?” She was like, “Yes.”  And she was like really star struck but not like freaking out.  But just like happy that we were there to play music for her.  So that was like a really special moment for me that people I wouldn’t have even imagine who’d get to watch the show gets to watch it.  So that made me really happy.

 

Moderator   What about your own, have you ever fanned girled out on anyone yourself?

A. Gonino   Yes.  I didn’t let them know it.  But I saw David Schwimmer, Ross Geller, from Friends at a restaurant one time and I was freaking out.  He was sitting like in the table right next to us.  It was actually when I was in The Stunners and everyone else just looked at me like I had lobsters, like, crawling out of my head or something.  But that was a pretty big moment for me.  It’s Ross, you know?

 

Moderator  Could you tell us if you had a favorite episode from either what we’ve seen or the shows that you’ve shot that we haven’t seen yet?  If there’s one episode that stands out to you?

A. Gonino  Honestly, the episode you’re going to see this week is my favorite because I get to play the Dixie Chicks song and I get to perform with my real life band.  It’s like a dream come true and I’m excited for myself.  But I’m also excited for the fans to see it because I think the music element is interesting and I don’t think any other show is really doing it.  So to have all this drama with like a backdrop of music is fun.  I’m excited for this one.

 

Moderator   Being on The Lying Game and having your band, you’re very busy, very full of life, how do you balance it all?

A. Gonino   I don’t know.  I really just try to take it as it comes and not try to stress out too much which is, honestly, the hardest thing in the world to do is not let it overwhelm me.  But we’ve been in the studio and in film.  So you just got to take it as it comes and then treat yourself every once in awhile with, a dessert or a drink or something which I don’t suggest to people under the age of 21.

 

Moderator    So we know now that in The Lying Game signature was the white and black bow surprise and we’ve already seen one.  Will there be anymore of those coming up?

A. Gonino     We haven’t seen anymore as of yet.  But we’re about to do a table read of the next episode so maybe on that one.  But that’s all we’ve seen of the black and white bow.

 

Moderator      In terms of the mystery of the  lying game, is there a  person  you think you could expand to also target? Like Ethan or will they exclusively stick to just going after Emma?

A. Gonino       I know Ethan gets in trouble for something but it doesn’t really have to do with the twins.  The episode we just shot is going to, like, shock people.  But that’s all I can say right now.

 

Season 2 of the Lying Game airs on ABC Family, Mondays 9/8c

 

Media Q&A Interview with Charisma Carpenter of ABC Family’s “The Lying Game” (J!-ENT Interviews and Articles)

Actress Charisma Carpenter is best known for her role as Cordelia Chase in the popular Joss Whedon series “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “Angel”.

She has has appeared on TV series such as “Veronica Mars”, “Greek”, “Big Shots” and “Supernatural”.  She also appeared in the films “Expendables” and “Psychosis”.  And now the actress will star on ABC Family’s “The Lying Game” as Ann Rebecca Sewell.

“The Lying Game” is a one-hour drama series starring Alexandra Chando, the actress plays two characters.  Emma Becker grew up in foster care, while Sutton Mercer grew up with a loving, wealthy family.  And the two have come face-to-face and realize that both are sisters.  Emma agrees to impersonate her sister while Sutton goes to Los Angeles to find her real biological parents.  But for some reason, when Sutton is supposed to return back home, Emma feels that something may have happened.  Now Emma may have to come clean and risk her own safety in the hope of uncovering her twin sister’s whereabouts.

Charisma Carpenter’s character Ann is the sister of Phyllis (played by Sydney Barrosse), mother of Charlotte “Char” Chamberlin (played by Kirsten Prout).  Ann returns back home, but there is a cloud of mystery that surrounds her character which will be unveiled more this coming season of “The Lying Game”.

To help promote the new season, Charisma Carpenter took part in a media Q&A to discuss her role on “The Lying Game” but also reflect on the past including her work on “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “Angel” and more.

Here is the transcript from the media Q&A interview with actress Charisma Carpenter.

Moderator      Can you give us some insight into why Annie has been gone so long and her relationship with Phyllis?

C. Carpenter    Her relationship with Phyllis is sister.  She’s been gone so long because I think when she was there, she was in high school, and things did not go well for her.  She was very—well, treated poorly, not well received.  I think some very bad things happened to her and what they are exactly has not at this point been revealed to me.  It’s just touched on a little bit here and there.

But when she does come back, she is a completely different looking person in appearance and obviously, she’s monetarily better off.  I guess she was in Los Angeles running a music company with her husband, who she is no longer with.  She thought she would go back home and start fresh, to everyone else’s chagrin.

 

Moderator How do you approach a character like Annie who knows so many secrets about people like Ted and Alec?

C. Carpenter    I think it’s not about them, I think it’s about her is the way I would approach it.  It being sort of like just focusing each interaction one at a time and knowing what my overall purpose is to be there and it’s a fresh start.  So, it’s positive and it’s up and it’s a good thing.  To play it any other way would really not—it would just be a different show.

I mean, part of The Lying Game is appearances aren’t always what they seem.  I think if you go into it being difficult or giving too much attitude or whatever, there are not a lot of places to go with that.  She’s optimistic.  She wants a change.  She’s open to befriending those people that weren’t nice to her when she was younger and starting new.  I think she comes from a place of confidence and success and she has nothing to apologize for and she’s interested in opening those doors again.

 

Moderator  What is it about the role that really drew you to wanting to be a part of it?  Are you looking to enter into another television show as a regular or is there something about this role that you couldn’t pass up as a guest star?

C. Carpenter   I am definitely interested in finding a home, for sure.  And it was not introduced to me that way.  It was a recurring opportunity to be on a show and if more comes of it, it would be a welcome surprise but not my intention.

I was drawn to the complexity of a character that is not all that she seems which I’m a little bit familiar with; but not too much because Cordelia, really, from Buffy and Angel, if I were to compare the two characters, was way more up front.  She was like a soothsayer.  She just said what was on her mind.  You always knew where you stood with things.  She’ll give you advice when you don’t even want to hear it.

I think this character, Annie Rebecca Sewell, is not so forthcoming with what she’s really thinking, but you know that there are wheels spinning behind her eyes.  I’m thinking this but I’m really not going to say it.  And I think that also happens with age.  You filter a little better.

Rebecca definitely has her filters and her radar highly tuned.  She’s smarter, wiser, sophisticated.  Apparently, she’s a little moneyed up.  She’s lived and survived a lot, especially socially.  The way she was treated when she was younger affected her in a way that either you sink or swim, and apparently she swam.

And now she’s back to these choppy waters to sort of navigate them and see what she can make out of it.  I mean, I feel like her intentions are to set things right for herself mainly, but not in a vindictive, revenge way because then that gets into a whole other show altogether.  I think what her intention is really is like one of her lines recently to Kristin was, “Between you and me, it is really fun to be back and turning heads.”  She never turned heads in the past and she was really mistreated by her peers.  So, it’s nice to come back on top.  It feels good and I don’t think she’s really going to be willing to let that go anytime soon.

 

Moderator    We know that you’re a part of the network with Twitter and I’m wondering how the interaction with fans comes into play with your projects.  Is it a great way for you to not only interact with fans, but also promote the projects or get that instant feedback from fans about your projects?

C. Carpenter     You know, it’s a double-edged sword, the social media, because I’ve gotten in trouble for either announcing too soon something that the network or the studio wanted to do and it takes away from.  So it is something like it’s okay to tease but I’m sort of like well, oh goodness, I said too much and I’m so sorry and I’ve had to apologize and like say, “Oops, I didn’t mean to do that.”  Or what is that expression where you just, you steal some of the thunder, so to speak.  You don’t mean to do that.

But, it’s hard because it’s like these are my fans and I want to give my fans what they want to hear and that is I’m on television and I’m going to be back on the show and I really want you to watch and you’re going to have fun doing it and you’re going to see more a grownup, sophisticated version of Cordelia, who you are familiar with.  I think you’ll see a lot of similarities between the two, but they’re not, by any means, the same character.

 

Moderator     How familiar were you with the whole Lying Game phenomenon when you were first invited to join the cast?

C. Carpenter    Not at all; not at all.  In fact, I had no idea what The Lying Game meant and I’m still missing the last five episodes of the first ten.  So, obviously, I’ve got the first five and then I’ve got episodes ten through sixteen down, but I’m missing five there.  I was given the link but I can’t get the link to work on my Mac, so I’m a little bit challenged in that regard.

I’m not that familiar with it; what it means.  I’ve been exposed to it a little bit, but I don’t know in what sense it’s a game.  Like why is it a game?  I don’t know.  I understand Sutton introduced it.

 

Moderator   Was there anybody that took you under their wing and helped you get assimilated and get into the entire universe of the show?

C. Carpenter     I would probably say it started at the top with Chuck.  Chuck really—I read the script and I called him and I just said that I just have some questions about her and how she fits in and who is this Annie, and now my name is Annie and I don’t what that means.  How will that be explained to the audience and will that be more confusing or less confusing?  Who am I?  What did I do?

So he walked me through it and he was pretty generous, was willing to tell me whatever it is that I needed to understand, but there did come a point where I’m like, “Okay, don’t tell me anymore.  I don’t want to know any more than just what you said because I don’t want it to inform my performance in a way that would reveal too much.”  It doesn’t assist you to know more than you should, because then you’re not playing it right.

Or you can be informed and you can have the information, but then you have to play against that information.  And then it becomes more confusing and more complicated than maybe it need be.  I just like to keep it simple, keep it simple, play it very earnestly and straightforward with the information I have at hand, unless I’m told otherwise.

 

Moderator    How is the chemistry on the set of The Lying Game and how are you enjoying that?

C. Carpenter   It’s one of the best sets I’ve been on.  It’s probably on par with my experience on Veronica Mars.  A lot of young kids with a great deal of pressure and responsibility just killing it every day.   They get it.  They’re appreciative.  There is no diva.  There is no attitude.  There are no hang ups.  Everybody, everybody, I mean everybody, has a fantastic outlook.

I think too, it helps like in this economy, everybody is really appreciative to be working. It’s not lost on them.  It’s really a wonderful thing to see such young people taking on such huge responsibilities and jobs and hours and just do it with such grace.  I really have been impressed a great deal.  And Alexandra Chando without exception.  She’s mid-20s and she’s not one character, two characters.

It’s a fantastic environment.  The chemistry is great.  The crew is great.  I love working with Adrian.  He’s crackly.  He’s incensed; like he’s on fire.  He’s like going to ignite at any moment.  One little bit of accelerant and he’s just going to blow up.  He’s so alive and his energy is just—it’s impossible to ignore.

Every time he’ll give you a line and you might have in your mind a way that the scene would be going or the way he would say something, but no.  And then you’ll do the same thing again and it won’t be the same way either.  And that, for me, just brings my level of acting up.  I think for sure when you see the season, you will see it.  You will see what I’m talking about.  It’s an amazing work experience for me.

 

Moderator   In addition to Lying Game, are there any other upcoming projects in the works for you that you can give us any clues about?

C. Carpenter   Yes, there is something, but I’m not allowed to say and I won’t get in trouble.  I can’t get in trouble.  It will be announced very soon.  Let’s just say that.

 

Moderator   Okay, we will definitely keep our eyes open.

C. Carpenter  And not T.V.

 

Moderator   Can you describe a little more about the history of your character with Ted and Alec?

C. Carpenter    With Ted and Alec?  With Ted and Alec, my understanding of their relationship is high school acquaintances.  They were cruel and mean to me and what that means, I don’t know.  I honestly don’t know.  They played games on me.  Maybe The Lying Game started way before Sutton, I don’t know.

But apparently, I was not treated well.  I was not a confident person.  I was not a charming person.  I was not attractive in any way.  I guess they must have done something terrible to me and honestly, I don’t know what it is.  It hasn’t been revealed to me and I don’t even know if the writers know yet what it is that they did.

 

Moderator      That gives us something to look forward to.

C. Carpenter    Yes, for sure.  More will be revealed I guess.

 

Moderator   Are there any pranksters on the set?

C. Carpenter     No, nobody really pranks.  Everyone is really respectful.  Everybody loves each other and hangs out with each other and spends time with each other; goes on hikes, goes to dinners.  It’s very familial, and no, there’s no like George Clooney on the set that I can think of.  I haven’t been around that long, but I don’t feel that yet.

 

Moderator    Who does your character have the most chemistry with and who will she cause the most trouble for?

C. Carpenter   I feel like she has the most chemistry with Alec Rybak, but I think that’s kind of on purpose.  Some of my scenes are with him.  I feel, though, there is very interesting tension between Ted Mercer and Annie Sewell, or Annie Rebecca Sewell.  I feel like whenever he’s around, he’s kind of a cold fish and she kind of revels in that.  “Oh, I make you uncomfortable,” visibly.  I think she likes that.  So that has its own element to it, but it’s not like it’s mutual.  With Alec, it’s like mutual interest.  With Ted, it’s like I can tell that I can ruffle his feathers and I love it.  “Hi, Ted.  Hmm, nice to see you.”

It is very interesting to see where that may or may not go.  I think the most trouble I will be causing—well, right now I feel like the most trouble is probably Kristin Mercer because she feels threatened in some way and she can’t put her finger on why.  Why I’m back, why I look different.  Some of the stuff she says to Kristen, like it’s really fun to be back and turning heads, I don’t think that that’s conducive to something you say to a woman who you want to befriend, who’s married and you’re single.  I don’t think that’s very comfortable for her.

I don’t think Thayer Rybak likes me very much.  We don’t know why he’s so resistant because his sister, Mads, is very happy to see me and thinks I’m cool.  Like, “Wow, you’re so lucky to have such a cool aunt, Char.”  I think the trouble is with the Mercers mainly.

 

Moderator    You said that Cordelia shares some similarities with your character in The Lying Game.  Could you expand on that a little bit?  What characteristics do they share?

C. Carpenter      I think they’re very spoiled in a way.  I don’t think she was always spoiled, Rebecca, I think she has sort of come into money and money changes you.  It’s sort of like a—you can feel when people, I don’t know, there’s like an arrogance that comes with it, almost.  And I think that that sort of is similar to Cordelia.  There’s this sense of entitlement.  I’ve found myself.  I’ve made myself successful and get out of my way.  And I think everything that she approaches is with intention.

I think Cordelia was very specific and very intentioned in her behavior and protective of those people in her vicinity that she grew to love and trust, but she’s a hard nut to crack, Rebecca.  We don’t really know who she has an affinity for, if anyone.  I think she will tell you the truth.  She’ll say enough to make a person uncomfortable which is very Cordelia, but she’s not as blatant as Cordelia.  I think she just says enough.

She’s like a garnish on a plate.  Cordelia with just a little bit of Cordelia in it, but she’s not Cordelia.  She’s grown and she’s sophisticated and she uses respects and she uses her resources in a way that maybe Cordelia didn’t always know to use yet.

 

Moderator    Have you had any really interesting or strange fan encounters?

C. Carpenter   Yes, I have.  I have had some fan encounters that were interesting, but most encounters are actually quite pleasant and endearing.  But it was a little unsettling when a very sweet young girl actually did pee her pants.  That was a little odd.  You hear about that happening with people like the Beatles or Michael Jackson or something like that, so it’s a little unsettling to know that that level of excitement or emotional intensity is being caused by you.

 

It’s a little unsettling; I mean, it’s flattering but unsettling at the same time.  I don’t know how to put it.  It’s like, “It’s just me.  It’s just me.  I’m just a person.”  It’s a little odd.  I don’t know how Justin Bieber deals.

 

Moderator    Can you tell us what it was like to work with James Marsters again on Supernatural?

C. Carpenter   Oh, it was a lot of fun.  What was so great about it is we didn’t spend time together at all unless he really—I never really had scenes with him, not that much and we’ve sort of been orbiting the same areas and various conventions, but when we’re acting, we don’t get to socialize.  So when we’re on set, I really feel like I got back story and I know what’s going on in his life.

I know he has a kid.  I know they love music.  I know they play together.  I know he’s involved.  I really feel like I got to connect with him and kind of talk about the old days and what was your experience and oh, this was my schedule, what was your experience and kind of share and reconnect in a trusted way.  It was really special to me.

 

Moderator      If you could go back and have this Twitter technology for just one year, or one T.V. season, from Buffy or Angel, what year or show season would you have picked?

C. Carpenter      Probably the third season of Buffy; my last season on Buffy.  Graduation day, I think that probably would have been a good year to be on Twitter, because we were getting ready to exit.  There would have been a lot of news to share, if I was allowed to share it is another story.  But there would have been a lot going on.  The rebar scene, some of the kooky stuff we wore, it was exciting for me.  A lot of stuff happened to me.  I knew I was jumping ship, so a lot of my character was getting some resolution with relationships in that season.

I finally got to vanquish a vampire after being a damsel in distress for three years.  So that would have been fun to tweet.  Pictures on the set with all the demons running around would have been fun.  We were on a very specific lot which we called Weeden World.  So it wasn’t on Fox or Paramount or any of that.  We had our own sort of world going on.  So that would have been interesting.

We were around on set, like we had outdoor sets, the graveyards and stuff.  I think there just would have been a lot of fun stuff to tweet from that.  On Angel we had a lot of indoor sets and things.  Angel would have been fun too, especially when Andy Hallett was around it was always fun.  It was a lot of fun too, but I just think if I had to pick one year, that would have been it.

 

Moderator   You and Alexandra Chando, you resemble each other quite a bit.  I’m wondering have you guys talked about this or noticed it at all?

C. Carpenter  Yes, we’ve noticed it.  We notice it.  I mean, I’ve actually and this is not even with her around—they take continuity pictures of your makeup so they know what you look for a particular outfit and day, like it’s labeled like day 1 or night 2 and this is what you were wearing, this is your makeup and this is your costume.  So the costume department has one, the makeup department has one, the hair department has a continuity photo.

So, I was literally going through, running through the wardrobe and they have these pictures cut out and I literally thought it was me.  I had to remember, okay, that’s a 20-year-old version of me; but it was like me.  I really did think that it was me.  Dang, I look good.  Oh wait a minute, that’s Alex.

 

Moderator  You’re both so beautiful and you look so similar.

C. Carpenter  Well, I think she’s so beautiful, so I will take that as an absolute compliment and she’s so bright, so bright, and strong.  She’s just a strong girl.  You can just—I just love people from the Midwest.  They’re just awesome.  I just love them. Grounded and bright and down to earth and get the job done and there’s no whimpering or whining.  It’s just handled.  She’s very capable and I admire her very much.  She has a lot of responsibility at a very young age.  So I will definitely be grateful for any comparisons to that young lady.

 

Moderator    It seems like your character kind of stirs the drink a little bit when she arrives.  Am I on track there with her?

C. Carpenter   I would say you’re on track.

 

Moderator    Is it just because of the way she was and the way she is now, the difference, and people kind of being taken back by her a little bit, do you think?

C. Carpenter  Yes, I think her presence makes a lot of people uncomfortable.  Who is she?  Why is she back?  Why isn’t she going by Annie?  Why does she look different?  Obviously, she has money.  What’s going on?

 

Moderator  Have you been given any ideas of her arc at all?

C. Carpenter   Ideas, yes.  And I have my own suspicions but I don’t know what I can say without losing that job.  They don’t like it when you give—it’s such a difficult position because I want to give you stuff and I want to make you happy and I want to give you the interview that you want, but at the same time I don’t want to lose my job.  Also, then, just mess up or get it wrong.  Because, to be honest, I know things, but I don’t think I really know all of it.  Because I’ve actually asked to not know past a certain point because I don’t want it to color or affect my performance in a subliminal way, subconscious way.

 

Moderator     Is one of the projects you can’t talk about, is that Haunted High that’s coming up?

C. Carpenter    No, no, I can talk about that.  I’ll be in Haunted High with Danny Trejo.

 

Moderator  Can you kind of give us an idea of who you play and all that?

C. Carpenter    Well, I did find out that Machete does tweet.  So now I follow him.  I don’t even think he goes by Danny Trejo anymore.  I think he’s straight up Machete and I’m really okay with that.  He is an amazing man.  He’s so amazing and he looks so fit. And then he’s on my other favorite show, Sons of Anarchy.  It’s just ridiculous.  The man is so accomplished.  He just is everywhere.  I love him.  He’s a doll.  He’s bad to the bone.

 

Moderator    Yes, he is.  Well thank you so much.

C. Carpenter    I want to be him sometimes.  Like I imagine like, what would Danny do?  What would—because like if I could embody him, it would be really nice sometimes.  Can you shoot me out?  I’m tired.  Who’s going to say no to Machete?

 

Moderator    In talking about the resemblance between you and Alexandra Chando and we definitely have a theory that you are the twins’ real mother.  Can you kind of comment on that?

C. Carpenter     Well, I mean, obviously I’m wondering too.  It would seem that I am, but I don’t know if I’m a red herring in that really we haven’t met her yet at all.  I don’t know.  I kind of hope I am.  It would be nice to be around awhile.  But I don’t know for sure.  They haven’t told me.  We only suspect.

And also, who is the father?  If I am the mom, then who—which one is it because apparently I’ve had relations.  I was a bit of a get around girl.  All I can tell you is that my feeling is the adults are really going to have some time.  They’re going to have their time and they’re going to be competing hard for that storyline for the younger kids.

The younger kids are very compelling and it’s the demographic and all that, but if you are a grown up and you are watching this show, you will have your own storyline and you will be into it.  I have every intention of making it super interesting for you.

 

Moderator   Would you ever consider going on Bones and if so, who would you like to play?

C. Carpenter   I hear such wonderful things about that set.  I have friends that have worked on the set.  I’m friends with David Striver.  His name is Hershey.  He drove us on Angel.  We have breakfast at least once a month together and I am in touch with David and we have tweeted about doing episodes, Julie and I doing episodes of Bones.  I just don’t know if it’ll—I think it’s been brought up to the executive producers and ultimately, if you are Bones fans and you want to see some crossovers, I’m totally absolutely game.  I’m in love with David, I mean not in love—that could be totally misconstrued.

I adore him.  He’s like my brother.  I know him really, really well.  I love him so much.  Julie and I, she’s one of my closest friends.  For us to all kind of get together again and play, whether independently or all together, would just be so much fun.  And I really want to work with Emily because I hear wonderful things about her.  Like she’s one of the nicest people around and she and David have such wonderful chemistry.  I want to meet this woman.  I want to meet this person that has been so wonderful to my friend.

 

Moderator   Do you have a preference to between working in TV or film?

C. Carpenter    Yes, of course, I would love to do more film and I will be doing more film.  I can’t tell you any more than that but I do really—my heart is into television just because it’s been so good to me.  I’ve had the joy of working on critically acclaimed shows and that kind of thing.  Unfortunately, those shows aren’t always in the Golden Globe or Emmy nominated categories, which kind of bums me out because they are really good quality shows.

But, yes, television is my home to me and I like—it’s a special breed of person that can do that kind of nine months on and three months off; 22 episodes of one-hour shows, it’s very hard work.  It’s a grind.  It can be a grind.  It’s not a grind for me.  I relish in that.  But there are very few of us that can handle that; that are movie people.

Movie people going over into television, it’s a little bit of a shocking world. It’s much faster paced.  Everything is really last minute.  You won’t know your schedule for the next episode until the last minute.  You don’t know if you’re going to be off for Christmas, or what the date is.  But for me, it’s familiar and it’s good to me and I like having a steady job and all that goes along with that.

 

Moderator      I know you can’t talk about it but we’ve got on here, The Human Factor.  Are you going to start filming in that soon?  Or have you already started?

C. Carpenter   I have no idea what is going on with that film.  I don’t even know if they have the financing.  I had been cast for it and then it kind of all fell apart.  I don’t know what’s going on with that film.  It would be nice to work on it if the people involved are still involved.  I would love to work with Michael Madsen and Sean Patrick Flanery and Eric Roberts.  It’s a great cast.

 

Moderator  There were rumors this past year about a Buffy remake, what do you feel about that?

C. Carpenter    Right, I get asked that a lot.  I talk about it on Twitter a lot because it inevitably makes it on my line, my timeline.  My feeling is of course, they’re doing it.  It was successful, but to do it without Joss (Whedon), it’s just going to be really disappointing.  I feel like it could do more harm to the franchise than good in a way, just because—or not, maybe it’ll make people appreciate the original more.  I don’t know.  But it doesn’t make much sense to do that without any of the key players involved.  Why call it Buffy?  They should just call it something else because it’s not going to be the same thing.

 

Moderator    What are your favorite Christmas and holiday traditions?

C. Carpenter       Well, one of my favorite traditions, which is just to my family alone, we have what’s called “ Faux Christmas” the week before Christmas with my dad and my stepmom.  Because when you have a large family like I do and we’re all married and all around the country, it’s impossible because you’re married and it’s my spouse’s family’s house this weekend or it’s this holiday or Thanksgiving. What we try to do is we, no matter what, do faux Christmas which is the week before so we can all get together either at my house or my brother’s house or my dad’s house and his wife’s house.

And then on the actual holiday, then we can go to the appropriate house for that winter.  Because we all love each other so much and we want to be together but we know that we have to split our time, so to keep together every single year we celebrate Christmas one week before.  And then we go to Australia to visit a family there.  And then my brother’s wife’s family is in Tucson, so she’ll get to stay with her mom and nobody’s left out.

 

Moderator      You were in Deadly Sibling Rivalry with Kyle Richards and I was wondering if you watched Real Housewives of Beverly Hills or any reality T.V. shows?

C. Carpenter   I did not watch that show.  I was not happy about that casting at all because it was going to be a difficult shoot.  It was to be shot in, I don’t know, 16, 18 days.  I really wanted to make sure whoever was on the set was like going to be a trained actor and good at their job and take it seriously and that there wasn’t going to be any kind of shenanigans.  Reality T.V. shenanigans are round the job at hand.  I was a little peeved, I’ve got to say.

She showed up and she won me over in the first five seconds.  She’s smart.  She’s professional.  Whatever expectation I had in my head, Beverly Hills housewives, I didn’t know.  I didn’t know and I could not—When she performed, I believed her.  I was really happy with her choice.  In fact, I thought she did a really good job, but at first I was really reluctant with that cast.

I mean, I don’t have a say in those things; who’s cast, who’s not cast.  But I understand the need to make something more mainstream or more marketable and get the distribution that they need to make it successful financially for the investors.  I get all that and how that works, but that really bummed me out that they went the reality T.V. route because I’m a little bitter about that whole reality T.V. thing.  A little bit.

 

Moderator   Do you have any New Year’s resolutions?

C. Carpenter    I do.  Some more personal than others, but I really want to practice not cussing; cursing at all.  Definitely with this job, if we get picked up and I have to stay working in Austin, to try to make a bigger effort to be more consistent with my training, working out. I have a lot of New Year’s resolutions.  More saving, make better choices in that regard.  Travel, but making  more time for the family.  More timeouts, just re-appropriate my spending.  Whatever I do, maybe whatever was important to me in my 20s, like I want to have three Fendi bags, or I want a Chloe bag, or whatever the in thing was.  Okay, let’s not buy three Fendi bags at $2200 a pop.  Let’s instead like sock that away, save it, and then oh, we have a little extra money.  Why don’t we go up to Whistler and have a family ski trip?

I want to go to Montana.  I want to spend time in Montana.  I got plans.  I want to brand out; brand out like sell out.  Who says that?  So bad.  But I want to sell out.  I want my own perfume line.  I have some ideas about beauty regimen and care and that sort of thing.  Those are the things that I think a book should be written about.  I have some stuff to say.  I got some stuff on my mind.  I would like to get started on those things.

Season 2 of the Lying Game premieres on Jan. 2nd on ABC Family, Mondays 9/8c

 

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