Interview: AnnaSophia Robb and Alexander Ludwig of ‘Witch Mountain’

Posted on August 3, 2009 at 3:58 pm

The young stars of Race to Witch Mountain talked to me about making the movie, a re-imagining of the Disney classic, Escape to Witch Mountain, about a brother and sister with extraordinary powers. AnnaSophia Robb and Alexander Ludwig could not have been more fun to talk to — they were both so bright, engaged, polite, curious, and excited about the film. It was easy to see why they work together so well on screen. They have an effortless chemistry, a shared perspective, and great chemistry. When they assured me that they were the best of friends, I believed it.

One of the big challenges of making this movie had to be acting as though you could really see all of the effects that were not added in until later. How did you know what to visualize and where to look?

AnnaSophia: Andy was really great about explaining everything, all the visuals. And a lot of it was there — the only green screen work we did was in the cab.

You had to play characters who looked like human children but in reality were aliens for whom everything on Earth was new and strange. How do you create those characters?

Alexander: It was a really good opportunity for both of us because we had creative freedom to sculpt our own characters. No one really knows what aliens are like so we got to form our own characters.

Did you coordinate with each other to make sure that your characterizations were consistent?

Alexander: We became super-close. Since we were playing not just aliens from the same planet but brother and sister, we had to have to have similar qualities. So we would share our ideas. And then she just shut me down whenever I suggested anything! (laughs)

AnnaSophia: We would go over stuff and talk about it with each other. And his suggestions were great!

How do you create that feeling of excitement and urgency?

AnnaSophia: That is part of what we do as actors. And it is one thing Andy was great about, reminding us to keep our energy up, that you don’t know these these people are following you. Alexander was great about that, helped me keep focused on the fact that we were running for our lives.

Tell me about working with Duane Johnson! I’ll bet he is a lot of fun.

Alexander: Working with Duane is a joy. He is honestly a phenomenal guy, like an older brother to us. It was an inspiration to work with someone who came from so little, achieved so much, and is still such a genuine guy, such a professional.

Who are the actors who inspire you?

AnnaSophia: Meryl Streep, Natalie Portman — I want to go to university like her — Scarlett Johansson, Leonardio DiCaprio isincredible.

Alexander: I agree on all of her choices! Meryl Streep is phenomenal, Leonardo DiCaprio is truly inspirational, a phenomenal actor, Johnny Depp is an amazing amazing actor, unreal, Brad Pitt is another one I admire.

Tell me about Andy Fickman, the director. I saw him at Comic-Con and really enjoyed his enthusiasm.

Alexander: Andy is great — it’s like a toy store exploded in his office. He knows how to surround you in the environment of the story and makes you believe in the project.

Do you believe that there is life on other planets?

AnnaSophia: We have such a large universe, there must be something out there.

Alexander: I totally agree, the options and imagination are limitless, we can’t be the one planet out of all these billions to have life.

I have one copy of the DVD to give away to the first person who writes me at moviemom@moviemom.com with “Witch Mountain” in the subject line. Tell me why you like this movie!

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Comic-Con 2009: Interviews for ‘Alien Trespass’ and ‘Boondock Saints II’

Posted on July 29, 2009 at 12:40 pm

I am a huge Eric McCormack fan and enjoyed his retro sci-fi movie Alien Trespass, so it was a special treat to get a chance to talk with him and writer/director R.W. Goodwin (of “X-Files”) at Comic-Con about the DVD release. Goodwin emphasized that the film is not a parody of cheesy 50’s sci-fi movies or even a tribute; his intention was to create a film that would look and feel as though it had actually been made half a century ago and had just been re-discovered. He loves the “great, sweet, really earnest” films of that era and wanted to “put ourselves in that space.”

I asked McCormack what he thought about in creating the character of Urp, an alien who inhabits the body of an Earth scientist, and he said that the image he held in his mind was when Urp has to drive a car for the first time. “He’s obviously intelligent,” McCormack said. “He piloted a rocket ship to get to earth. But everything is new to him. So I thought of him as more child-like than robotic. Ted’s body is a stolen car he is learning how to operate.” Here he talks about his favorite scene.

And it was a lot of fun to talk to Clifton Collins, Jr. and Julie Benz about their upcoming film, “Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day.” Benz said she seems to be doing nothing but vigilante stories — “Rambo,” “The Punisher,” “Dexter,” and now this sequel to the cult favorite about two brothers who take the law into their own hands and famously end the film asking whether they are good or evil, saint or vigilantes. Collins and Benz join the returning cast of the 1999 original, including Billy Connelly, Norman Reedus, and Sean Patrick Flannery as the father and sons who go after the bad guys.

Collins is one of my favorite actors, most recently seen as the number two bad guy in Star Trek, but I have been a fan since he appeared in The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit in 1998. He told me that he was “not in the first film but was around it,” knew writer/director Troy Duffy’s journey from bartender to film-maker (as documented in the movie Overnight) and “once I read it, who didn’t want to be a part of ‘Boondock Saints?’ Everybody did.”

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Tom Clocker Interviews The Movie Mom

Posted on July 9, 2009 at 3:58 pm

Many thanks to Baltimore movie critic Tom Clocker for a terrific profile and interview.
Some selections:
Tom: You don’t have to get into too much detail since everyone can check out the full article from The Washington Post, but it seems like you are incredibly busy with your two jobs: Movie Mom, and Corporate Analyst. How do you find the time to see several movies a week, write reviews, and participate in many radio interviews in addition to your second career? Sounds like you should throw in some seminars on Time Management while you’re at it.
Nell: I never use the word “busy” about myself or let anyone else use it about me. In Washington, especially, it is often used in a macho way by people who want to make themselves seem important. Even worse, it is often used by people to explain why they are not doing things they should or would like to do. I told my children if someone says, “I’m too busy” it means “what you’re asking about is not important to me.”
It takes a lot of courage and honesty to take responsibility for the decisions about what you will and won’t do. Sometimes I miss a meeting for a movie. Sometimes I miss a movie for a meeting. But I am always clear with myself and my colleagues and family about what my priorities are. And my family comes first, always.
Tom: If circumstances ever forced you to pick one of your two jobs, and we all hope that never happens, which one would get the boot?
Nell: I’ll bet if one job ended, instead of doing the other full-time, I’d find another part-time job. I’m A.D.D. and find the feeling of going back and forth between two things both soothing and energizing!
…
Tom: I’m sure everyone wants to know: What is your favorite movie? And, if it is different, what is your favorite Kid’s or Family movie?
Nell: I was supposed to write a book with 200 movies and it ended up with 500, so I have a lot of favorites! But my all-time favorite is The Philadelphia Story. Other favorites include To Have and Have Not, His Girl Friday, Ball of Fire, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Music Man, Yellow Submarine, and many more!
Tom: Finally, do you have any advice for aspiring movie critics? What does it take to become successful and get noticed in a world where anyone with a computer can be an on-line movie critic?
Nell: I have the same advice for any aspiring writer — write! Learn as much as you can and write as much as you can. Have a distinctive voice and point of view. Your reviews have to be lively and informative.
I wrote more than 500 reviews before I got paid for it. Dana Stevens was an unemployed PhD who wrote reviews for her own website that were so good within a year she was writing for the NY Times and is now the movie critic for Slate. This is the best time in history for a writer because anyone can be published. On Rotten Tomatoes, all the critics are right next to each other, print and online, so if you’re good, people will read you. Anyone who has talent, courage, and dedication can make it happen.
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Interview: D.W. Brown, Acting Coach to Stars and Future Stars

Posted on July 8, 2009 at 3:59 pm

D.W. Brown has trained, directed, and coached hundreds of actors and is co-artistic head of the distinguished and successful Joanne Baron/D.W. Brown Studio. His new book, You Can Act!: A Complete Guide for Actors is both practical and inspiring with tips, diagnostics, and reference material that guides newcomers and professional actors to everything from the classics to a shoot-’em up. He took the time to answer my questions about the book and his work.

On “Inside the Actor’s Studio,” I heard Alec Baldwin talk about the difference between an actor and a movie star. What do you think the difference is? Can you be both?

You certainly can be both because the ability to act is actually one of the traits that results in success for an actor. Imagine that. But there truly are other factors involved in being a star. Those would include the type you are, your basic physical attributes and your essential nature and how this present society responds to that type. There have always been femme fatale types like Angelina Jolie (Lauren Bacall), and the decent man like Tom Hanks (Henry Fonda); but we don’t seem to have much use for John Wayne types right now. There’s also the buzz factor. The industry feels a trend for certain people and their fame, a fame not necessarily related to their acting, and then it builds on itself.

I was surprised to see you say that “as long as you’re committing to the truth of your Action, you can pretty much be oblivious to whatever you’re saying and it will come off just fine.” How do you suggest an actor treat the words in the script?

Yes, I know it is heretical in some quarters to discount the text, but I’m only saying that an actor should do their job, trusting the writer has done theirs. It’s Shakespeare’s advice to actors when he said (through Hamlet’s mouth): “Suit the action to the word and the word to the action.” You use the words only as a blueprint to determine what you should be doing and, once that’s decided, you make the words total slaves to the thrust of your Action. Our society makes such a big deal out of the use of language and how you present yourself intelligently, an obligation to the words and their ideas is a curse. All these reasonable minds talking to reasonable minds. An actor needs to aim for gut.

Many actors are fine when they are speaking but get lost when another character is speaking. How do you teach them to maintain concentration?

We train the concentration of an actor so that they put their attention on what’s really going on, not just the words and how they themselves are coming across. The Meisner technique we teach at our school (The Joanne Baron/D.W. Brown Studio) is a brilliant method for getting an actor to habituate playing moments and working off their environment, mainly the subtextual interaction with other human beings.

What is the best way to prepare for a role set in another era?

Whatever the environment your character inhabits you have to examined the culture and its values, and then bring that to your performance; it may be by relating to events through the use of particularizations, which is saying to yourself: “This thing is to this character as blank would be if it happened to me.” By this I mean, if your character is discovered to be pregnant out of wedlock in the 60s, it might be for you as if you’d been discovered prostituting yourself. To play something set in a different era you might also have to alter how you carry yourself physically.

What is the best way to think about a character’s past? About the character’s goals?

The past may be hugely influential or barely at all. Although it’s often an interesting plot point, I think well-meaning actors tend to get too hung up on back story, whereas your character might simply have been born a shark or a saint. I do think connecting to a past can be very powerful if you think of the character as motivated for a larger purpose because of it. This might be the case with someone who, because of the sacrifices made by others to get them through college, strives passionately to succeed so as to honor them, or a person having been bullied taking revenge for all who have been bullied. I think a great way to think of a character’s goals is to imagine how it is that they want to be praised. Everyone wants to be praised. If not by the entire population, at least by that certain like-minded soul. Even a self-hater loves themselves as a self-hater.

Interview: Ellen Besen on Visual Literacy

Posted on July 6, 2009 at 3:58 pm

The average American child watches two to three hours of TV a day, according to the American Association of Pediatrics. And that doesn’t include the time they spend playing video games, sitting in front of the computer, and watching movies. Yet, few children are taught how to decode the messages that come wrapped in visual media. Ellen Besen, an acclaimed animator, author, and teacher who’s worked with students from pre-school to college level says that visual literacy is a skill that every child should be taught. “Because of technology our kids have near-constant access to visual media, yet we’ve done very little to teach them how to really understand what they’re seeing,” says Besen. She is the author of Animation Unleashed: 100 Principles Every Animator, Comic Book Writers, Filmmakers, Video Artist, and Game Developer Should Know and she answered my questions about what parents should know about visual literacy.

How do you define visual literacy?

It’s the ability to watch visual media with awareness of exactly what is being communicated (including less obvious messages and intents) and how that communication is being achieved.
How do you turn children from passive viewers to active, engaged viewers of television and film?

The first step involves introducing the idea that media can be questioned instead of just being accepted carte blanche. By its very nature, media seems authoritative — if something is on TV, for example, it must not only be true but also important. Left unquestioned, media can become established in a child’s mind as the ultimate authority. So you need to sit down with your children and watch things with them and discuss what you are watching. This way you maintain (or re-establish) the role as the main authority in your child’s life. Media may then raise interesting questions but the final answers to those questions come from you.

What can preschoolers learn about visual media? Elementary school kids? Middle and high schoolers?

Recognition that everything we see in media was put there by choice is key to developing visual and media literacy. This recognition leads to three big questions which can be adapted for children of different ages:

What choices did the creators make? Why did they make those choices? What else could they have chosen to do?

Again I must emphasis here that for kids of all ages, you need to watch the shows and movies they watch, preferably with them — you can’t be a credible authority (especially with older kids)unless you know the material! This allows you to see how your children react to specific elements — both positively and negatively — which will open doors for conversation with them. It also helps you observe your children’s overall reaction to media. What kind of watchers are they? Some kids get taken right in and once there, are hard to peel away. Other kids treat TV as a background element to which they give some of their attention while also carrying on with other activities. These different styles of watching offer clues to what your child might need to understand about media.

Since preschool programming is already quite regulated, efforts with very young children can mostly be focused on laying the foundation for visual literacy. Watch a favorite show with them and ask what they like best about it and what they like least. What would they change, if they could — show more of a favorite character, perhaps, or add a new character? Put the stories in a new setting or have more stories in a favorite one? This encourages active watching and helps create the groundwork for critical thinking by stimulating the child’s ability to form an opinion. Older preschoolers can also begin to consider the difference between real and not real — at this age, it might only be the broadest of distinctions: live action actors — real, animated characters — not real, for example.

With elementary school kids and preteens, you can try a more sophisticated version of the same exercises. Here along with encouraging active watching towards forming an opinion about the content, you can also begin to foster an awareness of the various elements through which different media communicate. Have them watch for changes in camera angles or the use of camera moves. Once they’ve identified that the angles often change, you can have them think about why they change: has the camera just cut closer to showcase a tiny detail which would otherwise be hard to see, such as something a character is taking out of her pocket? Has the camera started to move way back from the scene because the show is over and we are now saying good bye?

At this age, the “real/not real” discussion can also become more sophisticated. And it definitely becomes more important. Kids can watch TV ads aimed at them and look for false information — camera angles which make a toy look bigger than it really is; favorite cereals which look more brightly colored and more appetizing on TV than the real thing because the food has been doctored. They can also watch action sequences or fight sequences and begin to understand that the actors are not actually fighting.

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