a bunch of movie-related things
oh hello
I saw a Cirque du Freak commercial on TV for the first time today :D It reminded me of some things that this community might be interested in!
First, a couple of interviews: one with John C. Reilly (Mr. Crespley), the other with Josh Hutcherson (Steve). If you go to the source pages (at the end of each interview), you can also find a bunch of neato stills from the movie!
The interviews themselves might be a bit tl;dr so I underlined some of the more interesting tidbits (to me, anyway. Your mileage may vary of course).
John C. Reilly
Did you read the books before signing on to the movie?
I was a big Tolkien fan when I was a kid and know how important those [Lord of the Rings] screen adaptations were to me, so I wanted to read the books to get a sense of what the expectations of readers of these books are. I found them to be a great resource, and I really ended up getting into them. In terms of discovering the character, I have my own personal ideas I want to bring to it. Paul [Weitz, the director] also has his own ideas, so there's this great bridge we both have which is the books. It helps us move close to what's true in the books. I think young people will be really happy. Paul has gone through great lengths to make the movie very realistic in terms of what young people are going through during the teenage years. He doesn't shy away from the darker aspects of what the kids in the movie are attracted to. That's what brings them to the Cirque in the first place: they disobey their parents, sneak out, and meet these morally ambiguous people. That has been one of the great thrills in the movie for me to play somebody's mentor. My best friend is much older than me and I've had a really rich relationship with him over the years, and I recognize a lot of that in this character, that mentor-pupil relationship, and that's something Paul really thought was important to the film. A mentor will let you do things and make mistakes that a parent won't let you do. One of the coolest things Paul kept with this movie was that bad things can happen to characters. I like this conception of the vampire character that he's not immortal, but just ages more slowly. It's fantastic enough to be interesting and real enough to seem relatable.
Did you get to develop your character much from the book?
A lot of it was dictated by the book. He has a scar on his face and red hair and pointy nails. The most collaboration I had on the character was the costume. It was based on the idea if you were 220 years old, what would be your worldview? What would you wear and what matters to you?
Were you involved with casting Darren and Josh?
No, not at all. It takes a long time to find kids. Paul had already met Chris and Josh by the time we talked and he had a good feeling they were the guys he was going to go with.
What are your fight scenes like?
There are these fantastic elements. We're super strong and can leap from the floor of a theater to a balcony. We're very strong and have these razor sharp nails but if we get hit and fall on the ground, it hurts. Another character and I have this fight where we are like two birds battling in mid-air, scratching and clawing and all the things that are unique about us are what we highlight in this fight. The action in this movie is going to be really cool. You see the friendly, fantasy vibe, but are going to be shocked by the violence in the movie.
What inspires you with these scenes?
I went to a theatre school, so a lot of the improv classes we did everything had to be space objects so it feels like that to me. I can't wait to see everything in the movie completely filled in.
SOURCE
Josh Hutcherson
Tell us about your character, Steve.
Steve starts out being a troubled kid. His family life is pretty much non-existent. He's always getting his good friend Darren in trouble. He's the troublemaker in school and everybody knows that. He goes with Darren to this freak show and he sees a vampire and he decides he wants to become a vampire because all off his life he's been obsessed with vampires. He tries to become a vampire and gets turned down because his blood isn't good. The evil vampires, the Vampaneze, approach him and he's biting at the bit to become a vampire, any type of vampire he can. When he gets to be part of the Vampaneze, the darkness from inside him flows out.
Are you a fan of vampires?
I love vampire movies. One of my favorite movies is Lost Boys. Any kind of vampire stuff is definitely interesting.
What made you want to audition for the bad guy role?
I've always been the kind of Mr. Goody Two Shoes nice boy, so to do something a bit darker was cool for me.
How has filming Cirque du Freak been different than filming other movies you've made?
This by far has been the biggest production as far as craziest stuff going on, all the wardrobe and the makeup. When we went to the freak show, it was seriously watching a freak show. When I did movies where I had to react to crazy looking creatures, it was done with green screens, but this was there right in front of you.
What was your reaction when you saw Salma Hayek with a beard?
I've never seen a woman look good with a beard before. It was very odd. She still looked pretty.
Did you read all the books before signing on to the movie?
I don't really prefer one over the other. I hadn't read the books before the movie, but I read the scripts... My little brother has read all the books, so he's telling me the storyline for the next four movies (OP note: WAT).
Has he been on set to tell you what you're doing right and what you're doing wrong?
He hasn't done that yet. He has been on set and reading the books and seeing it in front of him has been mind-blowing.
Chris Massoglia is a relative newcomer to the biz. Did you give him any advice?
I never really needed to. He picked up everything right away and was very professional. There was really nothing for me to teach him.
Did you guys hang out a lot during filming?
Yeah, we did. He's a very friendly person, so we hit it off right away. We started talking about baseball and football and even hit the gym and played basketball.
Who are you BFF with back home?
My best friend back home is named Kiefer and he is very similar to Chris. They are both quiet, nice, and family-oriented.
Did you get to do any stunts yourself?
Towards the end of the movie, I had this huge fight scene and at that point I have super strength and I'm able to do this thing called flitting. It's like you can flash to different places around the room really quickly. It's a smaller version of the powers that Murlough's character has. In the fight scene, we freeze in mid-air, and we were on wires that were pulled forward before we fell three feet to the ground.
There are some really amazing people in the movie. Who else do you want to work with?
I want to work with Jake Gyllenhaal because he's one of my favorite actors. He does a wide variety of stuff. I want to model my career after his.
SOURCE
And whilst browsing the Tubes of You today, I found some kind of Universal Studios event with John C. Reilly, Josh Hutcherson & Chris Massoglia (Darren). It's kinda awkward but idk maybe someone here will enjoy it?
It's just under 10 1/2 minutes long, so
:
- Josh likes ladies with beards
- YEAH RATS
- OK for kids to watch, maybe
- John C. Reilly read all 12 of the books. Also gets easily distracted when someone mentions Brule's Rules lol
- Josh affirms that it's better than Twilight aw yiss
Sorry for the wall of text!
I saw a Cirque du Freak commercial on TV for the first time today :D It reminded me of some things that this community might be interested in!
First, a couple of interviews: one with John C. Reilly (Mr. Crespley), the other with Josh Hutcherson (Steve). If you go to the source pages (at the end of each interview), you can also find a bunch of neato stills from the movie!
The interviews themselves might be a bit tl;dr so I underlined some of the more interesting tidbits (to me, anyway. Your mileage may vary of course).
John C. Reilly
Did you read the books before signing on to the movie?
I was a big Tolkien fan when I was a kid and know how important those [Lord of the Rings] screen adaptations were to me, so I wanted to read the books to get a sense of what the expectations of readers of these books are. I found them to be a great resource, and I really ended up getting into them. In terms of discovering the character, I have my own personal ideas I want to bring to it. Paul [Weitz, the director] also has his own ideas, so there's this great bridge we both have which is the books. It helps us move close to what's true in the books. I think young people will be really happy. Paul has gone through great lengths to make the movie very realistic in terms of what young people are going through during the teenage years. He doesn't shy away from the darker aspects of what the kids in the movie are attracted to. That's what brings them to the Cirque in the first place: they disobey their parents, sneak out, and meet these morally ambiguous people. That has been one of the great thrills in the movie for me to play somebody's mentor. My best friend is much older than me and I've had a really rich relationship with him over the years, and I recognize a lot of that in this character, that mentor-pupil relationship, and that's something Paul really thought was important to the film. A mentor will let you do things and make mistakes that a parent won't let you do. One of the coolest things Paul kept with this movie was that bad things can happen to characters. I like this conception of the vampire character that he's not immortal, but just ages more slowly. It's fantastic enough to be interesting and real enough to seem relatable.
Did you get to develop your character much from the book?
A lot of it was dictated by the book. He has a scar on his face and red hair and pointy nails. The most collaboration I had on the character was the costume. It was based on the idea if you were 220 years old, what would be your worldview? What would you wear and what matters to you?
Were you involved with casting Darren and Josh?
No, not at all. It takes a long time to find kids. Paul had already met Chris and Josh by the time we talked and he had a good feeling they were the guys he was going to go with.
What are your fight scenes like?
There are these fantastic elements. We're super strong and can leap from the floor of a theater to a balcony. We're very strong and have these razor sharp nails but if we get hit and fall on the ground, it hurts. Another character and I have this fight where we are like two birds battling in mid-air, scratching and clawing and all the things that are unique about us are what we highlight in this fight. The action in this movie is going to be really cool. You see the friendly, fantasy vibe, but are going to be shocked by the violence in the movie.
What inspires you with these scenes?
I went to a theatre school, so a lot of the improv classes we did everything had to be space objects so it feels like that to me. I can't wait to see everything in the movie completely filled in.
SOURCE
Josh Hutcherson
Tell us about your character, Steve.
Steve starts out being a troubled kid. His family life is pretty much non-existent. He's always getting his good friend Darren in trouble. He's the troublemaker in school and everybody knows that. He goes with Darren to this freak show and he sees a vampire and he decides he wants to become a vampire because all off his life he's been obsessed with vampires. He tries to become a vampire and gets turned down because his blood isn't good. The evil vampires, the Vampaneze, approach him and he's biting at the bit to become a vampire, any type of vampire he can. When he gets to be part of the Vampaneze, the darkness from inside him flows out.
Are you a fan of vampires?
I love vampire movies. One of my favorite movies is Lost Boys. Any kind of vampire stuff is definitely interesting.
What made you want to audition for the bad guy role?
I've always been the kind of Mr. Goody Two Shoes nice boy, so to do something a bit darker was cool for me.
How has filming Cirque du Freak been different than filming other movies you've made?
This by far has been the biggest production as far as craziest stuff going on, all the wardrobe and the makeup. When we went to the freak show, it was seriously watching a freak show. When I did movies where I had to react to crazy looking creatures, it was done with green screens, but this was there right in front of you.
What was your reaction when you saw Salma Hayek with a beard?
I've never seen a woman look good with a beard before. It was very odd. She still looked pretty.
Did you read all the books before signing on to the movie?
I don't really prefer one over the other. I hadn't read the books before the movie, but I read the scripts... My little brother has read all the books, so he's telling me the storyline for the next four movies (OP note: WAT).
Has he been on set to tell you what you're doing right and what you're doing wrong?
He hasn't done that yet. He has been on set and reading the books and seeing it in front of him has been mind-blowing.
Chris Massoglia is a relative newcomer to the biz. Did you give him any advice?
I never really needed to. He picked up everything right away and was very professional. There was really nothing for me to teach him.
Did you guys hang out a lot during filming?
Yeah, we did. He's a very friendly person, so we hit it off right away. We started talking about baseball and football and even hit the gym and played basketball.
Who are you BFF with back home?
My best friend back home is named Kiefer and he is very similar to Chris. They are both quiet, nice, and family-oriented.
Did you get to do any stunts yourself?
Towards the end of the movie, I had this huge fight scene and at that point I have super strength and I'm able to do this thing called flitting. It's like you can flash to different places around the room really quickly. It's a smaller version of the powers that Murlough's character has. In the fight scene, we freeze in mid-air, and we were on wires that were pulled forward before we fell three feet to the ground.
There are some really amazing people in the movie. Who else do you want to work with?
I want to work with Jake Gyllenhaal because he's one of my favorite actors. He does a wide variety of stuff. I want to model my career after his.
SOURCE
And whilst browsing the Tubes of You today, I found some kind of Universal Studios event with John C. Reilly, Josh Hutcherson & Chris Massoglia (Darren). It's kinda awkward but idk maybe someone here will enjoy it?
Click to viewIt's just under 10 1/2 minutes long, so
:
- Josh likes ladies with beards
- YEAH RATS
- OK for kids to watch, maybe
- John C. Reilly read all 12 of the books. Also gets easily distracted when someone mentions Brule's Rules lol
- Josh affirms that it's better than Twilight aw yiss
Sorry for the wall of text!