AnnaSophia Robb is only 15-years-old and has been acting a few years now, but the young actress has been impressing audiences with her solid skills ever since she burst onto the scene. She not only received high praises for her performance in Bridge to Terabithia, but she recorded a song for the soundtrack. You can see Robb next in Race to Witch Mountain, in which she co-stars with the very animated and spirited newcomer, Alexander Ludwig.
ComingSoon.net talked to the two teenagers on the soundstages at Disney Studios about their latest film.
Q: What about this project got you so excited? What made you want to be in it?
AnnaSophia Robb: Well, Andy Fickman pitched it to me, the director of this film, and I was just so excited. He got everybody on the set just all excited about it because he has such great enthusiasm and when he starts to work on a project, he will put pictures and ideas of movies and character and stuff that he wants to pull from all over his office walls, and it was just, it just got me so excited because I started to understand his vision and it’s such a classic story and I just wanted to be a part of his work.
Q: Did you know the original film?
Robb: I hadn’t seen the film, but Andy sent the DVDs over to me and I watched them.
Alexander Ludwig: The original used to be one of my favorite movies of all time, because my parents used to love those movies so I was brought up with them. I think it’s such an honor to be able to do these movies with Andy Fickman. And you know, Kim Richards and Ike [Eisenman] are doing cameo appearances on this movie, who did the original “Escape to Witch Mountain,” so it’s such an honor to be able to work with them and it’s just unbelievable, I’m having the best time ever.
Q: We heard that you wanted to do a lot of your own stunts?
Ludwig: Yes, I have. When I was doing a movie called “The Seeker,” I was fortunate enough to be able to do a lot of my own stunts. And here of course, I’m a minor and we’re in California, so the laws are really strict and I’m totally cool with that, and the stunts are still going to be ridiculously cool and we have great stunt guys so it’s going to be really awesome.
Q: What’s it like working with Dwayne Johnson?
Robb: Dwayne’s amazing. He’s so professional and he’s so much fun and we have a great time on-set just joking around. And he’s great because if we want to run lines, our lines are kind of awkward because we’re alien, so they’re all confusing. So he’ll always run lines with us whenever we want to before takes, and we’re always joking around, and he’s always there if you need anything, you know, as acting off camera or whatever.
Ludwig: He’s always up for it, he’s such a great guy. My dad always brought me up and he always used to say that the three most important things in life are integrity, credibility, and honor, and Dwayne has all of that and more, and he’s such a great guy. He’s always up for it, he’s always there to help you out. If you want to run lines with him, like AnnaSophia said, he’s up for it. He’ll give you notes on it, we’ll work together, we’ll make it, really great chemistry together and he’s just, he always keeps his promises and he’s one of the best guys I’ve ever met. He’s not infected by that, you know, movie star stuff that everyone else is in Hollywood, and it’s so cool. ‘Cause I think so many people look up to him, and he’s one of the best role models I think anyone could have. He’s such a great guy.
Q: In the film you’re not talking like normal kids like you are right now.
Ludwig: No.
Q: Could you give us an example, like how you talk?
Ludwig: We say a lot of big words in this movie.
Robb: Yeah, lots of big words.
Ludwig: I think it’s really interesting, ’cause for us to be able to play that character, or for me, I think it’s amazing because it’s nothing like we normally talk or who we normally are, so it’s crazy to get into a different mindset and you get to be totally creative and create your own characters and do your own stuff. Yeah sometimes it’s really hard to pronounce and you have to go over it and over it again so you can get it right, but it’s really interesting, it’s really cool.
Q: Are they real words or are they like made up big words?
Robb: They’re real. Andy is very adamant about using all scientific theories.
Ludwig: That make sense.
Robb: Yeah, that make sense, that play into the story.
Ludwig: And it really helps sell the movie, too, because you need to have stuff like that. But what we’d have to do is search it online, realize what it means to actually be able to sell it. And the good thing about it is it doesn’t become cheesy, it actually becomes interesting and cool. And when you have someone like Carla Gugino on the set, who’s really interested with this stuff, it all becomes this awesome… We all get together and it’s really great.
Q: So what’s a word that you would have to use?
Ludwig: A line in the movie that I’ve been practicing, when I was doing the audition as well, where I say ‘the paradoxical concept of traveling beyond the speed of known light through a passage in the unbounded three dimensional transverse using quantum acceleration–quantum accelerated renumeration of the space-time continuum, connecting two separate parts of two opposite solar systems, truly makes for a better journey’ or something like that.
Q: You lost me like twenty words ago.
Ludwig: I got lost way before you. So yeah.
Q: What’s been the most fun to shoot so far?
Robb: Well, this is a really exciting set because there’s just a bunch of plants and lights and goofy stuff, and there’s, today there’s going to be a lot of stunts and stunts are always a lot of fun to watch and just very exciting.
Ludwig: And this is a big turning point in the movie, as well, because this is where we first realize that well, this is where our parents’ lab is. So we come down from this cabin in the middle of nowhere. Jack Bruno–Dwayne–is freaking out, he doesn’t know where he is, and it’s really cool. There’s a really great chase scene that we’re going to do in this set, and make it look a hundred times bigger, and we’ve got this assassin sent from our planet that’s coming to take us out, and this really intense scene. So this is a really great set for us.
Q: So Andy has already told us how into UFOs he is and his beliefs in that whole area. How about you guys, what do you think?
Robb: I’m not sure. I think it would be, I don’t think it would be wise to say there isn’t anything out there. I’m not sure. I’m still waiting for something.
Ludwig: I think the universe is just so big that there has to be something else out there. Andy showed us a bunch of documentaries and stuff, just to get us in the mode, you know what I mean? And he fills his office with and surrounds himself with–have you guys seen his office?
Q: No.
Ludwig: Oh, it’s amazing, it’s like a 12year-old boy just exploded in there. He literally dresses his whole office with like UFOs and everything, it’s incredible. And it really gets you in the moment. And I totally think there’s gotta be something else out there. I mean, it’s such a big universe, definitely. Or I hope so. It would be really cool.
Q: Are you guys in costume?
Ludwig: We are in costume.
Q: You wear these for the entire movie?
Robb: Yes, we…
Ludwig: We steal these from two kids.
Robb: We borrow them. Genevieve, our designer, is great. They’re comfortable but they look tough and they’re kind of different but they look normal. And later on in the story we change into these, like techno…
Ludwig: Oh yeah. German pop singer…
Robb: Pop singer costumes.
Ludwig: They’re definitely cool. They do experiments on us inside a layer when Ciaran Hinds, the bad guy, captures us. It’s a really cool scene. And we’re in these completely white suits, wearing shackles, on this table, and they’re doing experiments on us and it’s really cool. This and that is the other wardrobe that we wear throughout the movie.
