Q: Congratulations, te had a pretty big weekend last weekend. [He got married]
A wonderful weekend, thank you. It was phenomenal, the best giorno of my life.
Q: How did te get involved with this – did te audition o did they come to te and say, ‘You’re our hero?’
Joel came to me and said, ‘You’ve been doing such a great job with everything else, I’d really Amore to have te as a part of this film.’ I always thought in the back of my head, can I do a horror, and I thought, ‘Hell, man, I can’t wait to give it a shot.’ And it was fun; it was a great time.
Q: Do te like horror films?
I do, particular horror films, I like Night of the Living Dead, the original, the ’50s version of Vincent Price’s House of Wax, I Amore those types of films.
Q: This is very different from Vincent Price’s House of Wax.
Oh, completely different. We took liberties. We contemporized it just a bit, but it’s fun, te can go in and sit down and get a few scares and then go home.
Q: What’s it like when te get that call from Joel Silver? That’s a pretty big phone call to get.
It was an honor, how else do te say it, it was such an honor. Joel has just done so much for this business: Matrix, Die Hard, Lethal Weapon, that to have the opportunity to sit back and learn from him was a gift that I couldn’t turn down, te know what I mean? It was such a blessing. So I was obviously a little nervous, which I don’t really get nervous, but when you’re sitting down and you’re like, ‘Dude, that’s Joel Silver,’ it stresses te out a bit.
Q: What did te draw from to play the evil twin, do te have any sibling stories?
No. I have a very, very large family, I’ve three o four brothers and a sister – well, I have a half brother and I have a sister, so I really understood the relationships that I have, and I bonded with my siblings. Elisha and I didn’t really have much time to bond, but the time that we could find we made it work, and it was exciting. I think everyone has kind of wanted a twin at some point.
Q: So what did te and Elisha find that te had in common?
Well, we look very similar. She could easily be my sister. But I think just our dedication to film, and working on professionalism and growth as an actor, is really where we ended up finding our bond. We really take our craft seriously.
Q: Was it as physical a shoot as it looked?
Yeah, it was definitely physically enduring. Just with the wax, it’s not as easy to sposta around in the crap as it looks. We had to shoot this one scene in a arachide, arachidi burro bed, it looks like a arachide, arachidi burro bed, when I’m wrestling around with one of the villains, and the first time we shot it, I guess the consistency was not as stable as it should have been, we sunk right down to the bottom, and the letto fell apart, and we were sprawling out, and in order to get out it took two o three guys to actually pull te out of the bed. te could not get out on your own. So it was definitely physical.
Q: Was that something that te anticipated from the moment te signed on?
When I read the script I thought to myself, ‘How the hell are we going to pull this off?’ And then I went, ‘Well, Joel will do it, Joel’s the man.’ And we did it.
Q: What did te think of your other female co-star, Paris Hilton?
She impressed us all, she really did. She’s a sweetheart. Her and my wife, I can say now, get along well, and I think she just made everybody in the cast comfortable with her.
Q: Had te socialized with her before?
No, we just met in rehearsal.
Q: With the grisly side of the movie, did te guys screw around on the set?
Jared and I have known each other for a few years, we did the first season of Gilmore Girls together, so we’ve been best Friends for quite awhile, so we actually roomed together in Australia and that was a riot. We’d sit up to all hours at night playing videogames and having a drink o two, and just beating the shit out of each other. That’s what I did in my off-time, but when I go to work, especially on a film, I try to really separate myself from all that, unless it’s really not an emotional scene o really physical, I tend to want to just stay to myself, put my i-pod in and just do my work.
Q: And when you’re finished for the giorno is it easy to walk away from something that’s so gruesome?
Yeah, I didn’t go home and have nightmares, because I’m there, and I go, ‘Hey, it’s not real.’ Elisha’s still got her finger. But I think that especially in this business te definitely take your work home with you. te never really get to go home and forget about it, because te go home and te start working for the successivo day. te want to make sure that everything’s prepared, and te go home and take your phone calls, and everything else for business to come, and I think it’s the one thing that te can’t go home and just forget about it.
Q: Have te had a chance to see the movie?
Yeah.
Q: When you’re watching it, and they put in the all the special effects and the sound, can te just enjoy it as a movie?
I think the first time te see it it’s going to be one of those where you’re like so critical of yourself. You’re your own worst critic, so te watch every little thing, and te walk away and te go, ‘You know, I’m happy with what I accomplished for the picture,’ And then the secondo time te can watch it più as a viewer, più as an outsider. But, dude, I’ll be the first to admit, I jumped a couple of times.
Q: What bits did te jump at?
I jumped at the campsite when Elisha leaves the tent, I don’t want to give too much away. And I jumped when Paris was in her tent, after the little striptease, which everyone’s going to want to hear about anyway. And I jumped there, at the climax of that point. I was like, ‘God, it got me.’
Q: Speaking of climax, the end was pretty spectacular – how hard was that to shoot?
Oh, god. Without giving it away – it was incredibly grueling, and te went home every giorno and all te wanted was a shower, because te had wax everywhere. I’m not trying to be gruesome here o anything like that, but my God it sticks to your hair, and you’re pulling crap out, it’s horrible. But I think te just look inoltrare, avanti to getting home and getting in the bathtub.
Q: So they really used wax?
They used a lot of real wax, they used a lot of compounds that they put together for the slippery wax, because te really don’t want to be sliding around in hot, melting wax, that’s really not a great idea. But the floors, the entire set was made of wax, because they did use a lot of wax.
Q: te had your hair short, so te got off easy.
I loved it. To go to work, I was ready in five minuti and I was ready to go. It tends to be a summer tradition for me, to shave it off, but I’m not doing it this summer because I’ve got projects upcoming.
Q: What projects?
I’m doing Stealing Cars with Warner’s again, my home. So that’s going to be one hell of a piece for myself.
Q: Do te see doing something like this as a career move?
I do, and the reason that I can say that is because te can sit back and watch One albero collina and this, and te won’t see an ounce of Lucas in this project. There’s not an ounce of Lucas in Nick, and I think that’s just a little bit of what I wanted to show, it’s not necessarily Good Will Hunting o Taxi Driver, but it’s an opportunity that I had to create another character with mystique and mostra that to the world, and age up a little bit and mostra another audience what I have to offer.
Q: Are Good Will Hunting and Taxi Driver the kind of Film te want to do?
Those are the kind of films I really appreciate when I go to watch. I really Amore films that I sit back and for two weeks after I’m still thinking about it.
Q: What was your experience with the director?
Jaume is awesome. Jaume was such a badass, he had a Mohawk the whole shoot, and da the end of the project his beard was down to like here, he just didn’t have time to shave. He was such a great guy, I really enjoyed him. He’s just got such a great personality. We created a real bond.
Q: Did te bring home anything from the set, did te steal any wax props?
I wish I could have. No, I have nothing. [looking around at the wax figures on the soundstage] They have to be here for the successivo three days, but if one goes missing, they’ll never know, right?
Q: Is there anything else in the can at this point?
Just this and the rest of albero Hill. I’m shooting One albero collina like ten months out the year, and so I have a very, very small window – we’re supposed to go back July 13th and I’m shooting a film right in the middle and then promoting this and getting out there so people will check it out, and I think that’s a pretty busy summer.
Q: What would te like to see happen with the character successivo season?
I don’t really get involved in that, that’s not my place, I let the writers take care of that, they’ve done a pretty good job so far obviously, and I just go and do it. They give it to me, and some things really spark my interest, and others I’m just kind of like, ‘Dude, I’m going to go knock it out.’
Q: How much do te think about your audience, te did Cenerentola Story for a much younger audience and now this R rated horror movie. Are the Cenerentola Story fan going to come to this?
I hope so, with their parents. Here’s the thing, I think especially with the MTV mostra we’ve got, I think it definitely portrays to those young adults who might not be able to distinguish the difference between a movie and real life, te get to see the whole process, behind the scenes of making this film, so I think they can differentiate between the film and what’s really going on with us, and so I think it’s a great opportunity for the young adults to be able to get an opportunity to go see a rated R movie with their parents, because they’ve seen the creation, they are a little bit più attached to it.
Q: How did te deal with being so far away from home?
Oh, it sucked. It sucked, I’ll be honest. I like Australia, I really did, but I wish I had a little bit più time to travel, loved their mirtillo rosso succo, succo di frutta and their food, but I think to be honest, te just miss American television, and te miss your things, I missed my dog, I got Aussie [another dog] over there, which was awesome, but my first born child, Joe, my first born son, he’s my dog Joe, I was away from him and I was away from Soph and I was away from everything back home, so I think that’s hard, especially for three and a half months when te do not get an opportunity to leave.
Q: Did people come to see te at least?
Yeah, I had a few visitors that came out, but my family didn’t get to make the voyage, they were too busy, they were working their asses off as they should, Soph came on a few times, so it was nice.
Q: Was it shot in Australia just because of the money?
Not my territory. They said, ‘Hey, you’re going to Australia,’ I said, ‘Dude, rock and roll,’ I always wanted to go.
Q: Have te ever gone on a camping trip and did anything memorable happen to you?
Oh, god. I Amore camping trips, I go on camping trips all the time. Me and my boys go up to Sequoia, I believe that’s in northern California, I never drive, I fall asleep. I just Amore sitting da the campfire and leaving Cibo out for the bears to come and attack. But one time me and my boy went up to go get some hotdogs from the stand that they had, there’s like a Christian camp that runs up there, but they serve Cibo and I was sick of eating our fish, and I went up there to grab a hotdog and I’m standing there and I’m talking to my boy, and he’s looking right here, and he’s in the middle of a conversation, like, ‘Hey, so te want to go back to there’s a big orso right behind te do not move.’ And his eyes are open wide, and I’m like, ‘Dude,’ and I turned around and there’s a big brown bear, not più that 10 feet behind me, knocks over a trash can, so that was memorable. But I survived, some asshole decided to throw a board at it, and I’m thinking, ‘That’s brilliant. Piss it off.’ And the orso walked away and took the garbage can with it.
A wonderful weekend, thank you. It was phenomenal, the best giorno of my life.
Q: How did te get involved with this – did te audition o did they come to te and say, ‘You’re our hero?’
Joel came to me and said, ‘You’ve been doing such a great job with everything else, I’d really Amore to have te as a part of this film.’ I always thought in the back of my head, can I do a horror, and I thought, ‘Hell, man, I can’t wait to give it a shot.’ And it was fun; it was a great time.
Q: Do te like horror films?
I do, particular horror films, I like Night of the Living Dead, the original, the ’50s version of Vincent Price’s House of Wax, I Amore those types of films.
Q: This is very different from Vincent Price’s House of Wax.
Oh, completely different. We took liberties. We contemporized it just a bit, but it’s fun, te can go in and sit down and get a few scares and then go home.
Q: What’s it like when te get that call from Joel Silver? That’s a pretty big phone call to get.
It was an honor, how else do te say it, it was such an honor. Joel has just done so much for this business: Matrix, Die Hard, Lethal Weapon, that to have the opportunity to sit back and learn from him was a gift that I couldn’t turn down, te know what I mean? It was such a blessing. So I was obviously a little nervous, which I don’t really get nervous, but when you’re sitting down and you’re like, ‘Dude, that’s Joel Silver,’ it stresses te out a bit.
Q: What did te draw from to play the evil twin, do te have any sibling stories?
No. I have a very, very large family, I’ve three o four brothers and a sister – well, I have a half brother and I have a sister, so I really understood the relationships that I have, and I bonded with my siblings. Elisha and I didn’t really have much time to bond, but the time that we could find we made it work, and it was exciting. I think everyone has kind of wanted a twin at some point.
Q: So what did te and Elisha find that te had in common?
Well, we look very similar. She could easily be my sister. But I think just our dedication to film, and working on professionalism and growth as an actor, is really where we ended up finding our bond. We really take our craft seriously.
Q: Was it as physical a shoot as it looked?
Yeah, it was definitely physically enduring. Just with the wax, it’s not as easy to sposta around in the crap as it looks. We had to shoot this one scene in a arachide, arachidi burro bed, it looks like a arachide, arachidi burro bed, when I’m wrestling around with one of the villains, and the first time we shot it, I guess the consistency was not as stable as it should have been, we sunk right down to the bottom, and the letto fell apart, and we were sprawling out, and in order to get out it took two o three guys to actually pull te out of the bed. te could not get out on your own. So it was definitely physical.
Q: Was that something that te anticipated from the moment te signed on?
When I read the script I thought to myself, ‘How the hell are we going to pull this off?’ And then I went, ‘Well, Joel will do it, Joel’s the man.’ And we did it.
Q: What did te think of your other female co-star, Paris Hilton?
She impressed us all, she really did. She’s a sweetheart. Her and my wife, I can say now, get along well, and I think she just made everybody in the cast comfortable with her.
Q: Had te socialized with her before?
No, we just met in rehearsal.
Q: With the grisly side of the movie, did te guys screw around on the set?
Jared and I have known each other for a few years, we did the first season of Gilmore Girls together, so we’ve been best Friends for quite awhile, so we actually roomed together in Australia and that was a riot. We’d sit up to all hours at night playing videogames and having a drink o two, and just beating the shit out of each other. That’s what I did in my off-time, but when I go to work, especially on a film, I try to really separate myself from all that, unless it’s really not an emotional scene o really physical, I tend to want to just stay to myself, put my i-pod in and just do my work.
Q: And when you’re finished for the giorno is it easy to walk away from something that’s so gruesome?
Yeah, I didn’t go home and have nightmares, because I’m there, and I go, ‘Hey, it’s not real.’ Elisha’s still got her finger. But I think that especially in this business te definitely take your work home with you. te never really get to go home and forget about it, because te go home and te start working for the successivo day. te want to make sure that everything’s prepared, and te go home and take your phone calls, and everything else for business to come, and I think it’s the one thing that te can’t go home and just forget about it.
Q: Have te had a chance to see the movie?
Yeah.
Q: When you’re watching it, and they put in the all the special effects and the sound, can te just enjoy it as a movie?
I think the first time te see it it’s going to be one of those where you’re like so critical of yourself. You’re your own worst critic, so te watch every little thing, and te walk away and te go, ‘You know, I’m happy with what I accomplished for the picture,’ And then the secondo time te can watch it più as a viewer, più as an outsider. But, dude, I’ll be the first to admit, I jumped a couple of times.
Q: What bits did te jump at?
I jumped at the campsite when Elisha leaves the tent, I don’t want to give too much away. And I jumped when Paris was in her tent, after the little striptease, which everyone’s going to want to hear about anyway. And I jumped there, at the climax of that point. I was like, ‘God, it got me.’
Q: Speaking of climax, the end was pretty spectacular – how hard was that to shoot?
Oh, god. Without giving it away – it was incredibly grueling, and te went home every giorno and all te wanted was a shower, because te had wax everywhere. I’m not trying to be gruesome here o anything like that, but my God it sticks to your hair, and you’re pulling crap out, it’s horrible. But I think te just look inoltrare, avanti to getting home and getting in the bathtub.
Q: So they really used wax?
They used a lot of real wax, they used a lot of compounds that they put together for the slippery wax, because te really don’t want to be sliding around in hot, melting wax, that’s really not a great idea. But the floors, the entire set was made of wax, because they did use a lot of wax.
Q: te had your hair short, so te got off easy.
I loved it. To go to work, I was ready in five minuti and I was ready to go. It tends to be a summer tradition for me, to shave it off, but I’m not doing it this summer because I’ve got projects upcoming.
Q: What projects?
I’m doing Stealing Cars with Warner’s again, my home. So that’s going to be one hell of a piece for myself.
Q: Do te see doing something like this as a career move?
I do, and the reason that I can say that is because te can sit back and watch One albero collina and this, and te won’t see an ounce of Lucas in this project. There’s not an ounce of Lucas in Nick, and I think that’s just a little bit of what I wanted to show, it’s not necessarily Good Will Hunting o Taxi Driver, but it’s an opportunity that I had to create another character with mystique and mostra that to the world, and age up a little bit and mostra another audience what I have to offer.
Q: Are Good Will Hunting and Taxi Driver the kind of Film te want to do?
Those are the kind of films I really appreciate when I go to watch. I really Amore films that I sit back and for two weeks after I’m still thinking about it.
Q: What was your experience with the director?
Jaume is awesome. Jaume was such a badass, he had a Mohawk the whole shoot, and da the end of the project his beard was down to like here, he just didn’t have time to shave. He was such a great guy, I really enjoyed him. He’s just got such a great personality. We created a real bond.
Q: Did te bring home anything from the set, did te steal any wax props?
I wish I could have. No, I have nothing. [looking around at the wax figures on the soundstage] They have to be here for the successivo three days, but if one goes missing, they’ll never know, right?
Q: Is there anything else in the can at this point?
Just this and the rest of albero Hill. I’m shooting One albero collina like ten months out the year, and so I have a very, very small window – we’re supposed to go back July 13th and I’m shooting a film right in the middle and then promoting this and getting out there so people will check it out, and I think that’s a pretty busy summer.
Q: What would te like to see happen with the character successivo season?
I don’t really get involved in that, that’s not my place, I let the writers take care of that, they’ve done a pretty good job so far obviously, and I just go and do it. They give it to me, and some things really spark my interest, and others I’m just kind of like, ‘Dude, I’m going to go knock it out.’
Q: How much do te think about your audience, te did Cenerentola Story for a much younger audience and now this R rated horror movie. Are the Cenerentola Story fan going to come to this?
I hope so, with their parents. Here’s the thing, I think especially with the MTV mostra we’ve got, I think it definitely portrays to those young adults who might not be able to distinguish the difference between a movie and real life, te get to see the whole process, behind the scenes of making this film, so I think they can differentiate between the film and what’s really going on with us, and so I think it’s a great opportunity for the young adults to be able to get an opportunity to go see a rated R movie with their parents, because they’ve seen the creation, they are a little bit più attached to it.
Q: How did te deal with being so far away from home?
Oh, it sucked. It sucked, I’ll be honest. I like Australia, I really did, but I wish I had a little bit più time to travel, loved their mirtillo rosso succo, succo di frutta and their food, but I think to be honest, te just miss American television, and te miss your things, I missed my dog, I got Aussie [another dog] over there, which was awesome, but my first born child, Joe, my first born son, he’s my dog Joe, I was away from him and I was away from Soph and I was away from everything back home, so I think that’s hard, especially for three and a half months when te do not get an opportunity to leave.
Q: Did people come to see te at least?
Yeah, I had a few visitors that came out, but my family didn’t get to make the voyage, they were too busy, they were working their asses off as they should, Soph came on a few times, so it was nice.
Q: Was it shot in Australia just because of the money?
Not my territory. They said, ‘Hey, you’re going to Australia,’ I said, ‘Dude, rock and roll,’ I always wanted to go.
Q: Have te ever gone on a camping trip and did anything memorable happen to you?
Oh, god. I Amore camping trips, I go on camping trips all the time. Me and my boys go up to Sequoia, I believe that’s in northern California, I never drive, I fall asleep. I just Amore sitting da the campfire and leaving Cibo out for the bears to come and attack. But one time me and my boy went up to go get some hotdogs from the stand that they had, there’s like a Christian camp that runs up there, but they serve Cibo and I was sick of eating our fish, and I went up there to grab a hotdog and I’m standing there and I’m talking to my boy, and he’s looking right here, and he’s in the middle of a conversation, like, ‘Hey, so te want to go back to there’s a big orso right behind te do not move.’ And his eyes are open wide, and I’m like, ‘Dude,’ and I turned around and there’s a big brown bear, not più that 10 feet behind me, knocks over a trash can, so that was memorable. But I survived, some asshole decided to throw a board at it, and I’m thinking, ‘That’s brilliant. Piss it off.’ And the orso walked away and took the garbage can with it.
