411 Movies Interview: Josh Hutcherson of Bridge to Terabithia Posted by Tony Farinella on 06.19.2007
411's Tony Farinella sits down with one of the stars of Bridge to Terabithia.
TONY: I've read a couple of interviews where you have said that you had to convince the producers to hire you. Why did you have to convince them?
JOSH: At first, I think they had a different person in mind for the character. They weren't really seeing me as Jess. I had to work hard with the director and the producers to kind of form Jess to the way they wanted him to be. That way they could see that I could play Jess, and they would hire me.
TONY: What aspects of the Jess character did you relate to the most?
JOSH: When I first stated acting, I got bullied by some people because I went to a public school back home. For the first two years of my acting career, I was going to the same exact school that I went to my entire life. For some reason, all the kids that used to be my best friends were now being mean to me. They were just being real jerks to me, and I didn't understand it. I think Jess and I had that same thing in common. Because we were doing something different, we were being made fun of for it.
TONY: What was it like working with AnnaSophia Robb? Does it make you more comfortable to work with someone around your own age?
JOSH: It's really great. In this business, you get stuck being the only kid on set in a lot of movies. It's nice when you have someone around your own age. We hit it off right away and became great friends. It wasn't hard to fake our friendship in the movie.
TONY: As an actor, is it hard to work in front of a green screen?
JOSH: There are times where you have to completely use your imagination. There's this green screen behind you, and we had to pretend that we were being chased by this giant troll. It's like: "Okay. I have to pretend like I'm terrified of this green screen with a pink dot on it and it's supposed to be a giant troll." It's kind of hard sometimes as an actor to use your imagination every day on set. You just have to stretch your imagination a little bit farther. Instead of having to pretend you're a different person, you have to pretend you're a different person in an imaginary environment as well.
TONY: Did you like to use your imagination when you were younger?
JOSH: Oh, yeah! As a kid when I was a little younger, I always used my imagination. I had imaginary friends when I was growing up. I've always used my imagination. I think that helped me out a lot with some of the green screen stuff. I still do every day as an actor.
TONY: How faithful do you think the movie was to the book?
JOSH: It's shocking how similar they are. It's crazy, because a lot of times writers don't want to hand over their book. They know that the movie will go and change everything and sometimes make it worse. In our case, the only thing we really added was some of the visual effects in Terabithia. In the book, they leave it up to the reader to use their own imagination. As a viewer in a movie, you have to visually see it. They had to add in some of the creatures and whatnot. The director, Gabor Csupo, actually did all the drawings for the characters.
TONY: What's your most vivid memory from shooting Bridge to Terabithia?
JOSH: For me, it was the beaches in New Zealand. That was amazing. We were living on the beach! Every single day after work, you could just come home and go swimming and hang out in the sand. The beaches there were the best.
TONY: How do you handle Hollywood at such a young age?
JOSH: I still live in Kentucky. I was born and raised in Kentucky, and I still live there. I think that's the best thing for me to kind of keep a level head. When I go back home, I have a completely normal life. I have my friends, I'm on a basketball team, I go to the mall, and we just do normal kid things. It's kind of nice to kind of escape the whole movie world and just become a normal kid again.
TONY: You have worked with so many great actors at such a young age in a variety of films. What's the best acting advice you've ever received?
JOSH: I've learned a lot throughout the years that I've worked with all these great actors and everything. One of the biggest things I've learned on every shoot is patience. It takes so much patience to be an actor. There will be days when you'll come in at 6 in the morning, and you'll sit around all day long and maybe only do one shot. You just have to bear with them. You just have to keep your head on straight during that time. You can't get lazy or tired. You have to really make sure that you stay in character, even when you have those long days.
TONY: You have worked with a lot of funny actors like Will Ferrell and Robin Williams in your career. Who's the funniest actor you've ever worked with?
JOSH: That is a hard question! I get asked that question a lot. People always ask me: "Who's funnier? Robin Williams or Will Ferrell?" They were both so hilarious. Robin Williams was so quick. That's what shocked me. His wittiness was off the charts. I couldn't believe how up-to-date his comedy was. He was on 24-7. With Will, he was absolutely hilarious. That being said, when the camera stopped rolling, he was just cool and mellow and a really cool guy to hang out and talk with. With Robin, he was on all the time. There were days where we didn't get everything done because of how funny he was and how much he was making the crew laugh.
TONY: I've read on your website that you're dealing with a lot of identity problems on the Internet. How much does that bother you?
JOSH: It's weird. I don't know if it bothers me that much, but it's kind of odd. It's like: "Why would they want to pretend to be me?" I have a hard enough time being myself, so why would somebody want to try and pretend to be me? I don't go on myspace anymore. I used to have a myspace, but it got too crazy. I had to stop it. I never got to talk to my friends on there, because I had too many fans that were trying to talk to me. I deleted my myspace. On my official website, it lists that I don't have a myspace. Those people who see that there's a Josh Hutcherson myspace, they know that it's not real. I don't even have one.
TONY: What's surprised you the most about Hollywood?
JOSH: It's not all glamour. I learned that right away. I thought getting into acting would be a breeze and nice and easy. I thought: "How hard could it be?" I've done 11 movies now, and I've learned that every single character has different challenges. On set, it's not all fun and games. I have to do school and work long hours on set as well. All that stuff kind of combines together. It's not as easy as it seems. That was the biggest shocker to me.
TONY: How important are your fans to you?
JOSH: They mean the world to me. Without the fans, I wouldn't have a job. When people hire you for a movie, they want to hire you because you're going to bring an audience to their film. If I didn't have people out there who enjoyed watching me as an actor, I wouldn't get hired. Nobody would want to see the movie!
TONY: What kind of work do you want to seek out in the future?
JOSH: I'm not really sure yet. I'm going to kind of take the ride and see how it goes. I'm open to doing all sorts of things. I love doing comedies and dramas. Anything that comes my way, I'm open to it. If it's a good script and everything's right, I'll pursue it.
TONY: Who do you hang out with in Hollywood?
JOSH: Since I don't live in California, I don't have that many famous friends. AnnaSophia Robb is probably one of my best friends that's a celebrity. Other than that, I talk to Cheryl Hines, who played my mom in RV. I talk to JoJo a little bit as well. I talk to Dax Shepard from Zathura from time-to-time. Other than that, I pretty much just talk to my friends back home in Kentucky.
TONY: What was the transition like from Kentucky to California?
JOSH: First of all, I've wanted to be an actor since I was really little. When I was four-years-old, I was bugging my parents to let me be an actor. Finally, when I was nine, they finally let me go to a local agency in Cincinnati. I actually found it in the yellow pages. We live in Kentucky, but it's a suburb of Cincinnati. It's about fifteen minutes south. I went to a local agency there, and I did some local stuff. I met an acting coach from New York, and he said we should go to California. It took a lot of will and a lot of guts, but me and my mom went there. It really took off from there.
TONY: How hard is it to maintain a relationship with everything you have going on in your life?
JOSH: It's hard, but I don't really worry about it too much. I'm all about having fun right now. I'm not trying to do anything too serious. I'm just about having fun. It's cool, because I have someone to keep in touch with and hang out with when I come home. It's a good thing for me to have.
TONY: Finally, what do you have planned for the future?
JOSH: I did a movie this spring called Winged Creatures, which is an Independent film with a great ensemble cast. It has two Academy Award winners and a couple of Academy Award nominees. It's amazing. It's a really, really dark movie that's geared toward an older audience. Next summer, I have a movie coming out called Journey with Brendan Fraser.
