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Let’s start off with a little bit
about your character and the movie (The Secret World of Arrietty) itself.
Yeah, I play a character named Shawn. The movie in itself…
everybody has heard of the story of the little people around your house that are borrowing things that go missing.
In the movie I play a human being who notices the “borrowers” for the first time, and my character is someone
who has a heart condition… so he literally is on the last legs of his life. And in meeting a little
“borrower” with a very big heart – she lends him some of her heart and gives him a new meaning to his life.
And that’s sort of the arc of the character’s journey.
 I have two girls. I took them to see it yesterday and they loved it. You did a great
job and it’s a great family movie.
Aw yeah, thank
you very much. It looked good, huh? Visually… it was all hand drawn and everything.
Oh yeah. I love how detailed it was. Every little thing – like
the part where he puts the tape on his feet to climb up the dresser. It was so detailed.
Right… yeah, yeah. It’s a visual
experience… I thought.
This is a Studio Ghibli film, were
you familiar with their work before working on Arrietty?
I knew Spirited Away
and Ponyo, but I was excited to jump into this – and I’m really happy that it’s being well received.
I haven’t read or heard anything bad about the film. I mean even Rotton Tomatoes (www.rottentomatoes.com) liked it…so.
That’s good! Yeah, to me… Studio Ghibli
can’t go wrong. I’ve liked them for many years now. Ant this is another classic.
Yeah, exactly.
So,
do you have a favorite Studio Ghibli film?
Yeah, Ponyo I thought was really good… and
Spirited Away. I mean, they have a pretty solid formula. They don’t seem
to go wrong.
Since the movie was originally created in Japan, did you find it difficult
to match your voice with the character’s lips at all?
Yeah, that was a challenge. Obviously
I had to dub to someone speaking Japanese, and the lip pattern was completely different. So we had to shorten
words or elongate words at times. But it wasn’t too challenging. It was just something
we had to deal with and made it happen.
I’m amazed each time
I see one of their movies at how well they do with the matching of the voices and mouths.
Yeah,
I know. It’s no problem at all.
I think the first one I saw
was Spirited Away and I insisted that Disney tampered with the animation to match the American voices, but they don’t
do that.
No, they don’t mess with it at all.
 Bridgit Mendler, you worked with her on ‘Wizards of Waverly Place’, she plays Arrietty. Were
you guys able to record together at all? Or was it a separate recording?
No, we didn’t record
together at all because we have to match the lipping and because there’s so much precision involved and so many multiple
takes – I think we would have wasted everyone’s time if we all recorded together. So we did
it separately.
Do you think it’s difficult to record alone
and not being able to interact with the other characters?
Uhh… no. Because
it wasn’t like a comedy – so the timing wasn’t 100% essential or crucial. I was watching
the movie unfold while I was matching the dialogue with the character’s lips – so I could read body language of
other characters and read the tone of the scene.
Now, let’s talk a little bit about Little
Boy. I heard that you were a little excited about that movie coming out. What is
Little Boy about?
Yeah, I’m really pumped about that. Right after Wizards
(of Waverly Place), I was looking for what Brick was for Joseph Gordon Levitt or A Guide to Recognizing
Your Saints was for Shia LaBeouf… I was looking for that movie to really establish myself as someone who wants
to be in it for a while and has the talent and the ability. So this movie felt like it really had a point
to prove – the movie is about an eight year old boy… believing that if he has enough faith in God he can bring
his dad back from World War II. So it’s a World War II piece, and I play his older brother.
I’m the character who is supposed to go to war, but because my character has flat feet – back then if you
had any physical imperfections you were not allowed into the military. So I wasn’t allowed in the
military… and my dad has to go in my place. I’m left to deal with my mother, who is Emily
Watson, while my father, Michael Rapaport, goes off to war. I’m left to sort of take care of my family
and run the family business. What I love about the movie is that it’s such a heart felt message.
It sort of awakes that innocence that the little eight year old boy in the movie portrays. It awakes
up the little boy in all of us to sort of look at the world through those eyes, and it’s one of the best scripts that
I’ve ever read – and this role was perfect for me.
And
it’s got some great actors in it too.
Oh yeah, Tom Wilkinson, Sean Astin, Kevin James.
I got to work with amazing people every day.
So, it’s
got a little bit of spiritual meaning behind it?
Well, not in the sense that it’s trying to prove anything.
But – it tackles that issue that I think so many people have to deal with in life in general – which is…
is there something out there? Or is there not? Are we just here… or was it something
greater? And that issue is tackled through the eyes of an eight year old boy –
and what can be more innocent and sort of relatable for an audience to watch than a little boy going through that?
Trying to bring his dad back from World War II. So it’s a heavy issue to tackle, and they
do it in such a creative way – that I think the audience will love it.
It sounds like
a great movie, I was trying to find a trailer for it, but I don’t think it’s up yet.
Yeah,
we literally just finished right at the end of the year – so they’re in “post” right now.
Do you have any Oscar predictions for next week? Who do
you want to win? 
I mean, I don’t know.
Who do I want to win? I think the guy from The Artist (Jean Dujardin), I can’t ever
pronounce his name… I think Gary Oldman deserves an Oscar… he’s amazing. I don’t
know. This year was an odd year I think. For movies, there wasn’t any real standouts
like last year.
I agree. I think this is the
first year when I only saw about 10% of the movies being nominated.
Yeah, yeah. This
year didn’t feel like an incredibly strong year.
Are you a moviegoer
yourself? Are there any coming out this coming year that you’re looking forward to?
I love
movies. I’m going to see everything that’s out there. I think my favorite
actor on the planet is Tom Hardy. I think he’s amazing – from Bronson to… he
was amazing in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy… Warrior. He’s one of my favorite
actors out there right now.
I just re-watched Warrior yesterday, and
I cry every time I see it… (laughs)
Yeah, it’s incredible. One of my
buddies was the writer, Cliff Dorfman, he busted his hump on that. I think it paid off. That
deserved a nod…
It does. But at least Nick Nolte is being nominated.
Yeah, that’s true.
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