Cirque du Freak
Written by Judy Sloane Sunday, 18 October 2009 17:16
Interview
We catch up with John C Reilly, Salma Hayek and Chris Massoglia, the stars of new movie Cirque du Freak
Paul Weitz's (American Pie, About a Boy) film is adapted from the best selling series of books by Darren Shan, and tells the story of a young lad named Darren (Chris Massoglia) whose visit to the local freak show ends up changing his life for ever. After meeting the mysterious characters Larten Crepsley (John C Reilly) and Madame Truska (Salma Hayek), Darren must leave his old life behind and go on the road with the Cirque du Freak. We go behind the scenes of this magical new movie with the stars...
Were you familiar with the original books before you came on board the project?
JOHN C REILLY I was not familiar with the books before I was offered the movie. This whole vampire tidal wave that has happened lately wasn’t quite cresting at the time we made the movie. The first Twilight movie hadn’t come out or anything! I became aware of the books through the script and eventually read all of them.
Are any of you interested in vampire mythology?
SALMA HAYEK I don’t have a fascination for vampires, I’ve actually been a vampire in a movie and I’ve been in love with a vampire in another movie, yet I have no fascination whatsoever with them! But I did love this script. I found the concept of the circus freaks a lot more interesting than the vampires, maybe because there’s been less movies about them. What I like is that there were interesting characters.
What I liked also was it’s a film that’s for young people but it doesn’t treat young people as a cliché, and it’s respectful of their uniqueness, it doesn’t tell them what they’re supposed to think, it gives them space to take different things in different ways. And also it just happened to have facial hair, which is the third time that I’ve done some kind of facial hair in a movie!
Does it get weird for you when you see yourself like that or are you used to it now?
HAYEK I’m not totally used to seeing myself with a beard. John [C Reilly] made me feel really good about it, it was probably just a trick but every time I saw him he said, ‘My God, you look so hot with the beard.’ It’s like when people tell you when you’re swollen like a whale from the pregnancy and you’ve never looked worse in your life, and they say, ‘You glow.’ They have no words to tell you about your look. But you feel like you glow, so it was the same with the beard, they made me feel good about it.
Was shooting this movie always fun or did you encounter any difficulties or challenges?
CHRIS MASSOGLIA This was my first movie, and there are a lot of things about acting that are really fun, but at the same time it is work and it is a job, and we were on set for 13 hours a day for three and a half months, so I was away from my friends and family and I wasn’t playing sports, but while the whole experience was really interesting and fun and I learned a lot, there were days where you have to work like anybody has to do.
REILLY It was a real special time to get to work in New Orleans. Some parts of the city were totally coming back and other parts were shockingly still neglected and seemingly forgotten. It was hard to see some of that. Once you got outside of the French Quarter it was tough to see how hard people were still struggling in New Orleans. That theatre we shot in hadn’t really been touched since the storm, so it was filthy and you felt like it was dangerous just to be in there. But ironically that was exactly why they picked it, because it looked so atmospheric, it had so much decay going on. So it was a challenge to work in that place, but overall New Orleans was a pretty delightful place to be.
HAYEK For me it was a dream job because I have a very small part and everybody in the movie is amazing and fun to be with, so for me it was just a lot of fun. I would just come in and work with nice people, I have a fun, crazy character and it was not a lot of work, I got to spend a lot of time with my child but, at the same time, everybody took this very seriously. The movie has a lot of comedy, there are fantastic characters, but part of the fun was working with such professional people. And I guess I was very impressed with Chris, he’s very young and it’s his first movie, and it would be very easy to get distracted, but all the young kids were professional, focused, took it very seriously, really paid attention to the direction and really tried to learn, I always saw him watching John, everybody took it very seriously and that was part of the fun.
Chris, do you feel pressure to become the next teen sensation?
MASSOGLIA I don’t really think I feel any pressure to become a teen sensation because that’s not really my goal in life, it’s not about being a star, being popular, having lots of girls, it’s about continuing to be able to act and have fun and do what I like to do, so for me it’s just about learning and understanding and developing my acting abilities, and being able to look for the next project so I can act in it. It’s not really about being a teen star, so I don’t feel pressured in that way.
John, this role is very different for you; what was your reaction when you were asked to take the part?
REILLY I was thrilled because I’d been doing a lot of comedies in a row and I was getting known only for that, especially among younger audiences. I thought, ‘Wow, I’ve done almost 50 movies and these kids only know me from these two movies, and they think that’s all that I do.’ So I thought maybe it’s time to do something different, and I’d always wanted to do a fantasy movie. This kind of movie is movie I like to see, I’m a big fan of Harry Potter movies and the Lord of the Rings films, I like a good fantasy adventure story, so I was thrilled when it came along and then to have such a detailed, textured character, this guy has been alive so long and seen so much, and gets to be a mentor which has been an important relationship in my life at different points. Of course in two years it will be, ‘John, why are you always playing vampires?’ Chris, did you learn a lot from your experienced co-stars?
MASSOGLIA That was one of the best things for me about doing this movie was working with all these guys. Being able to do your first movie with a bunch of Oscar nominated actors and actresses was a really big privilege. I remember the first day I was working with John, I was a little intimidated, and Paul came up and he started talking to me and took my mind off the subject, and then John came up and we had a really cool conversation, then it was fine, and it was a lot of fun. I asked him a lot a questions throughout filming, like, ‘What was it like for you and how would you deal with certain situations?’ The biggest thing for me was just being able to observe how he worked with the crew members and different cast members that would come and go, and it was fun because I got to see how he acted professionally in what he does, and how he works, but also how he relates personally with all the other cast and crew. It was awesome for me.
Have any of you ever wanted to run away and join the circus
REILLY Yeah, I almost became a clown. My plan was to go to clown college after I finished acting school, and then a clown talked me out of it. He said, ‘No, man, it’s a five year contract and you have to ride in the worst compartment of the train, and it’s a nightmare,’ so I reconsidered it, but I think I joined the circus when I started doing theatre when I was 8 years old, that’s when I found my fellow freaks.
