Raising Helen Interview - A Movie Parable

interview by Michael Elliott
Q: Are you getting tired?
Spenser Breslin: Not yet. It is still pretty early.
Q: Did you guys see the movie last night?
SB: I saw it a few weeks ago.
Abigail Breslin: Yeah, we saw it a few weeks ago. Actually, we're seeing it today but I saw it two days in a row. I saw it beforehand but he (Spencer) wanted to see it so I had to go with him to see the movie the next day. They were pretty much at the same time so that's cool.
Q: Do you like the movie?
AB: I love the movie. (sniffs) I have a terrible allergy.
Q: (quoting from the film) Do you have nose boogies?
AB: Yeah. You wanna see them?
Q: Do you feel uncomfortable watching yourself on film?
AB: No, not really. Not at all. On Signs, I didn't even know it was about aliens. The press asked me how I liked working with aliens and I went "Aliens? What are you talking about, man?"
SB: That movie was scary. It scared me to death.
AB: Yeah, he thought it was scary.
SB: You did.
AB: No I didn't get scared by it. He did however. He had tears.
SB: I was scared.
AB: He was only nine.
SB: No I wasn't. I was like ten.
AB: Yeah, but that's still young.
Q: How do you like doing interviews together?
AB: It's good.
SB: I like it.
AB: Yeah, it's good.
Q: So do you get along better than your characters did?
AB: We get along better than Sarah and Henry definitely. There were like "la da da da da, la da da da"
SB: What?
Q: You know your costar Joan Cusack works with her brother John a lot. Do you see yourselves working together into your adult life?
SB: Oh yeah. Definitely.
AB: Yeah. I could do that again. I could. Actually, when we were doing a fighting scene… did you see the movie?
Q: (collective answer) Yes.
AB: Did you like it?
SB: They have to see it because they're interviewing us.
AB: Oh right. During the fighting scene, after about the third take my mom went over to Garry and said, "You know Garry, I don't think they're acting any more. I think they're really starting to fight." And Garry said, "I know. We like that. We like Harriet… or Abigail and Spencer fighting. We like that."
Q: Is it just the two of you or do you have other brothers and sisters?
SB: We have an eighteen year old brother.
AB: And he's in college right now.
SB: He's turning nineteen in eight days.
Q: So you won't be together for the birthday?
SB: He's coming home from college in a few days.
AB: It's funny because Mother's Day is his birthday so Spenser and I are like, "So we have to shop for the both of you." And that's cool. Present, present, here you go.
Q: What's the best and the worst part of making movies and being famous and being interviewed?
SB: I don't think there's a worst part.
AB: Yeah, there's not a worst part I don't think. I love it.
Q: Do you get tired?
AB: I just love it. I love it. I love it.
Q: What are your favorite movies to watch?
AB: Princess Diaries. Quest for Camelot. It's a cartoon movie. I like cartoons. I really do. I like Tom and Jerry. Scooby Doo. Oh! And Yogi Bear.
Q: The old cartoons.
AB: Yeah.
SB: I like a bunch of different things. I like the movie Reservoir Dogs. (shocked reaction) I wasn't supposed to watch it. My eighteen year old brother let me watch it.
AB: His brother talked him into it.
SB: Now I'm probably gonna get grounded.
AB: He should get grounded. No, I'm just kidding you. Nobody should get grounded.
Q: What are the hardest scenes to do?
SB: The sad scenes.
AB: Yeah, those are the… Well, actually I think that laughing scenes are harder. They're harder than crying scenes. Especially if it is right before a crying scene. Because you have to get motivated for a laughing scene and then you have to get motivated for a crying scene. It's very hard to laugh because you're not actually laughing. But crying you're like, da da da da da, done. So, it's all good.
Q: So how do you blend acting with school?
SB: We're home schooled. And then there's a tutor on the set who gets us three hours a day.
Q: So when you're on set and doing a scene, are you busy thinking "Oh yes, I've got a math test that I have to do in a few minutes?"
SB: Not so much. I think about them separately.
AB: We just think of the scene before we do… We think of them separately because school and acting are totally different. Acting is like you've got to act who you think the person is. And in school you're just ugh. No, I like school. I like geography. And I like reading. And I like P.E. And I like science. He likes lunch.
SB: I like math and history.
AB: I like history. I love history actually. In my school, my mom reads me the history and then I have to do something like connect the dots or color it in. I like that.
Q: What's your favorite thing about your mom?
AB: That she takes care of us. And that she puts up with us. We're not bad, actually. We're not bad a lot.
Q: Except when your older brother brings you Reservoir Dogs. That's bad.
SB: Yeah.
Q: So, do you want to keep doing films or do you have something else in mind?
SB: I want to do this. Or directing.
AB: I want to do wardrobe. I want to do hair. I want to do makeup. I want to do writing. I want to do directing. I want to do all of it. I like it. And I want to do producing.
Q: What was Garry Marshall like to work with?
AB: Garry Marshall is very very very sweet. It was just like having another grandpa. Working with Garry… (imitating Garry Marshall and his heavy NY accent) "And you know, what's your name again?"
SB: He called girls Harriet.
AB: "Harriet, and you need to go there. And the thingy about the thingy. And I want you to say the thing about the thingy. And then I want you to talk to her and then I want you to talk to him and then you do a little something something and then I want you to laugh and then I want you… it's that kind of… Stop laughing. And then I want you to laugh again.
SB (joining in) "English. I need English. Abigail, you got to do your best. All right, Alan let's SHOOT."
AB: Alan, I need Alan, I mean come on let's SHOOT. No more rehearsals. We already did one."
SB: "Let's SHOOT."
AB: "Now let's go."
SB: Oh yeah, one time, when I was doing Cat in the Hat. I was doing Cat in the Hat just I was getting ready to do this.
AB: So he had to run back and forth.
SB: Hold on. We were actually doing the same thing so I asked my mom if I could get my hair cut short because it was long in Cat and I don't like it long. So my mom went over to ask Garry and he said, "Alan, all right, the boy with the hair. Do we want it short? Do we want a hat? We don't want it like Cat in the Hat. OK. We want it short? Good. No hat? All right. Do we want it long? Do we want the hair? Do we want any hair? Do we want it short? OK!
TOGETHER: "We'll see you tomorrow!"
Q: In the movie, you have a turtle. Do you have any pets in real life?
SB: Yeah, I have three dogs…
AB: We have three dogs, one cat and three fish.
SB: How many fish?
AB: We have three fish.
SB: We have a couple of fish.
AB: We have Jack and Percy…
SB: You named them?
AB: Yes I did. Jack and Percy and Goldy.
Q: Can you still say the Big Mac line?
SB: Yes. (quoting) "Hey, you're the guy who can't say 'Two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions, on a seseme seed bun."
Q: That was your first commercial?
SB: Second.
Q: What was your first?
SB: Life cereal.
AB: But he said it a lot differently.
SB: I talked weird back then. It was funny.
Q: What kind of parts are you looking forward to doing in the future?
SB: More comedies and stuff. I like doing comedies. You too?
AB: No, I like… uh…
SB: You like drama?
AB: And I like comedy. I love comedy actually.
Q: Who would you like to work with?
AB: Uh…
SB: Hilary Duff?
AB: Yeah, and Raven Simone.
SB: Raven Simone. And Alexa?
AB: Alexa. That's pretty much it. And the people we've already worked with. It would be fun to work with them again. (to brother) What about you?
SB: I don't know. I'd like to work with… I mean those people are cool who she mentioned. I don't know. John Travolta would be fun to work with.
AB: I want to work with the puppies that I worked with in Chestnut again. They were cute. But the ones I worked with were that big. I'm serious. And now they're that big.
SB: And the Great Danes were like the size of the table.
AB: No. The Great Danes were bigger than the table. They were like that to that to that.
Q: Were they round too?
AB: No, they were like… Round?
SB: You could sit on it.
AB: ROUND?
SB: Because you said it was like the table.
AB: No, I said they were bigger than the table.
SB: OK.
AB: They were like all of us stacked all in one row. That's how big they are. Well, maybe not as big. Like half of these people. Maybe a quarter of these people. Or maybe twelve thousand hundred million of these. Stacked into one.
Q: You said you wanted to do more comedies and you said you found the sad scenes to be the hardest ones to do.
SB: I think they turn out good, the sad scenes when they're done. But I think it's hard because it's hard for me to be emotional like that.
Q: Well, they're wrenching to see. If you're going to make it convincing you have to experience some very sad feelings.
AB: You can't just go like Waa Waa Waa. And then to laugh you can't just go Ha Ha. That's what you can't do.
Q: Laughing is hard though. It's hard to fake laughing.
SB: (to sister) You think laughing is hard, right? Laughing is one of my easier things.
AB: Laughing is very hard. Very.
SB: I think crying is harder.
AB: I like to do crying scenes.
Q: Do you think about something in your past?
SB: Yeah. Like my grandpa dying. He just did that.
Q: Do you cry real tears or are they fake tears?
AB: They're real. Pretty real, yeah. (laughter) They're really real. OK, they're really really really really real.
Q: So they don't come in and put drops on you?
AB: No, and the reason they don't is because I think adults have… well, no I don't know if adults have more trouble. But for kids, it just looks too fake because you go like this and then there's tears coming down your eye? If you're crying then your face gets like red.
Q: Do you like to travel?
AB: Yeah, we like traveling.
SB: I just went to England actually for Cat in the Hat press because it was opening there. That was fun.
Q: Do you live in Los Angeles?
SB: Nope, here in the city (New York City). Right in the East Village.

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