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Star Spotlight
At 13, Josh Hutcherson is already becoming a bona fide big screen superstar. If you didn't see him as Will Ferrell's brother in Kicking & Screaming, then you won't want to miss him in the action-packed fantasy Zathura, which is now in theaters. We caught up with Josh recently and asked him about making the movie, sharing the silver screen with some of the biggest names in Hollywood, and surviving a meteor shower-movie style! Here's what he had to say:
Q & A
Q:
When did you know that you wanted to be an actor?
Josh: I had always enjoyed entertaining people and making people laugh. When I turned 9, I asked my parents [if I] could get an agent in Cincinnati. So, I got an agent in Cincinnati and an acting coach, who said that we should go out to California and we did, and every thing just kind of took off from there.
Q:
Do you have many friends your age or are you around adults the whole time?
Josh: I have a lot of friends back home in Kentucky that are my age. Whenever I go home I hang out with them a lot. Sometimes they actually fly up to see me too.
Q:
What is like to watch yourself on the big screen?
Josh: It is hard for me to enjoy the movie because I sit there thinking, "Ok, I should have said that line," or "Oh, I didn't look there,"
and I'm just really thinking that I should have done things better.
Q:
What is the best advice that you have ever been given?
Josh: I just watch the actors that I have been working with#&151how they are so professional, their mannerisms, and how they seem like they know everything that is going on, which is really cool.
Q:
What is the best thing about acting?
Josh: I get to meet cool people, go to new places, and do new things. I like doing movies more than TV shows because in a TV show you play one character the whole time. In a movie, you get to play a lot of different people and different scenarios and everything.
Q:
There's a lot of action and stunt work in Zathura. Was that fun?
Josh: That was the best part: getting to do the really cool stunts. There are so many different ones in it. We fight aliens and robots, and slide on wire harnesses to dodge meteor showers. It was choreographed, almost like a dance, because they shot stuff out of the ground to look like meteors, so we had to watch out.
Q:
Was it scary working in a wire harness?
Josh: Yes, we did a lot of wirework where we got to fly through the air and do a whole bunch of cool stuff. It was a lot of fun.... I never got hurt, thankfully, but at the end of the day I was really tired.
Q:
What did you like and relate to about your character, Walter?
Josh: Walter is really cool because he's a lot like me. He likes sports quite a bit. He's very athletic and he has a little brother, which I have too. I have a 9-year-old brother, Connor.
Q:
Did your brother visit you on the Zathura set?
Josh: Yes. He thought it was awesome because he's really into sci-fi and rocket science. He thought it was so cool that I got to fight aliens and be in outer space.
Q:
Did you get any cool souvenirs from the set?
Josh: Yeah, I got one of the meteorites. They let me take it home. They also gave me a mockup of the Zathura game. In the movie I get a football signed by Bret Favre and they let me keep that.
Q:
Why do you think kids will like Zathura?
Josh: I think it will really appeal to kids because it's about people the same age and it's about families, really. The brothers fight quite a bit. It's action packed and there aren't very many family movies that aren't animated.
Q:
You're also starring in the movie Little Manhattan. What did you like about your character, Gabe?
Josh: He rides a scooter like me, and he lives in New York, which is such a cool place to film.
Q:
Had you ever been to New York City before you made the movie?
Josh: No, I hadn't. I had such a great time there. It was awesome! The first few weeks we did touristy things like going to the Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty. After a while we were just living there like real New Yorkers for a few months.
Q:
Was it awkward doing the romantic scenes?
Josh: It was really weird, because I had to pretend that I was in love with somebody and I've never been in love before.
Q:
Was this your first-ever kiss?
Josh: Yes, it was. It was really weird because there were tons of people standing around watching as the director was giving us directions on how to do it.
Q:
Do you still live in Kentucky?
Josh: Yeah. I like Kentucky a lot. That's where my family is and all my friends that I've known forever.
Q:
How do your Kentucky friends treat you since you've become famous?
Josh: Most of my friends think it's really cool and they're excited when they find out what I'm doing next and they want to know a little bit about it. Some kids became really jealous and mean and I don't talk to them anymore because they weren't being nice. They weren't really my true friends.
Q:
Why do you think reading is important?
Josh: It's a lot of fun and a good way to spend your time. It also teaches you lessons and you become worldly by reading books, I think.
Q:
Next year, you're starring in R.V. with Robin Williams. Was it fun to work with him on the movie?
Josh: Yeah, it was a lot of fun! He's so funny. He never stops making jokes. Sometimes he'd be telling jokes and they'd be rolling and I'd be laughing so hard that they had to say cut.
Q:
What's your role in R.V.?
Josh: My role is a gangsta-wannabe kind of kid. He's like that because he's small for his age and he's trying to compensate for not being big so he acts all tough and everything.
Q:
Do you think you'll continue to act as you get older?
Josh: I definitely want to continue acting when I get older and I also want to try my hand at directing. If I weren't an actor, I'd probably be a mechanic because I love tinkering with cars. My dad and I want to get an old broken down '69 Camaro and restore it, which will be my first car when I'm old enough to drive.
—Interview by Gerri Miller
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Josh Hutcherson
(Photo: Courtesy of Sony Pictures)
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STAR STATS
Star Calendar
Zathura is now playing in theaters across the U.S.
March 26, 2006
R.V. opens in theaters nationwide.
Star Stats
Name: Josh Hutcherson
Birth Date: October 12, 1992
Hometown: Union, Kentucky
Current residences: Union, Kentucky and Burbank, California
Siblings: younger brother, Connor
Pet: a boxer named Diesel.
Star Faves
Board Games: Monopoly, Stratego, Life and Trivial Pursuit
School Subject: math
Sports: basketball and soccer
Athletes: Tom Brady and Randy Moss
Actors: Brad Pitt, Keira Knightley, and Dakota Fanning
TV Shows: Survivor, Mythbusters, and American Chopper
Movies: The Wizard of Oz, Napoleon Dynamite, and The Pirates of the Caribbean
Vacation Spot: Vancouver, British Columbia
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