Part of acting is transforming yourself into whatever character you’re playing, and sometimes that means dropping some major pounds. But, for Chris Hemsworth, eating is way to important. He tells Moviefone all about his transition from “In the Heart of the Sea” to “The Huntsman: Winter’s War.”
Tag: interview
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Chris Hemsworth Will Never Lose Weight for a Role Again
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‘The Boss’ Director Ben Falcone Loves Working With Wife Melissa McCarthy
“The Boss” isn’t the first time Ben Falcone has teamed up with his wife Melissa McCarthy, so it’s safe to say it’s not going to be the last. We sat down with “The Boss” director and to talk about what kind of boss he is, his worst boss experience, and what being on set with Melissa is really like.
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Jason George: ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ Season 12 Finale Will Leave ‘Jaws on the Floor’
On “Grey’s Anatomy,” the staff at Grey Sloane Memorial never have an easy go of it, be it their love lives or their professional lives. And actor Jason George says Dr. Ben Warren is about to step into some serious trouble on both fronts.As the series heads into its final episodes of its landmark, creatively re-energized twelfth season, George says that Ben will be facing some particularly tough transitions. Not only will he be struggling with feelings about his wife Miranda Bailey’s significantly more powerful and lucrative position at the hospital, he’s about to hit a major speed bump on the road to becoming a surgeon.
Still, he promises, the show’s ever-present dose of black comedy will also accompany the drama, and George reveals his own surreal-but-silly experience while sitting in on a serious medical procedure.
Moviefone: Give me what you can tell me: what’s around the corner in Shondaland, for you in particular?
Jason George: We’ve been teasing how Ben and Bailey have a lot of issues. There’s a lot of friction when it comes to the fact that she’s not just his boss, but his boss’s boss. We tease that she earns a lot more money than him. Well, that’s all going to come to a really explosive head.
It’s going to get real hectic. At the end of the day, Ben has this real tough situation where he is a really experienced doctor, but a new surgeon. So you can think more of your skills than you might have, or you might be making the right choice. It creates this place where maybe he did the right thing, but they think he did the wrong thing. Or he did the wrong thing, but he thinks he did the right thing. So there’s some situations coming up that are going to push all that really to an explosive level, and inevitably it spills over to their relationship.
How about his other relationships at the hospital? Does anything you mentioned affect his relationships with the other characters?
This thing affects his relationship with everybody. It goes down the line and people have to, everybody’s got to take on this one. Yeah, it gets into everybody’s face.
It’s been such an interesting season. Can you describe the direction and tone of the show heading into the finale?
Like always, there’s always going to be a sense of comedy, but it’s always comedy that’s born out of something real. So even when the situation is horrific or messed up, they’ll find some kind of gallows humor, which is how doctors get through the really rough situations.
The thing is, I think the tone is … it’s going to end with … there’ll still be some jaw-dropping stuff in the finale. It’s “Grey’s,” at the end of the day. There’s going to be some fun light stuff, but it’ll still, at the end of the day, we’re going to end with some jaws on the floor.
Tell me your favorite interaction with a real doctor.
Linda Klein, who is a producer on our show, and is our consultant, and occasionally shows up on camera as Nurse Linda, hooked me and Giacomo Gianniotti up with going to see an open heart surgery. It was like a life-changing thing. I instantly get how doctors get God complexes. I’m like, you stopped a man’s heart. There was no blood because it’s all being bypassed in a machine. I watched his lungs stop moving. I watched the heart stop beating, and he went to work.
This is the crazy part that they never tell you: when they start the heart up, it’s a really slow process. So after all this really tense thing of him sewing on the thing and they’re talking, then you hit a spot where you just sit down for 45 minutes, where you’re waiting for the heart to slowly start back up. They just talk, they gossip. It was really, really amazing to watch. I will remember that until the day I die.
What were your emotions going in? Were you like “I’m tough, I can handle this?” Or were you already kind of nervous or freaking out?
I knew I could handle blood. I watched all my kids be born by emergency C-sections. So I knew I could handle the blood, knew I could handle the room. I just didn’t know what it was going to … I’d never seen somebody like that: there’s a man on the table who I don’t know, but his life is really hanging in the balance. So that was weird.
What was really crazy was when his family who were out there found out that we were there, because they had to sign off on us being able to come into the room. They found out, and they didn’t ask to see their doctor. They asked to see the two fake doctors who were in watching the doctor’s surgery. So we were like, “He looks good…I don’t know. I don’t want to say anything because I’m not a real doctor. The real doctor will explain to you how he’s doing.” It was very funny, but they were great.
So you didn’t give them a prognosis. Did you give them an autograph?
We gave them autographs, photos! They were lovely, but it was a little bit like, “You know, your dad’s coming to life back in the other room. We’re taking a photo.” But they were being very positive and everything went very well in the room, so we all had a positive attitude about it. It was a little weird and surreal.
“Grey’s Anatomy” airs Thursdays on ABC.
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Melissa McCarthy & Ben Falcone Struggled With Letting Their Daughters Appear in ‘The Boss’
Melissa McCarthy and Ben Falcone aren’t the first parents in Hollywood to have their children beg to be in one of their movies, but they are probably some of the first to say “no”… in the beginning. We chatted with the husband-and-wife team about how hard it was to let their daughters appear on screen in “The Boss” and when (or if) they’ll let them do it again.
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Kristen Bell Can’t Get Enough of the Friendship Love in ‘The Boss’
Kristen Bell is all about love. Whether it’s for her husband, children, or sloths, she’s there for it. One of her favorite kinds of love is good, old-fashioned platonic love — especially between her and Melissa McCarthy in “The Boss.” We chatted with Kristen about friendship love, the worst bosses ever, and what working with Melissa and Ben Falcone was like. (Spoiler alert: It was great.)
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Melissa McCarthy Came Up With Her ‘Boss’ Character 15 Years Ago
Melissa McCarthy has been doing characters for years and years — since the beginning — but her role in “The Boss” might be her most over-the-top yet. We sat down with Melissa to find out how she came up with the sure-to-be iconic Michelle Darnell.
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‘Zootopia’ May Be the ‘Most Easter Egg-Packed Movie Ever Made by Disney’
This weekend, “Zootopia” joins the illustrious Disney legacy of people-less, all-animal animated movies, like “Robin Hood” and “The Lion King.” Directors Byron Howard and Rich Moore bring us a new take on the genre by creating a world not unlike our own, filled only with anthropomorphic animals, some of whom call the big, sprawling city of Zootopia their home. The movie tackles a number of social and emotional issues, while, at the same time, breaking new ground in computer animation.We sat down with directors Moore and Howard to talk about the early days of “Zootopia” and the long road to becoming (potentially) one of the most important (and impactful) Disney movies to date.
In early concept art, “Zootopia” seemed to have a very different look and story. Can you talk about how the movie went from space bunny adventure to animal metropolis film noir?Byron Howard: One of the ideas was about animals in space hunting space animals. The other idea was the “The Island of Doctor Meow” that had a Roger Corman B-movie feel about a mad scientist who had a savage serum. So you see little bits of these ideas sort of floating around back then. All these ideas had anthropomorphic animals in them cause I loved “Robin Hood” growing up. John Lasseter was also a fan of that genre of Disney classic cartoons. He said, “I will fully support any movie that features animals running around in tiny clothing.” He got on board and loved the idea of doing it. He really did charge us with making it different from any other animals movie before. He said, “Don’t think about story, just go off and do research.”
We did about seven or eight months of research. We talked to animal experts and sociologists. Experts about how cities get built and formed and then he sent us down here to Disney’s Animal Kingdom and we talked to experts down here who helped us figure out animals personalities. And then finally he said, “Go to Kenya.”
Kenya is amazing. He sent about 14 of us, including a lot of our leadership in different departments of the film, to Kenya. And they were all looking for something different. The animators were looking for movement and how animals’ fur behaves in light, and we came back completely changed and making the film way more in-depth than when we first left. It really did change our viewpoint on what we were going to do.
Computer-generated animation has come a long, long way. In older movies, hair was more like a blob on a character’s head. Now you can see the breakthroughs Disney’s made, from the hair in “Tangled” to the fur in “Zootopia.” It’s outstanding.
Rich Moore: Our technology took a huge step forward on the movie “Big Hero 6,” because they came up with this new software with a rendering system and lighting system called Hyperion. That makes it possible now to just render out an incredible amount of information per frame on our films. We now have the ability to kind of light scenes more organically, from where light sources come from. The process is sped up so much faster now, and when we’re reviewing animation we’re able to see it looking more like the finished frame.
Speaking of “Big Hero 6,” that reminds me of how Disney’s movies have been doing a great job of teaching audiences important moral lessons. That movie dealt with loss, and “Zootopia” feels current in exploring the need for empathy as a theme for the characters living in this big city. Is that something you looked to bring forward?Howard: That’s a very smart question. You’re actually the first one to articulate the question about empathy, which is a central part of what Judy is, I think in building who Judy [Hopps] (Ginnifer Goodwin) is as a character. I go back to the original “Superman” movie, with Christopher Reeve. What I really love about that film wasn’t that he was a superhero it was that he was compassionate. That’s what I think made that film work for me when I saw it when I was 10.
I saw this person who cared and wanted to make a difference in the world, who had these feelings and this desire to make people happy, and I think that’s where Judy comes from, too; the fact that she sort of has this great Frank Capra-esque core but is still a flawed character that has something to learn, to mature. She does and she becomes a more whole character through this very challenging relationship that she has with this very smart fox. They’re both incredibly smart characters. And the fact that she wants to do good in the world but he keeps knocking down her sort of sunny disposition in saying, “Look, it’s not that easy. Things aren’t like that.” The fact that they actually bond over when he was a kid, he wanted the same things. That gave us very strong threads to pull on in the story, and I think that’s why people really are connecting with her. I think everyone wants to make a difference throughout the world but we find it’s sometimes more challenging than we anticipate.
Moore: I think that the key was letting Judy make a mistake. Letting her not be perfect, not a sterling kind of Eagle Scout of a character that never makes a mistake. The fact that if Judy, who is this pure of heart, can have such a blind spot in her life, then it can happen to anyone out of naivety. We knew that once he had Judy as a main character, we knew that we were going with the theme, it was very important to us that she not just be a cartoon character that’s just a champion for everything good, but that our main character, though enlightened and progressive and thinking that she is kind of above the way that her parents think, is susceptible to these things, too.
Lastly, I know you guys have fun with the Easter eggs. What do you suggest audiences keep an eye out for in “Zootopia”?Howard: This is perhaps the most Easter egg-packed movie ever made by Disney.
Moore: Hidden Mickey-ed movie. If you like sign gags, there’s tons of them all throughout. As soon as you get into the city of “Zootopia,” there are sign gags. If you like silly puns, there’s some and there’s groaners. If you like Disney references, I think it may be the first time, maybe “Aladdin” had a few with the Genie, but we went for it because we wanted it to feel like our world. In their world, they have their version of Disney movies. Let’s show ’em.
Howard: Here’s one that no one knows yet. Our character designer is a big fan of Patrick Swayze‘s “Road House,” and one of the villains wears a t-shirt that is a homage to the bar in “Road House.”
Disney’s “Zootopia” hits theaters Friday.
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‘Scream Queens’ Lea Michele and Emma Roberts Have Opposite Feelings on Horror Movies
Scream Queens,” the upcoming horror comedy serried from executive producer Ryan Murphy –- Michele’s scoliosis-afflicted, makeover-needing coed Hester would do just about anything to trade places with Roberts’ uber-popular and soul-crushingly ruthless sorority diva Chanel -– but the two have already become so tight they’re finishing each other’s sentences.Clearly thrilled to headline the TV chiller-with-killer-punchlines after their respective stints in Murphy’s “Glee” and “American Horror Story: Coven,” the bond between the two actress comes through loud and clear as they chat with Moviefone about their new gig, the co-star/role model Jamie Lee Curtis and their wildly differing feelings about horror movies.
Moviefone: What’s it been like to have Jamie Lee Curtis, one of the original scream queens of the horror genre, be the den mother of this group of actresses?
Lea Michele: Great!
Emma Roberts: I mean, we could do worse. She’s amazing. She brought us, like, gifts. She brought us all these little parasols, and she brought me some books–
Michele: She’s got books, juices, rings–
Roberts: She’s dreamy!
Michele: But more than that, just feeling like there’s such a supportive [attitude] -– she’s like the main structure that just keeps everything together. And even like being in a place like Comic-Con, she stood in front of all the cameras, and she was like, “This is not a flattering photo for these women!” She’s like our protector. And I really love that. I feel like being a part of a show and having someone that does that for us, it’s unbelievable. And she’s f–king Jamie Lee Curtis. So there’s that.
In horror movies the survivors are not who you might traditionally be the last one standing -– it’s frequently a girl, and often the shy unpopular one no one gave a second thought to before. Was that significant to you?
Roberts: I think we all kind of just went into it…I don’t think we really knew people were going to solidly die each episode. We were kind of like, “Oh, every couple episodes, someone will die, and it’s not going to be us.” And then Ryan Murphy’s like, “No. Someone’s going to die every week, and none of you are safe.” And we were kind of shocked. We were laughing about it. We were like, “What do you mean? We thought we’re not going to die.” So all of us are kind of as in the dark as you guys, too, because Ryan will not tell us.
Michele: Yeah, but it’s so great too because Ryan’s always so smart with adding all the important elements to a show: It’s funny, it’s scary, but it also has that kind of girl power thing about the show. When he pitched the show to me that had zero information, but then the more we talked, the certain things that he was saying about what was important about the show, it goes back to what you were saying: at the end, maybe it will be us girls who survive, or take this killer down. I love that, and I love that Ryan always keeps that in mind: that it will be a positive show.
Now that you’re on the ride, what are you loving about this experience?
Michele: For me, personally, I’ve always loved the writing [of Murphy, Brad Falchuk and Ian Brennan], and I always loved being a part of something that’s so fresh and new. And I had the same experience with “Glee.” I’m so excited right now to be playing this character -– they’re challenging me so much, and that’s incredible. But I’m also so grateful to be working with such a strong group of actors who have such established careers and talents. That’s just so great to work with other people that are so incredible.
Roberts: For me, I’ve known Ryan Murphy for a long time because he’s friends with my aunt [Julia Roberts], and I’ve known him just through the business. But then I always wanted to be on a Ryan Murphy show. And I was like, “I want to be on ‘American Horror Story’ more than anything,” and I didn’t even like ask him about it. One day he called me, and I was like, “I didn’t even ask you because I didn’t think there would be a role for me.” And he was like, “No, I have a role for you.” So the fact that he has yet again called me with an amazing role, and also, to work with someone like him, who’s a guy who can write for women so well, and makes us smart and articulate and funny.
I mean, the show is mostly young women. And Jamie Lee Curtis’ role is amazing. And it’s just really cool to be able to trust someone like him to make all of us girls look good and know that you’re going to have a badass role. That’s how I felt on “Coven.” It was so fun on “Coven” because literally he just made us all like badass. And it was really awesome. I loved the experience.
Emma, your character has likely done something personally to this killer….
Roberts: I am the president of the sorority, and I’m sure there are plenty of people I have pissed off enough to go on a killing spree [laughs]. But you know what I love about the show is -– and I think we were all saying this yesterday -– is that you don’t really know who’s good and who’s bad. And everybody is very layered. Like, everyone has kind of done something that is bad, and everyone has shades of good. But everyone has that darkness. Like there’s always that little twinkle of darkness in everyone’s eye. And that’s why I genuinely don’t know who the killer is. And I’m annoyed that they won’t tell me.
Michele: I know.
Lea, how elaborate is the full body brace contraption you’re wearing?
Michele: It’s pretty intense, I will say! And at first, I was like “Oh, this is nothing.” It’s definitely very intense, especially late nights, and then you’re just like, “Oh my God!” But now I know how to take it off within like two seconds.
How are you with actual horror films? Glued to the screen or watching through cracks between fingers covering your eyes?
Michele: Love.
Roberts: I’m like this [Covers eyes]. My friends won’t even watch horror movies with me anymore. They won’t even invite me to see them because they’re like, “One of us is going to have to sleep over at Emma’s house if we have to take her to watch the movie.”
Michele: Totally.
Roberts: I’m like, “You guys…” They’re like, “We’re not seeing ‘The Conjuring’ because you will make us move in.” It’s like, “OK. True. True.”
Michele: For me, it’s like the opposite.
Roberts: The trailer scared me.
Michele: So scary! Then my girlfriends are like, “If we come over to your house, we’re not watching a scary movie with you,” because they don’t want to. And they’re like, “Oh, if we go on a weekend trip together, you can’t make us watch.” I literally search Apple trailers to see what new horror films are coming out and what can scare me, because it’s very hard to scare me.
What are some films that scared you and favorite ones?
Roberts: I mean, “The Ring.” I’m still traumatized. That was such a good scary movie. Because psychologically, I’m still traumatized from that movie which I think is what makes a good scary movie, right? So yeah, “Poltergeist” scarred me…
Michele: That got you?
Roberts: I’m a baby.
Michele: Oh my God.
Roberts: I was terrified, yeah. “Poltergeist” is PG? That is the craziest thing I’ve ever heard. “The Sixth Sense.”
Michele: Really?
Roberts: Oh my God. I check under the bed every night.
Michele: You think that Mischa Barton’s underneath it?
Roberts: No. And it takes me five minutes to get the courage up too.
Michele: I think the most recent movie that was super-scary was “The Conjuring.” But in years past, obviously, “The Ring.” But “The Strangers”–
Roberts: [Gasp] “The Strangers”! That was really scary.
Michele: When they were like, “Why?” And they were like, “Because you were home.”
Roberts: Seriously, you’re going to make me cry right now–
Michele: And they killed Ben from “Felicity.”
Have either of you had a moment where you’re like, “I think I’m living in a horror movie?”
Roberts: Like, every night when I’m alone in my house. Like, every time I turn off the lights at night to go to sleep. I’m like, “Are there ghosts in this room?” Like, every day.
Michele: Are you kidding me? When I go to my place in New Orleans, sometimes it’s really scary. Sometimes I go home, and I get a vibe. And I’m like, “Please. I have a long day of work tomorrow. Can you relax because you’re scaring me.” And it stops. But you definitely have to talk to it, in New Orleans.
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Andy Samberg on Hosting Emmys: ‘If I Think It’s Funny, I’ll Go For It’
Actor and comedian Andy Samberg wants to deliver plenty of laughs when he hosts the 67th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards, so that means he’s getting very serious behind the scenes.The “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” star reveals that he’s binging on a plethora of the nominated series that he hasn’t seen or only sampled, in order to get the most complete feel of the landscape of the top tier of television quality as he heads in to helm the medium’s biggest celebration airs live on his sitcom’s home network FOX on Sept. 20.
“I’m definitely watching more than I normally would,” the former “Saturday Night Live” player explains. “It’s more just researching them all, understanding the culture of each show, the fan bases that love that show, why they love that show, and what the big stories are to those people. Talking about how there’s so many more shows every year now, it does make it a slightly bigger challenge to cover everything.”
“It’s also a little more challenging to bring all the viewers under one umbrella of consciousness of the television culture,” Samberg adds. “There’s some people who only watch this kind of show, and other people watch this kind of show. So we’re trying to figure out a way to make bigger jokes that you don’t necessarily have to have seen every show to understand, but you know the headlines of the big stories on TV this year.”
As Samberg met with the press, he revealed a bit more about his take on the hosting gig and his emerging plans for Emmy night, plus a little tease on what’s ahead for the third season of his sitcom.
Did you say yes to this offer right away, or did you want to think about it a bit?
Andy Samberg: Yes, right away, absolutely…I think most people in comedy, so many incredible comedians do these shows. And looking at the pedigree of past hosts, it’s such an honor to be asked, you’ve got to say yes.
Did any of the past hosts give you any advice?
Well, I’ve been talking to Seth [Meyers], who hosted last year. He says it’s a blast. And I just have been asking little things here and there.
Is it more nerve‑racking than other gigs?
Not yet, but I think when it comes closer, it probably will be, yeah. Although I did seven years of “SNL,” and that’s live in front of millions of people…I think doing the show, itself, is really fun. I’m going to just try and not look at the Internet for a week after. I think it’s unwinnable in that way. But kind of everything is at this point, except for like three things a year. I think I’m going into it just going to try and make it as funny as I can possibly make it, but stick to the rule I always do which is: if I think it’s funny, I’ll go for it.
How old were you when you first started paying attention to Emmys ceremonies and started watching them?
Oh, that’s a good question. Probably like college. I mean, my folks weren’t like huge Emmy watchers. I’ve always been aware of the Emmys, just like you’re always aware of the Oscars.
Were there hosts back then that you really gravitated toward?
I’ve noticed it more recently, more since I’ve gotten into comedy. Seeing people like Conan [O’Brien] or Jane Lynch or Jimmy [Fallon] or Seth -– people like that, I really respect.
Are there any musical numbers that you’re going to participate in?
I certainly hope so, yeah. I’ve had good success with music stuff in the past. But again, it’s got to be the right idea.
You literally have the chance to walk away with every Emmy Award on this show.
Like, I could steal them all! Yeah, I could do that… [But] you know, I have one, so I feel pretty good about it. I’m holding out that they’ll give me like an honorary one for hosting.
Have you put much thought into putting that balance of your brand of comedy and what the Emmy ceremony requires?
I think there is a fine line. I like things maybe a little weirder than the broadest version of this show, from a hosting perspective. But I don’t know. It’s been ten years since I first started on “SNL.” I’ve got a little better gauge on what I can get away with, with a bigger audience and a smaller audience.
How do you find that gauge?
Just if everyone’s laughing at it, I tend to be like, “Let’s go for it.” That’s always my barometer. Sometimes there will be something that you know is funny in the room, but is going to push the wrong buttons. You don’t want to take that out there, because it’s just not worth it if people respond the wrong way. So that’s the main editing process, I think, aside from whatever you think is funniest is making sure that you don’t accidently piss people off or do something that’s insensitive.
Doing something live like the Emmys, are you pretty much given free range to go wherever you want?
I’ll be more or less on script. I mean, I think we’ll try and play the room as it comes. If interesting things happen, we’ll hopefully comment on those things. I always enjoy it when hosts do that.
Is it exciting to do those in-the-moment jokes? Billy Crystal’s one of the masters of that.
Yeah, without a doubt. Again, I keep saying this because you never know, but if it feels right, you do it. I think there’s a danger to wanting to force those things in too, and people are like, “Yeah, we didn’t really care about that moment that you’re harping on” [laughs].
You’re also at work on your day job. How’s the season going on “Brooklyn Nine Nine?”
The season, so far, has been awesome. I’m really happy to be back. They announced that my good friend Bill Hader is going to be coming in as Captain.
How does he shake up the precinct?
I’m not supposed to say anything more than that he’s coming, so I’m going to stick to that because I don’t want to get fired. But he will bring his patented brand of Bill Hader humor.
Can you tell us where the show picks up?
It picks up the moment that we left off in last year’s finale. So it’s like “Karate Kid 1” into “Karate Kid 2.”
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Melissa Benoist Feels a Responsibility to ‘Stay True’ to ‘Supergirl’
It runs in the family: she’s faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, and able to leap tall buildings in a single bound just like her famous Kryptionian cousin. But as both a superheroine and as a young woman still coming into her own, “Supergirl” has a lot to learn about the world.
For the new CBS series debuting in the fall, actress Melissa Benoist (“Glee,” “Whiplash”) takes on the iconic mantle of the Ingenue of Steel and her alter ego Kara Danvers, and during her first trip to Comic-Con International in San Diego she revealed all sorts of Super-details, from learning to throw a punch during her super-workout to dancing through the sky to a particularly constraining portion of that caped costume.
Moviefone: Taking on this character, there’s all the comic book history, there’s Helen Slater’s interpretation from the ’80s, the animated version, Laura Vandervoort on “Smallville” — what do you want to make out of this?
Melissa Benoist: Wow! Well, obviously, there’s a daunting feeling to arrive at a point where this is a character that is so developed and so many people already love. So there’s responsibility, and I arrive wanting to just stay true to a lot of that. But what I want to bring is: I love her humanity, even though she is an alien. I love that she really has a lot of discovering to do and growth and makes mistakes. I think she’s so relatable, and I just want to stay true to that.
Did you audition with a Kara scene or Supergirl scene?
I’m trying to remember. I think the auditions were Kara and Jimmy. Kara and Winn, for sure. And Kara and Cat. So I don’t think there were any Supergirl [scenes].
Once you got the role, did you immediately run to the gym?
[Laughs] Kind of!
What did you do to get in Supergirl shape? Did you have to step up your workouts?
Oh, yeah, I did. I immediately [did] — I am such a pacifist in my everyday life. I don’t think I’ve ever hit anyone before, and so I definitely had to learn technique. Like, how to actually punch someone and not hurt yourself more than you’re hurting the person you’re punching. And so boxing was part of it, and core work and Pilates and biometrics — a lot of it.
Did it change your mindset, getting yourself physically transformed?
Yeah, yeah, the motivation there, and the drive, it definitely affects. Because I don’t have a choice, and I can’t sit down and be like, “Oh, I’m done. I want some popcorn.” Like I have to stay on top of my game.
What about the wirework for the flying sequences?
It’s hard. The wirework is really difficult, but so fun. And when you get it right, watching the result is exhilarating. It’s a really, really cool feeling to know what it felt like, the energy I had to exert to create those flying scenes. And then the way they look is really rewarding.
How did it feel to see yourself in the costume?
There’s this internal feeling. Something changes. It’s this transformation, almost, to the point where I don’t recognize myself when I’m in it. I feel like a different person.
On a practical level, what do you love about the costume and what do you not love?
That’s a really good question [laughs]. I love that -– I grew up as a dancer, so it feels like a leotard and skirt and tights that I wore when I was a ballerina. But what is impractical or sometimes painful — even though I think I’m very lucky in terms of my suit; I know a lot of people have masks that sweat and don’t breathe at all — mine has a corset. My cape is a corset, and so that sometimes when I’m on the wire is like… it’s constricting.
Are you doing your own stunts?
I’m trying to do a lot of them because I want to. I think they’re so fun. There are some that I just can’t — I really could get injured. But I’m trying to. My stunt double is amazing. She was Jen Garner’s on “Alias.” She’s all over the place, and she’s so cool. I wish people could see what they go through. It’s insane.
Are you trying to bring that dancer’s grace to the flying and to the movement?
Of course. What I think is cool is to try to bring kind of a femininity to her strength. You see Superman and it’s obviously this solid thing. But I do like the idea of bringing in like a grace to it, and a fluidity and kind of this femininity to flying. It’s fun.
When you did this pilot, did you think this was a show that would get a series order?
Yes and no. I think I was 50/50. I really believed in it. And I think I knew deep down that people would like it, especially like young girls. That’s who I really wanted to affect. But, of course, there’s always that moment where you’re like, “Oh, man, I don’t know what’s going to happen.” But now, I’m fairly certain that people are really excited, from what everyone’s been saying.
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