Archive for the ‘Interviews’ Category
Amy Smart discusses her role as Jasmine and her character’s relationship with Fiona.
Jennifer Matarese interviews Amy Smart about her new ABC Family movie.
In Amy Smart and Carter Oosterhouse’s marriage, the grass is always greener – in a good way.
The actress didn’t even know who the HGTV carpenter was when they met. But it was an auspicious beginning. They did a project together for the Environmental Media Awards, which would turn out to be a passion for both of them.
“We got assigned to adopt a school garden together,” Smart, 35, told PEOPLE Saturday at the 2011 EMA’s in Burbank, Calif. “We met, and we were both in relationships, so we just remained friends. And then we both got out of relationships around the same time, a year ago this summer. And then a year later we got married.”
Oosterhouse, 35, couldn’t count on Smart recognizing him from his TV work. “I don’t watch a whole lot of TV, so I kind of didn’t know who he was,” she admits. But they bonded over environmental work.
At their wedding last month in his hometown of Traverse City, Mich., they generated just one bag of trash. “For 220 people,” Oosterhouse points out.
It could be intimidating for a woman interested in home decoration to marry a professional builder. But Smart says it’s working out so far.
“He is actually the most balanced person that I’ve ever met, so he obviously knows a lot about building, a lot about green building,” she says. “I learn more and more every day, but he’s not super dominating. It’s never his way or the highway. He allows me to do what I need to do in the house.”
“I was going to say, she’ll put something up and I’ll be like, ‘That’s great. I’ll just put that over here…” Oosterhouse adds with a laugh. “Look, we both have our strengths, and we’re a month in, but so far it’s been working fantastically.”
Hollywood’s got wedding fever!
Everyone tuned in to watch the Royal Wedding. Women in the UK and US tried to buy knock-off versions of Kate’s dress. Now, Kim Kardashian and her fiancé are planning the Royal Wedding 2.0. Why is everyone so obsessed with weddings we ask?
Hollyscoop talked to Amy Smart , known best for playing Ryan Reynolds love interest in “Just Friends,” and recently appeared on Showtime hit “Shameless,” and she gave us her opinion.
Smart thinks people are interested in weddings for several reasons, “women love love. They love the romance and fairytale wedding, but they also love drama. They like to see if relationships work out or if people will get back together. It’s the highs and lows of Hollywood.”
We asked if she watched the Royal Wedding too, “it was fun watching. I’m not one of those girls that’s been dreaming their entire life about their wedding, but I think there’s a little girl inside of me that can appreciate other girls weddings,” she shared at the grand opening of Lexington Social House
So did she pick up any wedding tips? Smart is engaged to former Trading Spaces carpenter and HGTV star, Carter Oosterhouse, so the two have a wedding in their near future too.
“I’m getting married too. It’s all very exciting when people get married, it’s great. The planning is going great. There’s way more details than I ever expected. It’s September 10th in Northern Michigan.”
Can we expect to see Smart join the league of pregnant Hollywood moms? We asked if she see’s kids in her future, “we would definitely like to,” she tells us.
Now that Amy Smart is engaged, she’s busy making wedding plans and is already thinking of babies, she tells RumorFix exclusively.
Smart, who co-hosted Pregnancy Awareness Month kickoff gala presented by O.N.E. Coconut Water recently, said, “We absolutely want to have kids. I would say definitely at least two.”
The Varsity Blues star says she was caught completely off guard when hunky TV carpenter Carter Oosterhouse proposed to her on April 17.
“He completely surprised me,” she tells us. “He actually asked my parents for permission first, so they already knew he was going to propose. He got down on one knee and was so romantic. ”
Amy is happy to show off her sparkler, which is a two-and-a half carat cushion cut diamond with Pave diamonds. “I have not taken the ring off since its been put on. It pretty much lives on my finger!” she says.
The blonde beauty reveals their relationship started as a friendship because they both were in long-term relationships. “We reconnected this past fall and now we are getting married!” Amy tells us the wedding may take place this fall. And while she doesn’t want a maid of honor because she has so many girlfriends, she says she may have one of her dogs walk down the aisle with her.
As for her honeymoon: she says, “A safari in Africa would be pretty amazing.”
Amy Smart is an actress that you definitely won’t see as typecast at all. She has explored practically every genre from sci-fi (Starship Troopers), comedy (Road Trip), action (Crank and Crank High Voltage) with even an underrated indie drama (The Battle of Shaker Heights) as well. She has also appeared in a psychological thriller or two and her latest movie falls into this genre with Dead Awake, which will be released in theaters today, December 3. I recently had the chance to speak with Amy Smart over the phone and here’s what she had to say:
You’ve starred in a few psychological thrillers before, but what was it about Dead Awake that first stood out to you and made you want to be a part of this?
Amy Smart: Well, I saw (director) Omar Naim’s movie The Final Cut, and I loved it so much. It’s so smart and original and well thought out. When I was reading this script, I could feel his style of directing on the script and I just really trusted him as a filmmaker. I liked the dramatic parts, I liked the romantic parts, but it was more of an original screenplay.
When you do step into these darker movies, are there certain things you do to prepare for a role like Natalie?
Amy Smart: I played a nurse, so I learned some basic training as far as becoming a nurse, as far as research. And then I was fortunate that Nick (Stahl) and I worked together worked together on my very first job ever, and we haven’t worked together since, but we’ve stayed friendly throughout the years. It was nice to come onto this film and already have a connection with him.
I’ve been a big fan of Nick’s for awhile now and you also have Rose McGowan in the cast. What was the overall vibe of this set like?
Amy Smart: Well, we shot in Des Moines, Iowa and everybody was really excited to be there, to be a part of it. Again, I really loved working with Omar and trust him. We would always shoot until it felt right. We would shoot until we got what we needed in the scene and moved on. It was pretty great.
I’ve seen there are more movies being shot in Iowa now, like The Experiment. It’s not your more traditional choice, but it seems these movies get more out of a city like Des Moines. What kinds of things does shooting in Iowa bring to the movie that you wouldn’t get anywhere else?
Amy Smart: You get to have amazing big fields of wildflowers and grassy lawns and rolling hills. I really liked Des Moines because, even though it was like a smaller city, it definitely had a progressive feel to it. I felt like you got a city life but you also got a good neighborhood life.
Kind of like the best of both worlds.
Amy Smart: Yeah, and there’s definitely history there. We filmed in this funeral parlor and there are these great little locations there that we found.
You were praising Omar Naim’s work before. When you got on the set and started working with him, could you compare his style and his work to anyone else you’ve worked with in the past, or what might be the best way to describe his directorial style?
Amy Smart: He definitely knows what he wants, what he wants to convey in a scene and wants to feel. When he feels it, he knows it’s working. he’s such a creative artist that I kind of just really trusted him as a filmmaker and, as a communicator, he’s passionate about what he wants. He gets really excited when he finds something that works. It’s nice to have that, to have somebody that’s on the journey with you.
In looking at your filmography, it seems that you like taking on vastly different roles from one movie to the next. Can you talk about the process you go through when it comes to choosing your next project? Is it a conscious choice that you want to do something so different from what you just did?
Amy Smart: I would say that there is the ideal of the stuff I want to do and then there’s the stuff I get offered and then there’s the stuff I audition for. There are a wide variety of different things, but, for me, it usually starts off with a good script. That’s the basis. You could take a good script and make it a good movie or you can take a good script and make it a bad movie. There are many different interpretations, but you can’t really take a bad script and make it a good movie. That’s, to me, the foundation and then is the character interesting? Have I played her before? Do I feel challenged by it? It could be a great script, but then I might not know anybody involved or people who are involved who have a record of making B movies that haven’t really done anything. So it’s really weeding through these different elements of is it worth taking a risk on this movie?
The seductive supernatural thriller Dead Awake is set against the backdrop of a mysterious tragedy that shattered the lives of three people a decade ago, and which sets them on a path to uncover the truth that lies between the living and the dead. When Dylan (Nick Stahl), a depressed assistant at a funeral parlor, decides to fake his own funeral to see who will show up, he ends up befriending a mysterious street junkie named Charlie (Rose McGowan) and is reunited with an old love from his past (Amy Smart), whom he abandoned 10 years prior. He then must confront his past and get the answers to an old mystery before he can proceed with the business of living his own life.
In this exclusive interview with Collider, actress Amy Smart talked about her desire to work with the film’s director Omar Naim, how much she enjoyed working with Nick Stahl and Rose McGowan, that psychological horror can often be much scarier than outright gore, how she would love to emulate the careers of Meryl Streep and Kate Winslet, and how she’s hoping to do another comedy soon.
Question: How did you get involved with Dead Awake? Was it an audition, or had they specifically asked to see you?
AMY SMART: I was fortunate to get offered the role. I met with Omar Naim. I’m a really big fan of his. I loved The Final Cut. I just thought it was an original film. So, after reading Dead Awake, I decided that I wanted to work with him. I also like Nick Stahl a lot, and Rose McGowan. I thought it would just be a really interesting, unusual, original movie.
Do you prefer the type of situation where you can just meet with and talk to someone about a role, instead of having to audition?
SMART: It’s a mix. Sometimes, when I do audition, I feel like I’m won the role because they’ve seen what I can do and, therefore, that’s why they’re hiring me. So, there is a gratification from that. But then, I also really like meeting with filmmakers and talking about it and them already trusting that I could play that role. It’s a little bit more of a creative collaboration.
What was it about this project and this character that appealed to you and made you want to get involved?
SMART: I loved that she had this past with this ex-love of hers, and that she’d moved on, yet she still has this hope in her heart for her old love. And that she’s a nurse. She didn’t really follow her dreams, but she’s settling and trying to make the most of her life. And then, out of the blue, she reconnects with her old love. I liked the history of it. I liked the characters and their tortured past.
What can you say about this film to interest audiences in seeing it, when there are so many films opening at this time of year?
SMART: Anyone who’s a fan of Omar Naim will really enjoy this. I loved The Final Cut and thought it was so amazing and original. And, this film is the same way. You can feel him, as a director, in this movie. In the end, it’s hopeful, but it goes through a roller coaster of love and pain and allusion. It’s about Dylan (Nick Stahl) trying to figure his life out and being haunted by something. I think everybody, in their life, is haunted by something that they struggle with inside, and it’s really lovely to see Dylan really try to work out this demon that’s been eating away at him and that’s been holding him back in his life. That’s his journey in this movie. And, he meets this junkie, Charlie, who he’s befriended, that Rose McGowan plays. Then, he reconnect with his old love, Natalie, which I played. It’s about the journey that Dylan goes through to find out how to free himself from the torture that he has inside of him. In the end, you’re left feeling resolve. It’s not like you feel torn to pieces and you leave feeling gutted. But, the journey of it is really fascinating, and Omar is such a brilliant filmmaker that I think people will enjoy it.
Once you were cast in the role, were there any changes made to the character to better suit your vision of her?
SMART: It was pretty much what was there when I read it. In the editing room, they definitely changed things around, here and there, which makes it feel a little non-linear. That works really well for that movie , but wasn’t necessarily in the script that way. But, the character was the way she was, on the page.
