Michael (17) chatted with Ed Oxenbould (16) about his role in his upcoming film Wildlife directed by Paul Dano.
I’m very keen to see Wildlife, especially with Paul Dano directing and Jake Gyllenhaal acting, that’s like the perfect movie! So I’m very excited about that.
Oh, thank you!
Wildlife tells the story of Joe, played by yourself, as he watches his parent’s marriage crumble. At its core what is this story about for your character?
At the core, I think it’s mainly about family, and that’s a really interesting thing as you see it through my character’s eyes. There’s actually a lot of scenes where there was just chatting and a lot of talking and you could see through their lives – witnessing this family just falling apart through this kid’s eyes. It’s a cool case of a classic story that is done slightly differently but it gave it this totally new kind of look.
What was it like working with Paul Dano on his first directorial role?
If I didn’t know who he was and if someone told me this was his twentieth film I would have believed it because it is so fantastic, it is so well done and you can tell he has taken inspiration from people like Paul Thomas Anderson and used it and he’s such a great director in all aspects.
I think maybe his acting experiences helped him as well, do you think that came into play?
Definitely, he was able to explain things in a way that was clear for all the cast to understand it.
I’m an absolute nut for good cinematography so watching the trailer and seeing how Paul and the DoP have done such a good job with everything from lighting to production design has been awesome!
Yeah, the colouring and everything is so unique and so well done. Paul has done such a fantastic job and it looks so beautiful and the score is amazing. I was watching it in awe and when it got to the end I was like, “what can’t this do?”.
It seems like this film takes you back to the 1960’s so easily like it has a genuine feel to it.
It totally does. When you watch it, every frame feels so sixties, it’s really interesting.
I reckon his experience with being on so many sets over the years has let him pick up on so much stuff and I can’t wait to see it all culminate into this beautiful film.
You can just feel where Paul has been inspired from different films and put his own spin on it. I really hope he continues to make films because he’s done such a good job.
I hope so too, I love it when actors turn into directors as they just know so much about the art of filmmaking that they create amazing stuff.
Yeah, I hope he keeps making films and acting in them, I’d hate if he stopped acting to focus on directing!
For sure, you wouldn’t want one without the other. Tell him to make sure whenever he’s making a movie to cast himself as one of the characters somewhere.
I’ll tell him that next time I see him!
During this film you got to act with two incredible actors, Jake Gyllenhaal and Carey Mulligan, what was it like to work with them? They’ve obviously been around for a long time so were you able to learn anything from them?
They were fantastic. Most of my stuff is with Carey and I did act in a lot of stuff with Jake as well. They are both incredible, incredible actors and I just learnt so much from being with them, I remember Jake taught me one thing about when you eat on set that you have to sort of mess it up a little a little bit. You learn so many little tips and tricks and you don’t really understand how much you’ve learnt until you come off the set and you realise how much they taught you.
I can imagine that’d be insane! Do you have any favourite memories from on the set?
It was all just really fun and a totally new experience. We had a large block of chocolate in the house, there were lots of great locations like the police station at one point, on top of a mountain, in a forest, there were all these new locations and it was fun to explore these new areas and to work with Dano. It was all so good.
That sounds incredible! If you could pick any role in any movie in existence to play that role, which would you pick?
I know I could do Michael Cera’s role as Scott Pilgrim in Scott Pilgrim vs. The World.
I can see that so clearly!!
It’s my all-time favourite movie. I think it’d be really fun to take on that weird hero – I know I can do it, I just know I can do it justice and I think it’d be so much fun.
So you’ve been acting for quite a few years now, do you have any advice for teens who want to get involved in acting?
I don’t know. I feel weird giving advice just being so young, but it’s definitely a hard thing to get into when there’s a lot of bounds. I remember someone telling me the other day that of all the actors in America only about three percent are working in a title – like a really, really slim percent. It’s hard – you just need to stick with it. The more you stick with it the more resilient you become. You just gotta keep doing and keep doing it, and take every possibility you can.
Thank you very much for this interview and I can’t wait to see the movie!
No worries! I hope you enjoy it when you get to see it.
Wildlife is opening the Melbourne International Film Festival in August.