Photo by: Paramount Pictures
All Shaun Brumder wants to do is go to Stanford. But after being rejected by mistake, his only hope of getting in is with the help of his lazy brother and supportive girlfriend.
Colin Hanks stars as Shaun Brumder and Schuyler Fisk (pronounced “Skyler”) as Ashley in the new hit MTV movie, “Orange County.” The actors were recently in town for a press junket, and I was fortunate enough to spend some time with the rising stars.
Q: What was your favorite part about making this movie?
Hanks: My favorite part about making the movie was working with [director] Jake [Kasdan].. Jake’s been a friend of mine for a couple years, so to be able to make a movie like this as the lead with the most amazing ensemble cast that I could have ever dreamed of. That’s probably what I loved most about the movie–the freedom of being able to work with a friend of mine and really have a sense of accomplishment and know that this was something I was going to be immensely proud of.
Fisk: Just being around the set, it was so much fun. We were always laughing. It wasn’t like work. It was like playtime or something.
Q: Was there a big blunder/memorable outtake?
Hanks: Schuyler getting bit on the nose by the dog, which was totally not supposed to happen. I think that was her first day on the set. So that was sort of like a major icebreaker.
Q: What was your life like in high school, compared to your role in the movie?
Hanks: Pretty boring. I went to a small private school, and I had been going to the same school since third grade. The comfort level was pretty high. It didn’t even really feel like high school–pretty contradictory to almost every sort of high school movie. But then again no high school movies are like high school.
Fisk: Normal, besides making a couple movies. I played a couple sports. I was a good student. Yeah, just really normal. I went to a normal, regular high school. I made a movie my junior year, “Snow Day,” and then I finished that summer so I didn’t have a senior year. I graduated a year early.
Q: What is it like to make an MTV film?
Hanks: Well, you know going in that this is going to be publicized like no other. MTV’s very good at doing that. What was great was that the script was so good, and with all the people in the movie, it didn’t feel like it was just some MTV movie that they were going to throw out with a great soundtrack and hopefully make a bunch of money from. So it never really felt like an MTV movie, until I took a look at their press schedule and I said, “Yeah, it’s an MTV movie.”
Q: What was your childhood like, growing up with celebrity parents? (Colin Hanks’ father is Tom Hanks, and Schuyler Fisk calls Sissy Spacek “Mom.”)
Hanks: I come from a divorced household, so I actually went to school and grew up in Sacramento. But I saw my dad more than some other divorced kids see their dad when they live in the same city. I had a really normal childhood, because our family is sort of old-fashioned in that respect. We’re really family-oriented. It was great. I loved it.
Fisk: Really normal. I went to the same school from preschool up. It was cool because I’d go and visit my parents on the sets a lot, so I got to travel and go to a lot of cool countries. But it was really normal. I grew up in Virginia on a farm. I did a lot of plays when I was in school. I made my first movie when I was 12, but I had a really normal upbringing, pretty boring.
Q: If you could work with any other actor, who would you work with?
Hanks: Probably I’d wanna work with Jack again. I mean there’s so many people you’d wanna be able to work with, but I’ll never know until I do. But Jack was so much fun, I’d love to do another movie with Jack. Or even just be in one of his music videos, that would be cool too.
Fisk: Cameron Crowe. Oh that’s a director! There’s so many, I don’t know.
