Here at Good Prattle we've been hyping up the Chris Columbus-directed Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief for a couple of weeks now. I will avoid engaging in the admittedly ridiculous levels of Harry Potter comparison this film has been experiencing; suffice it to say, however, that Percy Jackson has the makings of a great, truly entertaining new fantasy franchise. And considering how sequel- and remake-driven Hollywood has been as of late, we could certainly do with a tale the world doesn't already know by heart... although the series might ring a bell with fans of Greco-Roman mythology. The Lightning Thief is about a sixteen-year-old boy named Percy (Logan Lerman) who discovers that he is the son of Poseidon—and that the entirety of Mt. Olympus thinks he is responsible for the recent theft of Zeus's lightning bolt. Accompanied by Annabeth (Alexandra Daddario), the daughter of Athena, and by Grover (Brandon T. Jackson), a satyr who has secretly been protecting him for years, Percy sets off to prove his innocence to Zeus. The film is also littered with appearances by more seasoned actors—including Pierce Brosnan, who plays the centaur Chiron. He, the director, and the three leads held a small press conference to talk about the film.Logan, Brandon, and Alexandra, do you think this movie’s going to change your lives?
LOGAN LERMAN: Uh… well, I guess I—I’ll put it this way: if it does increase any kind of popularity, if that happens, this is a movie that I’m willing to undergo that for. This is a movie that I’m really proud of, and because of that it’s the biggest compliment if people recognize you for that.
ALEXANDRA DADDARIO: Uh, for me… it’s already changed my life a lot. I have opportunities that I never had before, and I’ve learned so much, and I’m incredibly lucky as far as anything beyond this point. I’m sort of taking it day by day. I’m just excited to be doing what I love; I think that’s the best part of this.
BRANDON T. JACKSON: Okay, but we can’t say it’s not weird, leaving a theatre and being dragged out in a crowd of kids that are screaming. You can’t say it’s not weird, but at the same time it’s very inspiring to see everybody love the movie. And that’s the best thing, as Logan and Alex were saying: we fight hard to make great movies for you guys, so that’s the big deal. As long as it doesn’t affect our work, which is the main point.
Chris, when you had the idea of having Pierce play a centaur—of having this young man to play that role… [laughter] I’d like the inside look into the meeting where you said “You’re gonna be a centaur, Pierce.” And, Pierce, what did you think when you saw yourself on the screen? Did you ever think you’d play a role like this?
PIERCE BROSNAN: Well, Chris was very sly. He went straight for my vanity and sent me this beautiful portrait of me as the centaur, which I looked magnificent in. [laughter] Muscles I’d never had in all my life are in that portrait! Of course, my sons were instrumental in me doing this film. They’d read the books, and they loved the books, and Chris and I had worked together on Mrs. Doubtfire all those years ago and I just admired him as a filmmaker and as a man. But we didn’t really discuss how to play this role or what one would do as a centaur. I… think neither of us really knew what to do as a centaur! [laughter] I love horses, and I ride horses; I had a portfolio in my script of centaurs from friezes and medieval paintings. Then you begin to use your imagination. I mean, Chris obviously had a defined image; the portrait that he sent me of myself as Chiron was beautifully rendered. And then came the blue tights. [laughter] I really had no idea what to do with that. It’s really hard to keep one’s dignity and nobility when you’re standing resplendent from the waist up and then you look at yourself in electric blue tights with orange fluorescent spots.
BTJ: I feel your pain.
PB: Well, actually, I saw you, Brandon, and thought, “Oh, I’ve got a friend! We’re in this together!” [laughter]
CHRIS COLUMBUS: Well, for me it was just a matter of casting actors who have a sort of larger-than-life, godlike quality about them as the gods. And who better to play a trainer of heroes, of people like Hercules and Michael Jordan, than Pierce Brosnan? [laughter] And I really wanted to work with Pierce again. We had a great time on Mrs. Doubtfire. This was really the case with all of these gods and goddesses: how can we find someone whom you could believe is a god? Danny DeVito might have been a stretch. [laughter] We needed to find someone who really had that air about it. I responded to the best actors possible.
Chris, how did you find the right balance between entertaining older and younger audiences?
CC: I’ve got four children of my own, and I’ve spent the past several years going to various children’s movies and sitting through a screening of Pokey-man one time… [copious laughter] I almost physically deteriorated and thought about suicide. [even more laughter] I realized that there’s a point where you can’t entertain the parents enough, so for me this film had to work on two levels: first to make it a wild ride for the seven-to-sixteen-year-olds, and then for the older kids and adults in the audience to make it something that makes them feel like they’re twelve years old again. So that’s it. That was really the goal, and you’ll see that there’s a balance where the kids are laughing at something while they’re watching a movie and then the parents giggle at something that goes over the kids’ heads. You learn that from some of the best children’s films over the past decade.
Are there going to be more movies? Will you younger cast members be too old for any of the later sequels?
LL: Are we going to be too old later on? I mean, I guess Chris and the creative crew aged it up for a reason, so—
CC: Yeah, the point of aging the characters up from 11 was—you’re dealing with a character who’s got an extraordinary amount of baggage in his life: he’s dealing with parental abandonment, and he wants to know who his father is; he’s got dyslexia and ADHD, coupled with the fact that he’s a troublemaker and has been sent to various schools… I needed some complexity in the actor who was going to portray that. When I saw Logan in 3:10 to Yuma and in the screen test, I realized, “This is the guy.” I had no qualms about making the characters older; I thought that could only make it a better film, if I have an actor of that quality, and then surrounding him with actors as talented as Alex and Brandon and Jake Abel just was the goal all along. Even imagining the battles—these kids are battling for their lives. They’re training to be heroes and warriors and gladiators. Y’know, 11-year-olds running around with paper hats and wooden swords seemed a little lightweight to me. I really wanted those scenes—because seven-year-olds are going to say, when they see those swordfights and they see that action, “I want to go to that place. I want to go to that place. I want to go to that camp and learn how to become a warrior.”
What about the sexual tension with eleven-year-olds?
CC: …I can’t answer that; are you kidding me?!? [plentiful laughter] Sexu—uh— [laughter] That’s quite the question! No, uh, there’s a certain amount of romantic tension in this film, but there’s no question that Logan and Alex have a tremendous amount of chemistry. And when I saw their screen tests together I was taken hard by the fact that—we especially looked long and hard for someone like Alex, because I saw a lot of young actresses who weren’t eating properly and they could barely lift a fork. I needed someone who felt like they could hold a sword and be a formidable opponent for Percy, and the romantic tension was always something I thought would be great in the film and they pulled it off beautifully.
What was it like for the younger three of you to work with such prestigious cast members? Did you look at anyone like a mentor…?
BTJ: I had a stupid question for Rosario. I actually made a goof out of myself. I actually literally asked her to be my mentor—it was a stupid question. But besides the goofball in me, looking at Pierce and at Steve Coogan and at Uma Thurman and at Rosario and everybody, it’s just always a pleasure to work with people who’ve been in the business longer than you. It’s always good to learn something from the people you watched as a child and when you were younger; to actually be onscreen next to them is always a pleasure, and it’s very humbling, and at the same time you get to learn so much. It’s a blessing.
AD: Yeah, these are actors I’ve grown up with and admired my whole life. You know, it’s really an honor to have the opportunity to work with people like this and learn from them and listen to them. I’m very, very lucky; it’s really a dream come true.
LL: I’ve always put it this way: acting, for me, is like a kid walking into a playground. And these great actors like Pierce and Uma, these people who are so seasoned and so talented, they have huge playgrounds. And going into a scene there’s so much to explore with them because they have many places to go, so it’s just a lot of fun, you know? To see your heroes and work with them.
PB: Likewise.
LL: Thank you.
AD: Thanks so much.
PB: It’s amazing working with the three of you, really. Your instincts are so sharp. It made me real. It was a joy.
To what extent were you into Greek and Roman mythology beforehand? Now you’ve done the film, do you really geek out on that stuff now?
BTJ: I was always very interested in Greek mythology. We learned a lot about it in school, but to be honest we had to really brush up on our Greek mythology because we realized that you guys would quiz us—please don’t quiz us, by the way. [laughter] But people would ask us questions, so this gave us a great excuse to brush up. Not just that—it gives kids and teenagers and adults a cool way to learn Greek mythology, so that was the cool thing about this film.
LL: Brandon pretty much said it all. No, it’s the truth: you learn in school, but I never really revisited it, and being a part of this film was a great excuse to kind of brush up on my knowledge and learn a little bit more in detail. But I think anybody who sees this film—it’s going to spark an interest in anybody who sees this film. They’re gonna get into Greek mythology too.
AD: Yeah, on that note, I think one of the wonderful things about this series and about the movie is that I’ve heard kids have gone and learned more about Greek mythology just because of the movie and because of the books. I think that that’s really wonderful.
PB: I had to go to my library and get down books from my drama school days about all of that, and Chiron certainly was somebody I’d heard about but hadn’t known to be a teacher or philosopher, so that was a big stepping stone for me.
CC: For me it was fun to go back to the stories because some of the stories are very, very dark and adult-oriented and not really appropriate for a children’s movie, so we wanted to avoid some of those… our version is almost the “classics, illustrated” version. Hopefully, the kids will be inspired enough and interested enough to start reading about Greek mythology. And that will truly scare them out of their wits. [Logan laughs]
Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief is in theatres now.
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