| 'UNDER THE MOUNTAIN' twin-power of SOPHIE MCBRIDE & TOM CAMERON... |
| Written by Shahlin Graves | ||||
| Wednesday, 23 December 2009 08:57 | ||||
 COUP DE MAIN: How did you end up being cast in 'Under The Mountain'? SOPHIE MCBRIDE: It was a bit of a fluke, really. TOM CAMERON: Basically, we went to an audition with each other - which is kind of cool. SOPHIE: Yup, we auditioned together. CDM: Were you friends before the audition? TOM: No, we'd never met each other. SOPHIE: But we've known each other for two years now. It's been two years since the audition. I just wanted to get some money so I could go live in Wellington - which is where I am now. So I was like; oh I'll do some acting... and that was the first audition! It all kind of rolled on from there. CDM: Sophie, where were you based before Wellington? SOPHIE: Auckland. Grey Lynn. So this is home! But it got me to Wellington, so I'm stoked. It's been a whirlwind. It was his [ Tom's ] first audition as well, so we're newbies relatively. TOM: New to the acting game!  TOM: Two months? SOPHIE: Plus two weeks of rehearsal. *both together* and... TOM: Twin-bonding. There you go, saying the same thing. CDM: Great! We're going to be playing a twin game soon... SOPHIE: Ooohhhhh... TOM: We're going to ace that game! SOPHIE: It was a year from the audition, to when we started doing the rehearsal - we were semi-in-and-out-of contact then. So it felt like we'd known each other a while, getting that twin-bond and all... TOM: Basically, we were friends when we started filming. SOPHIE: Which helped a lot. TOM: And then we got to twin-ness throughout, which was... SOPHIE: Awesome! TOM: Pretty good. CDM: Had you watched the television series or read the book, prior to filming? SOPHIE: We didn't watch the series to avoid being influenced by those characters. TOM: Those series' were for thirteen and fourteen year olds and is pretty dated now anyway. This, is a new take on it. SOPHIE: We're hoping this is a new, modern approach. And the twins are quite a lot older and dealing with more mature things. It's its own entity. It's something new that we're wanting to push forward with a fresh approach. CDM: What is the other twin's favourite scene in the film?  SOPHIE: Art History and Psychology. I was initially doing English and then I realised that I didn't want to... and so I finally found my way there. But I've just sort of kept doing it until something else comes up - maybe acting now... CDM: Is it difficult to keep on top of everything at this time of year, especially with it being exam-time? SOPHIE: It's not very good timing. This is my study week, right now! So study, is not really happening... But, I think I will be fine. I'll get there. CDM: Apparently, you've also got some singing and piano-playing talent... SOPHIE: That was just a school talent quest. Singing's just a hobby. I prefer acting. *laughs* I think I'm better at it too. CDM: With your Mother [ Michele Hine ] being an actress, director and acting teacher - were you influenced by her to try the acting game? SOPHIE: I suppose she did, because I was around that world. I've been around it my whole life - been around actors and actresses and gotten used to it. She's the one who pushed me to go for the audition. So I suppose she did...
TOM: I took up dancing at a young age. At eight, because my cousin was doing it and he was really good. So I started dancing and got into the same dance group. If you've seen 'New Zealand's Got Talent'? TMC - the team that got second last year; that's my cousin and his mate. I was in the dance group before they got really good. Then I dropped out. SOPHIE: Don't be modest. I'm sure you're good. TOM: Then I started acting... it just came to me. CDM: Perhaps we can look forward to your dancing talents in future 'High School Musical'-s? TOM: I can't sing though... I could be a lip-syncer. CDM: In the first 'High School Musical' movie, Zac Efron's 'singing' was recorded for him by another person... SOPHIE: Oh! He was very convincing. CDM: Tom, you could be the next Zac Efron. SOPHIE: Oh my gosh! There's something to aspire to!! TOM: *laughs* Thank you very much... but I don't think that's going to happen. CDM: What is your involvement with the 'Aspiring Young Actors' programme? TOM: When I got into acting, I did this holiday programme. It was with a lady called Jan Saussey, who owns the Aspiring Actors. And through that programme, I got an agent and I also got to audition for the group called 'Aspiring Young Actors'. Which is basically a talent group for interested actors. CDM: Is the programme a good mentorship to lean on? TOM: It was a good learning curve. It was a good start to get into the acting game and meet people, and then from there I got an audition - and got it [ 'Under The Mountain' ]. CDM: After watching 'Under The Mountain', we can all look forward to your face appearing on the upcoming TV series 'This Is Not My Life' - correct? TOM: I filmed that this year and it was great fun. It was just good to get back on the horse and do some acting.
SOPHIE: Well, it kinda just happened... I'm sure it is. But we, just fell into it. TOM: Even though I was doing the Aspiring Actors thing, I never actually wanted to do movies. But now I've done one, I want to do them! SOPHIE: It was luck. Total luck. TOM: I want to do ads and get a bit of buck... CDM: Money, money, money... SOPHIE: *laughs* Ohhh! Of course... CDM: During filming, were you scared of the Wilberforces? SOPHIE: They were scary, really. TOM: The most scary thing for me, was - if you can see the poster - the black contact lenses he's wearing? He actually wore contact lenses like that. SOPHIE: They fully covered his entire eyes! TOM: So, so scary. SOPHIE: And the prosthetics were amazing. So when you were acting on a set, they were actually right there and it was like; WHOAH this is actually what you look like... CDM: What did they actually look like during filming? Was it mostly computerised aesthetics added in afterwards in post-production? SOPHIE: They computerised a bit, but in a lot of scenes it was mostly prosthetics that you see. TOM: Without it, they are normal people... But with prosthetics.... SOPHIE: Oliver Driver had it right over his head and neck - one time he had his hands done and everything. So we were seeing the real thing! CDM: If a Wilberforce appeared right NOW, what would the other twin do?  SOPHIE: After doing this, probably? TOM: *sigh* Want to be my twin? SOPHIE: He's kinda my substitute, 'cuz we didn't get the chance to have real ones... *cries* CDM: What is the other twin thinking about right now?  SOPHIE: What's your favourite colour? TOM: Blue... Auckland, or Wellington? SOPHIE: Auckland for life... but Wellington for Uni?  |
