You may know Zach Braff from his role on Scrubs or from his recent hysterical TV interviews for his character as Finley (the flying monkey) in Disney’s Oz The Great and Powerful. I knew he was a funny guy, I just didn’t realize how funny he would be to interview in person and it started from the moment he walked into the room…
A lot of the actors aren’t familiar with Mommy Bloggers conducting interviews so when he walked in and looked at the interview table filled with our cell phones being used as voice recorders for the interview he stopped to take a pic of it (since he is very active on Twitter).
That’s when I knew then that we were in for a real treat. I only wish my words could capture his true essence because he had a great personality. Read on and you’ll see what I mean…
On the Audition Process
Sam asked me to come in. He wanted to talk and I went in this room with pre-visualization stuff and it was that sequence where we’re running off the cliff and right before we go into the bubbles, where I jump off. And the monkey didn’t have any lines and Sam said “we have this scene, but we want someone who can kinda come to the set and figure out who this guy is with me and James”. He showed me the animation and I was watching it and I saw Finley jump off and Oz says, “what are you doing, you’re jumping off”. And I just went, “I have wings”. [LAUGHTER] and Sam just started dying laughing and I was like, I guess that’s a good sign. I found out when I got home I got the gig ’cause I made the director laugh.
On Working with Sam
Sam wanted someone that could sit there and go, “oh what if I said this” and I said “Sam, I promise you this, I’m going to drive you crazy, I’m going to pitch a thousand ideas, but just take what you like and leave the rest. No hard feelings”. There would be plenty of times where we’d be on set and I’d be like, “oh what if this da-da-da-da-da-da” all excited and he’d be like, that’s hysterical, but it’s not called The Monkey. [LAUGHTER] Maybe when we make the movie, The Monkey, we can do that elaborate scene you just pitched [LAUGHS]. So maybe, who knows, the sequel.
Most memorable moments during filming
I love the moment when we find China Girl and James is putting her back together because it was so genuinely moving, even on set…it was so moving. We were on all these giant sets and the first time we were literally sitting and it was so surreal. We were literally sitting in a tea kettle and it was James, Joey King and the puppeteer and they had this beautiful marionette puppet and it was just so sweet and beautiful that my eyes actually welled up. That’s when I discovered that I wanted the monkey to be an easy crier. I was like, Sam, let’s have him cry covertly… he doesn’t want Oz to see that he’s crying, so let’s have him covertly swipe the tear. And then they kept in the movie, it was really sweet.
On preparing for his role as a monkey
I did actually go to the Detroit Zoo. [LAUGHTER] I stumbled across two monkeys and let’s just say they were in an intimate embrace [LAUGHTER] None of that proved useful [LAUGHS] maybe for the sequel I don’t know if the monkey gets a girlfriend or not. It worked creating a creature from scratch, he looks like a monkey but he flies and he talks like a human. So there really wasn’t too much monkey research to be done.
On Doing a Family Film
I don’t have any of my own yet (I have nieces and nephews) but I love kids and the idea.
On Finley, the Stuffed Animal
I swear you guys will love this story as moms. I have a twelve-year-old nephew and his sister couldn’t come out from Florida to the premiere and I said I want you to give this (The Finely Stuffed Animal) to your sister, Ella…who is eight, because she didn’t get to come out. And he goes “yeah-yeah-yeah I’ll give it to her” and I walk in to the room, where he is sleeping on the couch, to come here this morning and he’s totally spooning it. [LAUGHTER] There’s no way Ella is getting that stuffed animal. Actually he said they’d share it and I was like, “no-no-no it’s for Ella”. So I told my publicist, I need a box of those things. One is not going to do.
On making Garden State compared to making Oz The Great & Powerful
The budget of Garden State was the chewing gum budget of this movie [LAUGHTER]. Imagine going from a kayak to a cruise ship, although we shouldn’t reference cruise ships today (referencing the Carnival Cruise Issues going on during the time of this interview). It was thrilling just to even be on set, I love movies so much, and just to be there was a dream. I think is a pretty historic experience.
On Us (25 Mommy Bloggers) being able to get #FlyingMonkey to trend on Twitter while we doing the interview
Is it? You guys are such scary power…Wow, you guys can band together for good. That’s really cool. That’s a lot of power. I’m going to get on there and re-tweet it.
Make sure your following Disney Oz Movie on Twitter and “Like” the Oz the Great & Powerful Fan Page. You can also check out their website.
Thanks for the images Disney
Disclosure: This post was facilitated as a result of a press trip. As always, ALL opinions are my own.
