411MANIA INTERVIEWS: CHARISMA CARPENTER
by Al Norton

I had a job in New Zealand and I was gone for a month. I had a job in England and I was gone for a month. When I was in England it was for a movie called Psychosis and I really had to way it out. Ultimately the part meant so much to me that to be a human being as well as a Mom I needed to be happy, and if it makes me happy it makes me a better Mom. It's got to be something I really want to do to take me away from my kid.

Al Norton: Tell me about The Expendables.
Charisma Carpenter: It was a memorable part, for sure. I just heard that Sly (Stallone, who directs and stars in the movie) broke his neck. I knew he got hurt so much during filming. He was in and out of the emergency room so many times. It was a really, really intense shoot, very physically demanding. He is so 120% he would do things over and over again even though he had an injury and then when it was done and it was after work he would go in and get stitches or whatever it was he needed to get worked on. I don't know how one does that job with a broken neck. It blows me away but he was crazy that way.

Al Norton: Was the full cast (Stallone, Jet Li, Jason Statham, Steve Austin, Mickey Rourke, Dolph Lundgren, Eric Roberts, Bruce Willis, Arnold Schwarzenegger) in place when you got hired? We are talking about the biggest names in action movies from the last 30 years.
Charisma Carpenter: They were all in place. I was very well aware of how good this movie would be because of all the people who were in it. That's what made the audition that much more nerve racking, knowing how much fun it would be to get the part.

I have to give props to my friend Julie Benz who was very instrumental in getting me in the room to be seen for the part. She had worked with Sly before and he was having trouble finding the right person for this part. He wanted someone soft and the readings he was seeing were too angry. I had the privilege of getting that information beforehand. I had a meeting with him and didn't know if he was going to offer me the part right there but then he said, "I really like you but you still have to read."

We ended up having a really long conversation and I said something ballsy that I had never said before, which was "look, you have to give me a chance. I know exactly what you want. I want to go get a scene from my house. It's right around the corner and I'll be right back (laughing)" And my kid was with me because when he wanted to meet was after school and I wasn't about to ask him to change the time. It was a very once-in-a-lifetime kind of moment and he was ok with waiting. I showed him my final scene on the 100th episode of Angel.

Al Norton: I know it well. It's an amazing scene.
Charisma Carpenter: That's probably one of my favorite pieces of work. It was just a magical, magical thing. It wasn't just acting and I am very proud of that. I wanted to show it to him so he could see tenderness from me. I showed it to him and he looked at me and he didn't punch me in the arm but it was like a "hey, look at you" thing. Then I read and I didn't know this at the time and they stream it right over so he was getting it as I was reading.

The next morning I am dropping my kid off at school, with a bun in my hair and wearing really big boyfriend jeans, and I get a call saying Sly wants to see you in his office right now. I said, "I just dropped my son off from school, it's 8:00 in the morning, I don't even have any make up on; I can't go to his office." I pulled over and called my manager and told her Sly wanted to see me in his office. She said, "wait, what? What if you didn't get the job?" What was I going to do, not go? (Laughing).

When I went in the office there was Sly and another guy who had a camera in his hand and was looking at the digital LCD frame. I thought he was a producer watching my scene but he was taping me the whole time. Sly sits me down and asks me how I thought I did in the audition and I told him, "it really doesn't matter how I think I did, what did you think?" He pushed me and said he really wanted to know what I thought so I told him, "I think I nailed it." He said, "I think you did, too. You got the part." I said, "don't fuck with me, don't fuck with me. This would be really, really mean. Are you punking me right now? He said no and I gave him a huge hug.

That guy with the video camera was filming all throughout the movie so my guess is the DVD will have some sort of super cool extra documentary thing about the making of it.

Pagine: 1 - 2 - 3