Every Young Girl’s Dream – A Date (Interview) with the “Me and Orson Welles” Cast

With the impending release of the latest Twilight flick and the widespread conflict between ‘Team Edward’ and ‘Team Jacob’, Zac Efron has managed a brief respite from the asphyxiation caused by an innumerable amount of teenage girls and their imaginative dreams.  As the premiere of the new Me and Orson Welles movie, starring Efron, Claire Danes, and Christian McKay, looms closer, that luxury will prove short-lived for Efron.  Trust me when I say, Zac Efron will soon enough be stealing back the hearts of every young girl and most likely the hearts of many others.

Now, as fellow member of the male gender, it is only natural that I question the natural order of things as they are with young actors being able to consume the minds and hearts of so many girls with such little concern.  You can call it jealousy or you can call it ignorance, but I have convinced myself that it’s completely warranted to be worried about this, what we may call, ‘Pretty Boy’ phenomenon.  The bar is clearly being set way to high for us normal guys without access to stylists and personal beauticians (or without access to the funds to employ such people).  It’s kind of like that kid in Organic Chemistry who doesn’t socialize with anyone, stays in all weekend, and then gets the only A on the midterm amongst an ocean of C’s and continually ruins the curve for the rest of the students – except now that kid has perfect bone structure, gelled hair, natural muscle tone that a month straight of McDonald’s couldn’t damage, and a wardrobe full of designers that half of the fashion world has yet to hear about because they’re that important.

Richard Linklater, Claire Danes, Zac Efron

With my virgin-in-a-strip club-like curiosity, I jumped at the opportunity to interview the talent behind Me and Orson Welles.  Efron, Danes and director, Richard Linklater, were going to be in Washington DC to do some public relations work for the upcoming movie, attend an advanced screening, and visit the White House, amongst other agenda exploding activities, and Poptimal was invited for a roundtable interview session with the group.  This was my chance to be able to tell everyone how I could totally match up with Zac Efron; to challenge the overpowering existence of and influence of pretty boy movie stars within the minds of the opposite sex.  I was going to take on giant step forward for all of humanity (excluding celebrities).

The interview session was held at The Ritz-Carlton in Georgetown – class, class, class.  I had taken up about half of a notepad (Mind you, not a page of a notepad, half of an entire notepad) with some of, what I believed to be, the most intellectually stimulating questions I could think up.  I wanted to make sure that the talent remembered the face of Matt Turnier because of his well thought out observations and inquiries.  I also might have come up with this idea in my head to try my best in devising a question so profound that it would leave the interviewees speechless (Whether it was out of awe or because such a question could simply not have an answer did not matter), however, that notion cannot be confirmed.

I arrived at the hotel and waited in the lobby with about five women who were also interviewing the group.  They all ogled at the thought of being in the same room as Zac Efron, citing his looks and his inviting personality as some of his more warming qualities.  At one point I tried to call another male over to balance out the estrogen fueled Efron ranting.  It turned out that he may have been a bigger fan of Efron than any of the women.  As more time passed waiting to be called into the restricted access suite that was set up and more discussion about the actual interview went on, I actually started to feel a little apprehensive and nervous.  Here I was, setting out to disprove the effect that these celebrity heartthrobs have on people and I was already feeling that same lump in the throat and weakness in the knees that my little sister would have at High School Musical live show.

We finally made out way up to the room stocked with soda cans and those rectangular water bottles that only celebrities drink.  Everyone sat down at a little coffee table after shaking hands with the talent and making some introductions.  After all the Zac Efron excitement that went on downstairs, every single woman chose to sit down in every seat but the one directly next to Efron.  I took that opportunity with a ‘no big deal’ look on my face and a lean in my chair that would put gangster rappers riding in their candy-painted caddy’s to shame.  We shook hands and gave each other a nod – for a second I forgot about my intention to bring pride back to the average joe and felt star struck, but I managed not to stare.

Matthew Turnier & Zac Efron

I was last on the line to ask a question.  The group asked a pretty diverse range of questions.  Linklater talked about doing a period piece in the 1930’s and how important it was to create a certain atmosphere while adding a screwball comedy mood, something not generally connected with that era, in order to capture each individual character and their ambitions.  Linklater admitted himself that his movie “was something Orson Welles wouldn’t have wanted to be in himself”.  Claire Danes didn’t speak as much as I would have anticipated besides her pledged allegiance and fondness of President Obama, when asked if she had any favorite politicians (although they all admitted that none of them were “any kind of news or politics junkies”), and a small remark about her character in the movie.  Linklater, Efron, and Danes all spoke very highly for some time on the performance of Christian McKay as Orson Welles.  They praised his abilities and professionalism while also talking about being taken aback when he, as a lead character, would repeatedly ask questions and remain somewhat reserved in voicing his opinions – unlike the real life Orson Welles, ironically.  Finally came my turn to ask a question.  I wanted to start out with an easy one to get warmed up.  I asked how they would like their upcoming movie, Me and Orson Welles to be reviewed and how they would like it to be remembered (Since the whole movie centers around opening night of the Orson Welles play Julius Caesar and making sure it received positive acclaim).  I followed it up with how they would like their careers when all is said and done to be reviewed and remembered.  I thought that it would be a great look into the celebrity psyche and how important their selection of movie projects was to each of them.

Surprisingly, Linklater showed a distinct indifference towards a review of his life and work.  It seemed to be a bit more personal for him, clearly making movies that appealed to his senses and not those of others.  To a degree it’s an understandable thought, but to forget about the audience’s connection to one’s work doesn’t seem like the most fulfilling path.  Efron talked for a while about being someone who wanted to make a difference through his performances.  More importantly, he expressed his desire to be someone who pushed boundaries and took risks, even if that meant being ahead of the times (Did not mention wooing women with his classic looks, charm, singing and dances moves thankfully).  I found that idea that being involved in something before your time was just as important and stimulating as being involved in a blockbuster to be a very Wellesian concept, something I was impressed by.  The interview ended as quickly as it began and I managed to go thank the group for attending and, although hesitantly, asked for a picture with Efron, who gladly though exhaustively agreed, to document the event (Plus I feared that my little sister would denounce me as her brother if I didn’t).

We all shuffled out and I suddenly realized I had forgotten to collect material for my plan to curtail the growing popularity of these young actors and restore satisfaction in your everyday guy in the eyes of women.  And then I realized that many of these actors are pretty average, they just don’t live average lives.  Maybe it’s not about looks or charm as much as we may think, but the lives we live.  Something I think Orson Welles, and Efron to some extent, realized themselves.