Oz, in Oz The Great and Powerful is played by James Franco. I will be honest in saying that I had not seen too many of his films, except for when he was in Spiderman, and a few episodes of General Hospital. I think I had heard more about his academic endeavors than his acting roles. However, since seeing him in the Oz movie, and interviewing him, I have a new interest in seeing his other films.
When James came into the room, he had with him his assistants and a few of his English students, and was immediately interested in the bevy of Mom Bloggers in front of him……..
I’m sure that by his reaction, and the reaction of the other actors we had interviewed this day, that the whole concept of “Mommy Bloggers” was a little odd for them. We made sure to show him just how awesome it all was.
Q: Have you seen the Oz dolls?
JAMES: I have not seen that, no, no. Very odd, huh?
Q: Does that freak you out?
JAMES: I’ve had dolls made before. I did the Spiderman films, so it’s nothing new to me.
Q: What was your most memorable moment in filming the movie?
JAMES: It was all pretty enjoyable. It was a very long shoot. It was six months but I was working with my old friend Sam Raimi and all the other actors and actress were great to work with, so it was mainly just long. It was enjoyable all the way through.
Q: What was your favorite part with the magic, and can you do it in real life now?
JAMES: I can. I had to train. I trained with a Vegas magician, Lance Burton and he showed me a lot of the secret tricks and I got pretty good at it. There’s a scene in the beginning of the film where we see Oz doing his act in the traveling circus, and there were more tricks in the original act that I learned. I could make doves materialize out of nothing and pull rabbits out of hats. But it didn’t make the cut. It was fun to learn anyways.
Q: Were you a fan of the Wizard of Oz growing up?
JAMES: I was. When I was a boy, I read all of the L. Frank Baum Oz books on my own. They were some of the first books I read for pleasure outside of school. And, it was fourteen or fifteen that he wrote, and I just sped through them. I remember there was a local book store called The Printer’s Ink in Paulo Alto, it was an independent book store and they had all the Oz books there, and I remember just like getting excited seeing all of them and going through each one.
Q: How was this role different for you compared to Spiderman?
JAMES: In the Spiderman films, I play Harry Osborne who is a supporting character. The thing I’ve learned about Sam Raimi is that he identifies with the characters in a lot of his films. And so when we did the Spiderman films, he identified with Peter Parker. And even though he and I got along very, very well, and became very good friends, I felt like I was not getting the full sunshine of his love because I was playing the character that was trying to kill his alter ego. [LAUGHTER]
Now in this film, I’m the lead and again, I think Oz is a stand-in for certain sides of Sam ….. Sam has a nerdy side and a childlike side, but he also be a little bit of a trickster, I guess. And in addition to that, Oz is an entertainer. He creates illusions to entertain people, and that’s exactly what Sam does. So I’m finally the character, playing the character that he identifies with, and so I get all of his love. So it’s great. [LAUGHTER].
Q: Who’s your favorite witch to work with?
JAMES: That’s a hard question. Um, you’re gonna get me in trouble! They’re all the best, some of the best actresses alive. We’re very fortunate to have all of them, and they’re all very different, but the roles are very different. So each one was enjoyable but a very different experience. I was glad to have worked with all of them.
Q: Did Sam give you license to add personality to the Oz character yourself?
JAMES: Sam is a very collaborative director and everyone is welcome to bring things to the table. And so with the character Oz, not only did we rehearse in advance two weeks of the film, we rehearsed throughout the film. I was spending all my lunches going over the script and the scene with Sam and the other actors, and through that process, I think the character of Oz changed quite a bit. In fact, we looked at an early draft of the script and I was surprised at how different that early draft was to where we ended up and that’s just because of the way Sam works, and the way the project is, so I’m sure some of me made it into the character that wasn’t originally on the page.
Q: How was it working with Finley and China Girl?
JAMES: Zach Braff plays the flying monkey, Finley, and Joey King plays the China Girl, the doll made out of porcelain. Those were some of my favorite scenes. I thought they were just great characters and great kind of oddball sidekicks to have in the land of Oz. I loved Joey and Zack and I would do anything with them, they’re great collaborators.
The actual process of interacting with CG characters is it’s own kind of thing, but filmmakers and actors are getting more and more use to it. So it’s not as if I’m just acting to nothing the whole time. There’s a process you go through, and I think I got great training on a movie I did called Planet of the Apes where I got to work with Andy Serkis, who you know, played Gollum, and then played Caesar in my film. He’s kind of the master of this performance capture kind of film making. You go through a series of different kinds of takes, so in the early takes, Zach would be there with me so I could interact with him, and then for the China Girl, there was a great puppeteer who could bring this puppet to life. I would hear Joey’s voice in my ear, and he would, too, and he’d make the doll react to what she was saying.
So you do those in the early takes and if the animators, or the, the computer animators want to, they can always use my side of those takes and then paint out Zack or paint out the puppet. At the end of that series of takes, once the scene is sort of ingrained in me or I know the flow of the interaction, they’ll always take them out. So I will eventually have a take where I’m acting to nothing and if you, [LAUGHS], were a guest that day and saw that, you’d think, you know, I’m an insane person or something.
Q: Do you ever sleep. How do you manage all that you do?
JAMES: I do sleep. I do a lot of things but I’m in the fortunate position that my job is what I love and so I don’t need a relief from it. I just kind of move from project to project because it’s how I enjoy life. So it seems like I’m doing a lot of things but it’s really just because I fill all of my time with these things rather than half of my time. But I sleep about six hours a night.
Q: Would you be so kind as to take a group photo?
JAMES: Sure.
*************************************************************
OZ THE GREAT AND POWERFUL lands in theaters on March 8th!!
Be sure to follow the Oz conversation on Twitter by following the hashtag #DisneyOzEvent
You can also follow @DisneyOzMovie on Twitter and Like Oz The Great and Powerful on Facebook for all of the latest news about the movie.
Disclosure: I was provided with an all expense paid trip by Disney in order to bring you this information. All opinions and experiences expressed are my own. This is accordance with Federal Trade Commissions 16 CFR, Part 255 Guides Concerning the Use of. Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.
–>
Dianna Ranere 