| ||
| ||
| ||
 |
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
'Grind' stars: 'Here's your skateboard'
By Stephanie Snipes
ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- What do a Space Walk, Madonna, Saran Wrap and a Hurricane have in common? They're all skateboarding tricks perfected by pros -- such as Tony Hawk and Allan "Ollie" Gelfand -- which are on display in the new movie "Grind." But unlike Hollywood's first glimpse in to the X-treme world of skaters -- 1989's teen murder mystery "Gleaming the Cube" -- "Grind" focuses on the sport and lives of four wannabe professional skaters. First-time director Casey La Scala enlisted the help of Morgan Stone and Matt Goodman -- who with pro-skater Tony Hawk, own the action sports production company 900 Films -- to coordinate and authenticate the action. The story focuses on five young skateboarders played by newcomers Mike Vogel, Adam Brody, Vince Vieluf, Joey Kern and Jennifer Morrison. CNN sat down with Vogel and Morrison to discuss the film. CNN: Had you done any skateboarding before filming this movie? MIKE VOGEL: I grew up skateboarding. All through high school that was my thing. That was the world I was in. So, reading the script ... really took me back to those times in high school and all those memories with my friends. It was fun to go back and just relive all that again. JENNIFER MORRISON: I had never skated before. I had snowboarded and I grew up as a dancer and playing soccer ... so I had an athletic background. But literally two days before we started shooting they were like "Here's your skateboard, learn. Here's the Tony Hawk skate video, go for it." Luckily, I took to it pretty quickly. CNN: That was it? What other guidance did you get?
MORRISON: We were totally immersed in that world on set. There were 20 pro skaters there every day tearing it up on the ramps. They were so cool about being helpful and really wanting to see us get better. ... Totally giving us tips to make everything more realistic and more authentic. CNN: Tell us about the atmosphere on the set. VOGEL: Adam and I were friends prior to doing the movie so we already had that relationship in place ... so I automatically had an actor that I trusted. Joey and Vince, the great thing about this was that each one of the guys in the group were these people. They were the guys they were playing. MORRISON: It was like a spontaneous combustion of humanity. Once you put these four guys together all the craziness was coming out and it just kept getting funnier and funnier and funnier. CNN: How about all the cameos? Randy Quaid, Tom Greene, Bobcat Goldthwait, Dave Foley? MORRISON: To have those guys believe in it enough to want to be a part of it really meant a lot to us. VOGEL: Bobcat and Dave Foley were my favorites. Dave Foley is so polite -- politely sarcastic. And he's so gentle about berating you. I just love his comedy and his sense of humor. I was a huge "Kids in the Hall" fan. CNN: Why should people go see this film? MORRISON: It's just really fun. And you are going to see the best skating you've ever seen on 35-millimeter film. I mean you just don't get the opportunity to see skating like that on the big screen. VOGEL: The sport has gotten so young and I think that's what's great about the movie, everyone says it's such a kid's movie. Well, you know I think we have a lot to learn from kids because as we get older we just stop dreaming.
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
