“Annie” hits theaters this Friday, December 19.
In the film, Cameron Diaz is wonderful as Miss Hannigan and Bobby Cannavale plays Guy, Will Stacks’ political consultant. The film was just nominated for 2 Golden Globes, too! Read what they had to say about the film below:
Q: Speak about working with director Will Gluck.
CD: He’s so much fun. To mess with and have fun with. He’s a great guy.
BC: Yeah he doesn’t take himself too seriously which is important. He’s in on the joke, he’s pretty self-deprecating, and he’s passionate about the project you know? You need a good captain of the ship and Will is a very good captain and he keeps you enthused about it and he keeps you in the moment and he makes you feel like he has a real vision and you want to go along with somebody like that. So it’s a real pleasure to work with Will.
Q: Did he give you a lot of freedom to play and a safe space to play?
BC: Totally.
CD: So much fun. Especially when we’re working with the kids because — he would never cut, he kept rolling constantly since we only had a certain amount of time, so he would sort of utilize that time by never cutting because if he cut, then the kids would all go … and so he kept saying “We’re still rolling” and then an hour later, we’d be like, “Are we rolling?” … But he used that as a way to keep momentum going and he’d say, “Ok try this. Try that. Try this.” So he kind of just threw things at us and we had to catch it and run with it because we were still rolling. So that was fun.
Q: Can you speak about the musical numbers? You both perform “Easy Street” together.
BC: Well I love that song so much, and for me, the whole reason why I did the movie was because I got to do this song [“Easy Street”], the song and dance, I’ve never done that before and it was really what made me want to do that. And I find that the scenario, the way that they unfold that song, for me, it’s kind of the most natural song in a way, because there we are in a night club with the band playing and people dancing, and it sort of happens very naturally. And the song tells their story pretty well too and I really enjoyed the way they tell their story. (Laughter)
CD: We talked about that a lot because all the other songs, all the set singers are singing, but there was a reason for us to be singing and dancing. It is actually a musical number. We had so much fun doing it. We rehearsed for three months? But on the weekends, I was doing another movie, I was shooting Sex Tape in Boston and coming down to New York or he came up to Boston and we were just doing that on the weekends. And about a month in, we kind of went, “Oh, we are going to have to sing, too.” Neither one of us had ever sung and danced together and then we were like, “We have to sing to each other.” And we started adding, once we got the footing down, we were like, “Oh my God! We need to start practicing this and start rehearsing that part of it.”
BC: Yeah because it was a very new thing for us. I’ve been acting all my life, as Cameron has, and it’s weird to do something you have never done before within the medium that you are used to working in. And you think, ‘Oh, I have done plenty of scenes with women like loves scenes and all kinds of scenes and I can look at a women and make her believe that I love her, and I can do all that,” and it is really hard to look into a woman’s eyes and sing and all of a sudden you get really self-conscious and I’m thinking, “Am I moving my lips too much? Am I doing that weird thing? Is Cameron going to laugh at me? Are they going to laugh at me?”
CD: Yeah, we were true partners and that was the greatest thing. He said that he never danced before, and he’s such a natural lead. He’s such a great partner, straight away. You depend on that person who’s throwing you to catch you, and he was always there and never once dropped me. We just had such a fun time.
BC: I just didn’t want Cameron Diaz telling all her girlfriends Bobby Cannavale is a terrible lead.
Q: Did you ever go “My god this is ‘Annie,’ this is an iconic movie.”
CD: The way I felt about it is that yes it’s Annie, but it’s a completely different movie. Since it’s set in modern times, it’s contemporary, really, Ms. Hannigan, his guy — all the other characters, we’re giving performances for the generation who is going to see it for the first time. This is the only Annie they’re going to know. When we were the age when we saw the original, those kids are going to watch this movie and that’s going to be their original. And thirty years from now they might remake it and they’re going to say, “How come she’s Chinese? She supposed to be black.”
Q: You’ve been a bad teacher, and now you’re a horrible foster mom. Are you trying to tell us something?
CD: Yes! It is giving me permission to yell at children, I will take it. Yeah, it’s fun. It’s fun yelling at kids. But, in between I always made sure that they were warm and were looked after. I was humane to them in real life. It’s just that in the movie, give me permission, they say “Action!” and I’m right there with it. It’s fun, it’s fun. Don’t even try to front, you all know what it is.
Q: You talked about the iconic role and what it is, playing this iconic role of Hannigan. Did you go back and try to create a brand new thing or did you go back to see Carol Burnett and see what she did?
CD: No because it is, I feel, a completely different performance, a different character for this generation and I feel that Hannigan’s issues are different. Carol Burnett’s was that she didn’t get a man, she moved to drinking because she didn’t get married, didn’t have a man. And today, Ms. Hannigan is drinking because she doesn’t have fame. It’s an epidemic in our society that we have to look at how many likes we have and how many people follow us to validate whether or not we are seen and if we are worthy of love. And I think that Hannigan is a representation of that and not until she learns that she is worthy of love and that she should love herself and the way she treats those kids is the same way she is treating herself. And until she learns to love herself, she doesn’t come around to become who she really, truly is.
Q: Speaking of Annie, I would love for both of you to speak about Quvenzhané, she is such a star and was so brilliant in the film. Can you each speak about working with her?
BC: She’s all those things. More than that, she’s a kid, she’s really a little kid, and I mean that as a complement. You meet kids in this kind of work and they have their team with them all the time and they don’t sound like kids and with those kind of kids you go, “How old are you?” And Quvenzhané is actually a little girl and she finds the funniest things funny and she has that thing where if you make a little kid laugh, she really laughs. And she just has that and it just makes you light up. I just think she’s great and she just has such a natural talent and there’s a real depth. We all saw it in the first movie that she did … and she just has this old quality about her but at the same time just being this little girl that’s just charming and deep and curious. I’m just always curious about what’s going on behind those eyes and I think that comes across on camera.
CD: I really think exactly the same thing.
Q: Was it difficult to be mean to her?
CD: She just laughed at me. I would go from, “Honey you should wrap up and keep warm, go sit in the car for a little bit.” And then they yelled action I yell, “You little rat!!” and she would just go “hahaha”. And I would say, “I’m supposed to be mean, I’m supposed to be scary to you.” And she didn’t buy it, so I said, “Can you please act? Just when it’s my coverage, okay?” I need some help.
BC: Our joke was always about my hair. She would say, “Number 483 is out of place. And 520 too.” That joke went on for two months. You know how kids can stretch a joke out?
Q: New York is such an important character in the film. I would love to hear about you being in New York since you’re on the street, these aren’t stages, you’re out, you’re immersed. Can you both speak about that experience?
CD: Well, I mean, it’s probably what you would expect. We had to create a space for everybody to do their jobs safely and for us to be able to do what it was and also to keep the city up and running and not get into too many people’s ways. But, I think those sets really allowed that – even though we were in the city, they were kind of isolated at the same time, the one at The World Trade Center or just being on the street, we would just use a little part of the street in Harlem or some place. But I think the character of New York, New York being a character in the movie, from everything from in the beginning with the jackhammers to the sounds of New York becoming part of the music, and to the helicopters; Stacks showing Annie his New York from the sky, to the chase. All those things I thought were so well done with really showing New York in all its glory.
Q: I saw you filming in Harlem a lot, and I thought you were with your nieces, you were so attentive. I didn’t realize it was the cast.
CD: We’re family when we’re working. We all depend on each other. There was one day that we all showed up – where we handed Annie over to her parents, and we all — everybody in the cast couldn’t speak. We all had a cold, we all lost our voices, but everybody is still giving their performance knowing they’re going to have to go in there and redo – I had a frog in my throat the entire time but I had to redo the whole thing.
BC: Well there was a good spirit on the set. I’m so glad that this is sort of a predominately children’s movie, had a good spirit about it.
Q: What about the New Yorkers? They are well known for calling out. What did they call you guys out on?
BC: Well Jamie, they love Jamie. They love Jamie Foxx. It didn’t matter where you were, uptown or downtown — and Jamie is just a natural entertainer so Jamie would entertain people and people would be like, “Jamie Foxx! Look at him over there.” And he would sign for people and take pictures. He’s a great example of how to be. But yeah, there’s nothing like shooting in New York. I’ve shot my whole career in New York, and I love it. And when people shout things, whatever, you just go again.
Q: Are you going to do theater again anytime soon?
BC: I’m don’t know about very soon because I’m going to start shooting this new HBO in May until October. So probably like the end of it.
Q: What HBO show?
BC: It’s a new show from Terry Winter, Martin Scorsese, and Mick Jagger. It’s an untitled rock and roll project. In the 70s in New York.
Q: That’s exciting. Is that a dream project for you?
BC: Yeah, I’ve been attached to it for a few years now because I started doing Boardwalk and we shot it over the summer and Marty directed it and I’m excited that we’re finally doing it … it’s a great subject and I may get to shoot at home.
Q: Are they real rock and roll figures?
BC: They’re fictitious and then there are some real people, I have a scene with Robert Plant and then there are the fictitious people.
Q: Cameron, what are you doing next?
CD: I’m going to take a nap. I’m writing a second book. Follow up on “The Body Book.” And so that’s what I’m going to do all next year is just concentrate on that since last year I did three films and a book and this year I promoted three films and a book. So I’m just going to go into a little writing stage and sit a lot in front of my computer and then shuffle into the kitchen and make something and shut the door and go back to my book.
Q: Do you need space like that? Because you do really focus and don’t get interrupted.
CD: Yeah, I just want to focus on other aspects of my being and this is something I’m really into – it’s a fun project, a little puzzle to put together. It’s on the biology, on the science of aging so biogerontology, so instead of focusing on the exterior, which is obvious, what’s happens to us when we get older … But it’s interesting because we think of all these things and we see what’s happening on the outside and what we need to know is what’s actually happening on the inside. Because you can slow it down – you can’t stop it – there’s only one alternative to not aging and I don’t want to be there. And so to slow it down it’s interesting. I’m learning so much from so many research scientists that are opening the doors for us to go in. And they are excited for us to talk about it because no one knows about biogerontology because it’s only been around since the 50’s because science had been geared towards medicine and being geared towards keeping people alive because people died. But now a century after the advent of antibiotics and changing of public health policies, people are living twice as long now, and now that people are living that long, we need to know how they’re doing it, what’s happening as they do it so age related diseases that start at forty, fifty, sixty years old that are chronic, can be addressed prior to. And all that I am learning is done mostly by good nutrition, proper exercise, and stress relief.
Q: Are people from your generation really excited about this movie and sharing this with their kids since they grew up on the 80s movie?
CD: Yeah, I think that everybody is really excited. I actually set up a couple of screenings for a group of friends and just my family and stuff and it was really exciting for all the parents there. They’re all like, “We’re going to go see Annie.” And the kids are all like, “What’s that?”
BC: Well so much of the movie that really is so fresh and original and new. Like Sia, Sia is so hot right now, she is so good and these songs, these new songs that were added are really, really good songs.
CD: They would all be on the radio, even “Tomorrow,” or even “Little Girls,” everything that you have already heard before that sounded like…now it’s a pop song.
BC: Quvenzhané, that’s a really exciting story right there, Quvenzhané. I mean the youngest Academy Award nominee ever and she’s fantastic in that movie and it’s exciting to see a little girl like that grow up in this world and watch her grow as an artist and I think there’s a lot of reasons as to why people should be excited for this movie.
