"BECAUSE OF WINN DIXIE" is a sweet film for the whole family that has recently been given such accolades as "The Dove Seal of Approval"
from the Dove Foundation for its heartwarming elements and postive message - as well being the first film to be featured in AOL's new "Family Friendly Programming Guide".
Its' star, Annasophia Robb, will be starring as Violet Beauregarde in Tim Burtons' Charlie and the Chocolate Factory due out July 15, 2005.
During the press tour for Because of Winn-Dixie, she gave us an insight into what it was like working with Tim Burton and Johnny Depp and what to expect from this remake.
Q: What projects have you been working on besides Winn-Dixie? AS: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Q: Can you tell us about it? AS: Okay everything? I can’t tell you everything.
Q: What’s the big secret you can’t tell us? AS: Everything, well I can’t tell you about the sets, characters, and costumes.
Q: You play Violet right? AS: Yes I play Violet Beauregarde.
Q: Do you like gum? AS: Yes I love gum, I kept gum and blueberries. They are very good together actually. I kept all the gum that I chewed on set.
Q: What are you going to do with it? AS: I might sell it on ebay. (laughter)
Q: What grade are you in? AS: I’m in 5th grade.
Q: Do you go to a regular school or private? AS: Home school.
Q: Why is that? AS: Charlie was a half a year, so my school, I went to a private school before, and they were like you can’t come if I was just...you know.
Q: How was it working with Johnny Depp? AS: Great, yeah he was really wonderful. He’s the sweetest guy. He just makes you feel really comfortable.
Q: Did you learn a lot? AS: Uh-huh and Johnny was really nice. He was really...he's just a wonderful guy. He talks about his kids a lot and that’s nice because as a kid it makes me feel comfortable. He’ll talk to you like a normal human being and he treats everyone with the same amount of respect.
Q: And was Tim Burton one of the weirdest human beings you’ve ever met? AS: That’s what everyone thinks but he’s not. Yeah, he’s not weird. It’s the hair, the hair that’s kind of cool. It makes him different and I like that.
Q: But as a director, he’s pretty normal? AS: It’s just amazing. When you go into the sets, you’re like in his mind, it’s just blown up.
Q: Let's ask a question for your mom about that though. Once you read the scripts and she has an audition, you would obviously meet Tim Burton. Would there ever be a point where the people she’s working with... Mom interrupts: I never met Tim Burton.
Q: You have never met him? AS: Yeah, she’s met him now. Mom: Yeah obviously I’ve met him outside the door.
Q: So you stay with the script part and then if it sounds good you let her do it and let her do what she wants to do. Mom: I coach her and her managers coach her.
Q: Were you an actress? Mom: NO
Q: Do you have any brothers and sisters? AS: No, I have a dog.
Q: Where there any oompa loompas? AS: Yes there was. See it’s called Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. So it’s just like the book, they added a couple of scenes and changed it just a little bit here and there.
Q: How long after you did this film [Winn-Dixie], did you get Charlie and the Chocolate Factory? AS: It was about a year. I finished Winn-Dixie, then I went to LA and got Samantha-The American Girl Holiday, made for TV movie. I was Samantha, one of the American Girl Dolls. About half way through Samantha, I got Charlie, and then just went straight from Canada to London.
Q: What about this movie, why do you think that it’s a good dog movie? AS: It’s a sweet story but it talks about something deeper than friendship. It talks about life and why life’s important and about love, lost and happiness. And how to make friends and why people are mean, and people are scared of other people. And I think that it's such a great story that you, I felt that when I finished reading the book, I felt satisfied when I finish reading it.
Q: Was it your idea to act, did you always want to act? AS: I love performing in front of people. I love meeting people, nice people. I just don’t want to do acting. I want to do acting and study chemistry.
Q: How was it working with the cast and crew? AS: They are great. They are all wonderful people. They invite you into their lives and they are just so sweet and they couldn’t be more caring about you. They feel like family.
Q: What was your hardest scene? AS: My hardest scene? I think it was the dog when he was going to be taken away because it was my first time crying. For a whole day and a half....start crying.
Q: Could you do it? AS: Yeah, drank a lot of water.
Q: What did you think about to try to get there, or did the director coach you? AS: Well, I was isolated for a day and a half. Which was kind of tough, so it makes you want to cry and eventually it’s hard to cry, and you just cry and cry. Then all of a sudden you do it long enough and you don’t have to think about it and you just start crying. If you do it for four hours straight, then you’re just kind of sit there and your like I’m so bored and you start crying.
Q: Were you aware of your co-stars work? AS: Well I tried to but we had such a short period of time. We had four days and that four days we packed up our whole lives and moved to Louisiana. They called us and four days later we flew out.
Q: You haven’t figured out what you want to do next? AS: I want to do a lot more movies. I like, to finish, I like to do acting until I want to have kids because I want to be there for them. 'Til I’m like 34.
