Ahoy, squirts! Quint here. As part of the big Jurassic Park Blu-Ray junket I got to sit down with the young stars of the movie, Nick Robinson and Ty Simpkins.
You’ll recognize Nick Robinson from the great indie flick THE KINGS OF SUMMER and Ty Simpkins from either Insidious or Iron Man 3, where he played Tony Stark’s little inventor buddy (my favorite relationship in that whole movie).
As you might have noticed I’ve been playing around with some video interviews lately. While this one was done on video I felt it read better than it played, so I transcribed it instead. However, I did include one piece of video so you can see the sly smile I got from Nick when I brought up Ready Player One, a film in which he is rumored to be in consideration for the lead. He doesn’t give up anything, but take a look at his face when I bring it up.
Anyway, here’s the transcription. We talk about filming in Hawaii, what Colin Trevorrow is like as a director and what they’re currently working on. Enjoy!
Quint: I was told by Jordon Vogt-Roberts (director of The Kings of Summer) to call you “Nighthawk.” So, why does he want me to call you that?
Nick Robinson: (laughs)
Ty Simpkins: Yeah, Nick. Why Nighthawk?
Nick Robinson: Well, there were two Nicks on the set, so “Nighthawk” was myself and the other Nick was just Nick.
Ty Simpkins: On Jurassic World?
Nick Robinson: No, The Kings of Summer. I was just like, “Yeah, you can call me Nighthawk…”
Quint: So, we just visited a bunch of Jurassic World filming locations at Kualoa Ranch. You guys got to come out here and shoot on location, yeah?
Ty Simpkins: Yes, we got to shoot at all the sets except the Indominus breakout set.
Nick Robinson: Yeah, that’s pretty incredible.
Ty Simpkins: He saw that, I didn’t. I really wanted to see that.
Nick Robinson: We shot in that valley. I think you guys saw the gyrosphere platform, right?
Quint: Yeah.
Nick Robinson: That was one of our first locations and it’s pretty incredible. That valley is like a walk back through time.
Quint: Yeah, I noticed that. They put us on some ATVs and let us ride around. The rocky terrain and twists and turns were fun, but my favorite parts were the long, flat stretches where you look around and you’re surrounded by mountains… It really hit me then just where I was.
Ty Simpkins: Whenever we were filming I would sit on a hill and just hope I’d hear that T-Rex roar and go “It’s real!” Never happened, sadly.
Quint: We heard some pissed off cows that made some very T-Rex style noises.
Ty Simpkins: And boars!
Quint: I can only imagine being on a location, especially for a movie like this, really helps you get into the right headspace performance-wise.
Nick Robinson: Yeah, basically all the work is done for you. All you have to do is pretend there are dinosaurs! It’s really not hard to have a look of wonder when you’re actually in a location like that.
Quint: I want to talk a little bit about Gray as a character. He’s interesting in that he seems a little autistic, but it’s not done in a hammer-you-over-the-head way. It’s easy for someone like me, a geek who tends to obsess over certain geeky things, to relate to.
Ty Simpkins: The character was originally written to autistic, but they decided to change that. They didn’t really have enough time to rewrite, so he ended up not as much that kind of character, but I did base it off of the original audition I did for the character. I basically did that, just a little less.
Quint: I visited the set in New Orleans and my limited time around Colin gave me the impression that he was very detail oriented. What was your impressions of him as a director?
Nick Robinson: The most impressive thing for me was he was able to keep all of this in his head at the same time. He was able to kind of make this map and steer the ship however he wanted it to go. His composure was also impressive. It’s not like he had a huge breadth of experience on other big budget movies. This was very much a first-time experience for him and myself and Ty. The composure he had was so impressive.
Ty Simpkins: It’s pretty amazing that Colin could do all that. This is only his second thing, which is awesome. For your second project that’s pretty amazing. You go straight from… what was the first movie called again?
Quint: Safety Not Guaranteed.
Ty Simpkins: Yeah, I remembered the plot, just not the title. To go from Safety Not Guaranteed to Jurassic World is pretty cool.
Quint: He definitely had an air of enthusiasm about him when I was there. He was excited to share stuff with us. I remember he snuck over to us and showed us a picture of Bryce totally Fay Wray’d out from the end of the movie and was almost giddy about it. I have to imagine that kind of enthusiasm only helped you guys.
Nick Robinson: Yeah, that definitely bled over into our own performances and with the whole crew.
Quint: I’m going to wrap up by asking what you guys have coming up. Now that you’ve been in one of the biggest movies of all time, what’s next?
Ty Simpkins: I got a movie called The Nice Guys. I’m only in one scene, but it’s Shane (Black directing).
Quint: That’s a gangster-y thing, right?
Ty Simpkins: What do you mean?
Quint: It’s like a crime movie.
Ty Simpkins: Yeah. Russell Crowe plays a bounty hunter, I think. I’m not sure. Ryan Gosling plays a cop. I’m not sure. I haven’t read the script.
Nick Robinson: I’ve got a film coming out next year called The Fifth Wave. It’s based on a book series.
Quint: That’s with Chloe, right?
Nick Robinson: Yeah, with Chloe Moretz and Liev Schreiber and a bunch of great people.
Quint: I don’t know if you take recommendations, but you should read a book called Ready Player One. It’s really great.
Nick Robinson: (smiles) I…
Ty Simpkins: Oh yeah, they’re coming out with a movie about it.
Quint: Yeah, I heard they’re coming out with a movie…
Ty Simpkins: My sister loves that book so much.
Nick Robinson: It’s such a cool role.
Quint: Yeah, it’d be a great lead role is all I’m saying.
Nick Robinson: Um-hm. Ty?
Ty Simpkins: I have a copy of it, but the words are too tiny. It’s hard to read. I’ll just audio book it or something.
Quint: You should do it! Thanks, guys.
Nick Robinson: Thank you.
Hey, I tried to get some sort of sign about Robinson’s involvement in Steven Spielberg’s Ready Player One. I’m glad he was playful with it. Both kids struck me as pretty easy going and down to Earth. Simpkins complimented my Jaws tee-shirt when I first met him, so naturally he’s alright with me.
Still got more Jurassic goodies on the way. Stay tuned!
-Eric Vespe
”Quint”
quint@aintitcool.com
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