Post by Stefie on Feb 16, 2008 14:35:39 GMT -5
I'm not sure if anyone else has looked at some of the international sites, but there is some pretty awesome stuff out there.
For example, all of the following comes from www.10000bcmovie.co.uk
“There’s something very beautiful about how the human condition hasn’t really changed over the millennia,” says Steven Strait, the actor who stars as the young warrior D’Leh. “What makes us human beings hasn’t changed since pre-historic times—love, compassion, conscience, sympathy. You see all of these things in this film. And you can relate to that no matter what era you live in.”
“D’Leh is the group outsider,” says Steven Strait. “He has been shunned by the rest of the tribe because of something that his father did in the past. They consider abandoning the tribe the most shameful thing a man can do, and D’Leh has to live with that legacy. But while it makes his life more of a challenge, it also gives him strength.”
After a casting search that spanned the United States, Europe, South America and New Zealand, Emmerich spied the ideal actor on a poster for an independent film called “Undiscovered.” The director recalls, “I saw Steven’s face and said, ‘Who is that?’ We screen-tested him, and also tested other people, but I always came back to Steven. He was just 18 at the time, and when he started this film he was good but not quite so sure of himself. I was very proud of him because, like D’Leh, he makes a total transformation in this movie. He had to essentially carry the movie, and he did. It was an amazing thing to see.”
Strait was excited about the prospect of working with Emmerich. “I’m a big fan of his films so it was thrilling to have an opportunity to work with him,” the actor says. “Roland is first and foremost a storyteller; even his most spectacular films are driven by the characters. When I read the script, I remember thinking what an extraordinary adventure it was, and making the film was an adventure beyond anything I ever imagined.”
Emmerich notes that like his character, Cliff Curtis became somewhat of a mentor to his younger costar Steven Strait. “D’Leh is a character who is unsure of himself; he doesn’t know what he should do, and this adventure forces him to discover his destiny and who he really is. It was so amazing how Cliff Curtis, who is a very experienced actor, took Steven under his wing. They played so well off each other because the relationship between the characters really reflected what happened in real life.”
In addition to standard physical fitness, their training encompassed learning particular dance and fight movements that would be appropriate to the characters. For Nat Baring, this would involve scaling trees for his stand-off with the terror birds. For Strait and some of the other mammoth hunter characters, it meant learning the movement of the hunt.
Strait, who had bulked up for a previous film, lost more than 30 pounds of muscle through diet and training to portray the sinewy hunter D’Leh. “There are no written references about the way people were then,” says the actor, “so I looked at tribal cultures around the world. Not only did I learn about how they lived, but I based my body movement and gait on the idea that these tribes would have been hunting for food their whole lives. Their athleticism was about survival, so most of the training I did to lose the weight involved running.”
Interacting with visual effects props was an interesting exercise for the young actors in the film. “It’s a unique chance to really use your imagination,” comments Steven Strait. “It gives you a lot of room to play with because you’re not restricted by anything physical. During the shooting of the mammoth hunt, there was such an intense sense of freedom in interacting with something that doesn’t exist.”
For example, all of the following comes from www.10000bcmovie.co.uk
“There’s something very beautiful about how the human condition hasn’t really changed over the millennia,” says Steven Strait, the actor who stars as the young warrior D’Leh. “What makes us human beings hasn’t changed since pre-historic times—love, compassion, conscience, sympathy. You see all of these things in this film. And you can relate to that no matter what era you live in.”
“D’Leh is the group outsider,” says Steven Strait. “He has been shunned by the rest of the tribe because of something that his father did in the past. They consider abandoning the tribe the most shameful thing a man can do, and D’Leh has to live with that legacy. But while it makes his life more of a challenge, it also gives him strength.”
After a casting search that spanned the United States, Europe, South America and New Zealand, Emmerich spied the ideal actor on a poster for an independent film called “Undiscovered.” The director recalls, “I saw Steven’s face and said, ‘Who is that?’ We screen-tested him, and also tested other people, but I always came back to Steven. He was just 18 at the time, and when he started this film he was good but not quite so sure of himself. I was very proud of him because, like D’Leh, he makes a total transformation in this movie. He had to essentially carry the movie, and he did. It was an amazing thing to see.”
Strait was excited about the prospect of working with Emmerich. “I’m a big fan of his films so it was thrilling to have an opportunity to work with him,” the actor says. “Roland is first and foremost a storyteller; even his most spectacular films are driven by the characters. When I read the script, I remember thinking what an extraordinary adventure it was, and making the film was an adventure beyond anything I ever imagined.”
Emmerich notes that like his character, Cliff Curtis became somewhat of a mentor to his younger costar Steven Strait. “D’Leh is a character who is unsure of himself; he doesn’t know what he should do, and this adventure forces him to discover his destiny and who he really is. It was so amazing how Cliff Curtis, who is a very experienced actor, took Steven under his wing. They played so well off each other because the relationship between the characters really reflected what happened in real life.”
In addition to standard physical fitness, their training encompassed learning particular dance and fight movements that would be appropriate to the characters. For Nat Baring, this would involve scaling trees for his stand-off with the terror birds. For Strait and some of the other mammoth hunter characters, it meant learning the movement of the hunt.
Strait, who had bulked up for a previous film, lost more than 30 pounds of muscle through diet and training to portray the sinewy hunter D’Leh. “There are no written references about the way people were then,” says the actor, “so I looked at tribal cultures around the world. Not only did I learn about how they lived, but I based my body movement and gait on the idea that these tribes would have been hunting for food their whole lives. Their athleticism was about survival, so most of the training I did to lose the weight involved running.”
Interacting with visual effects props was an interesting exercise for the young actors in the film. “It’s a unique chance to really use your imagination,” comments Steven Strait. “It gives you a lot of room to play with because you’re not restricted by anything physical. During the shooting of the mammoth hunt, there was such an intense sense of freedom in interacting with something that doesn’t exist.”