| Big Charlie |
Anton Yelchin is the star of Charlie Bartlett, a dark comedy charting the high school experiences of a social misfit. MKP caught up with the Russian-born actor to find out what appealed to him about the role and his respect for co-star Robert Downey Junior…
What drew you to the movie?
I think it was how optimistic Charlie is. That's something you don't see every day. That's something people need. You have this amazing, charismatic, optimism that gives people enough hope and enough desire to deal with their problems. Even though it might be a simple problem, you need a person to sort of guide you. And that's the wonderful thing about this kid; that he can see that.
How did you go about approaching his character?
The role calls on everything from slapstick to drama; it left a lot of room for experimentation so I just had a lot of fun with it. My job was to figure out where Charlie found the drive from. I thought it would be really interesting to look into where his optimism came from. Obviously I could associate with a lot of things just by default because we’re both the same age. Usually when you get a character that is driven by his desire to be popular it’s not always a good thing. But in this case, just by virtue of the fact that he is who he is; Charlie turns it around and becomes popular by helping people. The whole process becomes a totally positive thing. Even though de does start off by selling Ritalin, the great thing is that he uses that to help other people. He gets his joy from helping people. So the popularity he receives, he gets legitimately. I think in the film he realises he has to sacrifice some of that because he’s not doing everything correctly.
What do you think he learns by the end of the movie?
I think he realises that his desire for attention comes because he’s never really had it – he’s been parenting himself. It’s about him realising that he still is a kid. He doesn't make all of the right decisions. The point of being a kid is that you only get to be a kid once. You don't need to get out of it faster than you should. That is his lasting lesson, is that it’s all right to just be his age.
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