Smith’s good looks got him his first few acting jobs but as he explains in this interview, he’s learning as he goes and now takes the business very seriously.
INTERVIEW WITH RILEY SMITH (‘Jim’):
Did you have any hesitation about joining “New York Minute” being that it will be Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen’s first feature film?
The only thing that made me nervous was that I knew that it was going to be seen by a lot of people. I knew that the girls had such a built-in audience that this was actually going to be a big movie. Where I’m at right now, of course I guess I cater to the teen audience, but I don’t want to get stuck in that genre. I definitely want to have life beyond the teen years. So that’s always in the back of your mind. I think every young guy needs to do one because you have to give back to that audience, you know? And I think if you’re going to do one, then for me, this is the one to do because it wasn’t a typical teen movie in the fact that it’s not a bunch of kids running around in a high school, dating each other and having the typical problems. There’s a lot of adults in it; there’s really only four teens in it – the girls, and Jared [Padalecki] and I.
For me, my character was perfect at the time because I’d just gotten done with a movie called “Radio” with Ed Harris and Cuba Gooding. That character was very serious, very intense. This character on the other hand was more heroic, smiled a lot, and a little bit goofy. The way he bumps into this girl I thought was really endearing. Rather than being like Don Juan, he was like falling on her, ripping her dress, bumping heads with her. I thought I saw a quality in that guy that was, hopefully, going to like be an endearing quality and that was something that I probably won’t get to play for a number of films. I thought that was kind of neat, you know?
Did you do your own bike riding in the movie?
I did absolutely every single thing. They had a stunt double there in case, but luckily I’d done a Disney film before that was on motocross. I’m pretty handy with the bike, so I got to do all that myself.
Was it intimidating to do even a mild romantic scene with a girl who could buy and sell you many times over?
And was my boss (laughing). I was actually not nervous because the girls were the ones who chose us – Jared and I. I mean the studio had okayed us, the director had okayed us, but it was the girls choice who they wanted, and which one they wanted (laughing). We were handpicked, literally, by our bosses and our love interests. A lot of times you go into a film and you don’t know if your romantic lead really likes you. If she really wants to kiss you, if she really wants to spend time with you, and that’s when it’s nerve-wracking. You don’t know if it’s real or it’s fake. In this case, I knew that she had picked me so I knew she was alright with me.
What was it like working with the Olsens?
It was a good experience. They are very professional, very in control of their own careers, and they are hard workers. Not only do they act in the movie but they’re producing it. They would have to – as soon as we got done working – they would have to go do their producing duties and then they’d have to go to school. And they didn’t have a whole lot of time to just hang out and ‘be.’ They were busy girls for the whole two or three months we shot this.
How did you learn to tell them apart?
(Laughing) I didn’t. The one that kissed me I knew was mine, and that was about it.
Did they pull any tricks on you, being twins? Did they switch up for the kissing scenes?
No. they don’t pull those tricks like you’d think, the typical twin tricks. I kept looking for it but… They didn’t mean to put one would sit in the [other’s chair]. Ashley would sit in Mary-Kate’s chair when we were sitting off-set, and that was totally not fair because you think you know and so you go, “Mary-Kate…” and she’s like, “No, it’s Ashley.” They were so cool about it. Like, “No, I’m sorry, it’s Ashley.” (Laughing) Then you’re like, “Why the hell are you sitting in Mary-Kate’s chair?”
PAGE 2: Riley Smith on "24" and Acting
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Interview with Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen
"New York Minute" Photo Gallery
"New York Minute" Trailer, Credits and Movie News
