After performing so many years on stage and being in front of huge crowds, was it hard to play an introverted character?
It started off difficult. When I saw the movie, I could see [by] the way that I was moving the knife that it was difficult for me to stay still. I was having a hard time. I'm lucky that I didn't slice my leg open. That was a different movie.
It was difficult but it became much easier as we went on. And then the scene where AnnaSophia's [Robb] character, Opal, as the main girl, and I are running around in the pet store, that was a release. That was a lot of fun to be able to run around. I thought that I was moving more, but apparently I'm bigger than I think… The last scene was difficult for me because I really did just want to sit still in the scene where everyone is at the party. I really thought, “Wow, if I could just completely melt into the couch here, that would've been perfect because I'd really become accustomed to sort of being still and introverted on camera.”
Why didn’t you contribute to the soundtrack?
I didn't want to contribute other than what was in the movie, but I thought that the song was going to be in there. But it's not in it. I didn't think that it was going to be excluded. I did the arrangement and recording of 'Glory, Glory' with [Patrinell Wright]. And I though that 'Butterfly' would at least be on the soundtrack, but it's not on there. When I said to someone that I didn't want to tour around and play that song while promoting the movie, that I'd rather just talk to people if I'm doing press or if I do any TV appearances for the movie, I'd rather talk than play a song which is what I already did, maybe that was interpreted… Because I'd really like that song to be on the soundtrack. I thought that it was a sweet song. I'll have to put it on one of my CDs.
Being on the road, you probably don’t have any pets, do you?
Well, I have a cat that doesn't tour with us. My family always tours with me and travels with me. We have a lot of dogs in Virginia, but they're really all my mom's and my brother’s. They started off as mine, some of them, but I'm on the road and so they're all over there. They're like a giant pack of dogs. And they change in numbers because one will pass and another one will arrive. There's a lot of strays. There are eight dogs at my mom's house, I think, right now. They're all different shapes and sizes. If you're a deer, don't walk across that lawn because then it's curtains.
Has this movie whetted your appetite for more acting?
Yeah. I do think that it's a really interesting process. I think that it's a very, it could be a very personal thing. It's a very funny exercise. And I think that it could be a very rewarding sort of endeavor. Maybe if I did it right it could be really searching in yourself rather than going off on what Jeff said. I think that for that reason it's an adventure. I think that if nothing else, I like sort of challenging myself, putting myself up against things. So my initial response with things like that are, “No. I don't want to do that.” But then I stop and go, “Well, maybe I should do it just because that was my first reaction.”
Did you come up with the idea for the mustache and beard?
Well, I was on the road when I met Wayne [Wang]. Wayne came out to a show. And I think that I was scruffy when he met me. I don't preen maybe as well as I should when I'm on the road. I don't have that many compelling things in my wardrobe either. So I was looking sort of as if I was on holiday in the Bahamas more than as if I was onstage or should've been looking. He said, “Well, I like the beard.” He said, “We'll keep that.” But then when I arrived, I was really hairy. He said, “Maybe we should pull that back a bit.” I don't think that it would've been that different, but when I arrived it would've been more of a Grizzly Adams thing, a mountain man more than someone who just hadn't shaved for a few weeks.
You don’t want to compete with the hairy dogs, right?
Exactly. Yeah. “Who is that creepy man with a giant beard?”
How was working with AnnaSophia Robb?
She's interesting. She's a really lovely girl. I felt comfortable with her right away because when I'd written the song 'Butterfly,' really when I wrote it, it was for my children in some ways. But I mean, they were sort of the inspiration because I'd read the book and the script, but I hadn't met AnnaSophia. But at the same time, as I was writing it for my girls or using their personalities or my love for them as inspiration for the song, I was imagining who this girl was that I was meant to be writing the song for. And she looked exactly like Opal.
