Charlie Bartlett Press Conference
Anton, you started acting at a young age. Did you have a normal high school experience?
Anton Yelchin: “Yeah, I went to a public high school. There were years when I would miss like half a year. But I got enough high school to know I seriously disliked it.”
What clique were you in?
Anton Yelchin: “I don’t know. Most of my friends that are my friends from high school became friends because we all had a common interest in music. We sort of played in bands together, or really appreciated music and get together to jam. That’s what unified my circle of friends. To me high school is such an unhealthy, school in general, is such an unhealthy place. Every teenager is this incredible explosion, hormonal explosion. Then they put a thousand of them in one place. It is like putting hot air in a balloon, you know what I mean? Who ever came up with the idea wasn’t thinking very straight.”
“You are supposed to come up with healthy, normal people, but you are putting all these imbalanced people together and expecting them to learn. It makes no sense to me. That’s sort of the attitude that I came to school with every day. I would just try to get out as fast as I could. I chose classes that ended early. I don’t even remember my last year. I would sit through English. I would sit through whatever my next class was, and then I would get out. That was my goal.”
So you weren’t an entrepreneur like your character?
Anton Yelchin: “No, no not at all. Maybe that would have made my days a bit more exciting, but no.”
What is the best piece of advice you have given or received?
Jon Poll: “I don’t know if I have ever given anyone any good advice. The best advice anyone gave me on this movie was to just go have fun and try to do what was in my head and not to stress out about it. I don’t know if that is possible, but I tried. I don’t know if that is a good sound bite, either.”
Anton Yelchin: “Like I said, I am not always an optimist and so I am prone to complaining about so many things. The best, it was recently actually, my dad had said this to me over the past couple of years. I ended the sentence with, ‘…and that’s not fair.’ And my dad was just like, in his infinite wisdom, said, ‘Who said anything was fair?’ I know it is kind of a cliché to hear that, but when you really realize that you shouldn’t look at life as whether it is fair or not fair, it is what it is. There is something so great, so simple, intelligent, and wise in that statement.”
Is not being overly optimistic part of your Russian heritage?
Anton Yelchin: “Yes. Yes, most likely.”
Are there other things?
Jon Poll: “Running around in his underwear.”
Anton Yelchin: “Yes, yes. I don’t know. I am sure there is a ton. Maybe brooding. I feel like it has its origins in Russians. Just the nature of the word - to brood. Like it is somehow instilled…it is weird it is instilled in about 2 or 3 % of the population. And it is weird. Russia is very complicated. It is one of the most complicated histories. I could go on about this forever. It produces Dostoyevsky and Rachmaninoff, and then it produces Stalins and Lenins. It is such a strange combination. I don’t know why that rant about Russia was necessary.”
Anton, what was it like getting to work with Hope Davis again?
Anton Yelchin: “It was great. It really was great. I was a little worried because what if she comes on set and says, ‘Man, you were really great when you were little...’ I kind of really worried I would not, weirdly, live up to her expectations. There was a great comfort because I had worked with her before. We knew each other. It wasn’t someone I had to work to get comfortable with. It was someone I remembered, fondly remembered. It was great.”
Jon Poll: “It was amazing because was the one person I had no rehearsal time with. I met her on the first day of shooting. She walked in and they sat down at the piano and started singing together. They were mother and son right away.”
“There is one really unusual thing about Hope’s part in the film. I work on a lot of movies, mostly as an editor. What we mainly do is make them shorter and shorter, take things out. There is not a single line of Hope Davis’ in this film that was ever removed. There’s nothing wrong with that. But her character was so strong, she made every moment work so well that it all got in the film.”
