- The train crash is the biggest scene in the movie can you talk me through filming that?
All the train cars that you seen in the movie weren’t CGI they were all really on fire - and they were all real train cars.
So we actually got to look at the horizon of this train crash - it was just crazy - and I think that was all of our favourite scenes because we got to run through explosions and it was such an adrenaline every take.
It was definitely one of the best things about Super 8.
- You have worked mostly in TV and on shorts so how did you find stepping into a movie of that size?
I actually wasn’t that nervous once I got the part I was just so excited that I got it - I guess I didn’t realise how big it really was.
I am really glad that I didn’t and it later one after I was already comfortable and I was jut like ’whoa this is really happening’ reality caught up with me.
I feel like if I hadn’t done the six years of previous work I feel like I wouldn’t have got the part so I am really thankful to all of the people who casted me before Super 8.
- What did you think when you saw the movie for the first time?
It was amazing. Me, Joel, Riley, Zach, Dave and Elle we sitting next to each other and it felt like we were in a mosh pit because we kept jumping out of our chairs and we were pushing each other around and yelling - we had press the next day in L.A. and I lost my voice.
It was amazing to all of us how it all came together - on set it was like ‘ok Ryan pretend that this lamp is flying past your face’ and you look at the film and there really is a lamp flying past my face.
Then there was the alien and everything is just so crazy and everything is just so cool.
- You have said what a great time you had on the movie but do you have a particular favourite moment of your time on set?
One of my favourite moments was in the credits when you get to see the entire movie that the kids were making in the film. Me, Riley, Joel, Zach, Dave and Elle we all got to name the movie, write and direct it and it was actually like our own little movie - we could switch off from this super huge movie and go into our little film and just relax and have fun.
That was definitely one of my favourite parts because it felt like our own - so that was a lot of fun.
- You have been acting for about six years now so how do you juggle work with school?
Actually a lot of people think that it’s challenging but because I have been doing it for so long I suppose I have got use to it.
Also away from acting I get to hang out with friends at school and sports - it’s not completely hard but you just have to find the balance.
- 2011 is coming to a close so what movies have you been enjoying this year?
I just saw Tower Heist and I thought that that was really funny - it had a lot of twists. I also really liked Horrible Bosses, that was just super funny, I want to see Money ball - I haven’t seen it yet but I have been told that it is great. I have also seen The Help and I thought that was also really great.
- Finally what's next for you?
Right after Super 8 I finished shooting a movie with Samuel L. Jackson, he is robbing my house in the movie and I go up behind him with a shotgun and big as I am and tell him to ’Back the f**k up’ - if you want to see what happens to me it’s called Meeting Evil.
I also did a movie with Judd Apatow, he has directed it, and it is a sequel to Knocked Up and the movie follows Leslie Mann’s family and how everyone is getting older.
I think I was on the set for seventeen days but it went by so fast because I was having such a blast.
And read what FemaleFirst thought about Super 8 on our review pages here
Super 8 is released on DVD & Blu-Ray now
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw