Skins Us - Two more interviews

There you go...two more interview with the cast of Skins Us. One with JAMES NEWMAN from this website and the other with 3 actors from the cast in the buzznet website.


James Newman is an 18-year-old kid from New York who’s about to make his acting debut on Monday as the star of MTV’s Skins. Skins has been called “the most dangerous show for teens” by the Parents Television Council, and James’ character is at the center of the controversy. He plays Tony Snyder, a devious, pill-popping pretty boy who’s accustomed to getting everything he wants (and he certainly wants a lot). We got a chance to chat with James about how he got his highly unusual start in the business and even managed to find out his celebrity crush.

You were in high school when you were cast in the role of Tony, right? How did you end up with the coveted part?

Yeah, my senior year was ending when I got cast. I had never acted at all. Not even acting class or a play, so I obviously didn’t have any aspirations. But my brother was an actor and he found out about the audition and goaded me into go in. I didn’t want to do it, actually. The first time he came to me with it I said no, and I didn’t do it. But they did another round of casting a couple weeks later and that time he got me to go in. One thing just turned into another, which is what happens with those things. One more call and then another call and another call… and it just kind of happened.

Wow, you’d never acted before at all? That’s nuts. Have you taking any classes since landing the Skins role?

No, they [the Skins producers] don’t really encourage that. No one in the cast is really that experienced. I think they just try to give us a lot of confidence in ourselves to try to be natural. They don’t talk us through it that much because I think that’s when people get nervous. When someone says “don’t get nervous, don’t get nervous,” that’s when you get nervous.

Is your real life anything like the crazy universe of Skins?

I don’t think that anything in high school — at least not that I know – happens with the regularity that things happen on Skins. You don’t go out every night, as you do every [episode]. But I guess emotionally it’s kind of similar. Skins gets the emotions of high school, like friendship, pretty much right. It’s true to real-life high school. I had a group of friends, and it was a gang like that, and we all watched out for each other.

The character of Tony is a pretty interesting one, especially for a teenage character. What’s your favorite part of playing him?

With all the characters on the show, there’s quite a lot of depth and I think that with a lot of alpha male school bullies you don’t necessarily see that. He is who he is, but then there are certain relationships in his life that change him. So getting to play that, and getting to play those differences.

You were a boxer in high school. Any big injuries ever?

Nothing terrible. Maybe some long-term brain damage! I may have broken my nose. I’m not sure if I’ve ever broken my nose.

Ha, well that’ll just add to your appeal. So, do you plan on pursuing acting as a career now?

I really enjoyed this. And I’m not sure if that’s just a mirage and acting’s not always as fun and enjoyable as it was in this show, or if it’s just me liking acting. I guess I’ll have to wait and see what it’s like — and also see if anyone wants to see me keep acting!

I’m sure they will. Last question: Who’s your celebrity crush?

Eva Green.

BUZZNET: Overall are you guys big fans of the UK show? Were you watching the UK (version) or familiar with it at all before the opportunity came to you for this one?

Rachel: Yes, we were all huge fans of the UK show; one of my favorite shows

James: Yeah, I actually didn’t pick it up until I heard about the audition, and then I had to put it down pretty quickly because once the audition started to progress I couldn't watch it anymore. In that brief period of time, I got through about 2 seasons so I kind of went right into it.

BN: It’s super addictive.

Sophia: Like Rachel, I was a very big fan of the original show.

BN: For James and Rachel: the two of your guys’ characters are really similar to the characters that are on the UK version, same name and everything. Can both of you guys take turns telling me what the differences are that you see between the characters you play and your UK counter parts?

James: I think a lot of the differences have to do with stuff that happens throughout the season, so I don't want to give anything away by talking about differences. I think you'll see Tony start out similar, a bit more sarcastic, but it’s a similar set up just in the way he treats his friends and the way he acts. You'll see some stuff happen to him over the course of the season that I think will turn him into a much different kid then he was in the first season/the UK version both in what happens and also in attitude.

BN: Cool, how about you Rachel?

Rachel: I'm on the same page; I don't want to give away too much. Michelle, this season, really kind of tries to figure herself out. We see a bit more of Michelle questioning who she really is.

BN: You two have some pretty "racy" scenes in the first episode, is it your first on screen kiss that you both have ever done?

James: It was the first on screen walk for me. So it was definitely the first on screen kiss, but I’ll let you know, we had to practice a bit before we actually filmed. We had to go up to Bryan's hotel room and Bryan just kind of just said, "Ok, lets see this."

Rachel: It was probably the most embarrassing experience ever.

James: But once the camera rolled it wasn't that big of a deal, cause Bryan had already made us do that.

BN: Sophia, you are one of the only people on the show that didn't really have a UK character to reference. There are some similarities between you and Maxxie, but do you think that that was an advantage or a disadvantage?

Sophia: I don't know that it was either. I think that Maxxie was a really great character, but other than them both being gay; they are 2 entirely different people. But everyone in the cast kind of had the same issues to tackle, cause we all had these great people to live up to and all that. Once it became our own show, my character wasn't much different from everyone else's because Michelle was a different character and Chris was a different character, just because they have the same name doesn't necessarily mean that their the same as the UK show. So I don't think that I was in a very different place from my cast mates. I think we were all kind of in the same boat. The only big difference was waiting to see who Tea was, because Bryan had started to write her as he was casting the show. So she kind of came into focus after we started filming. We didn't really know who Tea was gonna be when we started filming the pilot and as the show continued Bryan really developed her more.

James: The thing is you think about Tea is that it was a role that started from scratch, but I think all of us were actually starting from scratch. It’s just that some of the descriptions were the same, so some of the results were the same. But I speak for all of us, we just kind of took the scripts as they came and then kind of decided who our characters were gonna be once we got into it. I don't think its like we started with something that was already there and then just went forward. We all started from scratch.

PART 2 NEXT MONDAY

Labels: Brand New , entrevistas , interview , SkinsUS