Monday, October 9, 2017

The O.C. Basement: Adam Brody's 2003 Underground Online Interview!


Here is a vintage early 2003 interview with Adam Brody by UGO.com. This interview took place right before the O.C. aired it's first episode! Enjoy! 

UGO ADAM BRODY INTERVIEW (??/03) BY ERIC S. ELKINS

If you've caught Adam Brody on the new WB series The O.C., you probably thought he was vaguely familiar. It could be because your favorite TV movie of all time is Growing Up Brady, and you recognize him as a young Barry Williams. If not, then you probably caught him in American Pie 2, or several MTV series, like The Sausage Factory and Undressed. Most recently, the 23-year-old played a teen in the breakout chiller The Ring.

UGO: It's weird doing this, not having seen the movie, but--

Adam: I'm sure you can imagine. Just look at the trailer, you'll get it.

UGO: You're kind of like the uptight guy who's bankrolling the whole thing?

Adam: A little bit, yeah. I wouldn't call it uptight; I like to say that he has ambitions. He is blowing his college tuition, so I think it's sort of just stinginess. In another sense, you could say he's the most responsible one. But, that said, it's a boarding movie, it's a comedy, I just don't care. I could get into it, but what's the point?

UGO: Got it. So how did playing Barry Williams inform your portrayal of a skateboarding teen?

Adam: Probably worsened it… couldn't have less to do with it. I did sing a couple of songs and do a couple of dances. So, that didn't come into play at all. Actually, there is. There's a dance sequence in Grind, and I just hearkened back to my Barry Williams days, and drew upon that experience for the performance, and used that to fuel my dance fever.

UGO: Very nice. What's that all about? Why is there a dance number?

Adam: Sort of like a retro break dance. Ideally, it's funny. Theoretically, it should make you laugh. It should not make you want to dance.

UGO: Did you guys have to do a lot of practice?

Adam: We did one practice session that Vince didn't show up to. We sort of winged it, and-it wasn't intensive. I wish I had a good story: "We went to boot camp and…" no, no. I think we were all pretty much not up to taking a dance scene too seriously when we signed up to do a skateboard movie. I would have been pretty bummed to, you know, take numerous dance lessons. But it was fun, it's cool.

UGO: So did you have a skateboarding boot camp?

Adam: No, actually! We got cast very quickly before filming, so skateboard boot camp happened on the set. Every day, we had a skateboarding park to ourselves, and so, we got free run of the place, which, as every skater knows, these places get crowded. So, to have these places, especially if you're not that good, and you're kind of embarrassed-you know what I mean?

UGO: You have 8-year-olds kicking your ass-

Adam: Exactly-slapping you around. So, it was great. We didn't get run off the track, we had the place to ourselves. Vince made us all feel better about our skateboarding abilities, because he's so bad.

UGO: If you were a superhero, what would your superpower be, and why?

Adam: I only get one superpower? There's so many, it's hard to narrow it down to one power. I think flying would be pretty awesome, and, not only that, convenient in so many ways. I'd say flying. I hate airports, so…

UGO: Gore Verbinski has this huge hit on his hands. Did you have any idea when you were doing The Ring that this guy was going to be huge?

Adam: Well, he'd just come off The Mexican, so, I mean, he had Naomi Watts in this movie, and she had just come off Mulholland Drive at the time. I knew that they were both probably in for something, and I thought it was a cool movie and an awesome idea. It was very intriguing, it wasn't just a typical slasher movie, and those are fun, too, but. I was still very excited to work with him, and at that point, he was the biggest director I'd worked with. To do a scene opposite Naomi Watts, I mean, that was great! Love it!

UGO: Do you play video games?

Adam: You know what? I do, I love-my friend has Kelly Slater Pro Surfer and it's so fun. I love it. But, I grew up playing them, but I've resisted buying a PlayStation 2, because I'm not going to school and I'm feeling sort of guilty about it, so I'm trying to read a lot to kind of make up for that. And I just feel, I have too many friends who get one and disappear for three months, "Sorry man, I got a PlayStation 2, I beat the game finally, and I'm back…" It's, seriously, like, I want all my friends to have one. I'm on this show now, where I'm trying to get my friend to get one for his dressing room, because I don't want one in mine. If he gets one in his, perfect! Because I can go over there every once in a while. It's a perfect thing for your friends to have. I'm just afraid I'd be addicted, and I'm trying to work on (sighs) literacy right now.

UGO: So what are you reading?

Adam: I read the paper everyday, and I read Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer. It's really good.

UGO: He's, like, 23 years old.

Adam: 24, and, once again, make me feel a little inadequate. It's really good. This guy on set handed me one of Gore Vidal's books, Dreaming War. That's pretty eye-opening. I don't know if he's necessarily right about everything, but there are some crazy scary points he brings up. I try and read a broad spectrum of books. But, I will say this, whatever I read has to sort of be critically acclaimed. Because I'll see any movie-I see a movie and it's good, and I'm rewarded because it's a good movie, and if it's bad, it gives me an ego boost, sort of, and I can pat myself on the back-but books-it takes too much time to read anything bad. I can't, like, devote two weeks of my life to something that sucks. Or might suck. It has to, definitely, be good and worth my time. I really finish them-I can't go half-way and say, "It sucks." I get so mad-I'm in the middle of it, and I'm, like, "Why didn't I listen?"

UGO: The OC actually starts tonight.

Adam: I'm excited. I've been reading every review I can.

UGO: That's a big commitment.

Adam: Theoretically, you sign on for seven years. And my only fear about that, well, there's two fears. Ideally, you want it to be successful. But then the fear is, if it's successful, a) I'm going to get stuck with this for the rest of my life, and b) I'm 23 playing a kid who's 16. I'm a little on edge about that. I was hoping to play a little older, but you can't do anything about it. So the good news is, for the first part, as far as being stuck with the character, that is has to do with your choices in the off season, and I'm going to really try, if the show works out, to make good choices in the off season. If that means not doing a movie during the hiatus, because the only ones I can get or am offered are variations on the same character, for the same audience, and it's not going to really reach another level, it takes a lot of restraint to say no. But, like, if you look at Topher Grace, for example, he's been on the show for five, six years, and he's only done two or three movies. That means he's said no to a lot of movies. That said, his career is great, because the movies he did were awesome. I almost look at his career as a sort of role model. It'll take a tremendous amount of strength, because I know if we get through the season to the hiatus, I'm going to want to do a movie so bad, and everyone's going to go. And if I only get one and it's no good, it's going to be so hard to say no. But it's the smart thing to do, so I'm going to try. If you play your cards right, you can transcend one character-although I'm sure a lot people said that.

And then, for the other thing, as far as being kind of old, Ben, my other friend on the show, is 24 and we're both playing the same age, so I don't feel so bad. At first I was like, I hope I'm not the Gabrielle Carteris of the series, as long as I have a partner in crime, I'm alright with it. And also, the cool thing with Josh, the creator, he turns 27 tomorrow. He gets it, and like, he's not going to keep us in high school forever. He assured me, he said, "Adam, I have no interest in high school. Your locker's not going to be home base. I don't want a bunch of backpack scenes." I was so sad, because he said, "I've decided-you're going to be seniors if Fox is okay with it." And they didn't OK it. We're juniors. But still, he promises we're not going to be juniors for two years and seniors for two years.

UGO: Now you're set up to be part of the Punk'd crowd, too.

Adam: I know! And you know what? Literally, this psycho couple walked right into my dressing room the other day. It was so ridiculous, I thought I was being Punk'd. These people came in and they started yelling at me. They were just these guys who'd snuck on the lot, and they were, like, "Were you in American Pie?" What the hell? And, "Give my girlfriend work," it was crazy.

UGO: Who's going to go see Grind 22 times in the theater?

Adam: The ushers. I don't know anyone who's going to see Grind 22 times in the theater. My mom. Some kid who has short-term memory loss and forgot that he's seen it.

Friday, October 6, 2017

The O.C. Fun Fact: Benjamin Mckenzie still binge watches The O.C. every year!


benjamin mckenzie behind the scenes smiling

In a 2014 Hollywood Life interview with Benjamin Mckenzie - Ben mentioned that he still has respect for his early work and that every year he watches the entire O.C. series. Yes even season 4!

"Every year I sit through and watch four seasons. Bizarre? No." Later in the interview Ben mentions his early days before getting "the big break". "I was driving in my five hundred dollar car (click to see what kind of car that was) to my temp agency job…basically like a telemarketer, the phone rang and they said I got The O.C..I did drive to work and I did tell my boss I’m not coming back, but that was about as much as I ever did. That was a pretty good moment." Now isn't that sweet! Not sure if Ben still has time to binge watch the O.C. every-year now that he has a wife, a baby and the hit TV show "Gotham" but we are hoping he still does! Chino 4 ever! 

Tuesday, October 3, 2017

Behind the Scenes: Where does the Cohen staircase really lead to?

the cohens oc staircase behind the scenes

Where does the Cohen staircase actually lead to? This is a trick question. No it doesn't lead to the stairway to heaven but A+ for the comedic creativity. For the viewers, the stairs in the Cohen house of course lead to one place - Seth's room and possibly the infamous mystery guest rooms we never get to see! But truthfully the staircase leads somewhere far stranger...

seth, summer and zach stand behind the scenes on set the o.c.

As you can see from this rare behind the scenes photo above the stairs lead to, well, nowhere really, look to the top right, the wall just cuts off. You walk up, you walk down in a deep depression - I mean look at the expression on Adam Brody's face, even he's bummed that his room isn't actually up there! 

the o.c. cohen house front of house set backstage behind the scenes photo

As you see from this super duper RARE external house photo (1of 2 that exist), the stairs go up into blank nothingness kind of like Summer Robert's step mothers brain, not much going on up there! There is no second floor just various lighting and scaffolds. If you are having trouble locating where the stairs would be - they are located on the opposite side of the rounded wall on the right (right of the rightest front door white pillar).

Manhattan Beach Raleigh Studios 27, 28

The Cohen O.C. mansion's interior set was actually built indoors within stage 28 at the Raleigh Manhattan Beach Studios in Manhattan Beach, CA (now called MBS Media Campus). The set was actually built to scale of the original pilot interiors/exteriors. Seth's room was located in another area within stage 27 which also housed other O.C. interior sets such as Summer's room and Marissa's room as well as the harbor school. Stage 27 also housed O.C. sets like Harbor School interiors, The Crab Shack and Sandy's beach office!


Mind blown? Your welcome. 

If you enjoy the content on this site, consider making a contribution! Donating helps keep this site ad-free and pay for the high cost of website hosting. 

Captain Oats says thank you in advance in his horsey speak!