Disclosure: I received an all expense paid trip to Los Angeles California for the #TomorrowlandEvent. All opinions are my own and were not swayed by any outside sources!
Britt Robertson plays Casey Newton in TOMORROWLAND – a bright, optimistic teen bursting with scientific curiosity with a drive to do big things and change the world. Casey wants the world to be a place that’s full of hope and inspiration, but she doesn’t know how to make it so.
While in LA for the TOMORROWLAND press junket, myself and 24 other bloggers sat down to interview Britt Robertson about her role as Casey Newton in TOMORROWLAND. Britt Robertson is no stranger to the big screen. She’s been in numerous TV shows and Movies including Delivery Man, Scream 4, Law & Order, CSI and more! She even has another movie coming out this year and is already working on her next project! She’s beautiful, talented, smart, a great actress and young! She just celebrated her 25th birthday last month. I have a feeling that we’ll be seeing more of her and I sure hope I’m right!
Britt Robertson was born in North Carolina and is the oldest of 7 children. In her early teens she moved to Los Angeles to pursue acting and it looks like it was a good move for her. She walked into the room confident and ready to sit and chat with us. She was very welcoming and absolutely beautiful!
Photo Credit Louise Bishop of MomStart.com
The first question asked was about her audition process and if she could tell us a bit about it? She said it was a very lengthy process which began the November before they started production so it was around November 2013. She went on multiple auditions from November to July but first sent in a tape from New York in November. “Then I went in for Brad Bird a few times and for the casting people and then right around May they brought me in to do a full read with Brad and then at that point they flew me to Vancouver to actually do a screen test with Raffey Cassidy who plays Athena. Then a week later they told me that I got the part.” Britt said.
She told us it was an “overwhelming moment” when she found out she would play the part of Casey Newton. “It’s something that I still remember in my mind as being like the most euphoric feeling that I’ve ever had. I was happy and I was elated and I was crying – I was just so excited.” Britt said. “It was such a cool movie to be a part of and I loved the story so much and the people attached to it. I just knew that it was going to be a changing point for me in terms of [my] career.“
“I loved the message that we could make the future a world that we want to live in” – Britt Robertson
Photo Credit Louise Bishop of MomStart.com
She really sounded genuinely happy to be a part of this film. I asked her what it was about this movie that made her want to be a part of it. Her face lite up as she told us “when you read the script the story itself is a really sweet original idea and it’s something that I had never thought about because the theme of the movie really covers the future and how we look at our future and how as a society we can actually influence our future and make it the world that we want to live in. I thought that was a really powerful message and especially for a young woman to be the lead in a movie like this was really cool for me.“
On Being a Hero and How Much She’s Like Casey
When asked how it was like to be the hero, she laughed and replied “.. it’s a really great thing to be the hero of a movie like this. To be a young woman and carry a movie like that, I found it really intimidating but luckily Brad Bird was such a wonderful human being and he’s a family man. He understands people on a very real level, so I think he gave me the encouragement to be brave and just take it so that was I wasn’t too overwhelmed by being the hero.“
Casey was an amazing character in the movie. We asked her how much of her is there in Casey? Are there any similarities or differences? Britt Robertson told us that before she played the part of Casey, her mindset was very different from Casey’s. But then she went on to share with us how Casey and the movie has changed her. “I’ve adopted a lot of her traits and characteristics because I like her and I think she’s a cool chick. Prior to this movie I always looked at the future as being this ominous thing and it was kind of daunting in this day and age to be so young in this world knowing what it could bring … I read the script and I realized so many things that I hadn’t before.“
On her Favorite Scenes in TOMORROWLAND
Britt says she loved shooting the pin experience scenes. One that stands out to her was when she end up out in the water. They shot that scene in a swamp in Florida that actually had live alligators in it. She said the entire time she was on the hunt for an alligator and one day they actually spotted some in the water!
Britt told us that they shot most of the pin experience scenes first and she thought maybe they were testing her to see if she could handle these pin experiences. The very first scene she shot was her in the wheat field doing a lot of the pin experiences. She told us it was a very long day and they had to use cranes and be very careful not to ruin the wheat.
Another fun scene for Britt to shoot was one where she used a bat to beat someone. Britt said “it was so much fun!” She found it funny that they actually gave her real baseball bat training lessons beforehand. They wanted her to practice with a dummy so she could get used to hitting someone with the bat. She laughed and told them “I don’t need to practice for this. All I gotta do is just attack this man like he’s about to kill me and attack him with as much power as I have” She said when they shot the scene, she really got into hitting the stunt man with the bat and George got really protective of him and was like “that’s enough”! She really went at it.
Photo Credit Louise Bishop of MomStart.com
There is a scene in the movie where Britt Robertson has to down some Coca Cola quickly. We asked her to tell us about shooting that scene – how much did she drink and how did she feel afterwards? Britt began by telling us how excited she was about shooting that scene because “Coca Cola’s like my favorite thing.” She then went on to tell us filming that scene didn’t turn her away from Coke and she is even surprised that she still drinks it! “I think I went through maybe ten or eleven full Coca Colas because we are doing so many different angles and we’re doing it a lot of times. I thought that I’d be able to handle it because I drink a lot of Coca Cola in my life. But then after like ten or eleven, it started to hit me and my belly was full from all the liquid and it wasn’t going down anymore. It was coming up – so we had to take little breaks.”
On Working with George Clooney
“working with him made me realize you can still be who you want to be in this industry” – Britt Robertson when asked about working with George Clooney
George Clooney told us that he really enjoyed working with Britt Robertson. So of course we had to ask her what it was like working with George since he’s such a big movie star. She told us that [before filming] she didn’t know if she would be able to handle working with a movie star like George. But she was surprised at just how normal he was … “he hasn’t been lost in the process of becoming George Clooney.” She goes on to say that “he’s still the person that he wants to be and working with him made me realize you can still be who you want to be in this industry. You don’t have to be tainted by the process or the people.” Britt says she learned a lot from George Clooney.
George is known to play jokes while on set. Britt loved his practical jokes but was happy they weren’t “full on prank where there’s like a pig in my trailer one day.” She said “there were also times where he would try and convince Raffey to be a diva or fake smoking a cigarette and teach her really naughty things.“
On Working with Tim McGraw
“I got to pretend I was his daughter for a second so that was nice.” – Britt Robertson on working with Tim McGraw
Britt also told us that she loved working with Tim MrGraw and was a huge fan of his before the movie. It sounded like she was a bit star-struck when she met him. She told us “when I first met him I attacked him. I was like you have no idea how much I love you. I love your music, I love your wife, I think you’re the coolest.” She said he was such a sweet man and he’s a family man (he has three daughters) and she loved hearing stories about his daughters. “I got to pretend I was his daughter for a second so that was nice.“
On Working with Raffey Cassidy
Brit told us that Raffey Cassidy taught her how to take direction from Brad while filming TOMORROWLAND. She said that Brad is very involved and gives lots of direction in a scene, “he’d be asking very specific things and I would have a conversation with him about it and then I would watch him give Raffey direction and all she would say is “okay. Okay. Okay.” after every single time.” After hearing that Britt thought to herself “that’s how you take direction. You just say okay and you do it and you’re professional and you just say okay” Britt said she made a pact with herself that from that point forward she was going to do what Raffey does and just say okay and give it her best shot. Did it work for her? Britt says “It actually really worked out for me. I just completely trusted Brad and I knew that his vision is the vision that we were going to bring to life.“
Britt went on to tell us that Raffey’s “Professionalism and her spirit throughout the entire film no matter what they were asking of her – physically, emotionally – she just did it. She did it to the best of her ability and I think that’s a huge lesson for me.“
On working with Hugh Laurie
We asked Britt Robertson what it was like to work with Hugh Laurie and she immediately said “he is just such a gem!” She said each day while in the trailer getting ready, he’d tell her a new fun fact about life and stories or theories on life. She said she looked at him as a book of knowledge because “he’s really informed of everything that’s going on and he’s also really talented.” Britt went on to tell us that Hugh plays the piano and played at a bar they were at in Vancouver. “He’s very talented, musically, and I remember asking him when can I go to see you? I want to see you perform. Then one day that I could have gone [to hear him play], I ended up having to stay behind for stunt training.” But Britt says one day she will go to one of his shows.
Britt Robertson was an absolute pleasure to talk to and our time went by way to fast. Before we knew it the interview was over. She was kind enough to take a group photo with our group and as we walked out the door she even asked us how our day was going! It was really sweet.
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