Fanboys Sam Huntington & Chris Marquette Interview

MoviesOnline caught up with Fanboys’ Sam Huntington and Chris Marquette to talk about their long-awaited film. Set in 1998, Fanboys is a heart-warming comedy that follows a group of young, passionate Star Wars fans on a cross-country quest to break into George Lucas’ Skywalker Ranch and watch Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace, before it’s released. Directed by Kyle Newman, Fanboys also stars Jay Baruchel, Dan Fogler and Kirsten Bell.

Sam Huntington has appeared on screen, television and stage. His film credits include Superman Returns, Not Another Teen Movie, Detroit Rock City and he can be seen in the upcoming Tug. On television, he has appeared in featured roles on Law & Order, CSI: Miami, CSI: NY, and Veronica Mars. He has also appeared on stage with The Peterborough Players in The Nerd, Waiting for Godot, and To Kill a Mockingbird.

Chris Marquette’s intensity on screen, good looks and charm warrant him as one of the gifted actors of his generation. Marquette most recently finished work on Disney’s Race to Witch Mountain where he starred opposite The Rock. He was also recently seen in David Goyer’s thriller, The Invisible, and he also starred in Fred Durst’s directorial debut, The Education of Charlie Banks, opposite Jason Ritter, Jesse Eisenberg and Eva Amurri.

Sam and Chris are two very funny guys and we really enjoyed our time with them. Here’s what they had to tell us about their new movie:

MoviesOnline: A lot of the cast members have theater backgrounds. Did that help or did you improvise a lot?

Chris: We improvised a lot, actually.  Yeah, we definitely got to make up and do whatever we wanted.  There was always a structure like “All right.  We got what we have written down. Now let's riff.”  In theater I always stuck to the script.  I didn't really get the chance to go off unless there was a mistake and then it was like “Ahhhhh, you didn't use that prop right there so what am I gonna say now?”
At least the plays I got involved in when I was a kid were some Shakespeare and musicals.

Sam:  You didn't improv in Shakespeare? (laughs). 

MoviesOnline: I can't imagine that Linus would walk out of there (after seeing Phantom Menace) and these guys wouldn't pounce on him like a bunch of vultures and demand that he tell them about it.

Chris:  True, but I think the intention for that was the idea, at least written down on the page, was their friend is dying and, at the end of the day, the whole reason of why they did this was specifically for him and now... a big part of the argument in my head was “Do you say anything?  Are you going to ruin this for your friends now that you've seen it?”  That was a big part of arguing about Fanboys stealing Episode One was like well, are they going to release it to the world? If you did have it, if you were an ultimate fan and you had Star Wars before it was coming out, are you going to tell anybody or just keep it for yourself and I think the ideal ultimate fan keeps it for himself and doesn't spoil it for everybody and ruin whatever Lucas is trying to do.

MoviesOnline: And does your character think it sucks?

Chris: Uh, yes (laughter). No, no no.  It was definitely just…

Sam:  I was just thinking the same thing. Did he like it?

Chris: My personal opinion, in my head, if I had to act that scene then or now, personally, it was a let-down.  It's not a secret.  A lot of people seem to have that same consensus.

Sam:  Oh, you're gonna get.. (in trouble).

Chris:  I know. I know! I think I sense a little red beam on my shoulder.

Sam:  Take him out.

Chris:  George Lucas is gonna..... exactly.  But, it was a little bit of a letdown.  It was amazing because it doesn't matter what, at that point, it didn't matter what they were showing.  If they're showing Luke Skywalker at any age and any point doing whatever, like going to the bathroom, you'd be like “That's awesome!  He's like a rockstar!”

Sam: You could've shown old episodes of "Alf" mixed in with [laughs while they riff on "Alf and Snuggles go To White Castle.... In Space"]

MoviesOnline: Do you have a preference?  Do you like Star Wars or Star Trek?

Chris:  Yeah, I personally am so bored by Star Trek, it's ridiculous unfortunately, and I've seen almost every movie and I've seen tons of episodes of pretty much every Star Trek spin-off TV show but I don't ever get into it.  Now that I've seen them all I probably won't ever watch them again.

Sam:  I don't have as much of an aversion as Chris but I am much more of a Star Wars fan than I am a Trek fan but I'm very much looking forward to that new movie.  I know, I know.. I'm sorry but I'm excited.  I think it should be really interesting.

MoviesOnline: So, when did you guys actually shoot this?

Chris: Seventeen years ago.

Sam: No, it was three years ago so I've done quite a bit of growing up since then.

Chris:  I haven't.

Sam:  Actually, that's complete bullshit.  I haven't grown up at all.

MoviesOnline: Sam, you were in "Veronica Mars" so you already knew Kristen?

Sam:  I did, yeah, which was nice to have a friend because all these guys are such jerks.  It's nice to have someone there you know.

Chris:  Get outa here, Sam.  Go hang out with Kristen. 

Sam: Ewww, you hang out with girls.

MoviesOnline: Who got added to the cast first?

Sam:  I think it was Kristen.

Chris:  Actually Dan (Fogler) was on really early too.

Sam:  And I know Jay (Baruchel) was their first choice.

Chris: And Jay signed on.  I know when I came onto it, they said “We've got Fogler and Jay, we have Kristen.”

Sam:  Yeah, me too and we came on the exact same time.

Chris:  They actually weren't sure which one of us was going to play each part but they definitely came and said “It's going to be you and Sam playing these two parts.”

Sam:  But we're not sure which ones. It was a combination of things.  They had us both come in and read both parts and I don't know if they asked you which part you'd rather play but I thought, for me, I thought we were much better suited for the roles that we were given which was good.

Chris: Yeah.

MoviesOnline: So you shot at Skywalker Ranch?

Chris:  I did. It was crazy, insane.

Sam:  It was funny, they shot the exteriors of all of us in one location and then they only flew him up there.

Chris:  There's only one shot of me walking out quickly at the actual [ranch].....

[At this point we all comment on the guy walking out on the balcony stringing wires].
He's got a gun!
He's gonna parachute down!
I love that he just showed up and he has all those wires. ..

Chris: But, there was one shot that they needed of me coming out of the Lucas Ranch, just coming out after I've seen the movie. We had a different separate location. Was it at a girl's dorm?

Chris: It was actually an amazing place in New Mexico.

Sam:  In Albuquerque.

Chris: That was this really beautiful old building that was there for a long time.  I want to say on the college campus.

MoviesOnline: Was it UNM (University of New Mexico)?

Chris:  It wasn't UNM.  It was a place where they basically recruit people from all over the world to come to this school.  It's like highly specialized knowledge.  I don't think it's specialized in anything.  It just gives these people the opportunity to come to the states and study in this amazing facility.  To be perfectly honest, there couldn't have been a better Lucas Ranch double, right down to the color of the wood floors.  It looked identical.

Sam:  I didn't go to the ranch. They didn't fly me out there.

MoviesOnline: Were either of you ever that obsessed with a movie or a character like the Fanboys are?

Chris: Star Wars.  Star Wars and Ninja Turtles. Turtles was huge, yeah.

Sam:  I was a huge fan of the original Superman movies; one and two.

Chris:  I was a big Jean-Claude Van Damme fan. [they riff on the latest Jean-Claude movie] I've seen every movie that man has ever made.  I'm a big action movie fan. .. [ more riffing on a movie Sylvester Stallone is making called "The Expendables"]

MoviesOnline: Are you guys part of the commentary for the DVD?

Sam:  I couldn't make it.

Chris:  I was there, yeah.

Sam: Chris picked on us a little bit.  It was a blast because we got to see the movie too.

Chris: Which I have not seen since this last, final cut.

Sam:  You'll like it, man.

MoviesOnline: How did you feel when you found out that Carrie Fisher was going to be the doctor?

Chris:  I was so depressed about it. I was like “I can't do this movie any more.” No!  It was awesome!

MoviesOnline: And she chose to kiss you.

Chris:  She chose to kiss me, yeah.  They had three options.  I forgot about it until today.  Now, I'm like a newfound man [laughs].

Sam: Yeah, they brought this up in an interview earlier.

Chris:  She had three options and she picked that one. I was like “Oh my God, she did.”

Sam: We shot the movie eight years ago but it's all coming back to us now.

MoviesOnline: Did you guys just get along instantly and have a great rapport?

Chris: Yeah.  It was fun.  We had a really good time. A lot of times you go on location and we're working pretty much all day, every day, all of us and you go out there and, by the end of the night, you're tired and you don't want to do anything. Weekends you need some alone time and make a lot of phone calls to your friends but not this time.  This time it was like “What are we doin' for dinner? Let's go outside.” 

Sam: Yeah, yeah.

Chris:  Every weekend was like camp.

Sam:  Yeah, it really was.  I also feel like we were all in it for the same reason, to make a really great movie but, at the same time, we just really wanted to have a good time, to have a bond, and it wasn't hard.  Kyle was kind of the driving force. He was like “Hey, you guys want to go to the weapons depot? Let's go pick up some pellet guns and some knives and shoot each other and fight around.”

Chris:  And we would.

Sam: He was like the motivator and got us out, but mainly we would just stay in this crazy hotel.

Chris: Airport hotel.

Sam:  Airport hotel in Albuquerque.

Chris:  And shoot each other with air pellet guns.

Sam: Literally, that was our fun thing.  Let's shoot each other.  Then at three o'clock in the morning, you'd get woken up by the F-16 taking off from the military airport.  You'd be like dead asleep and [makes whooshing jet take-off noise] like this backdraft.

MoviesOnline:  Are you going to be invited to Star Trek or Star Wars conventions now?

Chris:  I imagine so.  We've been to a couple so far.

MoviesOnline: What is the reaction of the fans?

Chris:  Everybody seems to be really excited, shockingly.

Sam:  Yeah, that's the crazy part about this thing and still excited. It wasn't just a hot for a minute thing.  I've been to a few over the past three years and each time people are like “When's it coming out, man?” “I don't know” but now I do.

MoviesOnline: Did you have light-sabers?  Did you have costumes back in the day?

Sam: Yeah, the ones that you whip out [he demonstrates a light-saber], little plastic things.

Chris:  But somebody hooked us up with some actual replica light-sabers. 

Sam:  They're called Master Replicas, the company, and they're really neat.  They make sound effects.

“Fanboys” opens in theaters on February 6th.