from MoviePictureFilm.Com / by Critic

Two of the most hot young actors sat down with Scott to talk about “Fast Food Nation” based on the nonfiction book that now is a movie with non fictional elements, Directed by Richard Linklater. The film is controversial as it exposes the fast food industry and the huge companies that own them. We discussed the controversy with the stars and even brought up the “C.H.I.P.S.” movie with Wilmer.

Read on.

MPF: So before we start, let me ask you about this supposed remake of the “C.H.I.P.S.” TV series, is it happening and is Chris Evans really going to star along with you?

Wilmer: Chris Evans is actually not attached to it, it was just one of those rumors that started out, kind of weird, you know? But look, he’d be a great choice. He’s one of my really close friends and I’m a really huge fan of his. He’s one of the few guys who can deliver a straight scene and still be funny at the same time and that’s what this movie needs. so we’re looking into sometime next year. I have one or two projects I have to finish before I start doing “C.H.I.P.S.” but that’s in the works.

MPF: Have you chosen anyone to be John?

Wilmer: No, you know right now we’re just concentrating on working with directors, letting the physicality of the studios working their stuff out.

MPF: Are you producing the film?

Wilmer: Well, I guess you can say silently I am, I am producing. It’s kind of hard to get a credit on a movie like that, you know what I mean? But it’s exciting because the studio is definitely keeping me in mind for a lot of the creative and a lot of the casting and stuff.

MPF: Last “C.H.I.P.S” question we swear, anyone in mind to direct?

Wilmer: You know there’s a bunch of really new guys, we are looking for a bunch of really young new guys who really just want to re-create what made the show so good because this is the type of movie you can do all types of things with. You know what’s neat about this? That there is a lot of role models to follow, if you know what I mean. Remakes that kind of missed the point of remaking a show. With this one you don’t want to make it super, super serious but at the same time you don’t want to make fun of it, there are fans around the world that think this is still a serious drama. We want to have some really fun action stuff but at the same time play with the reality of how outrageous some of these action scenes could be.

MPF: So moving on to “Fast Food Nation”, what made you want to take on this role? It’s an extremely different one for you.

Wilmer: Well first I found out about the book. A lot of my friends who attend college, it’s practically become mandatory for kids in college to read this book and then I read that there was a movie that was getting made. I have to admit I knew the themes and I’m not a really big fast food eater. I hadn’t read the book yet. I read it after I read the script and I have to say when I read the script it was such a non-Hollywood movie and it doesn’t work by the theoretical hand book that a lot of Hollywood movies work with today and I really really found that refreshing. When I read the script, the role of Raul was the only one I sort of related to. I’m an immigrant myself but at the same time it’s a movie that touches on a lot of issues. It’s one of those very exciting projects to be involving with and obviously I did everything against everything to be apart of this movie and convince Richard Linklater (the director) that I was good enough for this role. No one has ever seen me do anything like this before so it was a great challenge that I am very proud of accomplishing.

MPF: Is there anything you want audiences to walk away with from this film?

Wilmer: Yes, a lot of information. This is one of those very factual movies. In no way shape or form do we like to call ourselves activists, we’re not trying to preach saying “this is right, this is wrong”, we’re just trying to do it in a way that makes people aware of what’s out there. With me, the biggest message of this movie is to walk away with a lot of information and then to trust your own instincts, make an educated decision of what is good and what is bad for you because of none of this movie is fake. There is a lot to think about.

MPF: What was it like working with Catalina?

Wilmer: We first met and this was very funny. She kind of looked at me and said “Who is this kid?” and I looked at her and said “I am a huge fan of yours, you’ve done great” and she goes “Ok, ok”. We had a lot of time to break down our characters break down our history. We discussed what our characters backgrounds were, how we know each other, within our conversations we came about this decision to really go into how our characters met. This was great because I love acting and I love creating different characters and breaking them down. I think that’s one of the reasons it was so cool to work hand in hand with her because we were so into this movie. We really wanted this movie to be good. Our storyline is not only a humble beginning for a change but it deals controversial issues and immigration so it’s a big deal for us. We liked working with each other and hope to work with each other again. But I don’t want to speak for her. (laughs, then precedes to imitate what she would say) “He’s full of shit! (laughs again)

At this point Catalina walks in the room.

Wilmer: Hi.

He smiles at her and she smiles back.

Catalina: Hi, sorry there was car problem. It wasn’t my fault, I was ready on time.

Wilmer (to Catalina): So I spoke for you and said we can’t wait to work with each other again.

She laughs, then puts her finger on her chin and pretends to think about it, making a cute a “mmmmm” sound.

MPF: Catalina, you’ve done all dramatic work. Ever think about doing a comedy? Wilmer is familiar with comedy, did you speak to him about it?

Wilmer laughs.

Catalina: I’d love to do a comedy but I want to do one like “The Office”, you know that kind of comedy. I’ve been researching a few but nothing as of yet.

MPF: How did you come about starring in this movie?

Catalina: It was very early on, like when they were writing the script. Then I read the book and I needed to meet Richard because I didn’t know it was real. Then I met Eric (the writer of the book) and it was real. I think it was important for me to do this film. I wanted to follow up Maria (”Maria Full Of Grace”) with a strong film and I did. I think this movie covers a lot of issues that people should be aware of. I think it’s so nice when people go to the movies and think. They can go to the movies and be entertained but still learn a great combination. This is what is in this movie.

Final Impressions:
Wilmer and Catalina where both extremely down to earth and intelligent people. Wilmer surprised me with his enthusiasm to do more dramatic work and in this movie he showcases that. Catalina is already an established dramatic actress but I bet she would make a killing at doing a comedy.

“Fast Food Nation” opens limited tomorrow in NY and LA.

from Movies.About.com / by Rebecca Murray

Wilmer Valderrama (That ’70s Show) and Catalina Sandino Moreno (Maria Full of Grace) play a couple of illegal immigrants who find work in a slaughterhouse in the dramatic film, Fast Food Nation, directed by Richard Linklater. Based on the best-selling book by Eric Schlosser, and adapted for the screen by Schlosser and Linklater, the film examines the inner workings of the fast food industry, exposing what goes into making a fast food burger.

How did you get yourself into the mindset of a Mexican immigrant coming to this country?
Wilmer Valderrama: “We tried to focus a lot more on the universal theme and feel of the immigrant, which is the hopeful side of them. How positive they are about coming to America and creating the original American dream that we all have heard about for so long as immigrants. No matter what country you come from, that kind of is like the generalized universal theme of coming to America. We focused on that, but we were presented with whole different definitions of things that we weren’t supposed to [know]. You can only hear about the things that we saw and that’s what was also so impressionable.”

How deep into the meat did you two actually get?
Wilmer Valderrama: “As deep as possible. That’s the one thing I can honestly tell you about is that we worked at a real slaughterhouse. Our extras were real slaughterhouse workers so everything that you saw in the movie, we were an inch away from it. It made it so exciting as an actor because so many times you’re acting with fake sets or a green screen. To be inside of a slaughterhouse and be among people that [that is] their reality was so much [more] mind-blowing and gratifying as an actor, because very few times you get that kind of real motivation.”

Was it a reality check?
“Wilmer Valderrama: “Coming to America in search for something better is as [real] as it gets, but I’ll tell you I’m more aware of what’s in my meat. I’m more aware of what ends up in my food. We, as a culture, we grew up knowing what immigration is. From when you were one year old, you grow up knowing that immigration is something that might be a part of your life eventually. We knew that some of us had to take jobs that were unpleasant at the beginning and try to work our way up somehow from the way bottom.”

Did you ever have to?
Wilmer Valderrama: “My dad always wanted me to have an education. I always wanted to work with the family since I was 14-years-old, but he wouldn’t let me do much of it. Seeing my dad’s struggles… We ate dinner every other night and it wasn’t a sad thing, it was reality. ‘This is what we are right now and eventually it will get better,’ and it did, thank the Lord. But yeah, we have a very hardcore understanding what to be grateful for and what not to be grateful for, because one day you’ll have this and the next day you won’t.”

Catalina, how did you make this role your own? Did you do any research?
Catalina Sandino Moreno: “Well, I didn’t talk to anyone. I went to the slaughterhouse but I thought, ‘How can you prepare for a role like this?’ The only thing I could give my character is the fact that I am an immigrant, but how can you do it? But my character had never been to a slaughterhouse before, and I didn’t want to know anything about drugs when I did Maria. When I went to the slaughterhouse, the cameras were rolling and the whole surprising [reaction]…I just reacted.”

How did this experience change you the two of you?
Wilmer Valderrama: “…Working in slaughterhouses with people who are willing to take these jobs that people often assume do not exist, was really awakening and eye-opening. As a performer, to bring such light to these characters is such a privilege. How many times do performers like us get to be part of a theme or project that could possibly change the minds of a lot of society? That could be one of a few statements of hope for people to make their own decisions, as opposed to letting other people make their own minds?”

Has there been any backlash from the meat packing industry?
“Wilmer Valderrama: “Eric [Schlosser] and Richard [Linklater] could probably speak more on the matter because they have to deal with it directly. We’re performers who are giving a message through our performances, but I know we have experienced certain limitations while we were shooting the movie. We lost a lot of locations once they found out the type of movie we were shooting. We had to shoot the slaughterhouse scenes in Mexico because no slaughterhouse in the United States would let us film in there. So little things like that letting us know, ‘Okay, there is someone trying to pay attention to this so if there is no problem, then why we all tripping?’”

Do either of you eat fast food?
Wilmer Valderrama: “No, no, do you want to answer (he asks Catalina and they laugh)? We pretty much share the same [background]. We grew up in South America where our parents cook breakfast, lunch and dinner. I was introduced to fast food when I came to America because I didn’t know what fast food was. When I came to America I saw that there was quick food - and very cheap - everywhere.”

Did you try it?
Wilmer Valderrama: “Of course, you have to. It’s part of America. You come to America, you eat a burger, that’s what you do. I play a lot of sports and playing sports, I began to understand very quickly it was making me feel really drowsy and making me feel really lazy. That was not productive for my athletic life so I stopped for those reasons, but not for any health issues that I was aware of until I did the movie. Then I realized that our body was digesting things that were not meant to be digested, and that our bodies are digesting things that have often been digested already. That alone was, ‘Okay, okay, that’s why I felt like s**t when I was eating it.’”

Catalina, how did your life change as far as scripts and offers after your Oscar nomination?
Catalina Sandino Moreno: “Well, the Oscar didn’t change my life at all; I just got more exposure and attention. But I think my work speaks more [than] an award or nomination. After the Oscars I thought, ‘Great, I’m going to get these great projects,’ but no, I had to wait a year to get this project. I was hoping so much for a great big project.”

Catalina, some of the film choices you’ve made are controversial or politically charged. Do you seek out projects like that or is it just the type of scripts that come your way?
Catalina Sandino Moreno: “I feel responsible and after I saw Maria Full of Grace, I saw people’s reactions to the film and they didn’t know anything about drugs. They just were saying, ‘Okay, that’s how heroin comes into this country because somebody ate it and s**t it.’ They just couldn’t believe it, yet it’s something that’s happening in Columbia every single day. I just felt that part of my job is movies with a message.”

Did you ever want to lighten it up with a romantic comedy or by playing the love interest?
Catalina Sandino Moreno: “I did a movie with Ethan Hawke directing it. It was just a nice, cute love story but it was real. I don’t like love stories because you fall in love, you break up, and then you’re in love again. Which is more real life? But I thought this script was fun and working with Ethan was good. My mother was Sonia Braga, which made everything more fun. I try to see what I’m looking for but right now, you do a movie, you do it fairly soon. When you see this kind of movie, they’re reacting to the movie and they go home and think about the movie. This movie is very visual so I think people will stop and think. It’s so rewarding to do a good job.”

Wilmer, did you have to fight hard to get on this movie because you’re not known as a dramatic actor yet?
Wilmer Valderrama: “Nobody has ever seen me do anything dramatic yet, and I really tried my hardest to convince everyone. It’s been for a couple of years that I’m re-educating the industry a little better of who I am as a performer and what I can pull off. Richard was amazing to give me a shot at doing something this dramatic. And then I did my best to bring it home.”

On a different note, you’ve got CHiPs coming up. How’s that going?
Wilmer Valderrama: “CHiPs is going good. I’ve been really busy so we haven’t been able to figure out when we’re going to get into that (a loud engine roaring outside interrupts his answer). I’m sorry, they’re parking my motorcycle (laughing). We’re in pre-production right now and the script is super solid. It’s fantastic. It’s the answer to every attempt that was done before. It will be sometime next year. I think I have to do one or two projects before I get to this, but it’s definitely happening.”

Are you going to play it like Erik Estrada or do something totally new?
Wilmer Valderrama: “First, I have to honor the general persona and the generalized iconic character that he built, but I’m excited to bring my own colors to the character. Obviously not take him too seriously but at the same time, have fun with him.”

from V / by Christopher Thomas

HER DEBUT PERFORMANCE GAVE HER AN OSCAR NOMINATION. BUT COLOMBIAN ACTRESS CATALINA SANDINO MORENO IS PROVING THAT INCREDIBLE WORK IS THE ONLY ENCORE

“You’re too beautiful to be working in a factory.” That’s what one character tells Catalina Sandino Moreno’s character in Maria Full of Grace, the 2004 film about a struggling Colombian girl who gets caught up in the international cocaine trade. He’s smooth-talking her into becoming a drug mule, but he is onto something. In a crowded factory scene, your eye is immediately drawn to Moreno. The 25-year-old actress has presence. In person, her English is perfect, perhaps due to her education at a British school in Bogotá, or from living for the past four years in New York with her husband and studying acting at the Lee Strasberg Institute. What’s most noticeable about the way she speaks is her precision and quick mind.

Moreno received a 2004 best-actress Oscar nomination for her work in Maria, especially impressive for a debut performance, let alone the fact that she was the first actress nominated for an Oscar in a Spanish-speaking role. She has been conspicuously invisible since, but in the coming year she’ll star in five prominent movies: a love story (the lead in Ethan Hawke’s The Hottest State), a thriller (Journey to the End of the Night), a period piece (a starring turn in The Heart of the Earth, about tensions in a Spanish mining town), and two more social commentaries (Walter Salles’s section of Paris, Je T’aime and Richard Linklater’s Fast Food Nation).

The first to be released is Fast Food Nation, the fictional version of the exposé of the fast-food industry. Linklater described it as “a character study of the lives behind the facts and figures,” and Moreno plays an undocumented worker in a meatpacking plant. Shortly after this interview was conducted, the actress traveled to Colombia to begin shooting her biggest upcoming role, a costarring turn in Love in the Time of Cholera (which, like all but one of her upcoming films, is English-language). She plays Hildebranda Sanchez, the heroine’s cousin and best friend. Finally, in this adaptation of Gabriel García Márquez’s novel, Moreno will be playing a Latin American character with no ties to the cocaine trade. She won’t be a drug mule or an exploited undocumented worker, she’ll just be a woman dealing with a fifty-year love triangle. Christopher Thomas

CHRISTOPHER THOMAS Tell me about your character in Fast Food Nation.
CATALINA SANDINO MORENO She’s an immigrant from Mexico who comes to the U.S. with her sister and boyfriend, and like any immigrant, she wants a better life. She finds herself caught in a situation of having to work in a slaughterhouse to survive, which is not at all what she was planning to do. It’s a story of survival, how people have to do whatever it takes to survive in this country.

CT What kind of research did you do?
CSM I just read the book. I didn’t think this character needed much research because, like in Maria, she doesn’t know what’s going to happen to her. If I were playing a pianist, I would take piano lessons and just dedicate my time to the piano, but this character doesn’t know how a slaughterhouse looks or how they kill the animals. She’s new to America.

CT So you never visited an actual slaughterhouse?
CSM I did eventually visit a slaughterhouse with a camera, which actually helped a lot. The smell of a slaughterhouse is so strong, just blood. Then you notice a big box full of heads of cows. It was not that hard for me, actually, because my father is a veterinarian, and he has a farm with cattle. Every time a cow died, he would open it up and show me why it had died. But the film was shot in a working slaughterhouse. The line was moving. They were killing cows while we were doing our scenes. My job was to clean the intestines, which is very… [Scrunches up face, laughs] And I did.

CT Did your eating habits change after reading Fast Food Nation?
CSM I just need to know where my food comes from. I’m much more careful after reading the book. I’m not going to buy meat from the corner store. But I eat everything. My mother is a vegetarian, so I grew up not eating meat. Then I went to Brazil and was like “I’m just going to have a little taste.” The meat there is fabulous, so I kept eating it all the time. Plus I was really needing the iron.

CT Why are you drawn to such political movies?
CSM I feel I have a responsibility, as an actress, as a Colombian immigrant, and just as a person, to show people reality. It would be nice to be an actress who loves action movies, but I’m not that kind of actress. Maybe because my first chance was Maria, and I felt how people reacted. People enjoyed Maria, they were entertained by it, and they learned something. The more real and raw, the more I’m naturally drawn to the character. Though don’t get me wrong, I love Batman and King Kong and all these big movies, too. Who knows, hopefully I’ll be in one of those big special-effects movies one day. But right now, it’s important to show people what’s happening in the world.

CT After the Oscar nomination, you must have received a lot of scripts.
CSM Actually, I didn’t. After Maria, I didn’t work for three years.

CT Strange.
CSM Strange. [Laughs] I didn’t receive much. Well, I received roles that were very light. Like the Colombian drug dealer and the sexy Latin girl. Maria had such an impact on me that I didn’t want to do something so light. I wanted to do something with power. Anyone can be a beautiful girl. Any girl can be that. So I didn’t do anything for three years. I was waiting for the right roles. And in the past year, everything has been happening so fast.

CT You alluded to stereotypes of sexy Latin girls. Have you encountered a lot of stereotyping in the business?
CSM Of course. People have stereotypes. If in the script it says “Caucasian woman,” they just look at Caucasians, not beyond that. The script Ethan [Hawke] wrote [for his adaptation of his debut novel] was for a Caucasian woman, but he sent me the script, and I was so glad and proud and thankful. He saw beyond the color of skin and accent and everything. He just wanted a good actress.

CT Because Gabriel García Márquez is such an institution and Love in the Time of Cholera is so special to so many people, fans must be very attached to the characters.
CSM It is special. I read that book three times before I even knew anyone was going to make a movie. I thought adapting it would be impossible, but the script is perfect. Every single detail I loved about the book is in the script.

CT Do you have any ideas about how you’re going to approach
Hildebranda?
CSM Not yet. I just got back from shooting a movie in Spain for four months, so I still have to work on Love. I have the book, so I will read it.

CT For the fourth time.
CSM And I’ll be glad to read it for the fourth time. But now I can concentrate on her. I think I have to do some work with my body, physically. Not changing it, but to learn how to be old. I don’t know if I’ll need help from a teacher, but a big part of my preparation will be just really believing that I could be 70.
Fast Food Nation is out in October 2006 from Fox Searchlight Pictures

from Interview / by Walter Salles

Catalina: so how does an actress from Colombia whose name means “pure” make her mark in a business that’s anything but? By being a breath of fresh air

The strikingly natural 25-year-old from Bogota, Colombia, stunned critics with her gritty film debut as a tragic drug courier in 2004’s acclaimed Maria Full of Grace–a role for which she was nominated for an Academy Award. Since then, she’s been cast in key roles in some of Hollywood’s most anticipated films: the Ethan Hawke-helmed cinematic version of his 1996 best-selling novel, The Hottest State; Richard Linklater’s controversial spin on Fast Food Nation (which also stars Hawke); and Mike Newell’s upcoming adaptation of Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s Love in the Time of Cholera (1985). Recently, director Walter Salles spoke with the actress.

WALTER SALLES: So Catalina, I just heard that you will be back in Colombia to shoot Love in the Time of Cholera with Javier Bardem. How exciting is it that cinema is bringing you back to your country?

CATALINA SANDINO MORENO: I never thought I would be going home to Colombia to shoot a film, and especially not to Cartagena!

WS: How hard is it going to be to stop the family from invading the set every day?

CSM: They will be on set every day, I know for sure. Already, my mother and grandmother are packing everything to go there. They want to see me act, and they love Javier.

WS: Many years ago I was in Colombia, which is where Gabriel Garcia Marquez was born. I saw people there walking with hundreds of yellow … borboletas?

CSM: Butterflies, yeah.

WS: You know, circling around them in the streets. I wonder if you have the impression that at our end of the world the extraordinary is sometimes quite ordinary.

CSM: Of course. You see so many things in our country that you get used to. Just take Maria Full of Grace. It was a film that shows an everyday thing that happens in Colombia, but when you show it to the world, it seems very scary.

WS: Can cinema really alert us to the world surrounding it?

CSM: Oh, definitely. I think with that film I learned a lot. I think I am more responsible as a person and as an actress. I don’t just take roles for fun or for money; I take roles because I want to be proud of my work, and I want to say something. Like with Fast Food Nation–films that are politically and socially driven. Cinema is where everybody goes to have fun, and these movies are fun, but you can learn from them while you’re having fun.

WS: Fast Food Nation will be released soon in the U.S. Talk a little about the character that you play, Sylvia.

CSM: Sylvia is a Mexican immigrant who comes to America and finds herself working in a slaughterhouse. You can see how cruel and how dangerous and disgusting that work is, but people really do it. The people that do this work can’t even talk while they’re working because they’re so concentrated on not slashing a hand or cutting off a body part. In the book by Eric Schlosser, he says that the manager gives people drugs like speed to make them faster and to make them more aware. It’s just scary that a person can live in America and not know anything about it. When we go to a fast-food restaurant, we just ask for a burger and eat it–we don’t know where that food is coming from.

WS: I imagine that we shouldn’t expect a fictional version of Super Size Me (2004) with this film.

CSM: Not at all. It’s much more socially and politically charged.

WS: After co-starring with Ethan Hawke in Fast Food Nation, you collaborated with him again, this time in The Hottest State, which he directed. Can you tell me a little bit about your character, Sara?

CSM: Sara is just a girl that wants to be a singer, and she comes to New York to find her dream. And she finds herself alone in this big city, which treats her very hard at the beginning, but then she meets this guy who wants to be an actor. They’re just two kids that the city puts together to fall in love. It’s a very nice movie.

WS: You’ve made seven films in two years, in different latitudes, working with different directors–what next?

CSM: I don’t know. After Maria I didn’t work for two years. I thought, I’m never going to work again, I should go back to Colombia. And then suddenly there were projects that I just couldn’t say no to. So I see a bright future, hopefully.

WS: When you were studying in Colombia, what actors did you admire?

CSM: I’ve always liked Javier, Frances McDormand, Gael Garcia Bernal. I think they’re intelligent, and they can pick the right projects.

WS: You just mentioned three actors who are not only excellent at their craft, but who choose wisely–and the key word for that is integrity, something you have.

CSM: Hopefully, I’ll keep up the good work!

Brazilian filmmaker Walter Salles is currently developing a film adaptation of the Jack Kerouac novel On the Road.

from Jane, April 2006

Oscar-nominated actress (Maria Full of Grace)
Photograph by Bryan Adams

“I don’t want to be older, I don’t want to be younger - the best time is right now. I know a lot of people my age involved in politics and environmentalism who go out and get people to vote. People our age do care what’s happening in the world.”

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