Cameron Monaghan's INTERVIEWS: transcripted.

ok so this anon asked this to me and.. how could I let it down? ;) here’s the transcription of some of the last interviews Cameron did. we (cinetrixx & I)’ve spent so many hours on those because english is not our main language but I hope there’s no mistakes :) enjoy x

the post includes the WHOLE interview he did at the Giver Press Junket (the one 18 minutes long [YoungAdultHollywood posted just THEIR parts, not the whole thing]), another one [the first below] at TG Press Junket, and the one he did at the AARP The Magazine Event)


(1) The World of 'The Giver' Reflects Our Own According to Cameron Monaghan (transcripted by cinetrixx)

Cameron Monaghan, who plays Asher in 'The Giver' sat down with HitFix to reflect on themes of the film and the practicality of production.
The interviewer: "So your character has a lot of moral conundrums in the movie and sometimes he reacts well, sometimes he's not sure how to act. Do you like your character?"

Cameron: "I absolutely like my character, I think Asher is an essentially good person that..at least as good as you can be in a society without emotion... but at the same time he makes some decisions where he decides to stand for this community, as opposed to his friends...and you know he does it because he thinks that he's doing it for the greater good but at the same time we see, because we have knowledge of that, we see him as villainous and, for what he's doing, as a bad guy."

I:  "In one of the major scenes of the movie you are in a way guiding Jonas under certain circumstances  that are very difficult to describe. Did you try different things like.. to sell that scene or did you just used the same sort of a salon voice as you're going through that scene?"

Cameron: "He is essentially going to kill his friend, you know he is at this moral crossroads where he's trying to decide if he's going to protect this community or protect his best friends. And I think that he's become so essentially brainwashed and so focused that he's just..he's trying to uphold and rationalize these thoughts together at the same time of those two opposing things. It was just a very intense thing to try to imagine and essentially I was just trying to put myself in his circumstances and to imagine that and I guess that, what you saw, was what the result of it."

I: "This movie is about repression in a major way *Cameron nods* and almost relatable to nobody how dystopian it is. What do you do to put yourself in that character shoes, when it's in the society that like, you know, is not ours and probably won't be?"

Cameron: "I can definitely see reflections of our society within the community. Obviously we don't see everything in black and white and obviously everything is not controlled to that extend but at the same time,you know, we still live in an age where there are cameras everywhere and there's computers everywhere and we definitely turn our backs to some of the suffering or bad things and we sometimes focus and pretend that everything is great all the time, you know. I didn't find it too hard to imagine myself in circumstances like this, it's not necessarily that far away."

I: "My last question is: What's the hardest part of the physical world of The Giver to imagine when you're filming it because much of the magic is obviously added in postproduction?"

Cameron: "One of the great things and....one thing that was very helpful on the filming set is that much of it was built, much of it was practical. All these houses and this community were all built and they planted all these trees and all these pathways. So it became very beneficial to not have to imagine all that stuff. Obviously we still had to imagine the great idea of the community and how these people behave and interact with each other and how much is acceptable for a character like mine, he is a bit of a jokester, a little bit goofy, and how far can you take that without breaking the reality within the story."

(2) Cameron Monaghan interviewed at AARP The Magazine' Luncheon in Honor of Jeff Bridges Cover (transcripted by cinetrixx)

Cameron Monaghan interviewed by Danielle Robay at AARP The Magazine' Luncheon in Honor of
Jeff Bridges Cover August 01, 2014 - Spago - Beverly Hills, California, United States
The interviewer: Okay Cameron, we have a lot to talk about today.

Cameron: "Okay."

I: "First of all, we're at the AARP the magazine honoring Jeff Bridges and Beau Bridges was talking about agelessness. Is there wisdom that you think comes with age?"

Cameron: "I mean there's wisdom that comes with experience and I don't think it's necessary an age thing. You  can have a full life but never experience enough to have the wisdom, you know. You need to always be going out and trying to learn and experience new things, then you gain the knowledge. I think Jeff is one of those people who has ton of experience and ton of wisdom due to that."

I: "Well, speaking of experience, you've grown up on screen, you've had a lot of life experience. What's been the biggest change for you from the beginning of Shameless till now?"

Cameron: "Oh wow. I don't know....I don't know when you're the person  you're able to see how you change. I think that everybody else can see it and I can see it in all the other kids. I'd be curious to ask my cast mates how I've changed... I think I've...I don't know, hopefully in good ways."

I: "Do you see yourself gravitating towards different types of roles?"

Cameron: "Yesss. Well...yes, I mean I've always been interested in emotionally complex roles and characters that change in a specific arc, I mean any arc as long as they're going from one place to antoher. That's something that's always interested me but I guess that I've been able to pinpoint that what's interested me now that I have more of an awareness of what interests me."

I: "You have some really risky scenes..."

Cameron: "Yeah sure.."

I: "How do you film them, are you parents like: Whooaa, Cameron! *laughing*"

Cameron: "Yeah...I try not to let my mom watch the show. * laughing * Yeah but she....she likes it. She's just fully supportive. They have a purpose, you know, all the wild stuff have a purpose, it's to tell the story and to show a character."

I: "Okay we're gonna...I promise we're gonna have a lot of fun, we're gonna play a rapid fire game, I need you to come a little closer to me, I'm not gonna bite... "

Cameron: "I might!" *the interviewer pretends to bite him and he pulls back laughing * OH!

I:  "laughing while Cameron is collecting himself from the shock – you should just watch the video, you know :D* Ok, on three... First thing that comes to your mind."

Cameron:  "Okay..."

I: "Hidden talent."

Cameron: "D..d.d.dancing" *cheeky smile*

I: "Go to dance move."

Cameron:  "The robot"

I: "Can you do it? I saw you in a dance class..."

Cameron: "Yeah alright..." *performing the dance, nailing it!*

I: "Woooow, you're gonna have to teach me that, that was pretty good!"

Cameron: *laughing out loud *

I: "If you could switch places with someone for a day, who would it be?"

Cameron:  "Emm...umm...Errr..... A musician rockstar!"

I: "First concert that you have attended."

Cameron: "Uh...wow...Mystery Jets at Troubadour.."

I: "First CD you ever owned."

Cameron: "Smash Mouth"

I: "Something that you're proud of that's not on your resume."

Cameron: "Uh....I don't know.... my.. *doesn't know and throws his arms in the air* this is a rapid fire game, what  am I doing?"

I: "Okay, last thing you ate?"

Cameron: "Peanutbutter and jelly, I don't think that's true but I'm gonna say it!"

I: "Last time you cried?"

Cameron: "A scene I did yesterday.."

I: "For what?"

Cameron:  "For Shameless."

I: "Last time you got the chills."

Cameron: "I don't know, it's so hard right now, it's summer. *laughing*"

I: "But you know what I mean, like the ghoosebumps?"

Cameron: "I know what you mean.. *thinking really hard looking in the distance* I was actually watching Cutter's Way, which Jeff is in, just a couple days ago, I got chills then."

I: "And I'm a Chicago girl, born and raised, Shameless takes place in Chacago, I know you did a little bit of filming there, what's your favourite thing about the city?"

Cameron:  "Food * like a no brainer*"

I: "Yeah?"

Cameron: "Oh, Yeah! I eat so much when I'm there, just all the italian food and sausage and pasta and cakes "

I: "Ok I want you...last thing so you're off the hook....give me a Shameless filth like an unsaid story that no one really knows about."

Cameron: "Oh, boy! Um what can I tell you.."

I: "Is there something funny that's happened this season?"

Cameron: "Uhh..well we have been shooting for just a couple of weeks now but …. I had to curse out a large group of extras in a scene very recently and I don't think that they were told what the scene was gonna be before it happened so I ran up to them and I started screaming and swearing at them and yeah I think they were a little shocked in rehearsal...so yeah."

I: "That's..that probably never gets old, that's funny..."

Cameron: "It was a lot of fun, yeah..."

I: "Ok, let's robot out of this... You're so much better than me!"

(3) Cameron Monaghan Talks THE GIVER & More (transcripted by xthatsclaudia)


Interviewer: "So what initially drew you to this project?"

Cameron: "well, initially I hadn't read the book yet so it was just the announcement of Jeff Bridges and Meryl Streep doing this really amazing project, directed by Phillip Noyce who is a director who I already admired so I had my original audition but then I had one when I've read the book as well and then I was  really interested in the book and also the script was really amazing. It's this beautiful story about, y'know, humanity and what it means to be human and pain and love and all these emotions. It was a really beautiful story and something I wanted to do."

I: "Your character was different from book to movie. Did you like the changes or.. how did you feel about that?"

C: "So... y'know, obviously the book is pretty short and when it was adapted to featuring films something were expended on and one of those was the character of Asher. So Asher starts in a very similar place as in the book where he's a little bit of a goof ball, a little bit of an outsider, he doesn't fit in perfectly with society and naturally gets reprimanded a little bit for it. But in the film, as Jonas starts being opposed to the community, the totalitarian society, Asher kind of becomes an implement of it. And so he acts as a foil to Jonas’s character and acts in an opposite way.

I: "and he kinda redeems himself"

C: "he does... well, SPOILER ALERT!"

I: "well I think we wanna see it right?"

C: "I didn't wanna know what happened at the end of it! *laughs*"

I: "well, that's what happens!"

C: "actually, you know, it's funny tho that it wasn't the initial plan. Initially Asher intents purely in kill Jonas. Just feels in doing so. But then now, in our version, he intents in... kinda save him and is redeemed in some way."

I: "Memories obviously play an important role in the film. What was one of your favorite memories from the set, either funny or just something you took away?"

C: "Well what's kinda funny is one of the main themes in the movie is how music is one of those characteristic of humanity and beauty of human excistence and we had a very musical cast. So.. Jeff Bridges had his guitar, Brenton plays, I play and we all kinda sing or someone would play piano, Michael Mitnick (one of the writers) is a very good pianist and so we were all kinda have those jem sessions together and.. yeah, I think those are definitely some of my favourite memories."

I: "What was it like, playing with Jeff Bridges, I mean  he's such a legendary actor, I'm sure it was  such an amazing experience."

C: "oh yeah absolutely, it was, y'know, interesting to work with someone who I admire so much. I mean, I've seen "The big lebowski" over thousand times so in many ways he was "the dude" for me before I met him . I mean not only that movie, I'm a fan of "Cutter's way" and "Tideland" and  all those sort of things that he did but meeting him and then seeing he's this really humble easy going who is just very interested in collaborations and hearing our ideas for the characters 'cause this was a project that was so close to him, I mean he'd been trying to get it made for 18 years. He was really excited that we were excited about the movie and yeah, it was great!"

I:  "so any funny behind the scenes moments? Brenton seems to be a bit of a jokester, maybe a prankster, I don't know.."

C: "No, no no no... we're very serious, there was no fun allowed on the set [ironic] ...yeah, I mean we had plenty of times just hanging out, cracking jokes between the scenes. Y'know it's so funny because so much of it is so intense on camera and then obviously as soon as you... someone says stuff like "ok  pull my finger now". It's a lot of fun and yeah.. it was a really relaxed fun set."

I: "did you get to enjoy South Africa, did you do any extra curricular things there?"

C: "Yeah I mean I tried to explore as much as possible and see some of the neighboring townships and also just see some of the really spectacular landscapes. I mean there's mountains, there's beach, desert, sand dunes, pretty much all you can imagine just running in this one town, Cape Town. So I went out and I went ATV four wheeling and then... what else did I do...? I went sandboarding! that was really cool. Bunch of people went shark diving ... just trying adventures as much as possible"

I: "did you do it tho?"

C: "I did not go shark diving.. no, I did not. That was actually, I think that was the day that I decided to go sand boarding. that sound really fun tho, maybe next time I'll go there I should. You're like no, no way, no, not for me *laughs*"

I: "I'll keep all of my limbs, thanks"

C: "well, you're in a cage"

I: "still... there's small checks."

C: "fair enough, fair enough."

I: "What are some of your favourite books? like, what type of books do you like"

C: "I like a lot of different stuff. I like mistery novels, I like a lot of young little fictions still. My favourite might be the sci-fi younger novel "Feed" by m.t. anderson, I don't know if you guys know it but it has some very interesting social commentary, the style of satire like 1984 or something like that. This kind of, dystopian or sometimes utopian as in the case of The Giver, stories are very interesting and very fun. I guess I like sci-fi, that's an easier answer!"

I: "Do you have like, a specific book that you would love to do if it was adapted on big screen, that you would want to..like, you have to be in?"

C: "well I think actually "Feed" is probably one of them even tho I....."
*GPS on an interviewer's phone starts talking and everybody laughs*
C: "... I don't know what we were talking about *laughs*"

I: "Movie you'd want to be in?"

C: "just a movie in general I want to be in?"

I:  "nono, book adaptation"

I: "ah, book adaptation... uhm...I don't know... I mean, I guess there's a lot of stuff by Shakespeare that I would wanna do. Y'know, I love "Hamlet", it's one of my ultimate favourite stories or even, like, "Romeo & Juliet" and play like, Mercutio, something that'd be totally amazing."

I: "it's a great choice!"

C: "yeah I mean what's been so great about the story is that there's such interesting characters besides just the title characters."

I: "Your character plays both good and bad, he's the enemy at some point, he's the friend at one point... What do you think is more fun to play?"

C: "well it's interesting bc this character is so morally grey in the story because he does stuff that we perceive as villainess but he's doing that with good intentions so he thinks he's protecting his community and he's holding something that's good and that's meant to keep people safe. And not only he thinks that Jonas is being a bad friend and kinda turning against him but he's being a bad person trying to take down his community. So I guess it's fun to play a villain or a bad guy who's so sympathetic and not a real villainess and have that moral conflict. I guess it's just conflicted characters."

I: "So you've been acting for a while. I know that you were in Malcolm in the Middle, you were in a couple of episodes. I love that show!"

C: "I was! It was a lot of fun, I love that show too!"

I: "What made you get into acting?"

C: "I mean, I grew up watching movies and television from a very young age, it's kinda how I learned to read (more or less), looking at the captions on tv. It's something that I've always loved and fascinated by. And y'know I think as kids we all kinda play, make believe... prentend we make those little scenarios and then a lot of us lose it to grow up and some of us that we call actors always kinda stay kids? And like to play make believe and just.. yeah, I've always had a love for it and it's been that way ever since."

I: "How's Shameless going?"

C: "Shameless is great. Shameless is really fun. We just started back up on fifth season, we're three weeks into it and shooting now and it's been really fun. That kind of journey with that character as well to see where he's now it's very fascinating to be able to play.. He’s pretty severely bipolar, and he has this mental illness that we’re kind of exploring a little bit now in this season and that’s been pretty spectacular for him."

I: "The book focuses so much on memory. If you could pick one memory what would you choose?"

C: "here's the problem with that tho, what the movie kind of explores is that we can not have an appreciation of that one great memory without the hard ship and pain of all of those after memories. Y'know... I always try to get wisdom.. I was trying to weasel my way out of the question...I think.. I don't know... I think some of my memories of like... Christmas morning, seeing the presents under the tree when you were kid, get that one thing that you really wanted. I think that's... I think that’s one of the memories you have for the rest of your life. "

I: "So in the movie the characters don't get to choose their destiny in terms of the career, so if you could choose, what would you choose? And then what you think you'd be assigned to?"

C: "What I would choose as my career? I mean, an actor! So.. it's a good thing I have this job! I don't know what I would do if it wasn't acting...  I mean, I guess, I'd like to write or I'd be directing and all of that is interesting.. but acting is definitely my passion, definitely my thing. What was the second part of the question?"

I: "if you were in the community, what would you think they would assign to you, 'cause you don't get to choose."

C: "they might just release me!! I don't know... definitely not something that has to do with Justice department or anything like that... They'd probably just make me the garbage guy."

I: "So, you were saying that everyone is kinda musical.. so what's currently on your playlist? What are you obsessed with now, in terms of music?"

C: "Well... what I've been listening to... I really liked the new "Beck" album, the new "Arcade Fire" album, I mean it's not that new anymore but I still listen to it like crazy. Uhm.. I don't know.. I always love Bob Dylan and Otis Redding, this like that. I like the oldies and some of the new ones."

I: "Favourite scene to shoot?"

C: "Favourite scene... well, I mean, I have couple of scenes where I work with Meryl Streep that were pretty damn cool. It was definitely interesting... well, without giving too much away, I was watching the movie and it was really funny because in some ways, I mean I'M A NERD, in some ways.. Meryl Streep was like Emperor Palpatine and I was Darth Vader and I thought it was kind of awesome that I’m like this villainous prodigy to this figure and that monarch of that figure is Meryl Streep, which is kind of awesome and it's awesome but anyway just shooting those scenes was really cool and amazing."

I: "Yeah I think you had more time with Meryl Streep than all the others"

C: "I did. It was really cool to have those scene just one to one and that was something that wasn't even in the original script but happened after I got the role and I just kinda lucked out and unfortunately I don't have any scenes like that with Jeff but to be able to have that at least with Meryl.. that's still pretty cool!"

I: "Did you learn something just by watching her and observing her?"

C: "Yeah. I mean, what I've learned from both these actors is not only that sense of focus for these characters and the intensity  when they're in these scenes  but also how, even tho they have all those experiences, even tho they had Academy Awards and all those great movies and everything under the bell, it's still to approach every role with that sense of wonder with that feeling of kids playing 'make believe' and they approach it as brand new actors, y'know, ready to go to work each and every day and that's something that I admire and noticed and what I always want to have for myself."

I: "What else are you working on?"

C: "Well, besides Shameless I've shot another film for Dimentions called "Amityville" based on 'Amityville Horror' and I get to play a very villainess character, something kinda evil and not so sympathetically like in 'The Giver'. And I got to wear a lot of like.. prosthetics and stuff and that was definitely  a real experience to be able to kinda transform into this creature. The trailer will be coming out soon enough."

I: "with this movie, do you feel inspired to be a pilot and all after this?"

C: "Y'know, it's funny, I've always  kinda had the dream of being a pilot and wanting to... I think I've always wanted to fly in like a jet plane? and I actually think that's on my bucket list and that one day I definitely wanna... y'know... top gun two..three...eight!! top gun eight. I don't know, so.. I mean yeah that'd be amazing."