A few months ago, I got to sit down and chat with Booboo Stewart – Boy Wonder of our Winter ’11-12 issue – to find out more about him and his experiences. He was super nice and humble; the whole time we were just smiling and laughing while he enjoyed his plate of nachos and I sipped on my Earl Grey tea. We started with a quick round of questions about his preferences before we got to the more serious questions.
EITHER/OR’S:
Audrey Magazine (AM): iPhone or Blackberry?Booboo Stewart (BS): iPhone – ‘cause I have one. (Laughs) I actually used to have a Blackberry but iPhone I found there’s just so many things you can do on it. Really, it’s unlimited.
AM: Twitter or Facebook?BS: It really depends. Twitter’s the faster thing to do when you’re outside or on set, but Facebook is better for communicating with people so it depends on the situation.
AM: Katy Perry of Ke$ha?BS: Let’s see … (long pause). That’s a hard one – I don’t really listen to that style of music.
(So we spared him on answering this one.)
AM: Cable TV or YouTube?BS: (Silence). Agh! These are very complicated! I would say TV. I usually watch Netflix, but I do turn my TV on for one TV show and that’s Person of Interest.
AM: Werewolf or vampire?BS: Werewolf! (without hesitation)
AM: Long or short hair?BS: For girls, definitely long hair. For myself – I’m actually growing my hair back out so we’ll see.
AM: Acting or singing?BS: I would say acting.
AM: Good looks or good personality?BS: Good personality. It’s more fun to hang around someone that you like rather than someone who may be very attractive but not very nice.
FIRST THING THAT COMES TO MIND:
AM: Most important feature on a girl.BS: Teeth.
(I’m guessing he means a beautiful smile.)
AM: Favorite band?BS: Boston.
AM: Favorite movie?BS: Good Fellows. And A Bug’s Life. (Laughs)
AM: Turning 18.BS: That’s in a few months! My friend was just talking about it last night. I don’t know… I think I’m pretty much going to stay the same. I might drive – maybe?
AM: Celebrity crush?BS: Adriana Lima.
INTERESTING FACTS:
(1) I used to do yo-yo tricks.
(2) I watch a movie a day – that’s pretty interesting! Not a lot of people do that.
(3) I only turn my TV on for Person of Interest!
(4) I’m afraid of sharks – like insanely afraid of sharks.
ON TWILIGHT:
AM: Now moving on to Twilight – how does your character Seth Clearwater develop in the upcoming Twilight movie?BS: You get to see Seth’s relationship and friendship grow with Jacob, Edward and the Cullens. You get to see how he becomes more of the peacemaker and just wants everyone to get along. You get to know his personality more.
AM: How has it been playing the character Seth?BS: It’s been awesome. It’s been like a dream come true being able to be on set and hang out with everybody and just be part of the Twilight saga. Most of us will probably never do a movie this big in our life so it’s really exciting.
AM: I’m sure there will be bigger things coming for you!BS: I don’t know – Twilight’s pretty big!
AM: And what has been the most interesting experience so far on set?BS: Probably the fans – the fans knowing where you are. Most of my filming was done in this tiny town in Canada and it was freezing cold but the fans didn’t care. They would be at your hotel and I remember this one time, I was waiting in lobby so we could go to Walmart… (Waiter interrupts to ask if we wanted more water.) I seriously thought that (the huge cup the restaurant uses to serve hot drinks) was for your hands! You know how some fancy restaurants give you this bowl of water to wash your hands. (Laughs) Yeah, so there was this Walmart and I was waiting downstairs in the lobby and this huge group of girls was screaming outside the hotel lobby. It was insane!
AM: What is the one thing you’ll take away from this experience?BS: A lot of memories and a lot of amazing things that I’ve seen, like thousands of people screaming at me. I’ve also been to some really cool places. I just got back from Spain and that was pretty fun. I was at a film festival – it’s one of the biggest film festivals over in Europe and all these fans showed up for Melissa Rosenberg, the screenwriter, and me.
ON WHITE FROG:
AM: How did you land the role of Nick Young?BS: I remember hearing about the auditions and I just went in for the auditions. I knew it was a smaller film – a lot smaller than Twilight – but the script was amazing and the character is… (tries to find the right words.) Not many people in their careers would play a character like this and I’m only seventeen! This film was a once in a lifetime opportunity for me so I definitely wanted to jump on it. I studied a lot on YouTube before going into auditions. I just went in there and did what I thought the character would be like. We changed it a lot when I got the part but I guess [Quentin Lee, our director,] saw my potential in doing this role. He was like, “Hmm… I don’t know if that’s what I was thinking” after the auditions, but once I got the part we sat down and really talked about the character. We just wanted to have a meeting together – just him and I in a room. We literally went through the whole script ‘cause I wanted to go [on set] completely knowing my character.
AM: Can you tell us a little more about your character in the movie?BS: Yeah! My character, Nick Young, has Aspergers. He’s always in the shadows of his over-popular brother, [Harry Shum Jr.]. His brother’s extremely popular – everyone’s always talking about his brother. Nick Young just hides in his brother’s shadows so he keeps to himself a lot. But you get to see him open up and become what he becomes at the end of the movie – which I can’t say!
AM: Was it difficult playing the part?BS: It was really difficult. I was so tired. Every day I’d come off set and I’d just fall asleep like in the car. Oh my gosh! My brain has never hurt that much in my whole entire life, even after trying to do Math or something like that. I’m so glad I finished school before I had to do that role because there’s no way I could’ve been doing my school work and that role at the same time. [It was difficult in that you were] mentally changing the way you were, like completely. I changed my whole body – the way I stand, the way I thought about things. People with Asperger’s a lot of times would have a glaze over their eyes and in the auditions I was like, “Maybe I’ll just think of nothing and stare into the wall and try to clear my mind.” But then I figured that [my character] he gets fixed on things and gets obsessed on things – so if I’m talking to you I’d be thinking about the thing I thought about yesterday; that’s why it looks like people with Asperger’s sometimes aren’t there because they’re focusing or concentrating on something else so much that they’re just answering because they hear a voice talking to them. That was one of the hardest things to do – to get that look. And I’m not Nick Young the whole time; in between shots I’m just regular. Going back and forth between Nick Young and me was really difficult at times especially when we had a crying scene or something like that. The hardest thing about that was having Asperger’s and crying. And because we all had such a good time on set it was hard to [get into character]. I had to stay in rooms by myself at times because it’s too much fun to go outside.
AM: What was the best part about being part of White Frog?BS: I think [White Frog] was the happiest set I’ve ever been on. Everyone was just having a good time. I made some really good friends. Almost every day I text these people – the crew members. Usually you don’t see that ‘cause you don’t really get to hang out with the crew a lot so it was awesome.
AM: Was there anyone in particular that you really clicked with?BS: I really had a great time with Tyler Posen from Teen Wolf. He’s a really cool guy. There were three werewolves on set and they would ask, “Who would win a fight?” and I would always say, “I would!” because I’ve actually killed someone in the movie. I don’t think they’ve ever killed anybody in their shows. But umm… he’s a really cool guy.
AM: What did you take to be the message behind the movie?BS: I think it’s about not judging people by uh… (pause) – not judging a book by its cover pretty much; staying true to who you are because people all thought of me as this weird person but once they got to know me they find that they like me and I’m actually a nice guy – that Nick Young is actually a nice guy.
OTHER WORK:
AM: Tell us more about this YouTube channel you recently started with your sister Fivel.BS: It’s the Booboo Fivel channel. We’re really excited about it. We’re going to have videos on this channel that no one else will have because, say, we’re going to a premiere or something like that. We’ll film us getting ready and going to the premiere and no one else will have that video except us, so you’re going to be able to go there and see things you won’t be able to see elsewhere. And Fivel is going to have her own videos on the channel. It’s Fivel’s corner and she’s going to interview celebrities and do tutorials on make-up since people have been complimenting her a lot on her make-up and hair and just fashion stuff. It’s been exciting to be teaming up with YouTube and it’s been so much fun to be able to do stuff on the Internet.
AM: What upcoming plans do you have and what else are you involved with?BS: My sister and I are releasing an album. I have a comic book coming out – it’s called Millenium Man. It’s a character I made up when I was twelve. We’re trying to get out to Asia to do some concerts. My sister Fivel Stewart and I are also involved in this company called Four Green Steps. It’s all about going green; they make products that are environmentally friendly. [They make] everything! You have to go to their website – it’s ridiculous! They’re the largest company for doing this and we’re really excited to be part of something that I think is going to be the future of things. And Childhelp – it’s an organization that helps children that have previously been abused. They have villages all around America and they help them get back on their feet. Los Angeles Mission is another thing we like to do – we go feed the homeless every year and oh! Oh yeah! I just got back from Australia – it was awesome! I did a telethon out there where we raised over 13 million dollars. I did it last year as well and it’s all for finding cures for children with diseases and helping children out there. It’s been fun; it’s really been great doing all this stuff.
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