April 2003 What a Girl Wants : An Interview with Amanda Bynes

(Apr: Main Page * Features * Reviews * Screenings * Teen ) Current Issue * Archive

Interviewed by Alberlynne “Abby” Harris What a Girl Wants: An Interview with Amanda Bynes It seems that Hollywood is plucking stars from today’s TV shows and turning them into megastars. While this is nothing new in the business, the trend now is marketing the younger actors on these shows. We recently had Nick Cannon from Nickelodeon’s The Nick Cannon Show do well with his film debut in last year’s Drumline, and Frankie Muniz from Fox’s Malcolm in the Middle is currently gracing the screen with his film Agent Cody Banks. Now it’s time for the ladies to do their own thing. Amanda Bynes, who appeared in Big Fat Liar with Frankie Muniz, and stars in the Nickelodeon show What I Like About It, is about a big splash on the big screen. In her first major role, she stars along with Colin Firth in What A Girl Wants. In an interview with blackfilm.com, Amanda Bynes talks about doing this film in Europe. AH: Can you talk about doing the pratfalls in the movie? AB: I hit my head a lot and fell over a lot seemingly. I think they wanted the movie to have some glimmer of clumsiness. I think there's so much more to the movie than that. That's a minute part of it and I think in some of the previews that are magnified as something maybe for the kids that they would enjoy. There is so much more to the movie than just the pratfalls. AH: What did you learn about British culture while filming? AB: I learned that it's not as different as we portray it in the film. We try to magnify the difference between Americans and the English. In real life they like the same music, dress the same and it's really much more similar than anyone thinks or how we show it. AH: Was it your first time in Europe? AB: Yes it was. AH: What was most thrilling about going there? AB: I think as soon as you get off the plane and get in the car and the actual driving on the other side and the driver being the passenger is just weird. It seemed to give me a headache automatically. I was video taping as we were driving and it's just so beautiful. It is so rich in history and everything and it's fun to be there. AH: Did you give Oliver any tips on acting? AB: I just said whatever you need or if you need help you can come to me. I'm not that experienced this is only my 2nd one. He came into it being very open to advice. AH: Did you have fun? AB: It was really fun. It was definitely a cool thing to do. AH: How is your fashion style similar to the character you play? AB: I think the beginning character was more similar to me because she's supposed to have street style from New York. I like stuff that's dark and some solid stuff and jeans and clunky boots which is sort of what I like. AH: Can you talk about auditioning against Britney Spears for this role? AB: (Laughs) I got a script and it's really interesting with scripts because you never really know. It's on paper and it could be great or awful. Even scripts that are good could end up not working. Once I read it, it seemed really cute but I didn't finish it. I don't like reading scripts because I'm everywhere and I have such a short attention span for that. I thought it was cute but I didn't know if I wanted to do a movie. Then I heard Colin Firth was interested and I was like "What? He's interested?" I said "let me look at that again" I just thought this is a good thing and would be a good message to give to girls which is important I think because I've grown up with kids watching me and as they're growing up I'm growing up and hopefully they can get a good message from it. When I found out Colin was doing it I was shocked that he would be near me let alone do a movie with me. He was amazing. Even better than I thought he would be. He's down to earth and has such a good sense of humor and is so charming and such a lovely guy. AH: Girl movies fell out of favor for awhile. What did you watch growing up? AB: I loved Clueless. That was one of my favorite movies of all time. When that came out I was fairly young and it was a more teenage movie with adult type stories but there's something about watching a movie with girl empowerment. It gets a cliché name and it's stupid but it's really important for girls. I think Legally Blonde did that too because it was a fun way to feel good about being a girl and I like that message. I don't want to do that forever but I think it was perfect for me at that time. AH: What are your favorite movies? AB: I like “Princess Bride”. That's one of my favorite movies. I really like Christopher Guest. I think he's really talented and I like Jim Carrey and a lot of his movies. I also liked “Big” and “Clueless”. AH: What did you learn acting wise from Colin Firth? AB: There's no exact how to but he's so natural that when he does it I don't ever see him studying lines but he always brings something to it. He's hard on himself and will do the take 50 times and make sure it's right. Having that type of commitment and stamina is really impressive and is really a good role model and something good to see. AH: What kinds of things make you laugh? AB: Funny people obviously. I think Christopher Guest is amazing and he's really clever. I think Friends is a really funny show. I was watching a lot of the older ones and there's something special about the actors when they bond and you can tell they're friends. I think Lisa Kudrow is so funny and David Schwimmer is so funny and underrated. AH: How do you keep up friendships with your crazy schedule? AB: It's really hard now because the show has the last week this week and then the movie is coming out and the premiere and it's hard but phone is probably the most important way and online and seeing them whenever I can. They're coming to the premiere and just trying to keep them involved. AH: What were the fun things you did in London? AB: It was my first time getting to go somewhere by myself. I would just walk around and go to the park and go shopping. I was centered in Piccadilly which is close to everything. I just met a lot of really cool people that were on the crew. Everyone was so nice and it was an entirely British crew except for Kelly and I and Denny. I'm so protected in my Nickelodeon bubble and What I Like About You. It's all pretty much the same people I've worked with and it was pretty protected. Going to another country you're not in your house, you're with people you've never met before and I think it's definitely a good growing experience. AH: Did you have any mishaps with British culture or not understanding what certain terms met? AB: There was nothing like that. Cockney is hard to understand but I couldn't give you a specific example. AH: Did you get recognized in England? AB: We did one scene on the Millennium Bridge in London. It was interesting because there was some sort of school outing with 500 kids and some kid recognized me and screamed "Amanda" and the rest of them were like "Huh?" It was scary and overwhelming because we were doing this scene and you hear people saying Amanda and that can't happen because my name's not Amanda in the movie. That was the one time. AH: Will “What I Like About You” come back for a 2nd season? AB: We have a good feeling. We definitely have a feeling what the show is about. So many shows in their first season everyone says well it's not as good as Friends. But Friends has been on for a long time and they've had a chance to sculpt what they want the show to be about. AH: How will you spend your hiatus from What I Like About You? AB: It's summer for me. Summer is June and I will be done with everything fully in the middle of April. So I will have May to go back to school which I do whenever I can. Then I'll have summer and last summer I was in England for 3 months so it will be good for me to have fun. I've been looking at scripts and I've turned down a few things that would be to do a movie just to do a movie and I couldn't do it for whatever reason. I'm waiting to find something that's right for me. I want to do something that's a little bit older than this one. I don't want to stay at this level. Even at my age I want to keep growing. I don't want to go down or stay the same. AH: You've grown up on television and now that you're getting older what kind of responsibility do you feel as a role model? AB: When all the Britney backlash came about her doing older stuff and with Christina Aguilera now, who are we to judge what anyone else does? That's what they want to do and that's their life and they think my daughter is going to dress like her now but you're the mom and you're the dad and that's up to you. It's not up to Britney Spears. She's doing what's right for her and she's 20 or whenever this happened. For me I'm glad kids like the shows but I'm only going to do what's right for me.