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Also Starring: Christian Oliver
Posted by Rob Ortenzi on 06-Jun-08 @ 11:21 AM
If you're having trouble putting your finger on just where you've seen German-born actor CHRISTIAN OLIVER's face before, just think back to your Saturday morning cartoon days. Oliver's first big break came as foreign exchange student Brian Keller on Saved By The Bell: The New Class. More than 10 years later, Oliver finally broke free from Bayside High by playing Cate Blanchett's husband in The Good German. This month, he circles the racetrack--and the green screen--in the live-action adaptation of Speed Racer. INTERVIEW: Rachel Lux PHOTO: Neil Visel How well does Snake Oiler, your character in Speed Racer, hold up to the animated version? Of course I'd seen the cartoons and I did my research, and I thought I had a pretty good grip on who I was going to play. But when I got to the set and put on my costume and went into hair and makeup tests the first day, I was like, "Okay. Now I know who Snake Oiler is really going to be." I mean, this guy is just a bad, bad boy. [Laughs.] How different is acting in a film with so many special effects compared to acting on set? It's great to act with other people; that's what acting is all about. But in this case, I was racing in a car and screaming at the top of [my] lungs all day, having 200 crewmembers look at [me] like [I'm] going insane. [Laughs.] The good thing is, you wear a crazy enough outfit and anything goes. So, really, for me, it was just play time, and you really had to go full-steam. There was no holding back. There's a lot of mystery surrounding writers/directors Larry and Andy Wachowski (The Matrix, V Is For Vendetta), since they don't do a lot of press. What was your experience like? Working with them was a tremendous experience for me. They're like little kids who wanted to play. Coming from their movie background, they wanted to take it to a whole new level for kids and make it fun--and they were right there with me, guiding me through it. It's fun when you have someone like that--when you can really trust the director and the environment. Out of all the roles you've played, which one do people stop you in the street for the most? [Laughs.] I still get [stopped] a lot from The Baby Sitters Club, to be honest with you. Really? We figured it was Saved By The Bell: The New Class. I think I just grew out of that, like, a year ago. Of course that stuff sticks with you for a while, and it's great. But fortunately, I'm very happy I've been able to do some work where people don't really recognize [me]. It's going to be the same with Snake Oiler. Nobody will recognize me. I think my mom won't recognize me in [this] movie. What music have you been listening to lately? There's a great indie station in Los Angeles [103.1], so I have it on all the time. Music is definitely something I pull a lot of my creative resources from. The right music in a movie can make or break a movie. It's incredible when you put a track to it how much it suddenly supports your acting. You just want to hug the composer and be like, "Oh, my God. You made my performance so much better." CHEAT SHEET >> Christian Oliver might've been pegged as a teenage heartthrob back in the day, thanks to roles in Saved By The Bell: The New Class, The Baby Sitters Club and MTV's Undressed. But with chameleon-like transformations in 1996's The Good German and this month's Speed Racer, he's showing the world he's not just another pretty face. |
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