Recently at New York Comic Con we had the chance to interview Thomas Mann who will soon be seen playing Link in Richard LaGravenese’s adaptation of Beautiful Creatures.
Mann’s character, Wesley ‘Link’ Lincoln, is the comic relief to Alden Ehrenreich’s more serious Ethan. Mann also gets to be the boy toy for Emmy Rossum’s dark caster, Ridley. Link has to chose alliances when his mother, played by Emma Thompson, wages war against Lena and her family.
Q: Link is such a fun, lovable friend, and he brings a lot of humor to unfortunate situations, especially for his buddy. The fans were just wondering if you could tell us just a little bit about working with Emmy, and Links relationship with Ridley?
A: Like you said, what I loved about Link when I read the script was how loveable he seemed. While Ethan has to deal with all this stuff with Lena, and all the supernatural stuff, he can confide in Link. He’s the comedic element to the story which is important. He doesn’t take himself too seriously. Ethan doesn’t have a whole lot of people with his same sort of world view, and Link is sort of his rock, someone who has been there for him, he doesn’t feel like he has to impress Link; he can be himself around him. And that’s important for Ethan’s character. So I just wanted to make sure that I was the fun loving guy. He’s just kind of a goofy character.
I think the wardrobe that we chose is pretty outrageous, some of it is really cool. He’s really groovy. He wears a lot of like, vintage clothes, which I loved. Working with Emmy was a real treat. She’s such a giving actress. There’s something interesting about me and Emmy’s scenes. There is not a lot of dialogue. It’s all very physical and it’s all done with… there’s just not a lot of dialogue. I don’t know how else to explain it. It’s very physical acting.
We have a lot of tension between us. So, me and Emmy went on some faux dates before we started shooting. We’d just go and walk around New Orleans and grab dinner, that was fun. I got to know her really well. She’s the sweetest. As an actress she is very daring and dangerous. You never know what she’s going to do, which is almost her best quality. She’s constantly surprising me and challenging me as an actress. I think she made me better for it.
Q: You’ve been really busy this year. We just saw the new fun size trailer, Project X is doing good on DVD, and you also have a lot of projects coming up in 2013. Are you getting a lot of female attention in your fan base? Are you prepared for the female attention and the fame that comes with being in a Young Adult adaptation?
A: I don’t know. That’s the thing, I try to not think about that. I don’t have a Twitter or anything. That’s just dangerous. I can’t say I’ve never googled myself. Anyone who says they have never googled themselves is lying. But eventually you find out it’s wrong, you just don’t want to read those things. There are a lot of angry people on the internet.
Q: Why aren’t you on Twitter?
A: I just, it really is just like a personal thing. There is something about an actor, keeping some sort of mystique. For instance if a director was to go on Twitter and see what you had for breakfast that morning or ‘I’m just watching my friends dog this weekend.’ Once you get too familiar with someone, it’s hard to see them as another role. I keep my private life very private. And maybe at some point I could have a Twitter just for work purposes, which is always an option. For now I am just happy to be Twitter-free.
Q: In the book Link is in a band, the Holy Rollers. Is that going to be incorporated into the film? Will we get to hear any Holy Roller music?
A: No, that element of the book is not in the movie. It’s not in the script. Like Richard was saying earlier, there are just some things you have to go without. It’s a complicated story to understand, to tell in two hours, or however long the movie is. You have to build the relationships, and that’s the most important. The core of this movie is the love story between Ethan and Lena, the struggles that they have to overcome just to be together. That’s the core of the movie, and that’s what is really powerful. Who knows, maybe there could be some Holy Rollers stuff in the next movie. I think it was too much to explore that aspect of Link’s character. You do get to see some of his home life. Emma Thompson is just phenomenal actress and such a treat to work with. She’s just such a strong confident woman and I’m just so lucky.
Q: Are there any scenes in this movie that you are really looking forward to seeing on the big screen?
A: Yes, there is a scene in an alley with me and Ridley that I am looking forward to seeing. I just remember shooting it and how crazy it felt. And I kept asking Richard, “Does this feel over the top, cause it just feels so crazy.” And he’s like “No, trust me. It’s gonna be great.” And the way Emmy is, every time I see her, every time Link and Ridley have an encounter, she’s wearing something different. So every sort of setting is different, and there are a lot homages to Film Noir movies, which Richard is such a huge fan of. So I think that’s such a cool element which wasn’t in the books, but Richard has added. I think that there are a lot of new things to be expected for people who have read the books and are also looking forward to the movies.
About ‘Beautiful Creatures’
Beautiful Creatures is the first novel in the Caster Chronicles series by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl. Beautiful Creatures focuses on Lena Duchannes as a new girl unlike anyone in the small Southern town of Gatlin, and she’s struggling to conceal her power and a curse that has haunted her family for generations. But even within the overgrown gardens, murky swamps and crumbling graveyards of the forgotten South, a secret cannot stay hidden forever.
Look for more interviews featuring Alden Ehrenreich, Emmy Rossum and director/screen writer Richard LaGravenese later this week. The film hits theaters February 13, 2013.