We had the opportunity to speak with some of the young actors in the film “Pixels.”
Read our exclusive interviews below:
Anthony Ippolito
How excited are you to be here?
I’m very excited. This is a great opportunity. It’s great great experience for me. This is so huge and so many people are here. It’s incredible really.
So tell me about the role you play.
So I play a young Stan Brenner which is the younger Adam Sandler. So I play him in 1982 and I think I was thirteen in the film and I’m a loser but as the film goes on I discovered video games and turn out to be very very talented at these games. Like one of the best in the world so I go to the championships and I play the games. So that’s how that turns out for my character. You should probably see the movie to see the rest of the details. I don’t want to ruin anything.
And speak about the games you had to play in the film and did you actually play them in real life to learn about them?
You know, on the set I got the opportunity to play the games a lot which was really fun for me. They were everywhere because a lot of the sets I was on included the classic arcade games. So I was able on my breaks to play then. I was able to play them when we were filming because my character plays them and they’re great games. They’re really great games so I hope a lot of kids get into it now thanks to this movie.
What games?
Donkey Kong, Centipede, Galaga, Pacman. There’s a whole lot of them.Q*bert’s a great one. Asteroids. There’s a lot of them so they’re great games all of them. They’re fun to play. They’re really fun to play. I hope the kids give them a shot.
What are your favorite games to play these days?
Yes, I’m 14 and I’d say my favorite game these days are my Xbox games and whatnot. But I’d say my favorite arcade game is really Donkey Kong because it’s just so fun to play. I hope people try it out because it’s tough to explain how fun these games can actually be but they’re a really great experience. A great time to play.
What’s coming up next for you?
For me personally I hope to be working on some stuff soon. But I did a Nickelodeon thing a week or two ago so that’s going to be coming up next for me. That’s not going to be for a while but hopefully I’ll do some more work and I’ll have some more stuff coming out in the near future.
Jared Riley
Tell me about the role you play?
I play Kevin James’ younger child. I play him in 1982.
Tell us about how it was immersing yourself in the world of video games?
It was amazing. It was a great experience. I got to play this one and that one. And it was just so much fun. Like I got to play all these different games. I got to play Pacman and Galaga and everything. And it was just so much fun.
What was it like working with Chris?
He’s amazingly talented. He’s one of my favorite directors because one of my favorite movies of all time is Mrs. Doubtfire directed by him and Robin Williams, may he rest in peace, was an amazing actor. So he’s just so funny like he gets you. HE makes jokes and everything and it’s just so fun.
And what’s up next for you?
Hopefully something big. I mean I’ve really been booked because I’m going into high school now so there’s been high school auditions and everything. And successfully I got into PPAS in the city a couple blocks away. First choice thank god. So really hopefully something comes next.
Andrew Bambridge
Who do you play?
So I play the younger version of Peter Dinklage’s character so this was when Eddie Plant was in his prime and he was winning video game competitions and getting all the ladies. So that’s my character yeah.
What was it like working with the director?
Oh my god. He is the best. He was patient with us and he was also very instructive and he knew exactly what he wanted and so it was amazing working with him. Yeah such a pleasure.
Tell me some of the video games you had to learn for the role.
The first days we came here was to practice Pacman, Donkey Kong, and Centipede. And I decided to focus mainly on Pacman and Donkey Kong. But yeah that’s kind of the games we were supposed to play.
Did you get to meet Peter?
Oh yeah. I actually got to see him act as Eddie Plant for a couple of days to get his mannerism so I could perfect the younger version of Eddie Plant. Which is awesome.
What was it like bonding with him?
It was cool. I was a bit nervous meeting him for the first time. Actually the first time I ever talked to him he sat behind me in the director’s chair and I looked back and he was like “what are you doing?” And I was like oh my gosh when he first spoke to me. So eventually we became good buds. He’s an awesome gu and a pleasure to work with.
So how did you get your start in acting?
I did an acting competition called AMTC where I won the male acting award and then I kind of went from there and got hooked up with agents and eventually got some jobs and this is my first movie job so I’m super excited.
The film is now playing!
