FILM INTERVIEW: MADELINE CARROLL

Star of 'Flipped' Talks Teen Through the Ages & the Smell of a Certain Co-Star's Hair

By: Izumi Hasegawa

August 29, 2010

Izumi Hasegawa: Do you think teenagers today are more sophisticated than they were in the 1960s, and do you think teenage audiences today would be able to appreciate a story like this?

Madeline Carroll: I think it would be cool for them to be able to see how it was back then. Kids are so obnoxious nowadays. I really didn’t realize until I read this script, and then it wasn’t just a script — people actually lived in those days… It was like, “Wow, they were so much nicer and more pleasant to be around!”  I remember when I was in school, kids were just rude, even to the teachers, and the kids in the classroom are sitting up straight [in the movie], and I think it would be cool for them to watch, just to see how it was back then.

IH: Would they be able to relate to them though?

MC: I think in some ways. They can especially remember how they were when they were younger. Kids in middle school — that’s a far stretch. I think everybody will remember, but the way they had manners and all that stuff, there’s no way.

IH: Do you think the Bakers are a family that can inspire real families to have open discussions, even about difficult things, and to support each other even when they disagree?

MC: I think our family is just more wholesome, and Rebecca [DeMornay]‘s family has everything we wish we had, but the love isn’t really there like our family. I love the Bakers. I love her dad. I love the part where we visit my uncle. I think it makes you feel even more bad for Juli after Bryce threw away her eggs. You feel for Juli, and when you see Bryce’s family, you feel for him in a way, even though you feel like he’s a jerk, but you feel for him anyway because he really doesn’t know the difference. His dad’s a snob…it’s just a whole different setting. I think it’s really cool when John Mahoney comes in as the grandpa because he’s the moral compass of the story. Until he gets there, Bryce doesn’t really know what to do with himself.

IH: The movie uses the device of switching between two perspectives, and Bryce’s is first, and then Juli comes in and sheds more light on the situation. Should we take that to mean, as a universal truth, that girls just know more than guys pretty much at any age?

MC: I think girls, from a young age, know what they want and boys are having to catch up to them. Even in kindergarten, girls are pretty much the ones that like the boy first, and the boys are like “Ah, I wanna play with my trucks!” They think it’s not cool, and I think girls are definitely more ahead than boys.

IH: Madeline, you and Callan [McAuliffe] had such great chemistry in the film. Can you describe the first time you guys met and how you got along throughout filming?

MC: I read with him in an audition. We were looking for a boy — that was the first time I met him, and we got along well. We never really liked each other, like, in a different way — we’re just friends, just so that’s clear… I remember filming a scene where he tries to kiss me and all that stuff, and it was so weird because we were both laughing the whole time. He would lean in and I was like, “Gosh, you look so stupid!” It was horrible.

IH: Did you have a relationship with the source material before you came to the project? And what were your feelings reading it afterward?

MC: I kind of was familiar with the book. I had it in fifth grade, but I hadn’t read it. Then I read the script and I loved the script, but I think all people will be able to see this movie, and I think adults will enjoy it more so, maybe, than the kids. Kids will like it, but adults have those memories of first love, and I think that’s the reason adults will really like it. Same thing with Stand By Me — you wanted to be with those kids at that time, and you get to have those memories. Kids will like it, but we’re going through all that love stuff right now — first crush thing — so that’s the reason why I think adults will like it a lot.

IH: Do you think you have anything in common with Juli?

MC: Just small things. She wasn’t exactly the popular or mean girl in the school, and she wasn’t exactly a nerd. I was always kind of in between. I mixed with everybody, like Juli. She has brothers, I have brothers — just things like that. I’m kind of similar to her, but obviously I didn’t live in the ’50s and ’60s.

IH: Can you offer your perspective on the ’60s?

MC: The clothes were so fun to put on every day, and weird too. We had pennies in our shoes. I was like, that’s weird. The clothes were awesome, and getting to see all the cars. The bikes were awesome too — it made me think that bikes are so ugly nowadays. Back then everything was decked out on the bike. Everything around you made you feel like the ’60s — it was awesome.

IH: You’ve played two wholesome, perfect daughters in Swing Vote and now this movie. Do you want to play somebody really bad?

MC: I don’t care. Whatever happens, happens. That’d be fun, I guess. That’d be really fun. I don’t know how happy my parents would be about that, but it would be fun. I think it’s really cool that I got to play those two really wholesome roles because nowadays everything, for me, is the bratty teen daughter. Everything in the past couple of years has started to bend that way, so it was really cool to be able to play Juli Baker, especially in a time piece — that’s awesome because everything right now seems the same.

IH: What was the most challenging part in making this movie?

MC: The most challenging thing for me was having to sniff Bryce’s hair. That was really weird. It was literally fun all the time.