Alison Lohman
Interview: Alison Lohman
“I was really daunted,” said Lohman.
“At one point, the costume lady called me and said, ‘Okay, we’re
scheduling you for an appointment’ and I said, ‘I’m not
going to do this movie. They should get a rider. There’s more riding
in this movie than acting and I’m an actor. It’s not going to
happen for me.’ So I called my agent and said, ‘Can I get out
of this? What are the legal obligations?’ And she said, ‘You
have to do it’. So, I just said, ‘I’m just going to do
the best I can with what I have.’”
Even with lessons, Lohman won’t be participating in Celebrity Equestrian
anytime soon. She doesn’t even have friends from the cast of Seabiscuit
to help her. “I don’t have many actor friends to be honest.
I have a friend who’s not an actor who rode horses so I could go visit
her and ride. I don’t think I ever felt really comfortable to be honest.
It takes many years. It’s not something that you can do in a month
or three.”
Compared to riding, roping and saddling, bonding with the four-legged costar
was no problem. “That was almost more important to me because I am
first an actor and I relate experiences to emotions so it was easier for
me to do that than actually the physicality of the part which was incredibly
difficult because I’m not an athlete. It’s a love story between
a horse and this girl. If I didn’t get that then there would be no
story so it was crucial that I really could see behind these horses’
eyes. And there were six different horses. But, there was the one horse
they used for close-ups.”
This update of the Mary O’Hara book casts
Lohman as a rebellious teen, about to be held back a year at school for
neglecting her work. When she takes in a wild mustang, she finds something
that gives her focus and drive.
“There’s something about this movie, when I saw it, this girl
has this incredible spirit. That’s what really attracted me to this
story. She inspired me to be opinionated, to be different and embrace the
rebellious part of you. That’s not always bad. That can be good and,
for the good of these wild mustangs she’s taking care of, the good
of nature and preserving that and the freedom and the beauty in that. She’s
different and that’s her big thing. Right now in school, well, it’s
always been about uniformity. She embraces different thoughts and ideas
and that why I liked it when they changed [the lead character] from a boy
to a girl because it shows that, yes, women now are taking roles but they
are using physical exertion doing ranch tasks and all that that men had
previously done. That’s one of the challenges in this movie. She’s
trying to prove to her dad that she can do this.”
Flicka opens to theatres this Friday, October
20th.
For the trailer, poster and more movie info, go to the Flicka
Movie Page.
Stay tuned for updates.
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