By Fred Topel | Image property of Warner Bros Pictures
Max Records got into the spirit of childhood fantasy making Where The Wild Things Are. Even on the publicity circuit discussing the film, director Spike Jonze inspired him to be abstract. He made up some nonsense for the reporters asking him about starring in the film.
Max Records Goes to Where the Wild Things Are
“I took a fish and I put it up Spike’s nose,” Records said.
The young star could get serious when talking about how the film was made. Aside from the film’s bookend sequences, Records worked entirely with costumed wild things. At least they weren’t CGI.
“If you had done it CG, you wouldn’t have been able to do that sort of handheld camera sort of look. You wouldn’t have been able to do that way of doing the POV shots and stuff, how it looks like it’s all shaky and the way Lance [Acord] shot it. It just sort of like feels really shaky. Then also I guess it just seems like it’s more raw as live action.”
Where The Wild Things Are
Where The Wild Things Are
Where The Wild Things Are
Where The Wild Things Are
The wild things on set did not speak with the celebrity voices they have in the final film, but Records still had a lot to work with. “The wild things were just people in suits. The people in suits were professional, Australian actors. So they memorized all the lines and they acted out the movie.”
Records remembered the book from his own childhood, which was a little more recent than the rest of the filmmakers. “My introduction to the book was just my parents reading it aloud to me, probably at a very, very young age. Probably when I was one and a half years old or something. Then it remained my favorite book until I was probably four or five or something. It feels like it’s real.”
At 12, Records can handle the intensity of the wild rumpus. Some parents are wondering if younger kids can take it. “It depends on the kid,” Records offered.
Where The Wild Things Are opens to theaters October 16th.
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