TeenHollywood conducted a great interview with Olivia Wilde in Venice California. "Tron: Legacy" arrives in theaters Dec 17th and stars Jeff Bridges, Olivia Wilde and Michael Sheen.
Olivia, your cute co-star Garrett Hedlund has said that he has a new found respect for somebody who can do a high roundhouse kick in four-inch heels. That would be you of course.
Olivia: [laughs] Well, when we first all got into our [light] suits, there were a lot of jokes about 'turning each other on'.
We know teen guys will love this movie but why will girls enjoy Tron: Legacy and your character?
Olivia: Girls will enjoy the vehicles, the effects, the family story, the performances and the fashion. [The movie] is very interesting and futuristic in its fashion and also in the design of the film from the streets of the Grid to the lines of the suits and hair.
I think women will empathize with Quorra because she is not just a sexy vixen. She's not the temptress. She's not there to serve the men as eye candy which can happen all too often in Sci fi films. She's, on her own, quite powerful. She is unique in her child-like innocence. She's enthusiastic and quirky and awkward in an enjoyable way and she's really smart. I think women will like that.
Would you go as far as to say she’s a role model for women?
Olivia: I think young women will hopefully, look up to her and have her as a role model in a time when I think there is a lack of sci-fi female role models for kids. When I was little it was "Wonder Woman" [TV show with Linda Carter in the role] and she stood for social justice and truth. Who now do kids have to dress up as for Halloween who stands for social justice and truth. They dress up as princesses...boring. So I think that Quorra will hopefully be that for young women. I was grateful I was able to make her like that. It would have been quite easy to make her just the sexy character.
Do you consider yourself a geek or Sci Fi geek?
Olivia: Yeah. I think nerd would be a better term because geek implies that I have some sort of expertise in the technological or gaming world and I'm completely naive about technology and gaming but I'm a total nerd because, coming into a project like Tron, you could have focused on the cool cars and sexy suits. I was thinking 'Oh, Quorra is Joan of Arc or she’s an ancient Buddhist/Korean warrior. I was bringing in all these elements that , thank God, our creative team was so receptive to. But, I completely nerded out. We're all nerds in this movie so we did well together.
Did you know about the original movie Tron that hit theaters in 1982? Had you seen it?
Olivia: Yeah. What struck me about the original Tron was it's very funny and it was so unusual. I think the look of it is actually quite beautiful. The black and white with the colors in the suits. That was a beautiful choice and very revolutionary at the time. CG had never been used before like that. Tron became part of the cultural fabric of the last thirty years. It's been showing up in everything from "Family Guy" to "The Simpsons" to "Chuck". Even if you haven't seen it, it's not something that you wouldn't be aware of. A lot of people still haven't seen Star Wars but they feel like they have because it's part of the Earth now.
Tron: Legacy is full of electronic gadgets and imagery. Do you think that electronic gadgets are just distancing kids, teens and even adults from each other or is it just a phase we're going through?
Olivia: Well, it's interesting. It's doing two things at once. It's definitely distancing us from each other but it's also bringing us together. If you think back to what it was like to communicate with someone across the world just ten years ago, and now I chat with someone in China. It's being used in schools where instead of just having pen pals, kids have whole classes that they communicate with in other nations. That's where technology is working well and for the good of humanity.
Is there a message in the movie about the misuse of modern technology?
Olivia: I think the message of the film is that you have to embrace what is valuable and good about being human and harness the power of technology only in the most positive way. We need to recognize how easy it is to lose yourself to the technology and how we mustn't lose what it is to be human. The end message is that there is some redemption for those of us who have been swallowed by technology.
What is your personal use of modern technology?
Olivia: I use it in the way most people do. I'm stuck to my phone. I need the internet. I forget what life was like before Google and I've certainly taken advantage of what it's done for the ease of life. But I do enjoy taking a hiatus from it once in a while. You suddenly realize how stress-free you feel. Recently, I was looking for a business in a city and someone said 'I can look in the phone book.' and I was appalled. 'What? Why? Give me my phone and I'll find it in a second.' So, you can see how much it's changed.
Quorra is actually a program inside the computer grid. What is it like for an actress to play that?
Olivia: When you are playing a non-human character, you can't focus on not being human. Joan of Arc was my main source of inspiration for her. She seemed to be from another world. She was 14-year-old leading the French army. She thought she was communicating with God so she was working for a higher purpose, completely selfless and she was strangely powerful and fearless. That's how I wanted Quorra to feel; that she is very emotional and compassionate in the way that humans are but connected to something else that we don't have. She’s also physically more powerful than a human. She is probably the most interesting character that I've ever played and I really enjoyed doing the research for her. Maybe I'll get to play her again.
Okay, the important question. If Quorra is a program and Garrett's character Sam Flynn is human and they are hot for each other, how is that going to work for a hook up?
That's the looming question. They are almost like siblings in a way. Quorra had been Flynn's companion and student for hundreds of years inside the Grid. He's kind of adopted her. Two hundred years there is like 20 years in the User world. He's adopted her almost like a daughter and suddenly his son Sam has arrived. All Quorra has wanted her entire life was to meet Sam Flynn. Just like we humans don't really believe in the Tron world, those in the Tron world don't really believe in humans. They could be a myth.
So she's believed in Sam Flynn in a way like you would believe in a God. So, when he arrives, she's amazed and in awe but she needs to protect him. She's discovering all these emotions and feelings of attraction and love that she never understood. So, it remains to be seen what would happen if they actually tried to procreate. We'll see!