Josh duhamel - teen television interview

 

November 27th, 2006

Don't you just luv those classic tall, dark and handsome guys? TV/movie star Josh Duhamel fits that description perfectly. His girlfriend Fergie is one lucky gal. Hey, he was named one of "People" magazine's "50 Most Beautiful People". From his role in TV's "Las Vegas" to a turn as the lead in Win a Date With Tad Hamilton opposite Kate Bosworth, Josh cuts a dashing figure. The actor will soon be seen in Michael Bay's blockbuster actioner Transformers.


Currently, catch Josh as a hapless, partying tourist whose vacation ends up as a horrific, dark nightmare in Brazil in the creepy, suspenseful Turistas. We got to sit down with Josh recently in Beverly Hills to chat about the very physical, torturous (he had to dive through bat poop) but still fun Turistas shoot, what he wants for Christmas, he and Fergie's holiday plans and his future projects. Picture this hunk wearing long-sleeved black and white rugby shirt, black pants and big, chunky boots. Can we say... hot?

TeenHollywood: This movie looks like it was really hard to shoot. Did you just want a free trip to Brazil?
Josh:[laughs] Well, originally, when I first read the script, it was Guatemala. And I was like, "Okay, Guatemala, let's go do it." And then they said Brazil, and I said, "That's even better!" So yeah, it's everything that you see. I had never been there, and you have this preconceived sort of impression of Brazil; the music and the booties and the food and Carnivale and the beaches and everything, and it's all of that. I thought we did a good job of capturing the essence of Brazil in the beginning and I think that that contrasts with what happens later in the movie; some of the graphic stuff that happens later. It makes more of an impression because of the stuff that happens before. You know, you don't really expect it to go as hardcore as it does in the middle.

TeenHollywood: So when you know you're going to spend a lot of the film shirtless, do you work out extra hard?
Josh: Remember, the girls were the ones in the bikinis. I had my jeans on at least. But, the working out was because I knew what I was getting into as far as the physical demands that this movie was going to have. "Okay, now we're running through the jungle, we're swimming, we're climbing, we're jumping off a waterfall." I wanted to be able to last the whole movie and not be completely exhausted by the time we were done, which sort of worked. But, by the time we were done, I was so beat and ready to go home that I don't know how much preparation I could have done. But yeah, there was definitely some training, especially a lot of underwater swimming and stuff before we left.

TeenHollywood: Do you have to work out on a regular basis or do you just have good genes?
Josh: Actually, I didn't see any of the [shirtless scenes] coming. But then John [Stockwell, the director] was like, "No, no, we're on the beach. You gotta take your shirt off." I was like, "Okay, whatever." [laughs] Okay, fine, we're at the beach, we're going to go swimming. Fine". And then there was another instance where I got shot through the hand, so I had to take my shirt off again and wrap it on there. I end up half the movie I have my shirt off. As long as there's a reason for it, I don't mind doing it, but I don't really want to be that guy who's always shirtless.

TeenHollywood: Your character is "the careful guy", or a little bit the party pooper in the group. Are you like that?
Josh: I definitely have some of the typical kind of paranoid issues that a lot of American tourists have going abroad. But, growing up in North Dakota, you don't get a chance to see all these things, and you hear all these stories, and I don't think this movie is going to help that any. He is kind of the most cautious of the group. I wanted to play him like that in the beginning because in the end, I wanted him to be the reluctant kind of hero. If you're faced with the worst possible scenario on a trip that goes so wrong, how would you react to it? Would you curl up in a fetal position, or would you fight back and try to save your sister or whoever?

TeenHollywood: You are trekking through an actual jungle. How long did it take for the bug bites to heal?
Josh: These little gnats, you don't even really see them, they're like these tiny little gnats...oh, no big deal. They bite, and then like a day later, you get like these little red welts with these little black things on top. And they don't go away. They don't go away for weeks. And his just kept building up and building up.

TeenHollywood: Were there a lot of injuries during filming?
Josh: Yeah, there were. I remember getting pissed off at one point because every time I turned around, I'd gash my hand doing something or cut my feet. When the guy's shooting at us, we're like diving and there's sticks and stuff everywhere. It's like, 'at least prep it a little bit! I don't want to be landing and jabbing my hand with sticks anymore'. I was so sick of it. Or, when we were all sitting in the dog cage, they put that steel wire stuff up, but they didn't prep it and there's these little barbs sticking out everywhere and I'm getting cuts all over trying to stab a guy through it. But it's part of it. And in the end, it all made it feel more real. I was pretty gung ho throughout the movie, and by the end, I was ready to go home, but I think it was all worth it

TeenHollywood: There is a great underwater escape sequence. How long did you have to hold your breath underwater?
Josh: I don't know how long it was, I just know like the distance we had to go. And, in all your clothes and stuff, it makes it more difficult. But the guys that were chasing us, the bad guys, are actual spear fishermen. So they can swim underwater for a long time. I couldn't do that. But it was definitely a challenge physically. I think that's what Stockwell wanted. He didn't want us to have trailers or any of the amenities that you normally have on a movie set. He wanted it to be as rough and sort of miserable as possible. [laughs] Because it sort of shows up in the movie, and I think that that was his intention.

TeenHollywood: Sounds pretty rough. What was the single worst hardship you had to endure?
Josh:I wouldn't say any of them were hardships. I knew going in that it wasn't going to be a pleasurable movie to make. But I would say the lowest was, there was this little cave where, because nobody's ever back there, the bats live in these things. We're like swimming through it. And of course, Stockwell wants to get the nicest visual for the shot, so he sprays down all the walls, makes sure that they get it all wet and glisteny so it looks creepier. But there's like 500 years of batshit on these things! [laughs] And then we have to go trudging through it, and he's "Okay, now pretend like there's a hole underneath, and you gotta dive down!" And we're like, "This is like bat dropping soup. Okay, [laughing] this is officially the worst moment of this movie." It was all fun. It was fine.

TeenHollywood: Have you ever had a vacation from hell?
Josh: No. I mean, we've been close. Me and my buddies used to go to Mexico for spring break, and we got ourselves into some pretty hairy situations. But never any sort of prisons or any sort of fights with the locals or anything like that. But close. I know some people that have. Like Stockwell's one of them.

TeenHollywood: You had to have some fun in Brazil.
Josh: Oh, yeah. I'm not trying to say that it sucked, because it was a lot of fun, too. And it was an adventure. Come Saturday night, we were like all ready to go out and have fun. Beau [Garrett] and Olivia [Wilde] were the ones who really sort of rallied everybody. I'd be like, "No, I want to go [home]." "No. Come on, we're going out!" And then we always had a blast.

TeenHollywood: Where were you in Brazil?
Josh: We were in a little surfer town between Ubatuba and Sao Paulo. There were little clubs and stuff we'd go to. There was what they called a Hick Festival, where one month of out the year, all the people of Brazil dress up like farmers and they have these big parties. So I have these pictures of me with this fake mustache and this big straw hat. There's lots of stuff to do, and it's a pretty great culture. The people really have a zest for life there, and I hope that this doesn't dissuade people too much from going to visit, because it's a pretty great country.

TeenHollywood: How did the physicality of this movie compare with Michael Bay's Transformers?
Josh: Different. I mean, that was tough in its own way, too, because he demands a lot, too. Both these guys are similar in that way. They demand a lot from you, and you gotta come ready to play. That was different in the sense that it was a lot of heat, and we had a lot of equipment and stuff on, and carrying big, heavy guns, and running through the sand. Similar, but not that same.

TeenHollywood: Have you seen the robots yet?
Josh: I have. I've seen a little bit of it cut together. It's wicked. It's going to be cool. They say it's going to be more photo-real than any sort of stuff of this type that's been done. So we'll hope!

TeenHollywood: How is "Vegas" going?
Josh: It's going well. We're having fun. I think we're on episode 12 of 17 now, so we have not many left this season. And who knows about next year? The numbers have been pretty good, so I think that we may get another year, we may not. Whatever happens happens. I like the show, I'd love to do another year on the show, but if NBC doesn't want it, that's fine, too. I wish we were still on Mondays, to be honest. It was a better night for us.

TeenHollywood: Have you written or directed for the show? Or do you want to?
Josh: I wouldn't mind directing. I actually wrote a script for them a couple years ago. Gary was like, "No, no, no." He didn't even acknowledge it. Then this year, he comes, he goes, "You know that script you wrote? Do you mind if I use that?" I was like, "Go ahead." He's like basically saying, "Do you mind if I use your script and not have to pay you?"

TeenHollywood: With the holidays coming up, is there a gift you're hoping to get this year?
Josh: Another really good film would be nice. [laughs] I'd love to do something really cool. But no, I feel very lucky. I feel very fortunate for the situation I'm in right now. I don't really ask for much more.

TeenHollywood: No toys?
Josh: I would like to get one of those remote control things that you can walk in the house and push one button and all your lights and stuff come on. That's about the one thing that I would really like to have. Like I don't know if you ever saw "Tad Hamilton", but he walked in [claps hands] and everything turned on. Something like that. [laughs]

TeenHollywood: Any holiday plans?
Josh: Yeah, I'm going to my girlfriend's for Christmas Eve, Christmas Day. Then she's coming with me to my mom's for 26th and 27th, and my dad's 28th and 29th, and we're all flying to Vegas. It's cool because she wasn't going to go to this show in Vegas. She was just going to stay at my dad's. She's like, "No, I've already made plans, I'm going to my boyfriend's, I'll be in Minnesota." They call back a week later and say, "Well how about this? We'll fly him, his family, all to Vegas, we'll put them up, we'll fly them all back private jet if you come do this." And she calls me, she says, "What do you think about this?" I go, "Give me a second." I called my dad, he's like, "Hell yeah!"

TeenHollywood: How rocking is a Ferguson Christmas?
Josh: Oh, her family's fun. Her family is a lot of fun.