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  November 08, 2009 
 
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ENTERTAINMENT INTERVIEWS
Patrick Dempsey Interview - ENCHANTED
11/20/2007
Posted by
Frosty
     
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I’m going to tell you something that might surprise you… I thought “Enchanted” was a really good movie. And based on the crowd reaction from when I saw it, I’m positive that Disney has a big hit on their hands.

 

For those that don't know, the film is a mixture of live action and classic 2D animation... but it’s a lot more than that. It’s a classic Disney film in every sense of the word, and one that families will love.

 

The film features a princess, an evil step-mother, a prince, animals that can talk, original songs by composer Alan Menken and lyricist Stephen Schwartz, and a great cast that absolutely makes you believe what’s happening could be real.

 

If you don’t know the story, “Enchanted” is about a few typical Disney animated characters that get sent to the real world, but they don’t change the way they act or think. Amy Adams (who is the best part of the movie) plays a princess who meets the man of her dreams (James Marsden), but soon after the wicked step-mother (Susan Sarandon) sends her away so she can keep her throne. While in the real world Amy meets Patrick Dempsey… and that’s when it starts to get interesting. As I said, this is going to be a big hit for Disney and families will eat it up this Thanksgiving.

 

So to help promote the movie, I got to interview most of the cast and the interview below is with Patrick “Mc Dreamy” Dempsey. During our roundtable interview he talked about “Grey’s Anatomy,” making “Enchanted,” what else he has coming up, and why he picks certain roles to star in. If you’re a fan of Patrick you’ll dig the interview.

 

As always, you can either read the transcript below or download the audio as an MP3 by clicking here.

 

Finally, if you missed the movie clips from “Enchanted” you can watch them here…and Matt wrote a review and that’s here.

 

“Enchanted” opens tomorrow at theaters everywhere.

 

 

 

Patrick Dempsey: Have you all seen the movie?

 

A few journalists say “Yes, it’s an enchanting film.”

 

Patrick: It is; it’s very special.

 

Q: Were you disappointed that you didn’t get to be a cartoon character?

 

Patrick: Well, I’m hoping it does well enough so there’s a sequel and we go back to Andalasia and we can call it Disenchanted, she gives birth to a child and doesn’t like it, then she’s like, ‘I want to go back to the cartoon world.’

 

Q: You’re almost like the straight man in this

 

Patrick: Well that was the hard part is everybody’s having a great time over acting and being brilliant, and I had to kind of just drive the narrative, which was challenging. That was the most difficult part, but I just wanted to be a part of it because it’s hard to find stories that are original and different, but yet there was something about this that was timeless and familiar as well, so it felt like it was entertaining on a lot of levels. As a parent, it’s a nice family film, but also it’s a good date movie as well and something you can go and find entertaining, and I think the symbolism in it, and the archetypes are really fascinating. It was different, and at the time I thought it was the right move to make, and still do.

 

Q: Can you talk about the bird in the face – how many times did you do that?

 

Patrick: That was just that one take. It kind of just happened perfectly. The big thing was like that was the first two scenes were the ones with the rats and the birds, and it was like, ‘Oh my God, what have I gotten myself into?’ because I never felt completely comfortable in the movie, quite honestly, and maybe that works for the character.

 

Q: What about the Central Park sequence and that whole musical number?

 

Patrick: That was the best. I think my favorite part was obviously rehearsing for the dance number at the end with Cha-Cha (John O’Connell) who did Strictly Ballroom and Moulin Rouge, and I think the amount of sensitivity and artistry that he brought to making you feel that every move you made in the dance was so vital to the story, that to me was probably the most enjoyable part of the process. And in the dancing numbers and certainly in Central Park, working in Manhattan doing something like that is just unbelievable.

 

Q: You said you weren’t comfortable with this movie

 

Patrick: Well, yeah, because everybody’s so larger-than-life that you’re trying to figure out do you have the right tone, are you hitting the right beats emotionally and comedically without going over the edge, and the more you’re, I think, honest, the better it is for people to come in and then sort of see the world through Robert’s eyes, I think that’s how people start to react, and that was really challenging. And certainly with Amy, [it was just] unbelievable to watch her, it made my job a lot easier, all I had to do was just listen and watch her and react to what she was giving me, but I never felt comfortable, it was always sort of kind of  strange stylistically.

 

Q: Did you have a favorite Disney movie growing up?

 

Patrick: Not really, no, I didn’t. I mean, I like them all. They’re all different types of movies. Of course now with kids you see them all 19 times. We just finally broke out of Peter Pan and we’re moving on now.

 

Q: To what?

 

Patrick: Enchanted. The website – she was like, ‘Can I go to the website and play with the games?’ And ‘When’s the princess coming over?’ and ‘Is the chipmunk at the junket?’ So that’s really cute and it’s fun.

 

Q: We wish it was actually.

 

Patrick: Yeah, it would be fun.

 

Q: Are you a no nonsense guy or a romantic at heart?

 

Patrick: A little bit of both I think, depends on the mood. Defining romance is very tricky, because I think there’s a lot that kind of goes into romance, and it’s not just necessarily candles and flowers.

 

Q: Is he closer to you or is Shepherd closer to you?

 

Patrick: I think there’s always a part of you in all of the characters – there’s a part of me in all of them, because there’s certainly the part [of] the father that’s in Robert that’s in me.

 

Q: Are you surprised that the TV show is almost reignited your career?

 

Patrick: Oh absolutely, it’s unbelievable. It’s really unbelievable.

 

Q: Why do you think that show’s got such a following?

 

Patrick: Well I think there are a lot of different archetypes that people can identify with, and I think it’s sort of the young men and women in the work place who have identified with the interns initially. I think it came at the right time when Sex and the City was phasing out, Friends was phasing out, and it came in and filled that void at that time. I think the ensemble, the music all add to it. There’s something compelling about the characters that people really identify with.

 

Q: What’s the mood on the set this year?

 

Patrick: Much better. I think now basically people are really wanting the storylines to more forward a little faster than they are and I think Shonda’s really trying to – finding her way balancing out the two shows, and really we find her to be much more receptive this season, certainly in the middle part of the season where she’s looking for more feedback and collaboration from people than she had in the past.

 

Q: Unless something’s changing while we’re speaking, the strike is probably going to happen tomorrow – do you know how much more scripts are left to shoot?

 

Patrick: We’ve only done 11, so we’re halfway through our season. We are probably going to finish out this next episode the next week or so, and that will give us 11 shows for this season, and that could be it for the year. It’s tragic I think, not necessarily for us, the actors, but I think the crew and people in town are going to be hit hard by this if it continues for too long.

 

Q: What do you think you’ll do during this down time?

 

Patrick: Well, it gives me a little bit of a break I think certainly to just kind of rest and be with my family, and the holiday season is coming up, so it doesn’t affect me as dramatically as other people I think.

 

Q: Will it affect the way that the TV season will be shortened or lengthened in any sort of way?

 

Patrick: I think it’s always dangerous when you have a strike – I remember the strike in ’88 and it’s damaging financially to the State and to everybody involved, and certainly to the supporting business around this industry are going to get hit. And the people that are living paycheck to paycheck with families, it’s going to be devastating for them, it’s tragic. And the real problem is like how do you define the new technology? How do you know where that’s going to go?  Everybody deserves a piece of the pie; I just hope that greed doesn’t get in the way. But it’s Hollywood, so who knows.

 

Q: You’ve done theatre, so what was it like dancing and working with Idina?

 

Patrick: There was a great moment when we were doing a dance number, it was like a late Friday night and it was a really wide shot and we started just making some music and the band caught on, and then the dancers caught on, and it sort of became like this ‘Fame’ moment, where everybody broke into spontaneous dance, and it was really special in the sense where you felt like there was a true company there with the dancers. And the spirit of the dancers I have to say was I think the best part of the experience for me certainly. There was something true and creative about that that brings you back to the moment when you first fell in love with acting I think.

 

Q: If Disney said that they wanted to take a chance with this as a franchise, are you signed on for any sequels?

 

Patrick: Oh I think it would be fun to explore, yeah, as long as the stories are good. I really loved working with Amy, and I think Jamie is an unbelievable comedian, I didn’t realize that when I first found out about him being a part of it. And then the first scene I see him in, he’s this over-the-top with the shoulders and the voice and the singing, it was really something else. And I think if we can come up with a really good story that’s I think meaningful - it sort of changes the image of what a princess is, and she protects the male energy at the end, which is great, so the feminine comes in and takes over the male and then saves it, which I think is a great symbol and very cool. So if they can continue on and think on that level, so it has a lot of depth to it, I think certainly it would be fun. I think there’s room for improvement certainly, always.

 

Q: Is it a challenge to find things that really interest you during the limited time you have off?

 

Patrick: Yeah, I think so. Right now I really don’t want to do anything violent. I think we have too much violence in the world, and it’s really important to do movies that are light, you have to really kind of think of it as like during the war or during the depression era movies we need to have those screwball comedies come back that are smart, that are fun, that are good spirited, that weren’t so negative so that people can – because I want to go and escape for two hours or an hour and a half, I don’t want to come home and have to deal with the news and all of that stuff, it’s just so bleak, that for me personally I want to just kind of check for an hour and a half.

 

Q: That comes from your being a father I imagine.


Patrick: I think so certainly more so, I’m more aware of things now than I was before.

 

Q: How do you like being the father of twins, has that been kind of a surprising experience?

 

Patrick: Last week I got home to projectile vomiting last night, so it was like wow, back to reality. You have a day it’s like you’re like this, this and this, and then all of a sudden you’re like projectile vomiting and everything smells like vomit. So if you have kids you understand. I really love it, I think it keeps surprising me, and really I start to enjoy it more and more.

 

Q: Is it more challenging than you thought or easier than you thought?

 

Patrick: It’s different, it’s easier and more challenging, because there’s three kids that you have to kind of – you develop an individual relationship with all of them, so that you have to have time with each one separately, and getting the time to do that and – at the same time there’s something really comforting in a house full of people and kids, it surprises me, because I usually like being alone, but I’m really loving it.

 

Q: How do you raise kids not to be cynical in a cynical world?

 

Patrick: I don’t know, that’s the challenge, I mean really that’s the challenge right now. That’s the biggest worry I have.

 

Q: This movie’s about innocence.

 

Patrick: Yeah, but Robert’s also saying don’t buy into the hype of even though life is miserable and you need to know that right away, he’s a little more severe than I would be certainly, and I’d read all the – it’s fun for me to be reading the Disney stories at night before I go to bed to her and kind of reliving my childhood through my children. But it’s difficult here I think, because there’s so much wealth, and so much that people get in the schools and things like that, you wonder how do you keep that in perspective? I would ideally love to get my career in a place where I have enough money where I can live anywhere in the country or in the world, we spent time doing a movie in Europe and I really love the countryside of England.

 

Q: Which movie?

 

Patrick: Made of Honor for Sony which comes out in May with Michelle Monaghan. Romantic comedy. That was challenging and I really loved being in Europe and it was great for my family to come over there. We did a lot of theater and horseback riding and visited the country a bit and I liked that.

 

Q: How does it feel to have a doll of yourself?

 

Patrick: [Laughs] It’s surreal. It’s really surreal when your daughter’s playing with Giselle and herself right there and they’re talking. But I’m having a blast. I’m really enjoying everything. I think at this point in my life, it’s been a long road to get to here and the steps that I’m taking hopefully will allow me to have a nice career.

 

Q: You were very successful when you were young for a period of time. Is it more satisfying being successful now than it was when you were younger? What did you learn from that first bout of fame?

 

Patrick: I think at first you’re not sure you’re worthy of the attention. I think it kind of threw me off. I wasn’t quite prepared for it because I was doing it for the sake of doing it and not worrying about the end result. And then suddenly I don’t think you realize how much responsibility you have once you get into that position of either greenlighting movies or things like that and the choices that you make. If you’re not making money for people, you’re going to be pushed aside. So I wasn’t really clear on how the business operated. And I don’t think I was really confident in who I was as a person. More so now I feel like I’ve worked my way through a lot of hardship and really appreciate where I’m at right now. I get the joke of the business. I’m under no illusion of what’s going on here and why certain attention is coming my way and you have to be careful of that. There are good people and there are bad people and I think it’s a question of how you just keep your feet on the ground and stay focused and not buy into all the hype.

 

Continued on page 2--------->


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