SHAWN ASHMORE (JAKE) AND BROOKE NEVIN (RACHEL) INTERVIEW
The following edited transcript is from a chat with Shawn Ashmore and Brooke Nevins that took place on Thursday, March 18th, 1999.
OnlineHost: Welcome Shawn Ashmore and Brooke Nevin, "The Animorphs." Ready for our first question?
Question: Shawn, you are my all time favorite actor! I've seen you and your brother on various TV shows, I was wondering, besides Animorphs, have you two appeared on anything else together? Best of luck in the future!
Shawn: Yes, actually Aaron and I have done a Canadian TV movie a couple years ago together called Gross Misconduct and we've also done several commercials together.
OnlineHost: Can you tell us when "Face Off" airs in America?
Brooke: It will be coming in the fall.
OnlineHost: Do either of you read Animorphs books?
Brooke: I have. I have quite a few of them actually and I think they're great.
Shawn: I started reading them to just kind of get character information when I was auditioning for the show and now I'm really enjoying the stories.
OnlineHost: What will you guys do to the Yeerks?
Shawn: We're gonna crush the Yeerks! We're going to crush every Yeerk we find!
Shawn: And we need help too! All the fans can help us out.
OnlineHost: How does it feel to be morphed?
Brooke: It's a very interesting feeling, especially mid-morphed when you're not fully human or fully animal and the animal instincts are just beginning to surface. It's a challenge trying to control them.
OnlineHost: Do you know if Columbia plans to make an Animorphs major motion picture?
Shawn: Actually, we don't know.
Brooke: But that would be awesome.
Shawn: Not that we know of. We'll keep our fingers crossed.
Brooke: But you can check out the home videos.
OnlineHost: What was your favorite show you have done so far?
Shawn: My two favorite shows were "The Capture" and "Not My Problem." Just because I got to pick some interesting characters.
Brooke: I would say also "Not My Problem" and "The Predator," Parts 1 and 2. In "The Predator" I got to do some really cool action stuff, jumping across large abysses and stuff like that. So I had a lot of fun, especially in the Predator.
OnlineHost: How is it working with the animals?
Brooke: Working with the animals is a wonderful experience. We've learned a lot about the animals and how to act around them on the set.
Shawn: And they bring a lot of excitement so it's cool to work around a lot of lions and tigers and animals you wouldn't normally get to see.
OnlineHost: What was going through your minds when you auditioned?
Shawn: I was just hoping that I'd get the part because by then I had already started reading the books and I liked the story line so it was just something I thought I'd really like to work on. I got it, so wishful thinking just sort of worked for me.
Brooke: I would say that I wanted the part so bad that it was nerve wracking but it was definitely also a high to know that you're in there auditioning for this long running series. It was really exciting.
Question: Is your schedule hectic, or do you still have time to goof off? If so, what do you do?
Brooke: We have a crazy schedule but we always find time to goof around on set. Even what we're doing now, this is a lot of fun. For me, I have to do general acting, like the Animorphs series and school so that gets hectic when I'm doing double duty. But when summer rolls around we're all free to goof around.
Shawn: Yeah, it's crazy, but when I'm not doing the show and have some time off I like to goof around with friends, play music, video games, go snow boarding and just hang around.
OnlineHost: What was your most embarrassing moment on stage?
Brooke: In one scene, my Dad and I are having sort of a touching daughter-and-father scene and while we were doing the take on the bed as we sat down on it, it collapsed!
Shawn: And most embarrassing moments for me, I've had quite a few. We've had a lot of scenes where we've had to take a time out because we were laughing so hard. That's pretty embarrassing.
Question: Do you believe that maybe somewhere, they are aliens like the Yeerks trying to control space?
Shawn: Uh, like, possibly.
Question: What was the weirdest thing that has happened with an animal on the set?
Shawn: I shoved my fingers up a tiger's nose once.
OnlineHost: Are you friends outside the casting?
Brooke: In between shows and while we're working as well, we often go out with each other and see movies. So yeah, we have a lot of fun together.
Shawn: We're like best buds.
OnlineHost: What type of music do you listen to Brooke?
Brooke: Well, I like Madonna and I like Sara McLachlan and Jewel and Janet Jackson. But I'm open to many different styles of music as well.
OnlineHost: Brooke is your personality similar like Rachel's?
Brooke: I would say that to some extent Rachel is definitely more severe than I am. I tend to let my emotional side show more than Rachel. But other than that we're both pretty outgoing and love to have fun.
OnlineHost: Have you met KA Applegate?
Shawn: No, we haven't met her yet. We'd certainly love to. But, hopefully in the future we'll have a chance to.
OnlineHost: Can you tell us anything about the next season?
Brooke: Well, we actually have to keep it pretty quiet because we don't know who of you out there is a Yeerk. You'll have to wait until next season and find out. But there will be one!
Question: Is it true Christopher (Tobias) will be leaving next season?
Brooke: No, it's not true. No, he'll be back just like the rest of us.
OnlineHost: What would be the best animal to morph into in New York City?
Brooke: A bird so you can avoid all the traffic!
OnlineHost: Is there going to be any romance in the next season?
Shawn: That's definitely something you guys will have to wait and see.
OnlineHost: Is Visser 3 still trying to kill you?
Shawn: Visser3 is always hunting us Animorphs.
Brooke: We always have to watch our backs.
Question: Do you plan to have any new Animorphers on the TV show any time soon?
Shawn: Not that we know of.
Question: Do you know if there will be any Animorphs games for something like a PlayStation?
Shawn: It will be coming out in the year 2000 so look for it.
OnlineHost: Is it neat working with all those special effects?
Shawn: It's actually really fun. It gives you a different view and is kind of exciting just dealing with all the special effects and the technology. It's really cool.
OnlineHost: Will Tobias ever get his morphing power back like in the books?
Brooke: You'll have to wait until the fall to find out. We don't want the Yeerks to discover our secrets.
Question: What do you think of the New Animorphs Transformers? How does it feel to be made into Toys?
Brooke: They are so cool.
Shawn: I think they're really, really cool. It's amazing to think that years later that there is an actual toy modeled after me so I'm really excited. I used to play with a lot of them when I was younger.
OnlineHost: Do you ever get to have input into any of the stories?
Brooke: All the stories are written by a team of writers so we don't have any input about story lines, but we have a lot of say in how we develop our own characters and how we decide to play them on the show.
OnlineHost: Can you morph into a human?
Brooke: Well, in one of the episodes, actually Marco tried to morph a bodyguard but it didn't work. We're still having problems, but perhaps once we get a hold of the disk that problem will be solved.
Question: This is a dumb question, but what were you thinking when your fingers went in the tiger's nose, Shawn?
Shawn: I was trying not to panic, and move my hand away really fast because I was told that the tiger would attack anything that moved really fast.
OnlineHost: What is it like around the set? Who is the biggest goof?
Brooke: Boris and Paulo are the biggest goofs.
Shawn: They keep it interesting on set.
Brooke: They keep us in stitches.
Question: Brooke, what is Rachel's character like in your description?
Brooke: Rachel is a very outgoing bold girl. She doesn't take guff from anyone. And she definitely can stand up for herself. And she's definitely a good role model.
OnlineHost: Any surprises in Jake and Cassie's or Rachel and Tobias' relationships?
Shawn: It's kind of a hard one to answer. We don't really know.
Brooke: There could possibly be some future romance.
OnlineHost: Are the Andalites on the show computerized or robots?
Brooke: They're both animatronic and they're puppets and they're also animated.
Question: Brooke: In "Between Friends" did the hawk that plays Tobias cause any trouble?
Brooke: Well, animals in general, you know, they are sometimes difficult to work with. But the hawk's pretty good on set --a real professional.
Question: Are you planning to stay with ATV for a long time?
Shawn: I hope I can stay on it as long as possible. It's a lot of fun.
Question: Are you guys are in another movie or show? If you are, could you tell us?
Brooke: I just filmed an "Are You Afraid of the Dark?" episode and it should be coming out some time next year on Nick.
Shawn: I did an episode of a show called "Dear America," which is also a Scholastic show. And also an episode of a show called "Real Kids Real Adventures."
EA Host: The chat's almost over. Is there anything else you'd like to say?
Brooke: Thanks to everyone who came here! We had a great
time!
Christopher Ralph (Tobias) Interview
Shawn Ashmore (Jake) and Brooke Nevin (Rachel) I nterview
Boris Cabrera (Marco), Christopher Ralph (Tobias) and Nadia Nascimento (Cassie) Interview