December 10, 2004

Question: Tell us about working with all of your co-stars - Jim Carrey?

Liam: It was a lot of fun. He was really just a blast and always a surprise.

Emily: It was hard to concentrate and not laugh.

Question: Was Billy Connelly a lot of fun to work with?

Emily: Yeah, that was probably the most fun I had shooting, when Billy was there, because I worked with him when I was 11. So getting to sort of reunite with him was really cool.

Question: He seems like the kind of guy that's nonstop energy all the time, always cracking people up.

Emily: Absolutely, and he's so sweet. I remember when I worked with him a couple of years ago; we were in a rural town in New South Wales, in Australia, where I live. He's really famous in Australia, more so than he is here. He'd just walk down the street and he would approach his fans and talk to them for hours.

Liam: He was like that on the set, too. [They] would say, "Don't talk to him too much, because we need to get him on the set."

Question: Did Meryl Streep have the habit of staying in character when she was on set?

Emily: Not really. I guess a little bit because she seemed a little bit more nervous than when she was out of character completely when she was off set. She'd still have a good conversation with us.

Question: Working with someone so distinguished and highly regarded, did she give you guys some tips or did you learn some stuff from her?

Liam: There wasn't much in the things that she said when working with us...

Emily: She didn't sit us down and say, "Let me show you the ropes."

Question: But just by watching her...

Emily: By watching her, I got, not even so much from the performance, but just from the way she is, that she can be this huge face that's so well known and at the same time be a completely normal person with us on the ground and really down to earth and able to talk to you and I think that's really cool.

Question: Did Jude Law shoot all his scenes apart from everybody else?

Liam: They had a full set for him in his clock tower.

Emily: I only got to meet him once.

Question: Doing your own stunts - how difficult was that, especially with a hurricane going on?

Emily: It was hard because the house was built on a slant, falling apart, and there was a wind machine blowing against us and I had the baby, things were shooting up out of the floor, and they were throwing things at us at the same time. So that was kind of tricky and it took a couple of weeks to do that one scene.

Question: There were obviously a lot of scenes in the movie that involved CGI and a lot effects.

Liam: You'd be surprised how much was real. Like, for instance, that iris at the back of Aunt Josephine's that opens up - that was real. They actually had that rigged. That was kind of the fun part about going to the set because so much of the stuff they actually made to work.

Question: What about the snakes?

Emily: The snakes were really cool. Jules Sylvester was the snake wrangler and he told us what to do - to not put our hands too close to their mouths. The only venomous ones were all locked up really tightly.

Question: In so much of this film both of you have to act very slow and solemn and very deliberately, was the director constantly telling you to rein it in?

Emily: No. That's what was great about this; the reason I don't like kids' films is because the kids are so happy and smiley all the time and I'm not very good at doing that. I find it a lot easier to be serious than I do to be cheesy and to laugh when there's nothing to laugh about. I've been turned down for roles in the past because I'm not perky enough, so this film was kind of lucky because we didn't need to be perky.

Question: Like that little perky elf movie at the beginning - we were all so glad when that went off.

Liam: I loved that transition.

Question: Did you two spend a lot of time together before the movie started filming to build your brother/sister relationship?

Emily: About a month for rehearsals, we were hanging out. We lived next door to each other in the apartment building so we became friends before.

Question: How long was the shooting schedule?

Liam: 122 shooting days.

Question: And you guys were in almost every shot.

Emily: We didn't get that many days off. Even we did not have to shoot that day, we'd still need to go in for school.

Question: What was the most enjoyable scene for each of you to shoot?

Emily: Like I said before, shooting with Billy, he's sort of like my crazy uncle.

Liam: I'm not really sure of my favorite scene. Something about the hurricane sequence just to see how it came out, I really loved that and it took so long to do for these three minutes.

Question: Was the blue-screen work difficult?

Liam: No, not really, because it wasn't like we were interacting with things, it was just the background.

Emily: Often when they have animated characters or something, they'll have a ball on a stick, and we didn't really have to act with that, which was good. And there really wasn't that much blue-screen to do, mostly for the hurricane sequence.

Question: And the leeches were faked.

Emily: No, they were real. We did see black things coming toward us, but they were circles of foam that had been cut in a spiral, so that when they went through the water they stretched out and looked like they were swimming.

Question: You had twins playing the baby, what was that like?

Liam: The twins had three emotions. They were really happy, really grumpy, or really tired, with nothing in between.

Question: How much time did you spend actually carrying around your little sister?

Liam: We should have kept a log.

Emily: In every scene, pretty much. When we'd get to set every morning, and Brad would be like, "So the baby's in this scene." And we'd just [deflate].

Question: And was it always one of the real twins you were carrying?

Emily: There was occasionally this really scary doll that we called "Scar". It was frightening - its hair looked like Count Olaf's hair, it was dirty, its fingers were falling off, and its nose was kind of Michael Jackson-esque. But most of the time it was the real baby.

Question: Did you guys read all the books before you started filming?

Liam: I read them way before; I didn't know they were making a movie.

Emily: I read them as soon as I read the script, before I was cast.

Question: Did you sign on to do a series of these movies?

Emily: We have absolutely no idea because there's nothing definite. The producers are being so careful about it; they're waiting until it's released. And even once it is released, first, they have to decide to do a sequel, then they have to write the script and get into pre-production and by the time that happens I could be 18. Seriously, I think they know it could take up to 2 years so that'd rule me out because [Violet's] meant to stay 14 throughout the books. I think it would be worse for Liam because he's meant to stay 12 and 13 and he's going to be 8-foot tall.

Question: If you knew they were going to film all the rest of the books, which one would be your favorite that you would want to be a part of?

Emily: I read them such a long time ago, but I think the 9th one was really good. There's no way we'll be able to do all the books; there's no way they'll be able to do that many movies before we're 30. It's kind of weird when you're read the 10th one. You're like, "I really want to do this", but you're never going to get a chance to do that.

Question: Do you guys feel any pressure or nervousness from opening something as big as this?

Liam: To an extent.

Emily: Yeah, because people love these characters and you want to do justice to them. I know for me, it's annoying when I read a book that I love and then see the film and the characters are not right. I hope people think that we've done a good job.

Question: Have you seen the movie with an audience of fans?

Emily: Yeah and it was very well received, but that was one audience.

Question: What's it like to be a part of this merchandising?

Emily: There's some really cool merchandising: poster books, postcards, the Play-station game, and then there's this random box of chicken fingers that our faces are on - that's a little weird.

Question: Do you have action dolls?

Liam: If you think about it, what would they be like - Violet thinking really hard and Klaus with book-reading action.

Question: How was your experience being in the Play-station game?

Emily: They did a pretty good job [of recreating us] for a game, but it still looks a little off. The weirdest thing was doing the voiceovers because you have to be a lot more animated and for the game say [phrases] like, "Now I'm going to go and get my flying shoes." What?

Liam: I distinctly remember that. They gave me a sheet of paper and you just basically read them. I wasn't really thinking about any of them, so I was reading along and then I read, "She's right. I do have my propeller shoes."

Emily: It was weird because they made us do all these random noises for about an hour. I had to do jumping noises, so when I jump I grunt like a tennis player. It's kind of weird. My brothers like smashing into walls.

Born in New York City, Aiken began acting in commercials as a preschooler and made his Broadway debut at age six in a revival of Henrik Ibsen’s "A Doll’s House," in the role of Bobby Helmer. The following year, he made his film debut as Parker Posey’s son in Hal Hartley’s "Henry Fool." He subsequently appeared with Kyra Sedgwick and Stanley Tucci in "Montana," which debuted at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival, and was featured in "The Object of My Affection," starring Jennifer Aniston.

Aiken starred as one of Julia Robert’s two inherited offspring in the comedy-drama "Stepmom," directed by Chris Columbus. He followed this starring as Kim Basinger’s son in the drama "I Dreamed of Africa." He was also seen in the romance "Sweet November," starring Keanu Reeves and Charlize Theron.

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