Bree Turner – With a Little Luck

Q.  What are some of the current projects that you are working on?

A.  I completed a Lindsay Lohan movie called Just My Luck, which is coming out in March.  Right now I’m filming another Fox film calledFirehouse Dog.  It’s totally cute and funny.  Bruce Greenwood is in it and me and Josh Hutcherson who is going to be a huge movie star.  Between Just My Luck and Firehouse Dog, I did an independent film called The TV Set with Sigourney Weaver and David Duchovny.  That’s kind of what’s been going on with me recently.

Q.  What can you tell us about the premise for Just My Luck and your character?

A.  The film is a romantic comedy.  It’s really just sweet in a kind of fantastical way.  Lindsay plays the “luckiest girl in the world.”  She has exceptional luck in life.  Nothing hocus pocus, she just always has the best boyfriends, designers give her free clothes, or she got promoted at a job and she’s only been there for six months.  She has a rent controlled apartment in the Upper West Side, just fantastic luck.  She meets this guy that she falls in love with at this masquerade ball who has this mask on and you can’t see his face.  They kiss and they basically transfer luck with each other.  He happens to be a very unlucky guy and so she becomes unlucky and he becomes blessed with all of this great luck.  They go on their way and so the rest of the movie is her life unraveling and obviously very funny events.  She goes on this mad journey to find this guy that she kissed so she can get her luck back.  Samaire Armstrong and I play her two friends and basically live with her and when she loses her apartment she moves in with us.  We help her try to find this guy and madcap antics ensue.  At the end, she finds love and we find each other and that’s the end. 

Q.  What made you want to be a part of this project?

A.  Well, I really wanted to work with Lindsay. I just have always thought that she was a really talented girl and a very honest actress.  I have always wanted to work with her and the director, Donald Petrie, has done such great films likeMiss Congeniality, How to Lose a Guy In 10 Days, Grumpy Old Men and just really great comedies.

Q.  So many wonderfully talented people are attached to this film.  What was it like getting to work alongside such talents as Lindsay Lohan, Chris Pine and Carlos Ponce?

A.  It was like a little camp.  We all are about the same age and were in New Orleans for about two months and in New York for a month or so.  We just kind of developed this little crew and it was just really fun.  When we were on set it was fun and when we were off set it was fun.  We’d go out and get in to a little trouble and have fun and I’m happy that Lindsay and Samaire and I all got along really well.  It was just kind of like play time, which was really, really fun and a great experience.

Q.  You also just recently filmed the movie The TV Set, which is about a TV pilot going through various stages.  What did you learn about the TV show process from working on this project?

A.  I have done a lot of television in my day and I’ve had experiences.  The TV world is a very hard world because there is so much rejection and you never know when you can actually let your guard down and celebrate.  Because, any day the network can come in and cancel your whole world and that’s pretty crazy.  So, knowing I had so much experience in that world, it was really fun to be a part of a film that sort of poked fun at the absurdities of TV.  I mean, it is totally insane what goes down in the TV world and how many really great shows get canceled.  Or, how many bad shows go on the air and last.  No one gives any really unique, creative shows a chance and it’s a really political world and when you see a show get on the air and stay on the air and have success you have to just think that it’s a one in a million chance that it happens.  When it does happen, it’s pretty special.

Q.  Right now you’re filming Firehouse Dog.  How is getting to work with director Todd Holland on this movie?

A.  Todd is the reason why I wanted to do this movie, Todd has been a very successful TV director.  He’s done “Malcolm in the Middle” and “The Larry Sanders Show,” shows that I respect and have grown up with and loved.  He has totally exceeded my expectations of him.  He’s the most specific, detail-oriented, creative, calm guy.  Just a fantastic director to work for and with.  He really loves the entire process of building a character and putting a very specific tone to a film.  I think it’s hard to do, people get lost when they are filming and Todd is very, very talented in that area.

Q.  Do you have a most memorable moment so far from filming?

A.  I think right now it is probably the dog.  There is one dog in the movie but there are four dogs playing the one dog.  These dogs are a riot.  They are so funny, my heart goes out to animal trainers because it is one of the most frustrating jobs that I have ever seen.  Just trying to direct an animal is insane if you really think about it, these dogs are really good.  They move and sit and stay and look and put their ear down.  I mean, it’s crazy.  Every once in a while they are animals.  They’re like “I don’t feel like sitting, I’m going to run.  Oh, you want me to run? I’m going to lay down over here.”  This woman has been very, very patient getting the dog to stay.  She definitely is the diva on the set and it’s hysterical. 

Q.  You do a lot of charity work, why is this something that is so important to you?

A.  Right now my big obsession is this program called The Young Storytellers Program.  It’s an organization that goes to different elementary schools and has a mentoring program where they work with kids seven to twelve.  Each kid is assigned a mentor and the mentor helps them write a mini screenplay, about ten to fifteen pages long.  After they have written a little screenplay, made their story and have it all typed up they have what they call The Big Show.  They get nine actors, that’s where I come in, the actors come and it’s in the auditorium and the kids and their parents are there.  It’s like a big deal and we’re on stage and the kids cast the actors in their show on the spot.  Some of the actors have to get up and do a full performance for the mini plays. We do about twelve of them and like a two hour show and I just did it last week.  It’s so fun and probably the most important thing is that these kids not only are doing creative writing and honing their skills creatively and with structure in writing.  It also just gives them some confidence and opens their minds to further ideas and it’s hard especially with public schools these days.  I think things like music and art and creative writing and acting and theater is kind of like the last thing to be issued and addressed.  That’s why it’s obviously a passion of mine and if that’s what I can give to kids, to think big and take risks and be confident, that’s probably the biggest reward I can get out of it. 

Q.  What are some of your passions besides acting?

A.  I was a dancer for a long time, I was a professional dancer before I was an actress.  That’s my first love, my soul is that and that’s really what got me into acting.  It was a perfect foundation for what I am sort of doing now.  So, that and music, I’m always trying to find new Indie bands and who’s the new this and who’s the new that when it comes to music.  I like to go to museums, I love to read, I ride my bike, I love to come home to my family, hang out with my friends.

Q.  What is your latest obsession?  Are you into any particular book, sport, music group or activity?

A.  I just finished The Time Traveler’s Wife last week.  I know it’s about a year or so old but I just finally picked it up again.  I tried to read it last year and I couldn’t get in to it and then I picked it up and I read it probably in four days.  I was so crazy, just lost in this novel and it was one of the most beautiful love stories I have ever read.  Everyone should read it, not just girls, guys should read it too.  It was just so good! 

Q.  What would you like to say to your fans and supporters?

A.  I would like to say that I have had a really slow and steady career, which I’ve loved.  I have just always been a working actress and kind of trucking along with my career.  I just love the fact, it blows me away, I’ll check out websites or I’ll get letters or see people on the street and people are referencing things I did.  Things I did in the beginning of my career, like when I was a guest star on “Moesha.”  Things I did so long ago and they are so old and people will still remember me from that.  To me, I love that the people who have been supportive of me, have been supportive of me from the beginning and are still supportive of me.  That just really keeps me going. At least I’m doing something good, I guess.