Eva Amurri: A Show Biz Daughter "Saved"

She has her mom's big brown eyes and great figure. 19-year-old Eva Amurri is the daughter of talented actress Susan Sarandon and Italian director Franco Amurri. Her step-dad is another Hollywood powerhouse Tim Robbins. This young woman credits her family with good influences in her life but she stands on her own career-wise. Mom Susan didn't even read the script for the dark teen comedy Saved until Eva was cast in the role of Cassandra, a Jewish rebel in a Christian school, and about to start filming. Eva co-starred with her mom in The Banger Sisters but this may be her break-out role.

Saved co-producer and REM member Michael Stipe had gifted the young cast with cute little mini-ties for the press day and each actor entered our hotel interview suite wearing one of the little mini-marvels. Eva's was a cute pattern of blues worn as a choker. In the film, Eva's Cassandra sports a dark brown bob with bangs. In real life, her hair is sandy, streaked blonde and shaggy and she chose a spaghetti strap flowered blouse. The actress was happy to talk about her famous family, her fellow Saved actors, her introduction to the (for her) strange world of born agains and her plans for school and career. Meet Eva!

TeenHollywood: You are wearing that little tie that your producer handed out.

Eva: There's no significance. It's just funny. Who doesn't love a tiny tie? Come on! His friend makes them.

TeenHollywood: Were you attracted to the Saved script because you got to be the major rebel?

Eva: Yeah. That was the most fun part. I just had this wonderful, incredibly-written character served up to me which was so great. I feel so lucky to have gotten the chance to play her. She's great. Also, I think that the script is really important and it's really funny. I really loved the humor of it. I felt that it was written in this really fresh way which I really responded to. It spoke of a lot of important things. Had great characters, great relationships between them.

TeenHollywood: Is this the first time you've been around this born-again Christian world?

Eva: Yeah. I haven't really been exposed to this before but I was really interested to delve into it. I'd never experienced anything like it. We all did a little research before. Brian (Dannelly, director) had this video that he sent to each of us sort of like these shows that are on at 11:30 in the morning on the public access channel and he cut together this video. He gave us a soundtrack and we went to "Harvest" which is at Anaheim Stadium. It's this Christian rock concert and we went to Christian youth rallies because we all wanted to get a taste of it. It was especially important to me because I wanted to see what this character would have been experiencing.

TeenHollywood: How did you react to it?

Eva: It's so alien to me. It's a world that I had never had any access to. It was interesting and I think that it's such a big movement. I didn't realize that. It's everywhere, really.

TeenHollywood: There are different born again organizations. When they get together, do they become one?

Eva: No. I don't think so but the Christian youth movement is just a lot bigger than I had thought. I guess I didn't realize the scope of it.

TeenHollywood: Do you think you could ever get caught up in it?

Eva: I don't think so, no. That's what interesting about this movie. It kind of makes you think 'wow, if I was in that situation, I think it speaks to questioning your beliefs and stepping outside of it and really trying to take a good look at it and evaluate it. If you accept it, then that's fine and great and your belief should be stronger having questioned it. But that's the interesting thing, especially for characters like Mary (Jena Malone's character in the film). You grow up in this environment and so how do you reconcile what you believe in and the way you've been brought up? That's an important message in the film.

TeenHollywood: Cassandra and Macaulay Culkin's character are a couple in the film. He is a guy in a wheel chair. Did you sit down and discuss your characters' relationship?

Eva: We rehearsed a little bit, primarily just the relationship. Physically, it was interesting dealing with the wheel chair and so we wanted to make sure that we treated that well and took care of that aspect. What was so great for me was that Mac had such a strong idea of who this character was. It was so easy for me to deal with it and figure it how because he just really know who Roland was. He'd done a lot of work with him. That was good for me.

TeenHollywood: Had you worked with any of these actors before and did you have any preconceived notions of any you hadn't met before?

Eva: I hadn't worked with any before. I had been friends with Jena when my mother (Susan Sarandon) was working with her on Stepmom. We were actually really good friends but I hadn't seen her for like five or six years so it was so great to see her again and to pick up with her where we left off. I hadn't worked with any of them but I respected all of them. It was cool to be put in a situation with these people I respected so much. I think that Mandy Moore had this kind of preconceived idea attached to her of who she was but man, did she so obviously break out of that box! She is just so brilliant in this movie. She brought something that all of us were so impressed with. She took her part and made it her own and made it something that it wouldn't have been without her. It's something I'm so impressed by.

TeenHollywood: You have a big, blended family. What is your most memorable holiday tradition?

Eva: Well, my family always, always, always, without fail decorates a Christmas tree together. So that's really fun. We have these ornaments that we've had for years. I mean like growing up. Some of them have pictures of us from certain years, like the worst possible pictures you could have so it's really fun taking them out and going 'oh, do you remember this one?' 'Yeah. I remember that one'. Some of them my mom made in her 20's, these really hideous, sort of hot-glued foam balls with stuff on them. We're all kind of nice and pass those down and the youngest ones have to put those up. We always forget who puts the star up and my youngest brother always wants to put it up. My other brother tortures him. We tease him every year. We think it's so funny that he's 12 and he still wants to put the star on the tree. That's sweet.

TeenHollywood: Has your family seen the movie?

Eva: Yeah. They've seen it. My parents came with me before it was completely finished and they saw it and they loved it before it was even perfected. They thought it was really interesting and they loved the ending and thought it was so funny. Especially Tim (Robbins) thought it was really funny. My brothers saw it and they loved it. One of the younger ones, he just loved it. He's seen it twice now and really likes it. It's a great feeling when your family really likes a movie you did.

TeenHollywood: How many siblings do you have?

Eva: I have six younger siblings. Sort of like two families. My mom's family and my dad's family and three younger sisters and three younger brothers. I spend a lot of money at Christmas.

TeenHollywood: What kind of music are you into?

Eva: I'm into everything. I'm not on any kick right now. I've been studying for finals (at Brown University). I haven't had much time to listen to music. I really love classic rock to hip hop, old Motown. I love everything.

TeenHollywood: Where are you with your studies?

Eva: I just finished my first year of college at Brown. I lived in Providence this last year which was interesting. I was going to school there and it's very different from New York City. I'm studying a really wide variety of things. We don't have to declare a major until next year. I'm trying to get a little taste of everything.

TeenHollywood: Are you focusing on school rather than acting?

Eva: Well, since I know that I want to do this with my life I would still really love to go to school and get a sense of what is out there. I feel like I have this wonderful opportunity to be going to college and I feel like I'm really cheating myself if I don't take advantage of it. It's so important for my family and for me. It's something that I really want to do and is important to do. I wanted to make sure I did that. What's better for an actor than to have as much experience as possible? I'm planning on going back next year. I'm taking it one year at a time and we'll see. If it takes me a little longer because I'm working then so be it but I'd like to graduate.

TeenHollywood: Have you gotten involved politically like your parents?

Eva: I'm completely open to it. Right now I haven't found a specific cause that I feel really passionately about. I completely support my parents in their causes that they feel passionate about and I think they are good causes, but part of my upbringing is to stand behind what you believe in so if I find something that I feel particularly that I need to advocate for, then I will.

TeenHollywood: What if you were totally opposite to their beliefs? Do you have discussions on that?

Eva: I think that part of why they are great parents is because they support their kids in everything that they do. And, I'm sure they would love us regardless. The most important thing for them is that we stand up for what we believe in. That's a quality that they really respect regardless of what you are standing up for. Certain issues they don't agree with but that fervor and passion for what you believe is something that they do respond to.

TeenHollywood: Did you get in touch with your rebel side in the movie? Are you a rebel?

Eva: (laughs) Maybe you should ask other people that. I had to learn how to smoke for this movie. I don't smoke so that was interesting and embarrassing because I burnt my eyelashes off when I tried to light up. I have asthma so I can't. It would be really dumb of me. But I did for a few months. The first couple of days we were filming I had heavy smoking scenes and I would inhale so strongly and be smoking so many cigarettes that they had to put me on an oxygen tank at the end of the day, I was so sick from these herbal cigarettes. They were the worst. They smell like something you never want to smell again in your life. I didn't want the nicotine and tar. There's a reason I don't smoke. I don't want to start putting that stuff in my body.

TeenHollywood: How much improvisation were you able to do on this?

Eva: Brian was really open to conversation about the script. There were certain things he really wanted a certain way but, other than that he knew that all of us had such a strong sense of our characters that he was really confident in little decisions that we would make in the moment. A lot of stuff he kept in. Mandy was actually so great. She would improv a lot in some of the scenes, just little things and they were so brilliant that they are all in the movie.

TeenHollywood: Your character seems to "get the spirit" and starts speaking in tongues, was that in the script?

Eva: Well that was definitely in the script. I wouldn't have asked to do that (laughs). That was tough for me. I had no experience in this world at all. I had no idea what that even meant or was. Luckily there was this really great girl named Jordan who was the daughter of our hair guy and she could speak in tongues. We actually had a lot of crew members who really were very religious Christians. I sat down with her a few times and asked her about it, asked her what the experience was like and what she had done and what it sounded like. To the best of her ability, she tried to help me understand it and actually, in the scene where I was doing it, she's sitting in the chair beside me and between takes, I'd ask her to say a few words to me because I was so nervous to do it.

TeenHollywood: Did you use languages that you knew?

Eva: Yeah. I speak a couple of languages. My dad's Italian and I took French and Spanish and stuff in high school. That helped just in terms of having sounds in your head that aren't English.

TeenHollywood: Is there is something you wouldn't do in a film? Would you do nudity?

Eva: For me, it really depends on the project and how much it warrants that sort of thing, how necessary it is to the script obviously. I really like to take things on a case by case basis. I don't ever like to rule out anything completely from my life in general so I feel the same way about things like that.

TeenHollywood: Did your mom ever read the script or did you pick this project totally on your own?

Eva: I picked it totally on my own. She didn't actually read the script until I was about to go start filming. People are saying, 'is she standing there giving you advice?' I'm like 'honey, she's busy! She's like doing her own thing'. I wish I had that much time to hang out with her that she could be giving me advice and reading my scripts. She has enough trouble reading her own scripts. That doesn't happen but I loved the script and she was confident in my decision for myself. She knows that I'm really picky about stuff like that so she knew it must be special.

TeenHollywood: When you were growing up did you know you wanted to act just because you were around sets? Did your family encourage you?

Eva: I think, for all of their kids, they just want them to find what they like and I've always been interested in it from when I was young. Then, when I was about fourteen, I thought 'I can not imagine not doing this'.

TeenHollywood: Did you just go to your folks and say 'I want to be in a movie'?

Eva: How that kind of stuff happened is I would be hanging out on the set so much that the director of whatever movie would just say 'okay. We'll put you in it. Fine!" I would just be there sitting, watching the monitors, watch every take for the entire day and they would kind of look at me and think, 'whoa. She's obviously interested'. And they would give me things and they would give me things and say 'do you want to audition for this? Do you want to do this role?' And I'd say 'yeah, yeah, yeah'. And I'd go and work with the casting director and read with the director and he'd go 'okay, we'll put you in this'. And I would bug them so much that I guess they finally gave in.

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Lynn Barker is a Hollywood-based entertainment journalist and produced screenwriter.