Max Thieriot: On Playing a Hobo!

During the Great Depression of the 1930's in the U.S. entire families became homeless when the dads lost their jobs. Just like in our current economy, many homes were being foreclosed upon by banks, throwing the owners out in the streets. In Kit Kittredge: An American Girl, cute Max Thieriot (of Nancy Drew, The Pacificer, Astronaut Farmer and Jumper) plays Will Shepard, a homeless teen living in hobo camps called "jungles" doing odd jobs to survive. Will meets Kit's family when he asks them for work and he's later unjustly implicated in some local robberies.

We wanted to know if Max had to study the era to play his part and what his favorite scene was. We chatted briefly at a hotel in Beverly Hills last week. Picture the actor in black tee, gray jeans and with a slight beard; scruffy/cute. We also noticed that he has a tattoo on his upper left arm. It is a scale of justice surrounded by large wings. We had to know....

TeenHollywood: Is that tattoo real? We know actors often get fake ones for movies.

Max: Yes, it's real. [It's for my mom]. My mom had cancer three times but she's fine now.That's why the name area is blank. She's still with us.

TeenHollywood: Very glad to hear that. For this movie, did you research what it was like to be homeless during the Great Depression?

Max: Yeah, I did a little bit. My grandpa grew up during the Depression so I talked to him a little bit about it. He was kind of funny. He didn't care to talk about it much, not like it was hard on him, he was just like 'nah, nah it was The Great Depression [in a grumpy voice]. Look it up online. You can find all the research'. I'm like 'thanks, Grandpa' [he laughs]. So I did some research online but I'd learned about it in history class in high school and middle school. So I took everything I knew from that and gave it my best shot I guess.

TeenHollywood: Were you talking about your granddad Thieriot who owned and published the San Francisco Chronicle?

Max: No, that's my mom's dad. [My other grandpa] is kind of funny. He's from Minnesota and Iowa. He's a corn farmer and he just retired like a year ago at 78-years-old. All my other grandparents passed away. My dad's parents passed away when he was one.

TeenHollywood: So no desire to be a reporter like Kit is because of the newspaper connection then?

Max: No. One of my uncles worked for the paper for a while and my dad, he never really worked. He was a trouble-maker. He moved out of his aunt and uncle's house when he was 16. I never really thought about reporting.

TeenHollywood: Did your guy pals tease you about being in a movie based on a bunch of dolls?

Max: None of my friends knew what American Girl was. They're like 'yeah, that sounds like a great movie, Max. What is that about?' But, they were like 'do you play the American girl?' I was like 'yeah, thanks' [laughs].

TeenHollywood: Your character has a cute little homeless side-kick played by 7-year-old Willow Smith. What was working with her like?

Max: Yeah, it was really cool to have her around because we've formed this bond. I have a little brother the exact same age (7) and, being away from him for about two months, it kind of filled that void. She was really like a younger sibling so it was definitely a lot of fun.

TeenHollywood: Was her dad Will Smith there then watching all your scenes?

Max: He only showed up like a couple of days. I don't know if he was busy shooting but Jada [Pinkett-Smith, Willow's mom] was there more.

TeenHollywood: Did you feel like a big brother to the younger actors?

Max: It was a lot of fun and a really cool experience. [When I work] it's always been with adults or kids my age [19] so it was cool to be the older one and it made feel like I had to be a little more responsible.

TeenHollywood: Did you enjoy working with the animals on set; a monkey and a dog? He was a Basset Hound with very long ears and short legs.  

Max: Yeah. He couldn't really move very much. He'd walk about ten feet and then [exhausted sigh] and fall on the ground and lay there. Okay, the dog needs a rest. He was laying there curled up like he was about ready to go.

TeenHollywood: What was your favorite scene to film?

Max: I liked shooting the scenes in the hobo jungle, just because the set they built was so cool. It was around this little creek, river deal and it had an old bridge above it. It was the perfect spot. How they found it, I don't know. That was really cool to see all the little tents they had set up. The entire thing was set up [for the movie] and it was really cool.  We had one scene that is one giant continuous shot moving through the entire thing.

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