Fanboys Fess Up: Sam Huntington, Chris Marquette and Dan Fogler

You've probably heard about an upcoming movie paying homage to Star Wars fans for years. After some creative differences among filmmakers and producers were settled, Fanboys is finally hitting theaters this week. This is the tale of some serious fans who drove cross country to break into Lucasfilm's Skywalker Ranch in 1998 to watch a print of Episode One: The Phantom Menace before it was released. We spoke to a trio of actors who play the fanboys and gathered that they had their own bonding experience making the film. They are still friends today and share a love of Star Wars, an iconic childhood experience for all three.

We sat down to get the details in Beverly Hills with Dan Fogler, Sam Huntington and Chris Marquette, all of whom have gone on to many other projects since shooting the film three years ago. Get ready for a wacky, nerd-boy style conversation interrupted by a hotel workman leaping onto our second floor balcony from the room next door dragging a bunch of wires behind him... huh?? Only in Hollywood....

TeenHollywood: Okay Star Wars or "Star Trek"? Can you be a fan of both and what about you guys? Do you have a preference in real life?

Dan: When I got the script I was like, 'My God, this is paying homage to almost every single aspect of my childhood, every movie I've ever loved, not just Star Wars, but "Star Trek", although I love Star Wars more, so I signed on right away, I was like, 'This is great,' I loved paying homage to stuff that I grew up on. You get nostalgic and this was like the perfect opportunity to play out all those fantasies that I had as a kid, like when are you ever going to be able to dive with a ray gun through a glass door?

Chris: Well, personally, I am so bored by "Star Trek", it's ridiculous, unfortunately. I've seen almost every movie and I've seen tons of episodes of pretty much every Star Trek spin-off TV show but I don't ever get into it. Now that I've seen them all I probably won't ever watch them again.

Sam: I don't have as much of an aversion as Chris but I am much more of a Star Wars fan than I am a 'Trek' fan but I'm very much looking forward to that new movie. I know, I know.. I'm sorry but I'm excited. I think it should be really interesting.

Dan: I think there were different levels [of fan intensity]. We would sit down and we would have these little marathons of Star Wars through the Return of the Jedi, and I'd be the guy sitting in the back just like quoting every single line. Jay Baruchel, who plays Windows, I think he only saw Star Wars, he didn't know about Empire Strikes Back or Return of the Jedi, and then once he saw Empire he was like, 'How did I miss out on this?' My favorite movie ever is Empire Strikes Back. Yeah, we were all different levels.

TeenHollywood: Did you have costumes back in the day? Did you have light sabers?

Sam: Yeah, the ones that you whip out [he demonstrates a light-saber] little plastic things.

Chris: But somebody hooked us up with some actual replica light sabers.

Sam: They're called 'master replicas', the company, and they're really neat. They make sound effects.

TeenHollywood: Geez, Chris and Sam, how obsessed were you? Was it just Star Wars or other stuff as a kid?

Chris: Star Wars. Star Wars and Ninja Turtles. Turtles was huge, yeah.

Sam: I was a huge fan of the original Superman movies; one and two.

Chris: I was a big Jean-Claude Van Damme fan. I've seen every movie that man has ever made. I'm a big action movie fan.

TeenHollywood: Chris, how did you feel when you found out that Carrie Fisher (Princess Leia) was going to play the doctor?

Chris: I was so depressed about it. I was like 'I can't do this movie any more'. No! It was awesome!

TeenHollywood: And she chose to kiss you.

Chris: She chose to kiss me, yeah. They had three options. I forgot about it until today. Now, I'm like a newfound man [laughter]. She had three options[of scenes to play] and she picked that one. I was like 'Oh my God, she did'.

TeenHollywood: Out of all of the actors that do cameos in the movie, who was the one you were most excited about and enjoyed working with, Dan?

Dan: Billy Dee Williams was really cool, he was so cool, and I was just being like, 'I was Lando Calrissian on my block when I was a child.' And of course seeing Carrie Fisher, Princess Leia, who has this Hollywood history, and then seeing her on set joking around with us as a normal human being was amazing. That was the coolest part was to see that these legends are just people.

TeenHollywood: Chris, your character Linus is the one fan who actually gets to see the movie early yet you don't tell your friends all about it after seeing it. Why not?

Chris: A big part of the argument in my head was 'do you say anything? Are you going to ruin this for your friends now that you've seen it?' That was a big part of arguing about the Fanboys stealing Episode One was like 'well, are they going to release it to the world?' If you did have it, if you were an ultimate fan and you had Star Wars before it was coming out, are you going to tell anybody or just keep it for yourself and I think the ideal ultimate fan keeps it for himself and doesn't spoil it for everybody and ruin whatever Lucas is trying to do.

TeenHollywood: 'Phantom Menace' isn't most Star Wars' fans' favorite movie anyway.

Chris: It was a little bit of a letdown. It was amazing because, at that point, it didn't matter what they were showing. If they're showing Luke Skywalker at any age and any point doing whatever, like going to the bathroom, you'd be like 'that's awesome! He's like a rockstar!'

Dan: I grew up on Star Wars: the Return of the Jedi, so I feel like the technology is impressive [in 'Phantom Menace']. I saw what [Lucas] was trying to do, but there are certain aspects of the technology, especially when you're dealing with organic creatures, they're not the puppets, so they don't feel tangible. You don't feel you can hug them. Yoda [originally a puppet] is now is spinning and flipping, and back in the day you were like, 'That reminds me of the muppets. It reminds me of Frank Oz and I can hug Chewbacca'. But it's tough. I also think they needed a little Harrison Ford injection.

TeenHollywood: Yeah, but Chris is right. At that point, fans just wanted to see more Star Wars. So, when did you guys actually shoot this?

Chris: Seventeen years ago.

Sam: [laughs] No, it was three years ago so I've done quite a bit of growing up since then.

Chris: I haven't.

Sam: Actually, that's complete bull**it. I haven't grown up at all.

TeenHollywood: Kristen Bell plays the only female fan on the trip. Sam you were in "Veronica Mars" so you already knew Kristen?

Sam: I did, yeah, which was nice to have a friend because all these guys are such jerks. It's nice to have someone there you know.

Chris: [in sing-song voice] Get outa here, Sam. Go hang out with Kristen.

Sam: Ewww, you hang out with girls.

Dan: But, she was one of the guys, she would rile us up. It's also because it's not hard to have a crush on the lady, so whenever she was around the boys would get riled, definitely. But then she is also a consummate professional. She was probably the most professional person on the set. And she was our queen bee. It was my first movie that I did after "Spelling Bee" [Dan won a Tony award for this Broadway musical], so I was looking to her for a lot of experience.

TeenHollywood: Dan, you signed on to do the film very early but Chris, you and Sam joined the cast later?

Sam: Yeah, we came on the exact same time.

Chris: They actually weren't sure which one of us were going to play each part but they definitely came and said 'it's going to be you and Sam playing these two parts'.

Sam: ... but we're not sure which ones. It was a combination of things. They had us both come in and read both parts and I don't know if they asked you which part you'd rather play but I thought, for me, I thought we were much better suited for the roles that we were given. Which was good.

TeenHollywood: So some of you shot at the actual Skywalker Ranch?

Chris: I did. It was crazy, insane.

Sam: It was funny, they shot the exteriors of all of us in one location and then they only flew him up there.

Chris: There's only one shot of me walking out quickly at the actual [ranch].....

[We are chatting at the 4 Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills and, at this point, a workman leaps onto our balcony dragging a bunch of wires behind him! We all jump from fright and comment.... "He's got a gun!", "He's gonna parachute down!", "I love that he just showed up and he has all those wires". "What the heck?" The guy leaps to the next balcony!]

Chris: Uh....., okay, as I was saying, there was one shot that they needed of me coming out of the Lucas Ranch, just coming out after I've seen the movie. We had a different separate location. It was actually an amazing place in New Mexico. This really beautiful old building that was there for a long time. I want to say on a college campus. It was where they basically recruit people from all over the world to come to this school. They give these people the opportunity to come to the states and study in this amazing facility. To be perfectly honest, there couldn't have been a better Lucas Ranch double. Right down to the color of the wood floors. It looked identical.

Sam: [pouting] I didn't go to the ranch. They didn't fly me out there.

TeenHollywood: So you guys just got along instantly and had a great rapport?

Chris: Yeah. It was fun. We had a really good time. A lot of times you go on location and we're working pretty much all day, every day, all of us and you go out there and by the end of the night you're tired and you don't want to do anything. Weekends you need some alone time and make a lot of phone calls to your friends but not this time. This time it was like 'what are we doin' for dinner? Let's go outside'.

Sam: Yeah, yeah.

Chris: Every weekend was like camp.

Sam: Yeah, it really was. I also feel like we were all in it for the same reason, to make a really great movie but, at the same time we just really wanted to have a good time to have a bond and it wasn't hard. Kyle [their director] was kind of the driving force. He was like 'hey, you guys want to go to the weapons depot? Let's go pick up some pellet guns and some knives and shoot each other and fight around'.

Chris: And we would.

Sam: He was like the motivator and got us out but mainly we would just stay in this crazy airport hotel in Albuquerque.

Chris: And shoot each other with air pellet guns.

Sam: Literally, that was our fun thing. 'Let's shoot each other'. Then at three o'clock in the morning you'd get woken up by the F-16 taking off from the military airport. You'd be like dead asleep and [makes whooshing jet take-off noise].

TeenHollywood: Are you going to be invited to Star Trek or Star Wars conventions now?

Chris: I imagine so. We've been to a couple so far.

TeenHollywood: What is the reaction of the fans?

Chris: Everybody seems to be really excited, shockingly.

Sam: Yeah, that's the crazy part about this thing. They're still excited. It wasn't just a 'hot for a minute' thing. I'm been to a few over the past three years and each time people are like 'when's it coming out, man?' 'I don't know' but now I do.

TeenHollywood: Dan, your character Hutch is so manic and insane. Do you know people like him or how did you create this guy? You were so convincing I was a little worried about meeting you today.

Dan: [laughs] He's very much like me in a parallel universe. I was manic when I was in high school. In college, I was a lunatic. I definitely have friends that are wild and so passionate about something that they do ludicrous things, mostly with like over rock bands and stuff. 'Phish is playing, man, I'm going to dress up like a fish (Phish?) and run across country.' It's like, 'what are you talking about?' I had friends that are so fanatic about something, and we met a lot of guys in preparation for the movie who build their own costumes and literally transform their houses into Death Stars and stuff like that. It wasn't hard to base him on them. They were right there.

TeenHollywood: You looked great too. Did you have anything to say about what he was going to wear and the beard?

Dan: Definitely, I wanted to look like that if he somehow got sucked into a vortex and was actually in Star Wars that he would look fine. When I was in college I wore a lot of chains, a lot of vests and black jeans, so that was a cross between trying to pay homage to how I looked when I was in college but also how I think Hutch would dress. His closet would be filled with all the same outfits. (he laughs). He would have loved to have been alive during Star Wars, in that galaxy far, far away.

TeenHollywood: You won a Tony Award for 'Spelling Bee'. Are you looking for other musicals to do?

Dan: Yeah, I have a theatre company called Stage 13 in Manhattan and we do our own plays, and make movies. I've got a movie called Hysterical Psycho that I wrote and directed, and it's hitting the festival circuit right now. I totally see myself doing Broadway at some point down the line, but mostly I'm focusing on doing plays with my own company.

TeenHollywood: How do you think the "Star Trek" fans are going to react to this film?

Dan: I think that they'll dig it too. I think it's for them as well. There is a rivalry with the Star Wars guys and the Trekkers, and I think that it would be so cool if, after the movie, like suddenly there was like a 'West Side Story' thing afterwards, like the rivalry grew. But I think they'll dig it. They may get a little pissy with the treatment of the Trekkies, but what are you going to do?

TeenHollywood: Okay, if you were speaking to a true Star Wars fan, why should they go see this movie?

Dan: I think, from the beginning to end, they will find numerous things that will warm their hearts. It's so nostalgic, it pays homage to not just Star Wars but I guess all the movies that I watched growing up, and I also think they'll identify with a lot of the characters and they'll see themselves in it. There isn't a movie out there that is for them, that reveres them.

TeenHollywood: Yes, and doesn't make fun of them

Dan: Right, and there's some documentaries out there that do. But this is really a celebration.