It's been 15 years since Robin Wright Penn first worked with visionary director Robert Zemeckis on the fantastical Oscar-winning drama "Forrest Gump" -- but time has hardly diminished the sense of wonder she has about the filmmaker who continues to revolutionize the movie industry.
Wright Penn stars opposites Jim Carrey in Zemeckis' newest big-screen experience, a motion-captured interpretation of the Charles Dickens classic novel, "A Christmas Carol." In an @ The Movies interview while the film was in post-production, Wright Penn said that the work Zemeckis has done with his motion-capture films (starting with "The Polar Express" with Wright Penn's "Gump" co-star Tom Hanks in 2004) has stretched his work beyond the boundaries of a filmmaker.
"He's evolved into a scientist -- he's convinced that he'll never go back to '2-D,' as he calls it. He only wants to do 3-D. He even says, 'Hey, you don't even need actors any more,' and that kind of freaks me out," Wright Penn said, laughing.
In "A Christmas Carol," which opened in theaters and on IMAX screens Nov. 6, Wright Penn plays Belle, the wife of Ebenezer Scrooge (Carrey), as a young woman and again at 60 years old. Carrey plays several other roles in the film, which also stars Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, Bob Hoskins and Cary Elwes -- who played the swashbuckling Westley opposite Wright Penn in her star-making role in the 1987 smash "The Princess Bride."
Wright Penn, who worked with Zemeckis on the motion-capture adventure "Beowulf" in 2007, says she still can't get over the direction the filmmaker has taken motion-capture filmmaking.
"It's very clinical but it's genius in and of itself. It's definitely a progression in computer graphics that's never been done before," Wright Penn observed. "And it's all him. He has his whole business he's created -- he has his own company to do this."
From an acting standpoint, Wright Penn said the process of motion-capture filmmaking is decidedly different than live action work, especially in the amount of time required of her on the set.
"It's such a hoot doing it. It's really quick -- it's in and out," Wright Penn said. "There's something very laborious about waiting in the trailer for two hours while they light the scene because you lose your momentum. With this work, you're never in your trailer, there's no waiting around."
Despite the surreal appearance the motion capture gives on film, Wright Penn says the actual filming, oddly enough, is like doing stage work.
"It's like doing theater in the round because you are being motion captured 360 degrees by cameras," she said. "You're not ever blocking someone and you don't have to worry about opening up for the camera. You can just act your brains out and do the scene as it should be blocked."
Another bonus for Wright Penn was that she didn't have to sit for hours in a makeup chair. But there was a trade-off when it came to wardrobe -- or the lack thereof.
"You look like a complete idiot," Wright Penn said. "You're basically in a wet suit with a bunch of Velcro balls attached to you. You say to yourself, 'Is this a trick?'"
Wright Penn will soon return to traditional films with the title role in "The Private Lives of Pippa Lee," which also stars Winona Ryder, Alan Arkin and Maria Bello. The drama opens in limited release Nov. 27.
