Quvenzhané Wallis stars in Stefon Bristol‘s new film, Breathe as Zora, a teenager with a temperament. But the problems between her and her mother seem to become irrelevant after realizing that they now have to put their problems aside to protect their home. Our Quvenzhané Wallis interview gets into the film and much more.
Wallis is a well-known actress who has starred in many movies such as Annie, Beasts of the Southern Wild and 12 Years of Slave. She has been in the industry for quite some time now and has an incredible spirit. We had the pleasure of speaking with her to discuss her process of becoming Zora, how it felt being behind the scenes and most importantly working with an A-list team as well.
Although the movie is a sci-fi, apocalyptic take on the world, that didn’t seem to stop Quvenzhané from having a little fun and enjoying her time on set with the props. She explained that they created a space where she was able to be creative, expressive and truly be Zora.
Here’s our full Quvenzhané Wallis interview.
Parlé: How would you describe your character in the film?
Quvenzhané Wallis: Zora is a very strong, smart, beautiful, gorgeous, powerful teenager who is not afraid to speak up and say how she feels even with her mom. I wouldn’t say that she is a rebellious teen but I definitely think she’s not a “kiss-ass” either, in the nicest way possible. I think the dynamic between her and her mom play a big part because that is all that they have. Her personality is very strong and you get to see that as she tells her mom or whomever, “I’m done with you, I’m walking away.” But still knowing that she will see her tomorrow because she has chores to do.
Parlé: What was it like to work with the other actors/actresses?
Quvenzhané Wallis: It was exciting! It was so exciting because a good number of people on set had a full circle moment with someone. Example, Jennifer and I had a full circle moment because I loved her music, I sing her songs often and I was obsessed with Dream Girls, so that was definitely a full circle moment for me. I also just watched Avatar before working with Sam Worthington for the film. I had to call my brothers and tell them that they wouldn’t believe that he was here, it was an incredible experience. Milla, the thing is I didn’t realize who she was until I met her. I was like, “Wait, let me look her up.” I looked everybody up but her. I didn’t think anything of it until I kept asking myself why did she look so familiar. I was trying to figure it out and connect the dots. But being able to meet them and know them as people was definitely better than anything else.
Parlé: What is your process like when getting into character?
Quvenzhané Wallis: It depends on the character, but for Zora because she was a daughter and I was with my mom the whole time, it helped me to focus in on my character. I would be a little sassy with my mom just because I felt like it, or a lot of the times I like to mess with my mom and I’d use lines from the movie where I would cuss in the line so I would say it around her to get a reaction. But then immediately I would tell her, “You know I was just practicing. I wasn’t talking to you like that, I was just practicing.” She would look at me and say, “Practicing my ass”. I definitely think when I am on set, I am my character most of the time but it also depends on who I am acting with. If the person I am acting with is very method, for example for Sam he stayed in his character most of the time so I couldn’t joke and play with him which was fine. It actually worked because I was suppose to have a different reaction to him than I did everyone else. But because he was method, I was like shit I’ll be method too. I feel like it depends on the environment and who you are working with and also what you prefer for the character.
Parlé: How did it feel reading the script and realizing that you were going to be apart of a film about the world ending?
Quvenzhané: Well when I got the script it wasn’t completely finished, it was still the main idea of what the script and movie is now though. I started talking to Stefon 2 or 3 years before we started filming so it was a lot of time for me to think and discover how it would feel if the world did end. When I got on set, it was always evolving, it never stopped changing because we kept coming up with so many new ideas and things to add to the script. We would change the whole script completely and sit there and create things on the spot. I’ve never experienced a set like that before, well a movie set anyway. It was completely creative freedom and also your ideas are actually being heard. It wasn’t just your acting choices but your environment.
Parlé: What was your favorite part in creating the film?
Quvenzhané Wallis: Probably the props and masks. Only because I don’t think the movie would’ve been the same without them. I have a love and hate relationship with the masks, I keep saying this but if it wasn’t hot outside when we had those masks on I don’t think I would hate them as much. But because it was so hot outside I hated them when we were using them and when we finally stopped using them, I was like, “Well can we put them on one last time because they are kind of cool looking, can I take a picture in it”. The guns were fun as well because we had gun training, well it’s fun and its not fun because they are guns but I felt like I looked cool, “Pew, Pew. Don’t play with me.” (laughs) The whole time though the gun is plastic and I ain’t really doing shit. But it was just fun to play around on set with all of the tangible things that we use for scenes.
Parlé: What should the audience take away from the movie?
Quvenzhané Wallis: I just really want them to take away something, I feel like when people watch movies like this they automatically think conspiracy theory or they think nothing about it. I just hope that to some degree they take this just a little bit serious because I know the generation that we are in, we don’t take much serious at all until it’s too late. We will just joke around and say something like, “We can’t be OUTSIDE. It’s the summer time we’re supposed to be outside”. We really can’t wait until it’s too late. I just want someone to tell a friend, to tell a friend that we need to get on it so we can still be going outside.
Breathe is NOW out in some theaters and on digital.
Image Credits: Capstone
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