Frankenweenie

Talking with the Young Men of Frankenweenie – Charlie Tahan

Frankenweenie
Photo Credit: Marshall Weinbaum via MomStart’s camera

The Young Men of Frankenweenie

This past week, I was not only able to live out an amazing dream as I walked the White Carpet of Hollywood’s Frankenweenie Premiere… but I was also able to interview the three young men of the movie. Well, not me by myself, but as bloggers, we collaboratively interviewed the three of them. They were each a delight to listen to and I was honored to have met them all. They walked into the room with a quiet air about them and were very humble. Each one made us laugh, as well as stop and think. Listening to the wisdom they each spoke about their craft was incredible to hear.

The three young men are Charlie Tahan (Victor Frankenstein), Robert Capron (Bob), and Atticus Shaffer (Edgar “E” Gore).  I remember Charlie most recently from the movie, “Charlie St. Cloud.” What a dramatic difference in roles. Here are a few of the facts we learned about Charlie as we spent our pre-premiere time with the young men.

What is your favorite Tim Burton movie? And how excited were you when you got the call?

Tim has always been like one of my favorite directors since like before I started acting when I was like three or four.  And I was obsessed with Nightmare Before Christmas and, I didn’t even know it was a Tim Burton movie at the time, but Pee Wee’s Big Adventure, that was pretty funny.  I even remember like this specific problem because it was like a yearlong audition process for this and I just I was really excited.

FRANKENWEENIE
©2012 Disney Enterprises. All Rights Reserved.

What was your favorite thing about your character?

Victor is kind of like loosely based on Tim’s childhood I think a little bit.  So when it’s just like I said, he’s like been one of my favorite directors, so I was honored to be able to sort of play him.

What do you find challenging about it?

This is my first voice over thing ever. So I thought it was going to be a lot harder because, like after especially after I found out that, uh, I wasn’t going to be with the other cast, to like read with them. Especially for me, I think it was a little bit easier because half my scenes are with me and Sparky, so I didn’t have to like, I mean- because I have a dog at home, I kind of just imagined that my dog was there. But it’s pretty like easy just mostly just because you don’t have to worry about like blocking or where to stand or, hair and makeup, so you can mostly just like focus all your energy just into your voice, so it’s a little bit easier.

Tim Burton
©2012 Disney Enterprises. All Rights Reserved.

What is your favorite part in working with Tim?

Well he’s surprisingly normal. I didn’t expect him to be like somebody like a scary guy but, he knows like how he wants each scene like to be. Like because Frankenweenie is really like pretty personal to him, I think, and like it’s sort of about his childhood issue. I think that he knows exactly how he like wants each, each shot or like scene to go.

Do you have a pet? 

I have one pet left. Samantha the dog, I’ve had rabbits and a hamster and lizards before. They’re all dead now. I have a dog named Samantha. Actually when I first like got the part of Frankenweenie, my sister like always wanted a dog since she was really little, and I feel like we did, I know we didn’t want them, but never had a chance to get one and the producer asked me like if I had any interaction with dogs. You know, how like, how owners pet and talk to their dogs. People really talk to their dogs. Like hey boy. And, um, so be like, what, just because like the Frankenweenie the others they have small contributing factor. So I imagined that my dog was there.

I simply adored seeing each of their personalities come out as they sat in the room talking with us. Each one of them had unique characteristics and it was entertaining to sit and listen to them speak with such passion. Charlie was the most reserved, whereas Atticus was very animated when he spoke. And Robert struck me as humble and poised. Again, I was thrilled to have been given the opportunity. I hope to see each of them continue to prosper in their determined fields of work. Keep following along as I share both Robert Capron and Atticus Shaffer’s answers to the questions asked.

Frankenweenie

Make sure to catch Frankenweenie in theaters starting Friday, October 5th. You can learn more by liking Frankenweenie on Facebook or following along on Twitter.

Disclosure: I was provided with a trip to Los Angeles in return for my honest review on the event mentioned above. All expenses were paid by Disney and no other compensation was given. Regardless, all opinions are 100% my own.