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Alison LohmanFinds a Furry Friendby Lynn B
The studio sent journalists to one of the film’s locales; a ranch near Agoura, California where wide open fields dotted with huge oak trees serve as horse heaven. The movie ranch is complete with the homey two-story family ranch house used in the film and we conducted our interviews at tables set up in the barn. Horses weren’t present at the time but there was hay and… horseflies! Everyone felt really down home in the setting but did have to swat at the occasional circling fly. Alison, who is actually 27, looks about age fifteen and was sweetly casual in grey-blue flower appliquéd sweater over a ruffled blouse, jeans and tan boots. We were a bit surprised to learn that the actress had never been on a horse before taking the role in this film and that she was very concerned that her riding wouldn’t look right. We talked about the cat she rescued, her experience working with hot country music star/actor Tim McGraw who plays her dad in the film and about how she identifies with and respects her character’s individuality and strong spirit. Whoops, swat that fly and let’s get started….. AGW: What do you hope people, especially teenagers will take away from this film? Alison: This girl has this incredible spirit. That’s what really attracted me to this story. She inspired me to be opinionated, to be different and embrace the rebellious part of you. That’s not always bad. That can be good for these wild mustangs she’s taking care of, good for nature and preserving that and the freedom and the beauty in that. She’s different and that’s her big thing. AGW: It seems that “different” is ridiculed when you are in high school especially. Alison: Right now in school, well, I guess it’s always been about uniformity. She embraces different thoughts and ideas and that’s why I liked it when they changed [the lead character] from a boy to a girl. It shows that, yes, women now are taking [different] roles in the world but also are using physical exertion doing ranch tasks and all that that men had previously done. That’s one of the challenges in this movie. She’s trying to prove to her dad that she can do this. AGW: We hear you didn’t know how to ride before this film but was it just as important to you to make an emotional connection with the horses as to learn to ride? Alison: Oh yeah. That was almost more important to me because I am first an actor and I relate experiences to emotions so it was easier for me to do that than actually the physicality of the part which was incredibly difficult because I’m not an athlete so the physical part was hard. [at this point, Maria Bello, who plays Alison’s mom in the film comes over and hugs her.] Maria: How are you? Alison: I’m really good. Maria: Sorry. I had to come hug my daughter. Sorry to interrupt. [We assure her it’s no big deal]. AGW: Did you get hurt at all? Your character gets plenty of bruises and bumps. Alison: I didn’t get hurt. I had physical discomforts. I had an MRI done because I thought that I had pinched a nerve. I couldn’t bend down. My spinal cord was compressed so much from trotting and then I fell off the horse at one time but I didn’t get hurt. AGW: Trotting is harder than cantering or galloping. Alison: It is. Trotting is the hardest. It’s true. AGW: How about learning to rope? Was that hard too? Alison: Well, Tim really helped me with that. Every chance we’d get, he’d be teaching me and I was awful. It was terrible but I finally learned. You do it a million times and there’s that one time that you rope the cone and you can do it after that once you get the hang of it. AGW: How hard was it to do dialogue with the horse? I think you talk to Flicka more than people. Alison: It wasn’t bad because it was how I wanted to portray this relationship. It’s a love story between a horse and this girl. If I didn’t get that then there would be no story so it was crucial that I really could see behind these horses’ eyes. And there were six different horses [playing Flicka]. But, there was the one horse they used for close-ups. AGW: Do you have any pets at home? Alison: I do. I have the most amazing cat. Her name is Monk. I got her from an animal rescue. A dog bit her ear off. So she has only one ear and she’s completely bald [on her head] so we called her Monk. She has a little bit of hair now but she’s so funny. She’s adorable. Then I have another cat. AGW: Were you really worried about not getting the character of Katy right? Alison: I was really daunted. At one point, the costume lady called me and said ‘okay, we’re scheduling you for an appointment’ and I said ‘I not going to do this movie. They should get a rider. There’s more riding in this movie than acting and I’m and actor. It’s not gonna happen for me’. My agent said ‘you have to do it’. So, I just said, ‘you know what? I’m just going to do the best I can with what I have’. AGW: Was there a point at which you started to feel really comfortable as a rider? Alison: No. Like maybe at the last… no, I don’t think I ever felt really comfortable to be honest. It takes many years [riding]. It’s not something that you can do well in a month or three. AGW: Katy loves horses. What was your obsession when you were 16? Alison: I loved to read. I remember my mom would be pushing me outdoors like ‘go, party! Go hang out with your friends.’ She probably thought something was wrong with me but I would get in these fantasy worlds reading books and then I loved doing musical theater at the community theater and I’d come home just singing, dancing and acting. AGW: Do you have any actor friends who had also done horse movies? Alison: No. I don’t have many actor friends to be honest. I have a friend who’s not an actor who rode horses so I could go visit her and ride. AGW: Ever been to a ranch or farm growing up? Alison: No. It was a whole new thing. Well, it wasn’t like I’d never been on a ranch before but I didn’t grow up or know anybody [who had one]. AGW: Had you read the novel or seen the old movies based on it? Alison: I read the book, yeah. I didn’t see the original movie. I didn’t feel that I needed to and sometimes, I think, as an actor, you have that mental picture. This is another experience. Yes, it’s from a novel and that’s great but it’s completely its own entity. AGW: Some people might say that this character can be quite self-absorbed at times when it comes to interacting with her family. Does she think it’s all about her? Alison: Well, she’s young and she’s trying to find her way in the world and you have to speak your mind. Who best to speak your mind to but your family? If you can’t exchange ideas with your family, then who? She’s not doing drugs. She’s just opinionated. Some people are just that way; They’re so fierce in that spirit and determined and there needs to be an outlet for that, an energy outlet. I think the parents deal with it in a good way. AGW: Can you talk about working with Tim and Maria who played your parents?
AGW: How is your relationship with your own parents? Alison: Everybody has their issues but I have a really good relationship. I’m very close to my family and I rely on them a lot for advice and support because I really do need that. Everybody needs somebody. AGW: How do you deal with conflicts? Alison: We just work it out. If you talk and give good communication and are open, it’s okay. AGW: Did anything weird or funny happen during the shoot? Alison: I guess Michael [the director] was pretty funny because he loved animals. He’s from New York City. You’d be in the middle of a scene and he’d go, ‘wait, wait! Look at that bird! Look how beautiful it is!’ And we’d walk over and just stare at the bird. He’s hilarious. I had so much fun working with him. He wanted Flicka to look at this other horse and it was like he was talking to an actor. AGW: You mean he’d walk up to the horse and say ‘I want you to do…something’? Alison: [laughs] No, to the trainer like ‘okay, I want the horse to…’ and the trainer would look at him like [rolls eyes]. ‘Look. This is a horse, not an actor’. There was something every day like that. AGW: There were six Flickas. Was there one that was more intelligent or more fun? Alison: Yes but it wasn’t a Flicka. His name was Benny. I don’t remember his name in the movie but he’s the horse that I ride in the beginning. He’s my horse until I meet Flicka. He was my favorite because he was so big. He was like this huge teddy bear and his spine was nice and soft so when I’d ride him it would be like jelly and he had a sweet demeanor. He was very slow. He took care of me, I felt. AGW: Do you have a personal philosophy of how you approach acting and Hollywood? Alison: Just try to stay out of it and do what you want to do. [Hollywood] is kind of a weird, strange thing, a phenomenon in a way. It’s bizarre. AGW: What do you do for fun? Alison: I still read. I’m reading right now, a meditation book and “Angela’s Ashes” but just ‘cause I picked it up. It’s not like ‘okay, I have to read this classic’. It’s fun reading. And I’m just going to school and studying history. And, I hang out with friends and family. AGW: Are you going for a college degree? Alison: No. I don’t know what I’m going to do. I could because I have two years down. I take classes whenever I can. AGW: Do you think you’ll do any more teen roles? Alison: I think I said this would probably be the last one because I’m 27 so I don’t think it would be fair to do that. I can say that I’m in touch with being 17 and I know that I can look 17, no doubt about that. I look at 16-year-olds now and some look a lot older than me. I would like to but I don’t know. It depends on the role. AGW: Do you worry about the pressure to lose weight that lot of young actresses face? Alison: Not at all. Actually, I’m trying to gain weight. I think I have the opposite scenario. I eat normally. It’s not that I’m trying to gain weight or lose weight but I enjoy food a lot and cooking. I cook a lot of vegetarian foods. I love cooking Indian food. We have a garden so I get fresh vegetables. pictures on this page courtesy of and copyright 20th Century Fox, 2006 |
 
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Pretty,
petite Alison Lohman is a young actress who excels at quirky, edgy roles.
Among her many parts, the brunette beauty played a troubled teen in the
foster care system in White Oleander, a teen developing crime
smarts in Matchstick Men, an ethereal dreamgirl in Tim Burton’s
Big Fish and now plays Katy, a non-conformist teen in Wyoming
who cares for a wild mustang despite her dad’s wishes in the family
film Flicka, based upon the novel “My Friend Flicka”
in which the lead character was a boy instead of a girl. 
Alison:
Yeah. It was like a family. Everybody was really nice. Tim and Maria were
great, were perfect. Tim, I think, he’s a great actor. He proved
that to me when I watched Friday Night Lights [the feature film,
not the TV show]. There was nothing to worry about in terms of acting
ability so I was very comfortable that we would make it as real as we
could.