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Hangin' With Archives
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“Sky High” Superheroes:Michael AngaranoandDanielle Panabakerby Lynn Barker
Well, kids with superpowers don’t have cliques or rivalries or bullies or prom queens, right? Wrong. As the film demonstrates, kids are the same everywhere. Sky High kids are divided into “heroes” and underdog “sidekicks”. Although both young people have been actors for a long time, both Danielle and Michael have still had their own high school angst. The duo met with us recently in Beverly Hills to talk about their new film, competition in Hollywood, musical tastes and their new projects. Dark-haired Michael, dressed in vintage gray “Wish you Were Here Pink Floyd” t-shirt, described his role and special effects moves. Danielle, who wore her long hair in a low ponytail and donned a bright fuchsia lace shirt over a green tank, told us about her closeness with actress/sister Kay (who has a lead role in the TV show “Summerland”), and how she handles dating. Pull up a chair…. AGW: Michael, are you a Pink Floyd fan? Did you watch the reunion on TV? Michael: I just watched it last night and I was practically in tears when they did “Wish You Were Here”. I’m like ‘Oh, my god, I love them’. Every night I listen to “Dark Side of the Moon” but I haven’t been able to lately because I lost it. I left it in a CD player. They’re musical geniuses. AGW: Do you think Sky High mirrors what high school is really like? Danielle: That’s what attracted me to the movie in the first place; that sort of John Hughes [The Breakfast Club, Sixteen Candles) feel the movie has of these teenagers going through high school dealing with all this pressure from their parents and unrequited love. I think it’s pretty similar; all a part of growing up. AGW: Is this close to your own experience? Danielle: Pretty close. I was the biggest nerd in high school that’s kind of why I felt Layla’s pain. Michael: Yeah, my whole first month of high school was me trying to get friends with ‘Hi. I just watched “Will and Grace’, just trying to get people to like me. People don’t really care that I’m an actor which is great. I love that. When you go to an all boys Catholic high school, nobody really watches TV or sees too many movies so nobody really knew who I was which was great. AGW: Did you have nicknames in high school like a lot of people do? Michael: Nobody could pronounce my last name so my Spanish teacher gave me the name ‘Angie’ and everyone on the soccer team would all me ‘Ango’ which I hate. Call me Angie but don’t call me Ango. Just trouble with people trying to pronounce my last name. AGW: What do you like to do when not acting? Michael: I like videogames. I listen to a lot of music, watch movies. I’m very boring. I never go out really. I skateboard now a little bit. I play sports. AGW: Talk about doing the CGI work. Had you done green screen work before? Michael: I had very little experience with CGI and green screen but what I loved about it is there were just as many stunts as there were effects in the movie. So, a lot of it was very hands-on. If I were to take somebody and throw them fifty feet into the air, I would actually be throwing somebody and they would just be on wires and I would have to look like I’m throwing them. The green screen stuff is kind of interesting. We only had two days of that but a lot of it was just really using the imagination. Danielle: There was a little bit, all the stuff when the bus flies was green screen but we were in a bus that was actually shifting and rotating and moving. That was pretty terrifying. Michael: There’s actually a few little camera tricks in there. For example, when the seatbelts go on in the school bus, that was filmed backwards. Another time, there was a ray gun. Mary puts her hand over the ray gun and it assembles. That was filmed backwards. Somebody shook the table and the raygun fell apart. I think the raygun was pretty awesome. The melting tray, I had to hold that thing together for like five minutes and then rip it apart. That’s a really technical shot even though there’s about two seconds of it. AGW: Danielle, is it cool to have a younger sister [Kay] in the business? Danielle: It’s wonderful. If anything, this business has brought my family together because we can sit at the dinner table and say ‘oh, my gosh, wait till you hear this crazy story’. My whole family comes to sets with me so it’s something we can share as opposed to tearing us apart. We swap stories all the time. There are so many aspects of the business. We’re always trading tips, ‘hey, guess what I learned today?’ It’s wonderful. I love it. AGW: Your sis also said that your family has been to 49 of the 50 states. When are you going to Alaska? Danielle: Hopefully in August….really. AGW: Michael, you worked with Jamie Bell on Dear Wendy. He’s an enormous Eminem fan. Did you manage to persuade him to listen to other music [like Pink Floyd]? Michael: I like Eminem too. I think he’s the only rap I like. We would sit on set when we had off time and rap to each other and we would have contests as to who could remember all the words. We would act out the songs. I like Eminem. AGW: Danielle, what kind of music do you like? Danielle: More singer/songwriter types. I love Coldplay, their new CD, Jack Johnson and Gavin DeGraw, that sort of music. AGW: Michael, your character has to go through the pain of first love. Can you relate? Michael: I kind of can relate. I think, if people don’t think they’ve experienced love at first sight, somewhere deep down, they know what it feels like. I kind of just pulled that out of me. But, look at her [turning to Danielle]. How can you not? She’s just so cute [big grin from Danielle]. AGW: Why do guys never realize that their best female friend is more beautiful than the hot chick at school? Danielle: Good question!
AGW: If girls have a crush on you, are you aware of it? Michael: I would like to think I am but sometimes, guys play it off like they don’t realize it so they feel better about themselves. AGW: Danielle, are you obvious when you like somebody? Do you call them? Danielle: I always let the guy make the first move. I come from a family that believes that girls shouldn’t call boys. I always have to wait for the guy to make the first move and I think that’s the way it should be. I like it that way. I think if it’s meant to happen, it’ll happen. It’s all about a connection. AGW: What superpower would you have if you could? Danielle: I’d love to be able to multiply because then I could be in lots of different places at once. One of me could be sitting here, one of me could still be in bed and one could be vacationing in Hawaii. Michael: I would fly…just to beat traffic or not have to go on planes. I would love that. AGW: Michael, Kurt Russell plays your superhero dad. Did you know him from his old movies? Michael: I know Kurt as Snake Pliskin [in Escape From New York]. I think everyone does. Working with him was so great. He and Kelly [Preston, who plays his mom] are pros. There was never a time that they were looking down on us. A lot of people ask ‘did he give advice’? He’s not the kind of guy that gives advice. You could just look at him and learn. He lets you do it on your on in an encouraging way. Danielle: He’s the kind of guy where everyone gets excited when he comes on set because it’s so much fun. He has such a great sense of humor. Everyone from the crew was shaking with laughter because you are just enjoying yourself so much. Michael: Working with him and Kelly; they’re such a perfect match. It’s kind of scary and intimidating because they are so spontaneous and they approach each scene like it’s a blank slate, like it’s empty and we need to fill it up. It could be the funniest scene but they always add new things to it. Just kind of picking that up and rolling with them and adding your own input makes a very collaborative spirit on the set, very creative. AGW: Lynda Carter plays the school principal. Were you aware of Lynda Carter as “Wonder Woman” on TV? That was before your time. Danielle: Wonder Woman is such an icon. Everyone knows who she is. Michael: I knew she was Wonder Woman. I have never seen “Wonder Woman” on TV. AGW: Go watch it now on DVD. She’s pretty hot. Michael: I know, believe me. AGW: Danielle, who would you go for in real life? Wholesome good boy here or the cute bad guy Warren Peace [played by hot newcomer Steven Strait]? Danielle: Wholesome good boy hands down! Michael: All right! AGW: Danielle, are you anything like your character? She controls and protects nature. Danielle: I would like to think so. I don’t eat red meat. When Ford first came out with their Escape hybrid I was determined to get one as my first car but I couldn’t work it out. I try and be as conscious as possible. AGW: Michael, was it fun working on “Will and Grace”? Michael: It’s great. It was so much fun working with those people. That group of writers, I think are the best writers around. There’s such a great energy on set. You get to that set and feel something special is going on, every episode too. It never gets dull at all. Working with the actors, they are so crazy. Sean Hayes, he was the first guy that taught me really how to improv and add your own input on certain ideas and how to emphasize certain things. They taught me how to approach comedy in a new way, in a smarter way, how to think about it. AGW: Is the competition between all the young actors very fierce? Do you have to worry about getting the next part? Danielle: Of course acting is competitive but I think that a director is looking for a specific energy. Each person has an individual energy to them that they bring to a role and when a director is casting a role, I imagine they have something very specific in mind that you can’t create. The essence of who you are carries you through different things. To be so competitive about something as personal as acting, I think is a huge waste of energy. Michael: Yeah. You can’t look at them as competitors really. I think that’s the wrong way. I mean you can be ‘I’m gonna win. I’m number one. I’m the best actor of all time’. You can look at it that way if you need to boost your own confidence but if you think about it, guys like Tom Hanks and Dustin Hoffman are competitors but they’re such great actors, both of them. You have to understand that each role requires something different. I think if you have talent and have that confidence in yourself, you don’t have to showboat it around. I think you will work eventually and don’t have to have that worry. I can only imagine what it’s like for older actors who are acting and supporting a family. It’s a really hard business. Not anything steady. AGW: In high school, is it so different to be an actor that you don’t fit in? Like kids are getting their first jobs at McDonalds. Can you even relate to that? Michael: I think it’s important for every person to have a normal grounding, to relate to that. If we can’t relate to that, then there’s no point in us doing this. As actors, we should know what it feels like to go work at McDonalds. I was in Boston filming and my friends were being lifeguards. We have the same feeling, ‘oh, long day at work. What did you do’? ‘I cried all day and shot my brother. What did you do?’ ‘I sat in the sun and did nothing’. Okay, well we worked, alright? It’s the same feeling. I have a very close group of friends that I went to high school with so it’s kind of easy for me to relate. AGW: Michael, are you in another film, Black Irish? Michael: Yeah. It’s about this dysfunctional Irish American family living is South Boston, the McKay family. And, outside of this family, if anyone messes with any one of them they are the first ones to go to bat for each other but, within the family, there is no possible way that we can communicate that love for each other at all. It’s about misunderstanding and missed opportunities within this family. Each character is so extreme in their own ways. They have their on crises going on in their own lives and they just can’t deal with each other inside the house. It’s kind of bittersweet. Among my friends I have a Duffy, a McDonald, a Brooks. I know a whole bunch of people like that. AGW: Danielle, what’s next for you? Danielle: I just finished shooting Yours, Mine and Ours which is an MGM remake of the Lucille Ball, Henry Fonda movie with 18 kids. Probably, in the next few weeks, I’ll be doing a small, independent feature with Haley Joel Osment. AGW: Are you reading any books right now? Danielle: Oh, always. I read this great book called “Prep” by Curtis Sittenfeld which is about going to a boarding school on the East Coast. It’s fascinating. Michael: I’m re-reading “To Kill a Mockingbird”. |
 
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Michael
Angarano, 17, whom you might have just seen in Lords of Dogtown,
plays the son of two superheroes in the teen-friendly family adventure
Sky High. Cute Danielle Panabaker, also 17, has done tons of
TV movies and was recently featured in the mini-series “Empire Falls”
on HBO. Sky High isn’t your “normal” high school.
Only the kids of superheroes, who have powers themselves, can attend this
cloud city style school that hovers over the earth. At Sky High, Danielle’s
character Layla, who can control plants and nature, is crushin’
on Michael’s character Will Stronghold, who is hoping he’ll
inherit his parents’ superstrength and flying abilities. 
Michael:
I have no idea. What I feel bad for Will about is he’s so confused
at that point by the fact that he has no powers whatsoever and he would
do anything to get in Hero class and have nothing to do with sidekicks
but her, on the other hand, she has this awesome, great power and she
chooses to be a sidekick. I think Will’s way too confused at that
point to realize that she’s crushin’ on him but she probably
has been for the last five years. I don’t know how he can explain
himself.