“Earth to Echo” directed by Dave Green starring Teo Halm, Ella Wahlestedt, Astro, and Reese Hartwig hits theaters this Wednesday, July 2.
The film starts out with best friends Alex, Tuck, and Munch getting ready to say goodbye due to the building of a bridge over their hometown. Everything’s going normal until they realize that all of the cell phones in the area are completely messed up. They figure out that the distorted phone screen is a map and they travel out to see where it leads.Going to where the map guided them they stumble across something they think to be junk. After figuring out that the “Junk” is not junk at all, but is actually an alien who they name Echo because of his ability to imitate. They race to find all of his pieces that have been scattered through the town in hopes to get him home. Having not seen a live action children’s movie in a while, this film was a treat. Seeing how they reacted to the situations brought a smile to my face. This film is defiantly a movie to take your kids to see. It’s fun, and sends a good message.
Read our exclusive interview with Astro below:
How was the auditioning process for this film?
It was a videotaped audition in my living room. I just read the scene that I had at the time and it was just a natural process for me like I sent it in, and they liked it and flew me out to California, so I could audition in front of the director. We had different actors come in and created different scenarios and we just did a lot of improv and he liked what I did so I got the part.
What do you hope people will take from the movie?
I hope people just have a good time watching it. I think it’s mainly about friendship, although there’s an alien like Echo in there, but it’s really about friendship and just coming together to achieve something great. I think that’s what it’s mainly about and for the older generations it’ll bring back memories of like “E.T.,” and “Goonies.” For the younger generations it’s easier to relate to because we’re filming the whole movie on our smart phones and technology is very relevant in the film.
When you were little did you ever picture yourself starring in a movie like this or in a movie in general?
No not when I was little, I’m not that good with seeing into the future, I knew I would be rapping when I was little that was something I’d been doing forever but with the acting, the closest I ever came to acting was doing drama class in school and the only reason I did drama class was because they let you leave whatever class you were in to go practice for the play before lunch time so I just didn’t wanna be in class … but no I didn’t see myself acting in any movie.
Did you like it and would you like to pursue it more?
Yeah I liked it, I’d probably have to take a little break and regroup myself because like even with the press for the movie we’ve been working so fast and so much the past few days so this part I gotta start getting used to it but the actual filming was pretty fun being on set everyday with an amazing cast and everybody was easy to work with it was pretty fun.
Do you have a favorite scene that was shot?
I don’t know probably the truck scene where we drive through the truck, because I know what really went on there like I know we didn’t drive through anything. Literally the car was just moving and they edited the movie and we end up driving through this truck and it’s just wild. Looking at nothing, but then they edit in CGI and for me that’s amazing to see how that worked.
How was it working with the director Dave Green?
Working with Dave Green was amazing because we were all like learners on the set that’s why it was pretty fun. Everybody was making suggestions, nobody was too tight with what they were doing everybody was just open to different ideas. Dave is awesome he’s a very fun director like if you watch any of his work it’s not boring it’s very fun and different, it’s always good to work with somebody like that.
Let’s say you found a real life alien how would you react?
I wouldn’t react I’d just move away from it, I wouldn’t want to be the one with an alien, you see like in the movie they were getting chased by construction workers and I don’t want to be a target but I don’t know how I’d react if I actually found an alien.
Do you have any advice for people who want to get into acting?
Just audition for as many roles as possible and never stop auditioning and just take it seriously, I don’t take it serious enough and I have to of I want to continue acting like it’s still just fun for me but you should definitely take it serious, and just keep auditioning.
Do you have any upcoming films or music projects?
Yeah I have and EP that I’m gonna put out this summer on Itunes it’s not fully completed yet but it should be done very soon and then another film I have coming out is called “A Walk Among the Tombstones” with Liam Neeson in September.
Any plans for vacation in summer?
I just wanna be home for the summer I just wanna be in New York so I could ride my bike on the bridge and walk around but actually I have to film a TV Show so half my summer is gone but it’s a good problem to have but I just wanna be home soon. It’s called “Red Band Society.”
Photo Credit: Arnold Turner
