Alex Pettyfer On Set Interview I AM NUMBER FOUR

The interviews by Steve 'Frosty' Weintraub continue!  This time it's Alex Pettyfer, the star of I Am Number Four himself in the hot seat.  Alex plays John Smith, an alien from the planet Lorien who has been living on Earth since he was four.  The whole time he has been in hiding from the Mogadorians who've are bent on killing him and the 8 other members of the Garde that escaped Lorien safely.  The trick, due to a charm placed on them the 9 members of the Garde must be killed in numerical order.  When #3 is killed in Kenya, Number 4, played by Alex knows he is next.

In the interview Alex talks about how he almost gave up the role, his character and the potential for a "next movie".  Here are some excerpts.

How did you get involved in the project?

PETTYFER: I came over to do ADR for 3 days for “Beastly” and I said, “Why do I really want to go back to England? Might as well stay out and have a mini-holiday.” I got this audition for “Number 4”, I sat down, they role the tape, I’m about to say my first word, and I go, “I’m sorry, I can’t do this.” The director’s like, “What?” I said, “I can’t do this, sorry.” I got up and walked out the door of the audition. I think maybe it was nerves, or the people who were attached. I came back and I screen-tested for it.

This and “Beastly” are both very fantastical. How do you differentiate between characters in movies?

PETTYFER: I’m not an American little shit, which I am in “Beastly”. Johnny’s like this James Dean, “Rebel Without a Cause”, doesn’t really know his identity. It’s a really amazing movie ‘cause you’ve got all this action-packed stuff that kids are gonna love. I think every kid at 14, 15, 16, 17, maybe even now are always trying to find an identity and who we are as people. That’s what this movie’s about. John goes through this weird stage in his life where he doesn’t know who he is. He fits in in Florida, at the beginning of the movie, then in Paradise, Ohio, falls in love with a girl, then finally figures out who he’s meant to be, that’s a warrior. That’s just so cool, to have so many different dynamics to the same character is amazing to play around with. All I can say is it’s James Dean meets Jackie Chan in “Rush Hour”!

Do you get a sense that if this does really well it’ll be more action-oriented in the next movie?

You can read the rest of this great interview here.

PETTYFER: I never think about the next movie. I always think about the situation I’m in now, but you do think about an arc someone can go. I love Johnny Depp, I love “Pirates of the Caribbean”, but I never wanted to play the same character over and over again. You know what’s gonna be great is if we do 2, 3, 4, 5 or whatever many movies if this is successful is I want to do it like “The Matrix”. I love the first “Matrix” because you have this guy who’s uncertain about who he is, and goes in and kinda figures himself out, and by the end you see him fly off and he’s this warrior. Then in the second one it’s action-packed. I was always disappointed by the fact that there was never any transitional level. What’s gonna be great about if they did ever do a second movie is I have a place to go and build upon, not just with the second one but with the third one.