Question to Alexa Vega:

So how did you get involved?

Alexa Vega:

"Well I got involved because the director Darren Bousman contacted me through MySpace and we met and I read the script and he gave me this DVD of a short film he made based off of 'Repo!' and I checked it out and when I started watching it I was hooked. 'Repo!' is so different. It's so special. All the songs are original and when the cast came together...it truly, I think is gonna change the way. If you look at the film, it's so different than anything that's been out there and I feel like it's got so much to offer. It's not just horror, it's not just a musical; it has so much depth. It's more than just, you know, people killing each other and their blood being everywhere. There's like a father daughter love story, it's so much deeper."

Question to Alexa Vega:

Did you have to audition as well?

Alexa Vega:

"It was kind of a different process. They came out to see 'Hairspray' which kind of made it a lot easier just because I was singing there. Then, we flew to California and did...we called them rehearsals but I still knew that the deal wasn't set yet so it was still like if I messed up I would totally...I would have the boot. So we did rehearsals to make sure that I was comfortable with the music. It was so much fun because I had never heard the music other than the one DVD and the one song. And when you read a script you think it's all written in song so you should have seen what this table read was like! It was ridiculous because normally you do a table read and you're just like going through your lines, this was like singing but talking, we didn't really know what to do. It was the weirdest table read I'd been to."

Darren Smith:

*laughing*

"We were sitting at the first table read at the studio and she's sitting next to Sarah Brightman, the songstress, next to Paul Sorvino, next to Paris Hilton. Come on, this is the greatest cast ever!"

Question:

Can you talk about the challenges of turning this into a full-length film?

Darren Smith:

"Well, we've had challenges starting doing it as a ten-minute opera and then we booked a little theatre in L.A. and no sooner we booked it we were like 'Oh sh#t, we haven't even written the rest of this thing, we have two months to do it.' So that's when we got Darren Bousman in, he just came to L.A., you know, as a young director from Kansas City and he said 'I was born to do this part, to direct this' and we were like 'yeah, yeah, yeah, we here that.' But of course, he did a great job. Moving it from that to the movie was difficult because the last thing that we wanted to do was do one of these musicals which look like they're a film version of a stage play.

So we really had to think about this completely devoid of what we really did on stage. On the other hand we were really, unlike a lot of other projects, we'd been doing this for years so we were able to hone what people liked; we got the feedback before we got the film. You know, each time we got to New York and perform for an audience they either like this or they don't and so that helped us, but I think Darren really pulled it off. This is really a filmic experience and I hope that nobody really gets that 'Oh, this looks like it was a stage play that's made into a movie.'"

Question to Alexa Vega:

On this being such a different role for a young actress:

Alexa Vega:

"I couldn't of asked for anything better. After coming out of a really great little kids franchise on 'Spy Kid' films...it was really a lot of fun but anything you do after that, they kind of want to keep you stuck in that little kid world and I've been looking for films that kind of bring me out of that. I was given a really great opportunity and it was so much fun. I love Robert [Rodriguez], Robert is my dad, in fact he's coming to our party tonight. But, you have to try and move on from that and I think that's the hardest thing for kid actors to do is to be able to find that next project that will bring them to the next level."

Question to Alexa Vega:

On working with Paris Hilton

Alexa Vega:

"A year ago, when you heard the name Paris Hilton, not good things came to mind. She was in jail at the time when I found out about all this and the first thing you think is 'But we want to make a movie? Why are you bringing her into this? But she totally...she basically kicked us in the mouth with her performance. Because, she blew us all away, she showed up on set, she was so professional, a sweet girl, so fun to work with. I mean, everything that the media portrayed her as...and maybe it was right at the time, but she is so different from that image that I had in my mind and I think on this film she did a lot of growin and since then she has just become so much more mature. I mean, I went to her house the other day and it's so funny because she's like 'I don't really like to go out any more' and she was just hanging out at the house and baking cookies. I'm like 'Oh my gosh! You're so different from like what you were a year ago.' And it's really nice to see this transformation happen with somebody who has as much power as she does because I think now she's beginning to make really smart career decisions."

Question to Darren Smith:

On any plans on a 'Repo! 2':

Darren Smith:

"Well we certainly hope so. I have hundreds of pages of notes and probably most of it's garbage, but trying to right a prequel or a sequel. I'd also love to take this whole kind of freak show to Las Vegas and make it a permanent, like a Blue Man Group, you know?"

Interview By: Peter Dimako, Editor in Chief.

Thursday, April 24th, 2008 10:30PM PT. At the San Diego, Comic-Con