The title of Elisabeth Shue's new movie is self explanatory. Piranha 3-D is about killer piranhas. Actually, playing a mom in the film was important to her. "I got to be an action hero but I also got to be a mom trying to save her kids," Shue said at a public screening of violent, nudity filled footage at San Diego Comic Con. "So that combination was great."
In case you're not as familiar with her earlier work, let's run down the basics of her career:
In The Karate Kid, she played Allie, actually the reason Danielsan started a fight with Johnny. In Adventures in Babysitting she took three kids into the city and climbed the rafters. In Back to the Future Part II and III she replaced Claudia Wells as Jennifer, Marty McFly's girlfriend who witnesses herself in the future. In Leaving Las Vegas she was nominated for an Oscar for playing a prostitute who comforts a man drinking himself to death. Recently she played Elisabeth Shue in Hamlet 2, who a high school drama teacher discovers working as a nurse and his students don't recognize her. And she produced and starred in Gracie, a personal Shue family story about a young girl breaking boundaries in the junior leagues of soccer.
At San Diego for Comic Con, Shue was the picture of class. While her costars posed with their lady parts hanging out at their late night footage screening, Shue still looked like the real movie star in a sweater and wearing glasses. Privately, it seemed like Shue had other things she wanted to talk about besides movies she made 20 years ago, but she was a good sport. Like a buddy you haven't seen in a while, she put on a smile and reminisced about old times.
FT: This movie has you, Christopher Lloyd, Richard Dreyfus and Jerry O'Connell. Is there some magic about the 80s era actors?
ES: Well, in some movies. I mean, there's tons of terrible movies from the 80s too. Yeah, maybe it was the beginning of the innocence of the blockbuster and the innocence of the big movie coming into being that started to develop in the 80s. Jaws came out in '75 so I think there was an innocence to that time that we can go back to and explore further.
FT: From the inside, having made Karate Kid, Adventures in Babysitting and the Back to the Future sequels - -
ES: I guess I'm firmly planted into the 80s.
FT: Do you sense something about the people who came from that world?
ES: The only thing I can really think of is there's definitely an innocence to the stories that were told back then that I think are lacking now, and they were more character-driven. Even in a movie like Back to the Future, it wasn't all about the special effects. There were hardly any special effects. It was just a story about this people and just a really well told story with amazing actors. So I think there's a lot to learn. Just think how we went back to the 70s for drama. People had to go back to the 70s to re-learn how to tell a good story. Maybe with these huge popcorn movies they're going to have to go back to the 80s to remember how to tell a good story.
FT: This summer, how weird was it to see the number one movie in America was The Karate Kid?
ES: That was kind of cool because when I was in the first Karate Kid, I didn't even know how much money it made. Until three years later, somebody told me it made $100 million. I was like, "Really? That's amazing." I haven't gone to see it but everyone says it's reinvented enough. It's still the same core story but because they made it different, it is its own movie. That's why it's probably so big.
FT: I went back and I didn't appreciate how mature The Karate Kid was. So even as a grown man, I relate to it.
ES: Great stories are timeless.
FT: Besides Adventures in Babysitting, is this your first action role?
ES: Yeah, I think so. I did do Hollow Man which had similar aspects to it but the one thing I realized, what makes this so wonderful and I think Hollow Man suffered for not having it be more fun. I think audiences love to be scared but they also love to laugh. They love to have release from tension and I think that's why this movie's going to be so amazing, because it has so much action, so much tension and so much humor.
FT: The fun of it is "Aw, they got me."
ES: Yeah, I found myself, and I never would go see a horror movie, but I found myself last night screaming and then laughing. Then I punched Adam [Scott]. It just became so physical and so visceral, the experience. I've not experienced that for so long because I haven't gone to see horror movies or even want to go see them because I think they would just be horrific and dark and terrible. I think this will change things.
FT: Well, there's the kind of horor movie that's supposed to make you uncomfortable and then the kind that's just fun.
ES: This is both. That's what's so amazing tonally. I'm just amazed that he was able to weave those tones together and keep them all playing. That's kind of spectacular.
FT: Was Adventures in Babysitting a real action movie to you?
ES: In some ways it was, definitely. It has a similar weaving of reality and tension and fun and absurdity.
FT: How much did you get to do yourself?
ES: I did everything. Oh yeah, I did everything in that movie. I did everything in this movie, pretty much. There's only a teeny shot of a stunt person. Blisters, big, big, blisters on my hands but I didn't complain. Not once.
FT: Could they remake Adventures in Babysitting today?
ES: They're trying to. They've been trying to for years. They actually are in a great way but they tried to do the actual Adventures in Babysitting. There was a part, I guess it didn't work out, there was going to be a part that I could have maybe played. Jonah Hill is going to be babysitting for kids and it's all going to go awry. The basic theme of babysitting kids and an adventure that ensues, yeah.
FT: Do kids even get babysat anymore? I figured with all the technology, kids take care of themselves. Do teens even do that as a part time job anymore?
ES: Well, not as much, you're right. Not that age because parents are scared to leave their kids, as well they should be considering the fact that I was a babysitter back in the day when I was in high school and not a really good one. I wouldn't want to leave my kids with me at that time.
FT: Jonah wouldn't be a kid if that's the way.
ES: But he is a kid at heart so I'm sure he'll be bad at it too. [Laughs]
FT: You said playing a mom was important to you. Is that something you look for in roles?
ES: Well, I wouldn't want to play a typical mom, kind of one dimensional mom who's sweet and earnest and takes care of her kids perfectly. That would be really boring. Sometimes the clich mom does pop up and ugh, it sort of sends shivers down your spine. What I liked about this mom is that she was totally single, had to take care of an entire friggin' town plus her kids, and had to have that visceral, disgusting emotion of fear that your kids are in danger and what that does to you and how far you'll go, how extreme. Whatever it takes you will protect your kids. To experience that in the midst of the insanity of this movie was incredibly challenging and ultimately really satisfying.
FT: Is it because you are a mom or just that as an actor you want to reflect where people can be in life?
ES: I mean, I am a mom so I definitely understand what it feels like to fear that your kids are in danger. I love the visceral emotion of what it means to be a mom. Just the power that a mother has in the world. I've experienced that in beautiful ways. I think some people are so scared of the role of the mom, but I've had so many great experiences being a mom in movies. Most of the mothers I've played have been extraordinary and fun and interesting and inappropriate and sexual and weird and complicated and addicted to drugs and saving their kids from piranhas. There's always been something that's been really interesting and challenging.
FT: Were you ever a spring break party girl?
ES: I definitely had my share of partying but I never had a spring break experience. Because I think I went to college and I was then working and I went back to college and maybe the colleges I went to were snotty upper east coast colleges didn't seem to lend themselves to spring break. I don't know. I never really ever went on Spring Break.
FT: If you get a chance to make a movie between semesters, isn't that cooler than partying?
ES: Yeah, I don't think I would've been in the wet T-shirt contest. I don't think that was my thing back then.
FT: Leaving Las Vegas must have been a profound experience for you. How often do you think back on that?
ES: I try not to look in the past but yeah, obviously it was an experience that I knew was incredibly unique and perfect in so many ways. At the time, I would tell people that I'll never have an experience like this again. I know how special this is. They'd be like, "Oh, yes, you will, yes you will." I was like no I won't and I'm right. There are certain movies that you get blessed to be able to be a part of that are kind of perfect in that they are incredible challenges. They also are incredibly well received and the experience of them is just perfect. Maybe Piranha will live up to that too.
FT: Did you find it again maybe as a producer on Gracie?
ES: That was different. The result of Gracie wasn't as satisfying because we weren't allowed to get that movie out to as big an audience as Leaving Las Vegas was able to ultimately get out to. So that was a little hard to make a movie that means so much to you and then have it not released in a way that was never able to reach a wide audience. That was tough but what I'm learning too is that sometimes you'll have someone come up to you. Every once in a while I'll be on a soccer field, my son plays soccer, and a girl will run up to me and tell me that she saw Gracie and how much it meant to her. That always still means so much to me. I realize you have to stop imagining a whole world seeing your work and really be satisfied with one or two people seeing your work.
FT: Do people still refer to you as Academy Award Nominee Elizabeth Shue?
ES: When they meet me, I make them say that. Like I'm royalty and I have a title, Academy Award nominee.
FT: In Back to the Future II, it's 2015 and there doesn't seem to be an internet there.
ES: Really? That would be so interesting to see [again]. I wonder what is there though that we have. It'd be fascinating to see if there's anything.
FT: They have flying cars but no cell phones.
ES: They did have flying cars? So what was really so futuristic, just the flying cars? They have TV screens everywhere. I think people were communicating over big screens so they do have that now, the skype thing.
FT: Cocktail, who would've imagined a bar tending movie would be so popular and exciting?
ES: Exactly. It was the way he spun the bottles.
FT: I also loved Hamlet 2. Has that experience ever happened to you for real, either the gushing or the classroom where people don't know you?
ES: That was very specific because that was that I was actually working at a different job. I guess I haven't really done that yet although I fantasized about it all the time. It seemed very realistic to me that it could potentially happen. I always thought I'd be a teacher first before I'd be a nurse. I'd have to go to nursing school but I think I'd be a teacher before I'd be a nurse.
FT: You were a good sport playing yourself that way and that's another underrated one.
ES: I know, I know. That deserved to. It was timing. A lot of times it's just timing. It was when they brought it out and how they brought it out. That's what's tough about this business.
FT: Are you working on more as a producer?
ES: Not so far. Not so far. I think I'd have to find a story that meant so much to me because right now the balance of my life is perfect with being a mom to three kids and working once a year has been what I've been able to do so far. Then to produce things on top of that and Davis [Guggenheim], my husband, has a really important career which requires a lot of time and commitment to being there for him. You have to keep some kind of a balance.
FT: Could there be a spinoff of you and Ving Rhames as sheriffs kicking ass?
ES: [Laughs] We'll go to Thailand. We'll go to Thailand if we have to the two of us. They'll call us. They'll be in Thailand. This is what will happen. The fish will attack in Thailand and they'll think, "Who do we know that has any experience with piranha?"
FT: They showed some really awesome scenes in the preview. What other awesome stuff is there still to see?
ES: They didn't show a lot of the story that I think will balance all of the outrageousness. Then I think it'll be viscerally a little bit more emotional, a little bit more tense with all of that great stuff that everybody saw last night. There's still more that's even more extreme than that.
FT: Did you have a lot of fun in the spirit in which this was made?
ES: I did. I think when we all first got there, all of our blood wasn't thin enough to deal with the heat so there were a few cranky people at first. Once our blood changed dramatically, we all really did have a lot of fun and a lot of laughter, a lot of bonding. We really did enjoy the action sequences a lot. You know what else I enjoyed so much? I had one day of driving a boat. I was driving those boats around. Me and Adam were just laughing all the time, how dangerous it was that we were given these high speed boats. There were times where I had to drive it right up to the flotilla and right to the angle of the camera just so, but going 40 miles per hour and then make a quick u-turn.
FT: Was there someone in the boat for safety?
ES: Yeah, just always terrified, like what was he going to do to save you guys when we slammed into the camera? Oh my God. My heart would pound so much before we would do those sequences, not because I was nervous. Literally I was scared I was going to kill somebody, for real. I remember the adrenaline rush of some of the stunts and driving those boats at fast speeds. Then I just remember what I really truly loved about the movie. You can't get that in any other movie but Piranha 3-D.
Piranha 3-D opens August 20.
In case you're not as familiar with her earlier work, let's run down the basics of her career:
In The Karate Kid, she played Allie, actually the reason Danielsan started a fight with Johnny. In Adventures in Babysitting she took three kids into the city and climbed the rafters. In Back to the Future Part II and III she replaced Claudia Wells as Jennifer, Marty McFly's girlfriend who witnesses herself in the future. In Leaving Las Vegas she was nominated for an Oscar for playing a prostitute who comforts a man drinking himself to death. Recently she played Elisabeth Shue in Hamlet 2, who a high school drama teacher discovers working as a nurse and his students don't recognize her. And she produced and starred in Gracie, a personal Shue family story about a young girl breaking boundaries in the junior leagues of soccer.
At San Diego for Comic Con, Shue was the picture of class. While her costars posed with their lady parts hanging out at their late night footage screening, Shue still looked like the real movie star in a sweater and wearing glasses. Privately, it seemed like Shue had other things she wanted to talk about besides movies she made 20 years ago, but she was a good sport. Like a buddy you haven't seen in a while, she put on a smile and reminisced about old times.
FT: This movie has you, Christopher Lloyd, Richard Dreyfus and Jerry O'Connell. Is there some magic about the 80s era actors?
ES: Well, in some movies. I mean, there's tons of terrible movies from the 80s too. Yeah, maybe it was the beginning of the innocence of the blockbuster and the innocence of the big movie coming into being that started to develop in the 80s. Jaws came out in '75 so I think there was an innocence to that time that we can go back to and explore further.
FT: From the inside, having made Karate Kid, Adventures in Babysitting and the Back to the Future sequels - -
ES: I guess I'm firmly planted into the 80s.
FT: Do you sense something about the people who came from that world?
ES: The only thing I can really think of is there's definitely an innocence to the stories that were told back then that I think are lacking now, and they were more character-driven. Even in a movie like Back to the Future, it wasn't all about the special effects. There were hardly any special effects. It was just a story about this people and just a really well told story with amazing actors. So I think there's a lot to learn. Just think how we went back to the 70s for drama. People had to go back to the 70s to re-learn how to tell a good story. Maybe with these huge popcorn movies they're going to have to go back to the 80s to remember how to tell a good story.
FT: This summer, how weird was it to see the number one movie in America was The Karate Kid?
ES: That was kind of cool because when I was in the first Karate Kid, I didn't even know how much money it made. Until three years later, somebody told me it made $100 million. I was like, "Really? That's amazing." I haven't gone to see it but everyone says it's reinvented enough. It's still the same core story but because they made it different, it is its own movie. That's why it's probably so big.
FT: I went back and I didn't appreciate how mature The Karate Kid was. So even as a grown man, I relate to it.
ES: Great stories are timeless.
FT: Besides Adventures in Babysitting, is this your first action role?
ES: Yeah, I think so. I did do Hollow Man which had similar aspects to it but the one thing I realized, what makes this so wonderful and I think Hollow Man suffered for not having it be more fun. I think audiences love to be scared but they also love to laugh. They love to have release from tension and I think that's why this movie's going to be so amazing, because it has so much action, so much tension and so much humor.
FT: The fun of it is "Aw, they got me."
ES: Yeah, I found myself, and I never would go see a horror movie, but I found myself last night screaming and then laughing. Then I punched Adam [Scott]. It just became so physical and so visceral, the experience. I've not experienced that for so long because I haven't gone to see horror movies or even want to go see them because I think they would just be horrific and dark and terrible. I think this will change things.
FT: Well, there's the kind of horor movie that's supposed to make you uncomfortable and then the kind that's just fun.
ES: This is both. That's what's so amazing tonally. I'm just amazed that he was able to weave those tones together and keep them all playing. That's kind of spectacular.
FT: Was Adventures in Babysitting a real action movie to you?
ES: In some ways it was, definitely. It has a similar weaving of reality and tension and fun and absurdity.
FT: How much did you get to do yourself?
ES: I did everything. Oh yeah, I did everything in that movie. I did everything in this movie, pretty much. There's only a teeny shot of a stunt person. Blisters, big, big, blisters on my hands but I didn't complain. Not once.
FT: Could they remake Adventures in Babysitting today?
ES: They're trying to. They've been trying to for years. They actually are in a great way but they tried to do the actual Adventures in Babysitting. There was a part, I guess it didn't work out, there was going to be a part that I could have maybe played. Jonah Hill is going to be babysitting for kids and it's all going to go awry. The basic theme of babysitting kids and an adventure that ensues, yeah.
FT: Do kids even get babysat anymore? I figured with all the technology, kids take care of themselves. Do teens even do that as a part time job anymore?
ES: Well, not as much, you're right. Not that age because parents are scared to leave their kids, as well they should be considering the fact that I was a babysitter back in the day when I was in high school and not a really good one. I wouldn't want to leave my kids with me at that time.
FT: Jonah wouldn't be a kid if that's the way.
ES: But he is a kid at heart so I'm sure he'll be bad at it too. [Laughs]
FT: You said playing a mom was important to you. Is that something you look for in roles?
ES: Well, I wouldn't want to play a typical mom, kind of one dimensional mom who's sweet and earnest and takes care of her kids perfectly. That would be really boring. Sometimes the clich mom does pop up and ugh, it sort of sends shivers down your spine. What I liked about this mom is that she was totally single, had to take care of an entire friggin' town plus her kids, and had to have that visceral, disgusting emotion of fear that your kids are in danger and what that does to you and how far you'll go, how extreme. Whatever it takes you will protect your kids. To experience that in the midst of the insanity of this movie was incredibly challenging and ultimately really satisfying.
FT: Is it because you are a mom or just that as an actor you want to reflect where people can be in life?
ES: I mean, I am a mom so I definitely understand what it feels like to fear that your kids are in danger. I love the visceral emotion of what it means to be a mom. Just the power that a mother has in the world. I've experienced that in beautiful ways. I think some people are so scared of the role of the mom, but I've had so many great experiences being a mom in movies. Most of the mothers I've played have been extraordinary and fun and interesting and inappropriate and sexual and weird and complicated and addicted to drugs and saving their kids from piranhas. There's always been something that's been really interesting and challenging.
FT: Were you ever a spring break party girl?
ES: I definitely had my share of partying but I never had a spring break experience. Because I think I went to college and I was then working and I went back to college and maybe the colleges I went to were snotty upper east coast colleges didn't seem to lend themselves to spring break. I don't know. I never really ever went on Spring Break.
FT: If you get a chance to make a movie between semesters, isn't that cooler than partying?
ES: Yeah, I don't think I would've been in the wet T-shirt contest. I don't think that was my thing back then.
FT: Leaving Las Vegas must have been a profound experience for you. How often do you think back on that?
ES: I try not to look in the past but yeah, obviously it was an experience that I knew was incredibly unique and perfect in so many ways. At the time, I would tell people that I'll never have an experience like this again. I know how special this is. They'd be like, "Oh, yes, you will, yes you will." I was like no I won't and I'm right. There are certain movies that you get blessed to be able to be a part of that are kind of perfect in that they are incredible challenges. They also are incredibly well received and the experience of them is just perfect. Maybe Piranha will live up to that too.
FT: Did you find it again maybe as a producer on Gracie?
ES: That was different. The result of Gracie wasn't as satisfying because we weren't allowed to get that movie out to as big an audience as Leaving Las Vegas was able to ultimately get out to. So that was a little hard to make a movie that means so much to you and then have it not released in a way that was never able to reach a wide audience. That was tough but what I'm learning too is that sometimes you'll have someone come up to you. Every once in a while I'll be on a soccer field, my son plays soccer, and a girl will run up to me and tell me that she saw Gracie and how much it meant to her. That always still means so much to me. I realize you have to stop imagining a whole world seeing your work and really be satisfied with one or two people seeing your work.
FT: Do people still refer to you as Academy Award Nominee Elizabeth Shue?
ES: When they meet me, I make them say that. Like I'm royalty and I have a title, Academy Award nominee.
FT: In Back to the Future II, it's 2015 and there doesn't seem to be an internet there.
ES: Really? That would be so interesting to see [again]. I wonder what is there though that we have. It'd be fascinating to see if there's anything.
FT: They have flying cars but no cell phones.
ES: They did have flying cars? So what was really so futuristic, just the flying cars? They have TV screens everywhere. I think people were communicating over big screens so they do have that now, the skype thing.
FT: Cocktail, who would've imagined a bar tending movie would be so popular and exciting?
ES: Exactly. It was the way he spun the bottles.
FT: I also loved Hamlet 2. Has that experience ever happened to you for real, either the gushing or the classroom where people don't know you?
ES: That was very specific because that was that I was actually working at a different job. I guess I haven't really done that yet although I fantasized about it all the time. It seemed very realistic to me that it could potentially happen. I always thought I'd be a teacher first before I'd be a nurse. I'd have to go to nursing school but I think I'd be a teacher before I'd be a nurse.
FT: You were a good sport playing yourself that way and that's another underrated one.
ES: I know, I know. That deserved to. It was timing. A lot of times it's just timing. It was when they brought it out and how they brought it out. That's what's tough about this business.
FT: Are you working on more as a producer?
ES: Not so far. Not so far. I think I'd have to find a story that meant so much to me because right now the balance of my life is perfect with being a mom to three kids and working once a year has been what I've been able to do so far. Then to produce things on top of that and Davis [Guggenheim], my husband, has a really important career which requires a lot of time and commitment to being there for him. You have to keep some kind of a balance.
FT: Could there be a spinoff of you and Ving Rhames as sheriffs kicking ass?
ES: [Laughs] We'll go to Thailand. We'll go to Thailand if we have to the two of us. They'll call us. They'll be in Thailand. This is what will happen. The fish will attack in Thailand and they'll think, "Who do we know that has any experience with piranha?"
FT: They showed some really awesome scenes in the preview. What other awesome stuff is there still to see?
ES: They didn't show a lot of the story that I think will balance all of the outrageousness. Then I think it'll be viscerally a little bit more emotional, a little bit more tense with all of that great stuff that everybody saw last night. There's still more that's even more extreme than that.
FT: Did you have a lot of fun in the spirit in which this was made?
ES: I did. I think when we all first got there, all of our blood wasn't thin enough to deal with the heat so there were a few cranky people at first. Once our blood changed dramatically, we all really did have a lot of fun and a lot of laughter, a lot of bonding. We really did enjoy the action sequences a lot. You know what else I enjoyed so much? I had one day of driving a boat. I was driving those boats around. Me and Adam were just laughing all the time, how dangerous it was that we were given these high speed boats. There were times where I had to drive it right up to the flotilla and right to the angle of the camera just so, but going 40 miles per hour and then make a quick u-turn.
FT: Was there someone in the boat for safety?
ES: Yeah, just always terrified, like what was he going to do to save you guys when we slammed into the camera? Oh my God. My heart would pound so much before we would do those sequences, not because I was nervous. Literally I was scared I was going to kill somebody, for real. I remember the adrenaline rush of some of the stunts and driving those boats at fast speeds. Then I just remember what I really truly loved about the movie. You can't get that in any other movie but Piranha 3-D.
Piranha 3-D opens August 20.