You can imagine our excitement when my daughters and I were invited to interview Bridgit Mendler, the voice of the young girl named Arrietty in the upcoming movie, "The Secret World of Arrietty!" My kids are huge fans of Bridgit Mendler because of the popular show, "Good Luck Charlie" on the Disney Channel. She is so popular among kids because of her sweet spirit and ability to be so funny and hilarious as the character, Teddy, in the show! A handful of mom-writers and bloggers along with their daughters had a round table discussion with Bridgit Mendler at the beautiful Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills! Because we saw a pre-screening of "The Secret World of Arrietty" the night before at the Disney Animation Studios, we were able to talk with Bridgit about her experience as the voice-over of the 14-year old "Borrower" in the film. I hope that you'll enjoy this excerpt from our interview with Bridgit as much as we had the pleasure of meeting her!
Q : How was your experience on this film?
BRIDGIT MENDER : It was really fun, you know, it was actually pretty brief. I filmed for three days or, recorded for three days and that was it.
Q : Three days? What did you do to prepare for the role?
BRIDGIT MENDLER : You know, actually I just watched the movie and it was really visual and I thought that it was pretty captivating as a story too. And I think I was pretty familiar with the Studio Jubilee movies and Japanese films in general from watching Spirited Away and Ponyo and then there was Kiki’s Delivery Service. And so I loved all those movies growing up. And so I felt like I was familiar with that aspect. I think the kind of the cool thing about this movie is like you're taking a Japanese film and you're putting an American spin on it. And so I think it was kind of fun actually to be able to just kind of act like a normal girl who happens to be this big through the movie.
Q : What was your favorite part of playing Arrietty?
BRIDGIT MENDLER : I think she’s a fun character. I think she’s pretty spunky, she’s pretty cool. And, I like that she has her heart in the right place. So, I felt like she was giving some good messages.
Q : Can you relate to her?
BRIDGIT MENDLER : I think I was pretty adventurous when I was younger. And I loved exploring outside and I was into climbing trees and rocks and all that stuff. And, you know, I think I'm still pretty youthful. [LAUGHTER] And so- I felt like I could relate to her.
Q : We really love the song that you sang at the end of the movie. What inspired you? It's so unique.
BRIDGIT MENDLER : Oh, thank you. Actually I wrote it like two or three years ago, and they just heard the song and they thought that it would fit inside the movie. So I thought that that was kind of cool that they were taking a song that wasn’t necessarily made for that project, yet it kind of lined up in some ways.
Q : What would you tell girls, any suggestions related to pursuing careers (or dreams)?
BRIDGIT MENDLER : I think a great thing about Arrietty is she has a really pure curiosity for the world. You know? She justs wants to see things and she wants to meet people. But she has really great intentions, and she, you know, she meets this boy, Shawn who is kind of having a rough time. And she’s able to be a really good friend for him. And so I think it's a great message of friendship and adventure. And I think it's good. I think all girls should feel empowered like they can go out and conquer the world. I think it's important.
Q : What other projects are you working on?
BRIDGIT MENDLER : Well yeah, I'm working on Good Luck Charlie and I'm working on the album right now. And those are my two main projects at the moment.
Q : Are you steering yourself towards being a musician or an actress?
BRIDGIT MENDLER : I mean, I feel like I really want to devote enough time to both of them. But I haven’t really had time to get music off its feet so well. So I'm kind of hoping to focus more on that this year, just with the upcoming release.
Q : Any New Year’s resolutions?
BRIDGIT MENDLER : Just spending more time with friends and family. I always want to make sure I do that. I want to spend more time with my brother. They are all in town with me now, so I want to make sure I spend enough time with them.
Q : Is your schedule really rigorous?
BRIDGIT MENDLER : I was there (at the Disney Studios) yesterday. I usually shoot on Thursdays and Fridays and then Monday through Wednesday I'm rehearsing for the show. This week has been a special episode, I'm not sure if you're following the show. But we just filmed the episode where they have the next baby. So it was a big episode! They have all sorts of publicity in there for that. But, it's been a very busy past two weeks filming that. But besides that it's really not that bad. I mean, you know, the nice thing about our show is, it's really an ensemble cast, so they have a bunch of different, um, story lines with a bunch of different characters.
"The Secret World of Arrietty" Opens in Theaters Nationwide on February 17th!! ‘Like’ THE SECRET WORLD OF ARRIETTY on Facebook!
