Wednesday, July 23, 2014

The Young Actors In "Earth To Echo" - Film



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The Young Actors In "Earth To Echo" - Film


By Rych McCain International/Nationally Syndicated Entertainment Columnist
By Rych McCain, www.twitter.com/rychmccain and Facebook (Like Me)






The Young Stars of Echo

Regroup And Have Fun


Photo Courtesy of Relativity Media

     “Earth To Echo” is a new film from Relativity Media and stars a youth cast of which years from now fans will say I remember when. The film is very similar to the 80’s blockbuster “ET.” Although the project’s writers, producers and director are quick to dismiss the comparison; all of the essentials for comparison are there. The young cast consists of Teo Halm, Brian “Astro” Bradley, Reese Hartwig and Ella Linnea Wahlestedt, most of whom are fairly new. Halm plays Alex the best friend of Tuck. He has had a hard life being orphaned at a young age and going through a series of five foster families. When he hooked up with Tuck and Munch he finally felt a since of real bonding with a couple of friends. Halm started acting at age nine on stage and has a couple of movies forthcoming. Tuck is the leader of the group and is played by Brian “Astro” Bradley who convinces his two buddies Alex and Munch to go on an adventure of a life time while he videos it. Bradley started in music as a rapper. His YouTube single video “Stop Looking At My Momz” went viral snatching up over 500,000 hits. This put him on the map and got him appearances on Good Day NY, MTV’s The Seven and a feature on Fuse TV. He eventually finished seventh on The X Factor with a record deal and started making TV and movie appearances.
Top L-R: Brian "Astro" Bradley, Ella Wahlestedt Bot L-R: Reese Hartwig, and Teo Halm


     Reese Hartwig plays Munch who is the comic relief of the film. Like his cast mates he started young at ten years-old doing commercials, voice over, movie and TV appearances. He even says he wants to be a plastic surgeon. His screen focus is on comedic acting such as his idols Jim Carrey, Chris Farley and Will Ferrell. Rounding out the pack is the only girl in the bunch Emma who is portrayed by Ella Wahlestedt. The Stockholm, Sweden native moved to the USA with her parents at age six. Stints of being a level 7 gymnast, modeling and landing roles on TV and movies followed. Many know her as Caroline on Lifetime’s hit serried “Army Wives.” In this movie Wahlestedt plays the cute, middle class, uppity, popular girl in school who eventually gets sucked up into the guy’s adventurous night out.
      
L-R: Astro, Ella, Teo and Reese
The cast had such good chemistry on screen; did that rub off in real life off set? Halm speaks up and says, “We’re really good friends now and think we always were especially when we got started because it was all of our first big production and we had a ton of collective nervousness. I think that definitely helped us bond.” Astro simultaneously has a music career going how does he plan to juggle that with acting? He voices his thoughts, “Music is still my main thing. Acting is something that I trying out. I know some people will think I’m crazy when I say “trying out,” because this is a major film but I love them both equally. I have one more film to shoot right now then I’m going to take a break because it’s a lot of work. Its fun to actually shoot and be on set but the promotional tours and stuff you really have to be prepared for that.”

     Wahlestedt may have the most television experience of the bunch so what is the difference for her between working film and TV? She smiles, “TV series are structured and you know what things you are going to do that day. It’s all timed out as opposed to a movie set . You might spend a couple of hours on one scene getting different angles or it might go by like a breeze, it all depends. I think with movies you have more freedom which is nice. We talked to the director and he was open to suggestions.”

Echo

     There was a scene where the gang reunited a year later that actually was shot a long while after the base movie had been shot. The cast did look older. Was that due to make-up or real life aging? Hartwig chimes in saying, “I think we definitely change a lot by then.”


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