We went to the SBIFF on Saturday, February 11th, to interview the stars of the night, Emma Stone and Mark Ruffalo. Before them, a lot of small movie makers, mostly directors, came through the red carpet. Me and my SBIFF buddy were both standing around, waiting for people to finish asking questions. Our questions were hit or miss; either way we both got information from the questions we asked.
Let’s begin with one of the the interviews, since it’s the first thing that happened. Me and my fellow SBIFF buddy interviewed a total of three people, not including Mark Ruffalo. The first person who came through the red carpet was a small producer who had finished a short film by himself and was proud he didn’t have a crew to help. A few more people like him came by, but they had worked on bigger projects.
A question we asked a lot was “What is your favorite blooper from a film you helped with?” and this couldn’t have gone more wrong. The second person up was a director, which in our mind we thought, “Hey she probably has a lot of bloopers she’s seen.” So we asked her our so-called “Best question.” She told us, “Well, I make documentaries so I don’t think there’s bloopers in the sense you’re thinking of.” There’s strike one.
Next up was another director, so we were going to try again with him, for our dignity. He said that there were no bloopers because there was more drama than bloopers behind the scenes. So whatever, strike two. We can redeem ourselves, right? So while we were interviewing our third person, we decided to use another question. We asked him, “In your opinion what makes a good movie?” The guy said that a good movie is made by how much heart and effort is put into the project, as well as the emotion that was put into the movie. Okay, good. Now we can just ask Mark Ruffalo the question that we’d failed with two times before. What could go wrong?
The other student press people were kind and welcoming. We kind of thought everyone would be pushing for a spot, but the SBIFF helpers just put us in an area and we all made room for new people. And even though we were the only junior high kids there, nobody was mean or anything. Our worst fear was to be pushed by an adult like one of our friends had been the night before, but the adults were more than ten feet away from us.
The only thing that could go wrong now was one of the stars coming late, ignoring us, adults guarding the stars, um… ok maybe more than one thing can go wrong. But that wouldn’t stop us, or Mark Ruffalo, apparently.
When Emma stone came, near the end of the red carpet time, she was rushed down by a bunch of people who worked for SBIFF. But Mark Ruffalo wasn’t showing up. Was this it? The star of the night wasn’t showing up so we were just going to have to go home? But then, one car rolled up, and everyone started cheering.
Cameras were flashing, people were yelling, and Mark was…walking? He was taking his sweet time talking to people, getting his picture taken, and even the SBIFF director, Roger Durling, was there and they were getting their pictures taken together. Even though Ruffalo was really late, he still wanted to get interviewed and talk to people.
Before us on the red carpet were the big interviewers, the professionals. They were all yelling over each other while we just tried to see Mark around the corner, and then he finally walked over to the press. The photographers were right next to all of the student press. There was a big blue backdrop, with symbols going in a diagonal pattern for the photo area, and then it transitioned into the interviewers area.
When Mark got to us, we tried asking him the same question we’d failed with two times before. We heard and saw Mark talking to the people next to us, and in a few seconds he’d be talking to us. We introduced ourselves and asked some questions. “We were wondering what your favorite blooper from your favorite movie that you’ve done was?”
“My favorite blooper?” Mark Ruffalo responds.
“Anything that got cut or was really funny,” my SBIFF buddy clarified.
“Oh my god, there’s been so many, I can’t remember what my favorite one was, I have a terrible memory. That’s a really good question though.”
“Okay, whats your favorite role that you’ve ever played?”
“Probably this one,” Mark responded, talking about the one he was being awarded for at the SBIFF.
After the interviews on the red carpet, we went to the award presentation. As we watched it unfold we saw a lot of movies that Mark Ruffalo had been in that we didn’t know. We learned a lot about Ruffalo, and how he managed to land the roles for some films and how he played those characters, their interactions, and behind the scenes information.
During the award ceremony, my buddy and I bought some popcorn, which we ate while watching the ceremony. Ruffalo was asked multiple questions by Anne Thompson, and we found out he had gotten his big boom during the mid-2000’s. We also found out that he got famous before he started playing The Hulk, playing someone in a movie called You Can Count On Me. Towards the end, Emma Stone appeared and gave a speech about Mark Ruffalo and an award called the America Riviera Award.
Written by Alessandro Perez-Mosqueda and Micah Fore
The Condor Press 
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