Sparks fly: Josh Duhamel & Julianne Hough talk about new film Safe Haven

The stars of romantic thriller ‘Safe Haven’, Josh Duhamel and Julianne Hough, talk to Holly Cozens about improvisation, charm and mohawks

Julianne, with Safe Haven you’ve obviously touched on something darker than Rock of Ages and Josh, you with Transformers and romantic comedies…

Josh: “Oh no, that was an exercise in character work.”

How do you feel about going into a more serious role?

JD: “For me it’s always been about trying to bust out of some kind of a box I’m put in. I started in soap operas in the late ’90s and was able to break out of that to prime time TV and then people wanted to say, ‘well he’s just a TV guy’ so I wanted to break out of that and do movies and then it was, ‘well, he just does romantic comedies,’ and then ‘he’s just a puppet on Transformers’, you know there’s all kinds of things that I like because I would rather sneak up on people than have them expect too much or expectations being too high.

So it’s always I’m trying to do as many different things as I can and it’s whether or not I get those opportunities. My thing has been to always just try and make the most of whatever opportunity I’m given.”

Julianne: “I sort of want to copy his answer because I feel the same way.You know, I’m trying to exceed expectations for what people have discovered you as.So you know there is so much more to me, I would just love to have the shot or opportunity to do that. Even discovering stuff in my own self that I didn’t really realise that I had because I haven’t had that opportunity.

I really want to be as versatile as possible. I want to try to do comedy. I think Jennifer Lawrence for instance is super hot right now. She is the perfect example of doing really great credited indies and doing a big box office hit like Hunger Games and then doing something like Silver Linings Playbook, there is just so much range, and that’s what I aspire to be.

It’s not always about trying to do a dark role in a character because that’s going to share a different side, it’s about looking at someone as great as Meryl Streep who has played many different roles and characters.”

Julianne, how do you feel about being described as a triple threat?

JH: “I heard that term when I was very young. I aspired to be that because for me, I think of movie stars, I think of the golden age in Hollywood like Ginger Rogers, Doris Day and Judy Garland, they all danced and sang and acted so to me, just to have that association as a triple threat is beyond great.”

Have you ever wanted to sing Josh? You don’t need to sing…

JD: “Yes, this is true.”

JH: “Your baby is going to come out dancing so that’s a triple threat right there.”

JD: “Hey that’s what I’m shooting for, to have a Hollywood starlet. Have him completely off the rails by 15.”

JH: “Oh my god!” [laughs]

Not to compartmentalise yourself as an actor, but if you’re good at something, do the right thing. What’s your take on that?

JD: “My take on that is I agree with that. For me anyway I focus everything I have into acting because maybe it’s out of desperation [laughs] but I also am taking some dance classes and I don’t taking singing class but I like to practise it, not because I’m going to make a second career out of it but it may be fun to use at some point.

For example I’m hosting the Kids Choice Awards in March and I want to do things that people are not going to expect from me. I’m not going to dance because I want to show the world what an amazing dancer I am, but I want to surprise people like ‘whoa, I didn’t expect that from him’. So for that reason why not try to be as good at something for that specific reason?”

JH: “I’m going to say the exact same thing. I think people might not be as good at the other thing but want to try it. I know for me I wish I could do everything in the world because I love to learn and I love gaining a new skill and feeling like I’m growing at something so that’s why I love doing all three because there’s always somewhere to grow.

I mean, if you just did one then there’s always somewhere to grow too. On the other side of that, that’s why I am focusing on acting because I don’t want to half-ass anything. I don’t want to spread myself so thin that they are only all just kind of ok and kind of good instead of really great and amazing so that’s why I’m focusing on acting.”

The most liberating and empowering thing about working with Lasse was that he really truly trusted you.- Josh

And with [Safe Haven director] Lasse Hallstrom giving you the opportunity for improvisation, how did that feel?

JH: “I was a little nervous because you know I’ve wanted to be an actor my whole life but I have not had that much experience professionally, this is only my 4th or 5th movie. To be honest it was always ‘sing this song, dance this dance and do that’ so this was very freeing and nerve wracking because he’s actually trusting me to be an actor now so which was awesome.

I did feel like I was hired to be an actor in this film. Doing the improvising was scary but I’ve never had more confidence finishing a movie to start the next one because I feel good about decisions and I don’t feel stupid anymore and I just think oh I’ll figure it out now.”

Josh, I heard you talked to Ryan [Seacrest] about the love scenes and how you wanted to make it clear you weren’t coming on to his girl?

JD: “I did! I don’t know why I felt compelled to do that but I did.”

JH: “That’s because you’re a good person.”

JD: “It was out of respect because I’ve known the guy and I respect him and his relationship with Julianne, and I thought because these movies are very intimate by nature, how would he feel, how would I feel if my girl was going to be in these very close scenes with somebody and how would I react to it. And for whatever reason I wanted him to know that ‘don’t worry, man, I’m not going to try anything with your girl. It’s just for the movie’.”

JH: “But then I felt obligated to go and speak to Fergie.”

What about the chemistry between you two?

JD: “Well I first met Julianne when I was at the Trevor project, it’s a fundraiser and I always felt like I knew her from seeing her on TV and I liked her. There was something relatable and then when we met it was the same thing and we said ‘hey we should do a movie together sometime’.”

JH: “Yeah, like people say that to you all the time…”

JD: “But you’re right, yes, you may hate a person when the camera’s not rolling but you have to like the person when you’re together. But I’ve rather not have to deal with that, I want to like them anyway. And with Julianne, a movie like this hinges on whether people click so with her it was very easy.”

JH: “To click with.” [laughs]

JD: She is a very easy girl to connect with and we talked about how whatever’s going on in our public lives, when that cameras rolling it’s about you and me.And that’s it, nothing else matters. We really focused and she was with me on it. We talked about that.”

Josh, we hear that Lasse’s biggest challenge was to reign your charm in?

JD: “Reign my charm in? I don’t know if it was reigning my charm in. It was really about just stripping anything away and not forcing anything. We didn’t force any of it. We just tried to focus on what it was that we were doing each in each particular scene and whether that is stripping charm away I am not sure but Lasse was like ‘you don’t have to do anything, that was beautiful and perfect – just do it again, do it again!'”

JH: “Do it again, do it again!”

JD: “And so he would just let you go, and the next thing you know you’re finding all this stuff you didn’t expect to find in the scene. The most liberating and empowering thing about working with Lasse was that he really truly trusted you.”

Josh, do you come under pressure to keep your appearance as how you look now?

JD: “If it were up to me I would’ve been Capt Ron. I tried talking Lasse into letting me have a full beard and a pierced ear and just play a guy who lives in the marina and owns a general store. Now it’s Nicolas Sparks’ movie and they want sex appeal and all that stuff that you have to give to them and it’s hard to try and make the character as much as yourself and what you envision as you can tell a lot about that.

I wanted the full beard – I tried to convince him ‘listen, this guy doesn’t give a s*** about how he looks. The only thing he’s done in the last two years is worry about his children, making sure they get up and get fed’ Lasse would say, ‘Yes, I understand all that but it’s a Nicholas Sparks movie’.”

So Julianne, for you it’s a bit like that scene where if anyone tried to cut her own hair it wouldn’t turn out like yours looks in the movie?

JH: “Yeah I had the same thing they wanted to make sure that I was recognisable so they changed the movie from being long blonde hair where she dyes it brown to short blond hair from long brown hair, and I was like ‘wow, I have perfect highlights for an out of the box bleached blonde and my eyebrows should be dark and I should have roots because they would grow that they were like, no that’ll look bad’.

I just did a movie with Diablo Cody called Paradise where I play a burn victim/survivor and a lot of her body is burned and that is what the whole movie is about, about this outside appearance and how that changes you inside and like your identity is totally completely stripped out and you have to to work out who you are now.”

What was it like working with the children?

JH: “It was amazing, I don’t know what people are talking about when they say don’t work with animals or children, well I don’t know about the animal part ‘cos I haven’t really done that. But those kids were probably one of the most uplifting parts of your day when they were on set and they were not these Hollywood child actors either, they were just these really authentic little kids on summer break playing make believe every day and fortunately we both really like kids!”

JD: “I didn’t care much for those two though.” (laughs)

JH: “We liked being around them and we played with them on and off set. How can you not melt when little Mimi who hasn’t seen you for 10 minutes runs up and jumps on you like ‘I missed you!’? They were amazing and acting alongside them, what Lasse does so well with the kids, is he lets them just be, just play and tells them, ‘Ok this is what the scene’s about, these are your lines but now say anything you want’. They have the idea of what the script is and they say it in their own awkward cute way and it’s true, you never know what a kid is gonna say in real life so you kind of react like ‘Oh! Yeah how would I respond to a kid who’s asking me why would I paint the floors, you just put a rug on the floor; it’s so cute and charming so it was great.”

Is there anything you are looking forward to doing or is there anything you would love to do?

JH: “I’m reading scripts right now and auditioning for things so and they’re all very very different projects. The challenge right now is going to be next step strategies and trying to not just get a job but to get one where I can make smart choices and will think it will challenge me and help with the next project after that.

It’s more about the work than about any kind of fame or money or anything like that so most of the time it’s hard to get those roles or jobs while working your arse off so to me that’s what it’s about right now: just reading and going to classes and just finding something that will really be that great next step for me.”

JD: “I never really know until I read it, obviously I want to try and do something that is outside of what I have done but it’s really about a script and the director –if I read it and I love it then I’ll try to chase it.”

You don’t have a hotlist?

JD: “Well, that’s unrealistic because you’re narrowing your scope so much. I’m a fan of about 30 directors who I am dying to work with and know there are those movies for you that’s why I’m very specific about who the director is, it’s really important because you may have a great script with a first-time director and maybe that’s what burned Fire With Fire a little bit. A great script but it didn’t work the way I hoped, so ultimately, to me, if you have a great script and a great director, you’re really increasing your odds at making a great movie.

Safe Haven is in cinemas now.
The film is based on the bestselling novel by Nicholas Sparks.