Maria Olsen (nee De Boer), who was an integral part of East London’s amateur dramatics scene before she married her Los Angeles pen pal, Kevin Olsen, five years ago, has made a name for herself in Hollywood as a horror actress, having appeared in scores of scary movies.

Landing a role in Percy Jackson, which stars Pierce Brosnan and Uma Thurman, was a huge coup for the accountant turned actress.

“It was very exciting when I booked the role and I knew this would be a great step up in my career,” said Olsen. “This was my first film as a principal talent – all the others had been independent films.

“Hopefully, it will lead to other awesome roles.”

Olsen plays a Fury, one of the Greek deities of revenge, who has taken on the persona of substitute teacher Ms Dodds.

Once she has managed to isolate teen scholar Percy Jackson, she changes back into the Fury, giving young Percy (played by Logan Lerman) the fright of his life.

Thanks to her spine-chilling role, children who recognise her now give her a wide berth.

“Kids are now recognising me in the street – although some are too afraid to approach me! That’s just a whole new dimension for me.”

Working with Brosnan, who plays Chiron, the centaur teacher in the fantasy adventure, was “a joy”.

“Pierce is the epitome of an English gentleman – quiet, professional, always helpful and extremely dignified. When he found out I was South African he told me about his recent trip to Cape Town.

“I wasn’t on set when it happened, but I heard he saved Uma Thurman and others from a nasty accident when one of the vans on set rolled down a hill. Chiron the centaur turned into 007 the hero!”

Although she did not share any scenes with Thurman, Olsen said working under acclaimed director Chris Columbus, who rewrote the script to extend her role, taught her that “subtlety works best”.

“He brought my performance right down to the detached, creepy, but intense thing you see on screen. His directing style is simply wonderful. Just quiet little chats with us on set with no drama.”

Olsen is thrilled with the reaction the movie has received since opening in the US on February 12. “It shot to No2 spot at the box office on Valentine’s Day weekend and was exceeded only by Valentine’s Day (movie). At the moment it’s right up there with Avatar and The Wolfman and I’m very pleased it’s doing so well.”

Source: The Weekend Post Online

Writer: Barbara Hollands

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Lightning Poster

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Screenshots and Description

Description

Percy Jackson: Half human. Half god. All hero!

Help Percy harness his newly discovered powers by providing a conduit for water to reach the demigod.

-Many challenges lie ahead as you progress from Camp Half Blood to Mt. Olympus.

-Ensure a flow of water from Right to Left before time runs out.

-Pipe pieces turn. Simply tap a piece of pipe to rotate.

-Pipe pieces with open ends will cause water to seep, ending game play. Make certain to plug all open ends.

-Piping connections must be intact before water reaches the release valve.

-Additional pipe pieces and a faster flow of water towards the release valve willchallenge your abilities as game play progresses.

After completing all 10 levels you will have the opportunity to answer a questionnaire and determine which god or demigod you resemble. Completing the questionnaire will unlock the soundboard.

You can reset completed levels by tapping the RESET button from the “Choose A Level” screen. Activating the RESET button will not relock the soundboard.

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Did you read the Percy Jackson books prior to getting the role or once you were cast?
I hadn’t heard of the PJ book series prior to landing the audition but, as soon as I did, I researched them and bought the first book. I actually read the first half of The Lightning Thief on the morning before my audition and the second half in the afternoon after my audition! I then bought books 2, 3 and 4 – book 5 wasn’t out at that time – and read, and enjoyed, them all. I haven’t bought book 5 yet as I’m waiting for the paperback copy to come out so that I can have a full collection of the first paperback editions of each book.

How did you like them?
I really enjoyed them as they are fun and lighthearted reads. The characters are really well drawn – especially Percy and Annabeth – and the stories are a wonderful way to introduce new readers to Greek mythology. My favorite characters include Nico di Angelo and Thalia Grace, but my all time favorites are Hermes’ talking snakes, George and Martha (I want a rat!!) =)

How did you get involved with Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief?
My agent submitted me on the role of The Fury to the casting directors who were casting the movie, and I was lucky enough to be called in for it. I auditioned against about 40 other actresses for the role and was one of 3 to get a callback. Two weeks or so after the callback, production told me that I had booked it. Great excitement ensued, obviously! It was an awesome role and things got a whole lot awesomer when, after he cast me, Chris Columbus, our amazing director, wrote the scene at Yancy Academy where I meet Percy for the first time. The Fury had become Mrs Dodds / The Fury.

What was it like to play a monster?
It was awesome playing a monster and I had great fun doing it. This wasn’t the first time that I played a character that was, let’s say, aligned to the dark side of the force, and I have done so numerous times on both stage and screen. I usually get chosen for these types of roles fairly regularly as I have an intense on-stage and on-screen presence. It was an unusual honor, however, to be picked as one of the few Percy Jackson monsters to appear in the first movie and I’m now part of a very elite group.

What did you have to do for the special effects for turning into a Fury?
As I did all my own stunts and had to be filmed while leaping off the scaffolding, I had to be trained in harness work. The Percy Jackson stunt team was absolutely wonderful and, because of their help, learning how to climb the scaffolding while wearing the harness and then to jump off it onto the safety pads below was a pleasure. The scaffolding that you see in the movie was, however, higher than the one I trained on, but, although I had two stunt doubles standing by, I did do all of the jumps myself. As the Fury is CGI generated, I also had to undergo a full-body CGI scan while in costume, and this basically involved standing perfectly still for about 30 seconds at a time while the computer scanned me in from different angles. I also voiced the Fury – I have a natural rattle in my voice that I use when I voice scary characters – and the Fury lines had to be recorded separately on a special sound stage in order to get them exactly right.

How did you first get started as an actress?
I start performing on stage in South Africa when I was 6 and have never looked back since. In 2005, I moved to Los Angeles and, in 2006, made the decision to move from stage to screen while still continuing to perform on stage in both Los Angeles and New York. I was lucky to accumulate a number of noteworthy on-screen roles in a very short amount of time which led directly to my signing with my agent in November 2008. In January 2009, my agent got me my audition for Percy Jackson, which I was lucky enough to book. I can’t wait to see what’s going to happen next =)

When you’re not acting, are there things you like to do? Like a hobby?
When I’m not acting, I enjoy writing and knitting. I’m working on my Scary Scarves series at the moment – cool winter scarves with fun scary designs like Christmas spiders – and I actually hope to begin selling them soon.

What other projects are you working on?
At the moment I’m waiting for finalized scripts and shooting schedules for several independent features – drama and horror – and also several shorts. I’m also involved in promoting several features that are currently making the rounds on the festival circuit, including the incredibly intense horror “Shellter”, the zombie-comedy “Die-Ner (Get It?)” and the drama “Blue like the Morning”.

Do you have any funny or interesting stories about making Percy Jackson?
Brandon T Jackson was absolutely awesome on set and he kept us laughing all of the time with his antics. Pierce Brosnan’s wheelchair also had a mind of its own and would often do interesting things that he hadn’t programmed it to do. Logan was amazingly cool all of the time and things started to get interesting when his stunt doubles were also on set as it seemed that there were as many Percy’s as there were Hydra heads! I have actually never worked with a friendlier and more professional cast and crew and the movie was a joy to make.

Gallery of photos of Maria from the trailers

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Film School Rejects: Anyway, thanks for taking a little time to talk to me today. Hopefully I am not interrupting anything to terribly important.

Craig Titley: Uh, no.

Cool. Well, let’s talk about mythology, I guess, because I hear you are relatively well-schooled in mythology. Is that correct?

Yeah, I guess so. I guess so.

Your background is in mythology, right?

Yeah. Yeah, I am getting my PhD in mythological studies. I’ve done all the classroom and just have to finish the dissertation. Then it will be Dr. Titley, which sounds like a plastic surgeon.

Sounds like a very successful plastic surgeon, actually.

[laughs] Yes.

So is that, your interest in mythology, what drew you to Percy Jackson?

Yeah, very much so. In fact, I had just finished all my classroom work, literally, within weeks when Chris Columbus sent me the book to see if I would be interesting in adapting. It could not have been more perfect, because you always look around for that great assignment that will inspire you. And I have always loved mythology, and the Gods, and those old gray, hairy [xx] Greek gods like Jason and the Argonauts. So when I saw this and this fun twist of sort bringing these Gods and monsters we all know into the modern world, I was completely stoked and excited to do it, and here we are.

Is there anything that you maybe added? Based on your knowledge of mythology, are there any little details that maybe weren’t originally in the book that are in the movie?

Um, yeah, probably. And actually, there are a couple of details I wanted to add that got left out. On occasion, I think I was Mr. Smarty Pants a little too much, but it didn’t look mythically correct! For example, one of my favorite…one of the things that got left out that I really liked was something people may or may not know. The goddess of Athena is one of the three virgin goddesses, yet Annabeth, in the movie, is her daughter. I’m like, “This can’t be! This can’t be!” They were like, “Nobody is going to care.”

So in one draft, there is actually a line in the script where I think Percy is like, “Wait a second, how could you be Athena’s daughter? She is a virgin goddess. What happened?” And Annabeth says, “The ‘60s.” So there were things like that that I tried to do that completely weren’t necessary. I had to realize that nobody except my 20 classmates is going to care.

Fair enough. Although, all 20 of those classmates will probably be in the movie theater angry at the things that are missing.

Yes, I’ve already explained to them. And let’s face it-myths, even in the day of Homer, myths were changing and altering. So who’s to say that in the past 2000 plus years that Athena didn’t have like a crazy night, you know?

Yeah. Well, you know, there was the ‘60s.

Yes, exactly. I mean, come on! You know, making it through high school is hard enough! 10,000 years? Please!

Now, you have adapted a lot of different things. You know, Scooby Doo was adapting a cartoon. Cheaper by the Dozen was a remake, correct? It was based on an older movie. And then you worked on Star Wars: The Clone Wars, which is based on something a few people have heard about.

And 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, which I just did for Sam Raimi.

Yeah. What is different about adapting a popular kids or young teen book?

Well, this one, because they were so popular, it is sort of walking that fine line of…you know, you get two hours to make a movie, and if you put everything that is in the book into the movie, you would have a 4 ½ hour movie. So it’s the age old problem that goes all the way back to, you know, the Wizard of Oz up through Lord of the Rings. It’s: What do you keep? What do you take out? How do you make it feel like the book even though it is its own thing and you are going to have to… you know, when you start pulling things out because of the constraints of a two hour movie, there are sort of holes that have to be filled with original material. And it is sort of like half a creative challenge and half a logistical challenge of trying to keep sort of the spirit and the characters true to the source material as much as possible so that it still feels like the source material. You don’t want to, like reinvent the wheel and invent new characters at the sake of other changes and personalities or anything like that.

So it is quite challenging. And it is more challenging with a book like this that has such a huge fan page. You can start imagining all the hate mail that is going to come, like, “Why did you take out this scene?” But there is no way around it. Somebody’s favorite scene is probably not going to be in the movie.

Now, are there certain things that you look …certain types of story elements maybe that you look to take out first? Or do you go to that like most insignificant character and instantly pull them out or something?

I think you sort of design the narrative through line and then once you have a solid handle on that, what is going to drive the story, it becomes quite clear what scenes you can take out and which ones have to come out.

You know, there are scenes in the book that I really, really liked, but they didn’t sort of serve the narrative of the two hour movie, so there was really no reason to keep them in. You know, you don’t want to, like, force it in unnaturally so the movie comes to a grinding halt.

See, I think once you determine that, it becomes a little easier. And then also, on the other extreme, you look for the set pieces that are like really juice, like the Medusa sequence and things like that. And you know you don’t want to lose those because they are just like so incredible. You don’t want to lose like the key monsters that everybody knows in favor of sort of a lesser one.

Right. Cool. Now, and working with Chris Columbus, who…he’s had a little experience working on adaptions…

Yeah, just a little bit.

Was there clear vision up front? I know you mentioned that he was the one who kind of brought you onto the project. Did he have kind of a clear vision for what he wanted or did he say, “Go do your thing?”

Absolutely very, very clear vision. He made the whole process somewhat enjoyable. We, as writers, aren’t supposed to have fun writing. And this was, because one, he had a clear vision. Two, he’s got like this crazy Energizer Bunny energy. And three, just like this boundless imagination.

So unlike most projects, even if there is a director involved, when you get stuck and you are banging your head against the wall, it is kind of just you against the world, I would just simply send an email to Chris, who is a very accomplished writer, as we all know. Normally, you are thinking, “OK. I’m going to have to wait like four days for a response.” Like within two hours, “Hey, why don’t we try this?” And it is always like the perfect answer. I’m like, “Yeah, OK!” It made my job much easier, so it was great having somebody like him in charge.

Right. And thinking of kind of Harry Potter and all of these…I mean these teen fantasy novels are just exploding, and there is a ton of them out there. And they range from Harry Potter being kind of the most successful to stuff like Eragon, which was supposed to be like this three part series and only barely got through the first one. What do you think, in the end, now that the project is finished, separates a franchise like Percy Jackson and the first movie from some of these other teen novels?

Well, first and foremost, it is a self contained movie, unlike things like The Golden Compass where they set themselves up for failure by making it just part one. This is a self contained movie. Two, I think what sets it apart from the Potter movies… It obviously is a fantasy movie with three lead characters, so people are going to draw the conclusion. But once they see it, it is very unique. I mean this is a road movie, basically. It is a journey from heaven to hell, if you will, from the east coast to west coast. And the Potter movies were never that.

And also, I think it is the Greek gods making their, sort of, comeback for the first time since the original Clash of the Titans. I think every generation needs their gods. And kids and adults…we love ‘em. They are with us everywhere. I mean you go to a Mobil station, you see Pegasus. The gods are everywhere and it is just time to see them in the movie theaters again.

Well, and it seems like they are getting kind of a big comeback this year with this and Clash of the Titans. I mean is that exciting to you and your 20 classmates?

Oh yeah, the academic world of mythology is all a buzz with this, you know? The gods are back. Polytheism is back and they’re in the consciousness again and you could never keep them down. And there are many academic essays being written right now probably about that sort of come back of the gods and what it means psychically and all that stuff.

Interesting…

But, yeah, I get all the academic journals and they’re quite well aware of this and it’s fascinating and all their little theories as to “Why now?”

Well, there are a few good stories in there somewhere, you know?

Well, yeah.

Now, is there one particular story in mythology that you’re kind of drawn to? Do you have a favorite somewhere, and is it in this movie?

Oh, my gosh. Well, ooh boy, there are tons. I don’t know if I could pick one. It’s like picking your favorite movie. But I do love Medusa. Ever since I saw this Hammer movie, the 70’s called The Gorgon when I was a little kid- which they didn’t reveal Medusa in all her snake-haired glory until the very end which freaked me out, so I’ve been, like, obsessed with Medusa ever since, so I was very excited about that. And Poseidon has become sort of one of my favorite Gods. He was very much… sort of the God, if you will, of the 20,000 Leagues script as well through lack of comparison between Nemo and Poseidon. So I’ve been in this Poseidon world for a while and I’ve learned to fall in love with him. He’s pretty much my favorite God. Poseidon and Hermes.

So it kind of worked out because both Poseidon and Medusa, from what I understand, are big parts in this movie.

Big parts- yeah.

Now this is a series of books. Do you think it’s something that pending the movie making millions and millions of dollars and the studio saying, “Let’s do another one,” is this something you want to stick with and keep going with?

You know, if the movie does well and they decide to make the other books I would be honored to be invited back. But I don’t think any decisions have been made. I think everybody’s sort of focused on this one right now; making sure it’s the best movie as possible and making sure people go see it instead of The Wolfman.

And I think it’s interesting that you mentioned it’s a self-contained movie, because it feels like the natural inhibition for all these franchises has been to lead into the second movie whether or not the money is there to make that second movie already.

Yeah. I think the lesson is: don’t get cocky. I think we learned that from The Golden Compass.

Fair enough. Now in all the press that you’ve done, is there anything that you haven’t had a chance to say about Percy Jackson that maybe you haven’t been asked yet?

Um, hmm…

Is there anything you want people to know about it, maybe?

Yeah, I think I would want people to know, personally, just having…being a fan boy, you know, I grew up in the hay day of Amblin and I remember that day watching Young Sherlock Holmes realizing the same guy’s name was on my three favorite films. That was Chris Columbus as writer of Gremlins, Goonies, and Young Sherlock Holmes, which I call the holy triumverant of the Amblin films.

And then he sort of went off and started directing comedies, like Mrs. Doubtfire, Home Alone, things like that, up to the Potter movies. And for me this is kind of Chris, in a way, returning to his roots and making one of those big, sort of, fun action-adventure movies with great characters and a sense of humor about it, much like those three films.

And, you know, I don’t think that’s a coincidence either because the DP he chose for this film was the DP of Young Sherlock Holmes. And the movie looks gorgeous. It feels kind of Amblin-esque. And I don’t know if it was conscious on Chris’s part, but it feels to me, as a fan boy, I think the movie that it’s kind of his return to his roots in a way. And I don’t think anybody has noticed that or talked about that. I don’t even know if he’s talked about it or is aware of it. But just me as a fan boy, it’s very exciting to see Chris doing that.

That actually makes me even more excited to see the movie.

Yeah, yeah. It’s… I guess I’m allowed to say I saw it, but it moves, man. It was just like the fastest 2 hours I ever spent in a theater. Usually they seem to go slower when you’re involved in them. But not in this case.

Very cool. Now I wanted to ask you about 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea just briefly because there seems to be a lot going on with the two 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea movies and we just saw what happened a couple weeks ago with Disney pretty much dumping the project for the time being. You know, where does the other one- the one you had set up at New Line- where does that one stand, at least from where you’re sitting?

Well I think right now it stands back at a good position because there had always been sort of a pull position between the two projects, even though theirs was technically a prequel of Verne’s novel and ours was an adaptation of the novel. So they could’ve both existed, but studios aren’t going to, you know, see it that way.

So it was always like we would take the lead because our script was done first, you know, and then New Line sort of got downsize where our project was and then during all of that craziness of working out with the script, you know. Then Disney jumped ahead…they had McG attached to them and then ours was dead. So now that there’s has, you know, died, I assume, we’re very much back alive. And, like you said, this all happened recently so I’m assuming we’re going to be out for directors real quick- trying to take advantage of this while we’re in the lead again.

And yours is a more direct adaptation of Jules Verne’s book, right?

Yeah. It’s an adaptation, but we had to invent the whole story because there’s not a real narrative thrust in the book- It’s very episodic, kind of like a travel log. So it’s an adaptation, but also, we had to invent a lot of the story. But, totally, it’s a lot like Pirates of the Caribbean. It’s just like a lot of fun action, adventure, humor. The best script I’ve ever written.

Really?

I sometimes read it and like, “You did that? Wow! Not bad, bud.”

Now, my last question’s kind of a vague question, but it’s always interesting to me. If you were given kind of free reign over what you did next- something that you haven’t already written- is there like an outline somewhere in your office or an idea floating around in your head? Like, what would you do next if given complete freedom?

Well, there are a couple of pet projects that I’m doing on speck. They’re very much unlike me. One is a very small movie- small like Dazed and Confused, American Graffiti -- that I want to direct. It’s [a] period [piece]. And that’s one. I won’t say too much about it. And the other one is actually a historical Victorian era biopic. Believe it or not… about a pretty insecure character. In my spare time I’m sort of specking these both out.

And looking to eventually take the director’s chair…

On this little, small one I’m going to direct it. I want to start so small that if I suck it won’t matter. Because I don’t know A, if I like directing, two, if I’ll be good at it, you know? If I like it, I’m good at it, I’ll keep doing it. If it’s one or the other, I’ll decide. But if I hate it and I suck I’ll just stop.

Do you feel like you’ve learned a lot? I mean, you’ve worked on several different projects with different directors and do you feel like you’ve learned a lot of things that you could take to directing a smaller movie, or any kind of movie?

Yeah, absolutely. I’m a lot more confident having been around all sorts of sets. I’ve started my career as Joe Dante’s assistant… one of his assistants. So I’ve been on sets around really good directors quite a bit. So, yeah, I picked up some things there. My only downfall is I’m a wee bit of a perfectionist, which you have to, like, kick that thing out, so. I could spend a hour writing on an adjective, you know? I think I’d go on the set like, “Eh, let’s try the lights here. Eh, let’s try it here.” So that’s the only thing I got to… the demon I have to overcome.

Source: Film School Rejects

Writer: Neil Miller

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