{"id":80735,"date":"2015-10-11T15:19:16","date_gmt":"2015-10-11T14:19:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/?p=80735"},"modified":"2015-10-11T15:21:42","modified_gmt":"2015-10-11T14:21:42","slug":"tremors-5-set-visit-jamie-kennedy-on-being-the-perfect-sidekick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/news\/tremors-5-set-visit-jamie-kennedy-on-being-the-perfect-sidekick\/","title":{"rendered":"Tremors 5: one-on-one with Burt’s sidekick"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the second part of our on-set interviews from South Africa during the filming of Tremors 5: Bloodlines<\/strong><\/em>, we managed to grab some time with Jamie Kennedy, who plays Burt Gummer (Michael Gross)’s sidekick, Travis Welker. We spoke to him about the challenges of filming, as well as reminiscing about the Scream<\/strong> <\/em>series…<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

You are famous for playing Randy Meeks in the Scream<\/em> films. How is it stepping into a different, well-established film series?
\n<\/strong>It\u2019s really interesting, because the first one came and didn\u2019t really do much at the box office, and then Tremors<\/em> <\/strong>became a huge thing, a cult classic. The typical cult classic. I\u2019m not too familiar with the sequels, I only know the first, but I know that it\u2019s a huge branding. So I was really quite honoured to get asked and it\u2019s pretty exciting because I like the director, I like Michael, I like the story and I like South Africa. If they do it right, it looks cool. I saw the worms and they look as real as the Transformers<\/em> <\/strong>robots. The worms look amazing \u2013 big, real and scary. So if they do it right, the CGI\u2026that\u2019s exciting. I think it has a lot of appeal. It\u2019s a weird movie and a weird group, and it\u2019s a great genre and a great name, so if it works maybe we could sneakily come out of the box.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I know that time is so tight – how is it working on this kind of schedule?
\n<\/strong>Very, very aggressive. It\u2019s one of the few movies where I\u2019ve worked six-day weeks. It\u2019s usually five-day weeks\u2026but I like that it\u2019s six-day weeks. We only had two weird days this week where we were kind of off, but we weren\u2019t, they\u2019d scheduled like half things. Since we\u2019re in the bush I don\u2019t mind [the schedule] because it\u2019s really productive that way. But if we were in a great city I\u2019d like to take more time.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What can you tell me about your part in the film?
\n<\/strong>There\u2019s definitely stuff that\u2019s going on that I can\u2019t say. There\u2019re plot points that you\u2019ll discover. My character is basically one of those extreme sports people, but not totally. He likes motorcycles, he scuba dives, he shoots guns. He\u2019s kind of like a gypsy, and he\u2019s a cameraman so he\u2019s done stuff for CNN, you know, warzones\u2026 He comes to film for Burt because he believes in him, and then they go on this adventure together. He\u2019s like the perfect sidekick because he\u2019s able to stay in the shit with him. He\u2019s kind of a wiseass and thinks Gums is outdated and needs an update.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Tremors<\/a>
Kennedy alongside Michael Gross in Tremors V: Bloodlines<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

What about in terms of working with Michael? He was talking about your style because your background is in stand-up and almost sort of showmanship. It\u2019s all very quickfire, whereas he\u2019s classically trained, so not like that at all. What\u2019s the working relationship like?
\n<\/strong>It\u2019s fine. I mean, I think all actors should improvise. I think that you get the take once and then you should try it a different way. The whole thing about making something that people want to watch is that it feels real and spontaneous, so that\u2019s what I always try to do. You try different jokes, as many as you can, because you want to have the choice. I\u2019m all about choices, I\u2019m all about ideas and I\u2019m all about making something entertaining. The last thing I care about is what I think my character might say \u2013 I do believe in that but I also believe you can do that in an entertaining way. Does that make sense?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What sort of films are you into yourself?
\n<\/strong>I just like anything that\u2019s good! Know what I mean? I try to just watch something and if it\u2019s good it\u2019s good. All I care about when I watch a movie is \u2018was I entertained? Was I moved?\u2019 If it\u2019s bad then I\u2019m like \u2018oh fuck\u2019. Movies, sometimes they\u2019re bad, and people get so mad, but I also think about professional athletes. There\u2019s got to be nights that they have off\u2026so it\u2019s like \u2018how come they get a pass?\u2019. Hahahaha!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Jamie<\/a>
Jamie Kennedy in Scream<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

How do you feel about the Scream<\/em> series?
\n<\/strong>Well, I mean, it\u2019s a piece of pop culture that\u2019s never going to go away. It\u2019s a top top horror movie, slasher movie. It\u2019s almost like pop horror. It\u2019s different. The Exorcist<\/strong><\/em> is foreboding, scary fucking horror. That\u2019s one. Then there\u2019s Halloween which is really emotional horror, you know? Scream is more entertainment, pop, really clever horror. It\u2019s a mix. It captured pop culture, you know, it captured jokes, it captured scariness, it captured fun and iconic characters. I think it\u2019s great. It goes to show you that you can make a great, original piece if you let people make it. Kevin didn\u2019t have a lot of credits, Wes shepherded this beautiful thing. The only person known was Courtney Cox, and I think people came to see the movie because they liked the movie. It\u2019s driven by the movie \u2013 it\u2019s a story, character movie.<\/p>\n

I think it did wonders for me. I do think that my character was more popular than the people that made the movie realised. For me, I was a little bummed that I was killed. I mean\u2026I wasn\u2019t, because I don\u2019t think there was even supposed to be a second one and I don\u2019t think they realised I was going to be in it. When they put me in it I don\u2019t think they realised how popular my character was going to be. I know that Deputy Dewey died in the first one and then they did a little scene to keep him alive. He tested well and they kept him. They could have done that for me. So a little bummed, but it was a great launching pad and something great that I\u2019ll always be a part of.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

And it\u2019s a good death as well!
\n<\/strong>It was! People are really mad how he died, why he died\u2026I do say that the blood on my face was all me. I really pushed for a lot of blood. I wanted to make it gory, I wanted people to fucking feel disgusted by it.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Finally, can you sum up how it\u2019s been working in South Africa?
\n<\/strong>I think South Africa\u2019s becoming the new Canada. I think there\u2019s going to be a lot of movies here. There\u2019re a lot that filmed this year. Sean Penn\u2019s doing a movie right now with Charlize Theron, The Avengers <\/em><\/strong>just left\u2026 and we\u2019re really hardcore roughing it because we\u2019re in the bush. Those guys were in Cape Town. We\u2019re in Jo\u2019burg, which is the tougher city, and we\u2019re also in the bush of Jo\u2019burg so\u2026The people are loving, I felt very safe here. The meat is very tough because the animals are fresh off the fucking hunting, man! Not tender. You do realise what real meat tastes like. To sum up, Africa is a great\u2026it\u2019s a great\u2026what\u2019s the word? It\u2019s a great symbol for the world, because there\u2019re so many different things here. The animals, the elephants and zebras, and then you get insects, and you have black people and white, and you\u2019ve got tribal people and non-tribe and eleven different forms of Afrikaans. What I\u2019m saying is, there\u2019re a lot of differentiations here \u2013 now there\u2019s a big Chinese population \u2013 and everyone has to co-exist. So the jungle of Africa is like a great lesson of life. Everyone is different, but as long as you let people do what they do, we can all co-exist. [Pause] Hahahaha, it\u2019s true! The lion gets along with the hippo as long as it doesn\u2019t try to make the hippo live its life.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Tremors 5: Bloodlines<\/em> will be available to buy on DVD and Blu-ray from 12 October. For more news on the biggest movies, pick up the latest issue of SciFiNow.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jamie Kennedy on filming Tremors 5 and looking back at Scream<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":80738,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"MSN_Categories":"Uncategorized","MSN_Publish_Option":false,"MSN_Is_Local_News":false,"MSN_Is_AIAC_Included":"Empty","MSN_Location":"[]","MSN_Add_Feature_Img_On_Top_Of_Post":false,"MSN_Has_Custom_Author":false,"MSN_Custom_Author":"","MSN_Has_Custom_Canonical_Url":false,"MSN_Custom_Canonical_Url":""},"categories":[2617,1718,7,3],"tags":[4784,3926],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/Jamie-Kennedy-Tremors-51.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80735"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/37"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80735"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80735\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}