SUCKER PUNCH comic-con press conference:
The cast of “Sucker Punch” held a press conference. Joined by director Zack Snyder and producer Deborah Snyder, the group discussed transitioning from child stardom, the empowerment of fight training and director Snyder’s mental state.
“[I’m] completely schizophrenic,” he answered when asked why his stable of films is so diverse. Beginning with “Dawn of the Dead,” and following through to “300” and “Watchmen,” the director has also completed “Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole” scheduled for a September 2010 release and “Sucker Punch” due out next March.
Each of the performers gave a quick brief on their characters in the film with Malone getting the ball rolling. “I play Rocket. Basically, Babydoll comes to this mental institution and she meets all these characters that she sort of brings into these alternate realities,” she explained. “I sort of help rally the troops and form a really beautiful bond with Babydoll. And, you know, I’m kind of crazy.”
“I play Blondie - yes, it is ironic,” followed Hudgens. “She’s in this whole crazy world as well. She starts off as kind of a follower. I feel like, in a lot of the fight sequences, she becomes a total badass, which is kind of funny because it’s a complete difference [from my past role]; as well as the whole Blondie thing.“Emily Browning plays Baby Doll, who she described as “the only character whose story you get to see a tiny piece of outside of the asylum. She sort of comes into the institution and has very little time to kind of escape, so she rallies these girls together and gets them to help her escape and for them to escape as well. It sort of goes into her imagination a lot, which was really cool; being at the center of those fantasies.””[Amber is] kind of the first one to jump onboard with Babydoll’s plan,” offered Jaime Chung about her character. “She’s really sweet and she is extremely loyal to her friends, but, you know, she’s always there for Babydoll and she wants to keep the group together. All she really has is her friends left.”
Carla Gugino gave a longer take on her character, saying that, “I play a Polish psychiatrist named Dr. Gorski in the asylum, which is sort of the world of the 1960’s, but it’s kind of Zack’s world, so there’s a heightened reality to it. In the alternate world, I play the choreographer/madam of the brothel who is Madam Gorski. She just has a really interesting journey because she’s clearly been through a lot before. She’s in charge of taking care of these girls and she does it in a very strict, tough love way, but there’s probably no one who understands them like [she does].”
The group spent three solid months simply training for the necessary stuntwork within the film. “[It] felt a lot like a mental institution,” joked Malone. "You’re in full wardrobe and you’re just pushing past this idea of pain or emotional discomfort…