1. Q. What did you feel when you first read Sean Penn’s script?
A. I loved it and I didn’t even know who had written it. I thought it was beautiful. There was poetry in it.

2. Q. And then what happened?
A. I was in New York doing a play, and I put myself on tape and sent it to Sean. Three days later he gave me a call and we talked for 15 minutes. He knows what he wants.

3. Q. How familiar were you with Jon Krakauer’s book?
A. I had read the book in High School, in a class called “Initiation to Adulthood”. And when I read it again now, and I knew I was in the film, I was looking for my parts; but, in a way, because Sean had been working so intimately with Carine and all the family, I knew I would also be able to meet them and figure out who they were.

4. Q. What is the real Carine McCandless like?
A. She is a very strong woman. She has her guarded edges around some certain soft spots that she values, and she absolutely loves her brother and is willing to do anything to make sure that his voice is heard correctly. But it’s interesting because it is also her voice -as they were so close. She has kids and is a mechanic at a car garage, and has a lot of strength in her.

5. Q. How was the process of working the part with her?
A. As an actor it was interesting because I got to form the equation of who she was when she was sixteen and the vulnerability and insecurity in that. I had the attraction of figuring out what the seed to the plant was.

6. Q. How difficult was it for her to go back to that moment in her life?
A. Difficult and rewarding, challenging and freeing. To be able to look at your own life through eyes that are not always your own and to be unbiased when your heart is biased I am sure was very hard for her; but she was very open, giving and willing to go there. And I think she had a lot of breakthroughs and was able to come full-terms with things that had happened to her by talking about them and seeing them through a whole different life.

7. Q. You have a double role in this film: as Carine and as a narrator.
A. I have never done anything like that before, and I had to keep in mind that the Carine we see on the screen is still the same girl that is narrating it; but there are two different sides.

8. Q. What was the experience of working with Sean Penn like?
A. He is a poet, a true speaker and absolutely a ball of fire and passion. And I think the greatest gift he gave us all was the gift of collaboration.

9. Q. Following Chris’s journey, “Into the Wild” has many different locations. Where did you shoot the film?
A. We did all the family stuff in Portland, Oregon. It was a really long shoot and I actually got to live the mental life of Carine a little, because I would wake up and not know where they were. In a sense I think it made me closer to Emile, thinking about him and wanting to know where he was and how he was doing. When I saw him again six months later he was a changed man.

10. Q. What change did you see in him?
A. When I first met him he was on the edge of this journey, and he couldn’t stop talking about his diet. He was nervous and excited about something he couldn’t verbalize. And then, when I met back up with him six months later and he had gone through this crazy journey, he was settled -like a man who can stand on his own two feet. It’s funny, because I am older than him, and we worked on a film together when I was 14 (“The Dangerous Lives of Alter Boys”), but now I look up to him and I think I will always be his younger sister.

11. Q. What is Emile Hirsch like as an actor?
A. Beautiful, giving, open, honest and willing to laugh at himself. I would like to work with him more, because we only had one scene together in the film.

12. Q. But your character is always present during the film.
A. Yes, it is an important character, and not only due to the information that is given, but because I really think you can feel the connection they both have.

13. Q. Why doesn’t he ever contact her?
A. He doesn’t need to. When I first met Carine she told me that they communicated without words, and they could share the quietest moments together that were so full. I feel that was a beautiful part of their relationship.

14. Q. And you also got to work with two actors as experienced as Marcia Gay Harden and William Hurt, who portray Christopher’s parents in the movie.
A. They are wonderful! I am always a child again around people I respect. And I learned a lot by just watching them. They’re very funny, smart and inspiring.

15. Q. What did you feel when you saw the film completed?
A. For me “Into the Wild” is like a spiritual journey. When I walked out of the film it was like walking out of a collective spiritual experience. It really touched me.

16. Q. Did you imagine what it would end up looking like?
A. Yes, because Sean would show us things during the shoot to get us motivated.

17. Q. What do you think Sean Penn has achieved with “Into the Wild”?
A. I am very happy for him because I truly believe he has found a way to channel his voice. And he has done it in a way that is so powerful.

18. Q. How do you think you have grown with this film as an actor and as a person?
A. I have never worked so intimately with other people who were not actors, so I learned a lot about building a character without approaching it in a way that I normally do. I never felt connected to anyone for a role like I did with Carine McCandless, and it taught me a whole new way to approach matters of the heart when working in a film.

19. Q. Is this movie different to everything you have done till now?
A. The difference here was that I was so excited to work in this film and had such a high admiration for everyone. And I had a lot of time to think about it.

20. Q. How relevant is this film in the world we live in today?
A. All of the politics and environmental issues that live in this film also live in the human heart. I think Sean took a step backwards from his political involvement and his heart took a step forward. It is a personal story that can have a lot of implications in the world we live in today, but it starts from the seed of one man’s heart. His struggle is a universal struggle for the human soul.

Source: Paramount Pictures
Interviewer: J.I. Cuenca