Mary Jane Penton, Star of "The Gesture"

Speaker 1 0:00

Welcome to the Obrother podcast with hosts Dan and Mike Smith , brothers from the same mother with different opinions , movies , tv , video games or more , plus celebrity interviews . Get ready , it's set . It's time for the Obrother podcast . Now , mike yeah , dan . We interviewed , of course , colin Kratzschuk , director of the gesture right . Yeah but let's be honest , mm-hmm , all of that was just to get to this interview here . Correct , this is the real star , that the real star of the film , the gesture of course , which is Mary Jane Penton , mary Jane hey .

Speaker 2 0:50

Hi Mary Jane , how are you ?

Speaker 3 0:52

How are you ? I'm good , how about you ?

Speaker 1 0:56

We're doing good . We're glad to have you here , and now I have to ask you Is this your first podcast parents ? Awesome , now , what's crazy , is we ? So , mike , we this is kind of a nice bookend we now , mary Jane , you don't know this , but we had one of the first interviews we did on the podcast . We had our mother on the podcast and our mother turns 80 . She turns 88 this month . Oh , so now you are officially on the other end of that spectrum , of course , and happy early birthday , because you're , you've got a birthday coming up right .

Speaker 2 1:39

November yeah so you was Scorpio .

Speaker 3 1:43

Yes , I am , I'm on the last day of it , so if I was born one day later , I'd be Sagittarius .

Speaker 1 1:50

Oh , now my girlfriend is a Scorpio , so I know all about it . Yeah , I'm gonna keep my eye on you .

Speaker 3 1:58

All right , all right .

Speaker 1 1:59

Yeah , happy early birthday and congrats on the film .

Speaker 3 2:03

You must be totally excited about this , yeah yeah , yes , all my friends didn't believe me before , so now I can like show them on On my phone . I'll be like look at my name and like show them that it's actually real , cuz they didn't believe you .

Speaker 1 2:19

Yeah , you've got a . You've got an IMD . Be credit already .

Speaker 3 2:22

Yeah , it's so cool .

Speaker 1 2:24

Oh , cool is that very cool now Is this the first time you've acted .

Speaker 2 2:28

Have you acted in plays ?

Speaker 3 2:30

So I did theater like for plays , yeah , since I was like I think six and yeah , but this is like my first movie ever , so I'm really excited now , what do you like better ?

Speaker 2 2:44

Do you like doing a play , or now that you've done a movie , do you like that better ?

Speaker 3 2:48

I like doing a movie better , but um , anytime I can do a play or a movie , I would do both or either so you'd love acting .

Speaker 2 2:57

Yes , yeah , I hear ya now Mike .

Speaker 1 3:00

Mike has done a number of plays in his time he was . He was on the set of some movies . Quite Make it as fun . He doesn't have any IMD be credits oh .

Speaker 2 3:13

They , they cut me out , like you know . They would shoot a scene and I'd be the person that you know Was just at the edge of the camera .

Speaker 3 3:23

What can you do ?

Speaker 2 3:25

No , but I used to like plays because , yeah , once you learn everything and the play goes off , you can't stop right . Yes , goes wrong , you have to fix it on the spot . With movies , it's a lot of waiting around , right .

Speaker 3 3:41

Yes , for sure , because I would be in like the green room , mm-hmm , and we would be waiting for like two hours until my scenes . But then in theater you're always on Stage and then if you make a mistake , like one time when I was in fine Nemo Jr the lights went out . So we all to all improvise , and it was crazy .

Speaker 2 4:03

Yeah , those are . Those are the times that I always used to love Fell over . You know you have to figure out how to fix it in front of people , you know .

Speaker 1 4:17

Now you've grown up in Maryland , yeah , and now you know . You know , my friend , miss Annie , is this right , yeah , yeah . Okay , so now miss no pressure , but she's really talked you up here . She said you're gonna go . She's fantastic and she's , you know , she's eager to see . She said , you know , let me know how it goes . I said , oh , if she's as good as you say , I mean we don't have to do anything here Right press record .

Speaker 1 4:43

Yeah , yeah now tell us about . So when you're filming this , you know , especially at your age how does that work ? Right , there's certain restrictions in place with , like you know , can you talk about that a little bit ? Yeah , yeah .

Speaker 3 4:58

So for the movie we would get there . We would have to leave our house around like six , usually for the Markov's haunted forest scenes and it was so fun , so we would get there and we would say hi to everybody , you know , start like getting in character and costumes , and then we would go and just wait until our scenes and then after that we would go to our scenes and then Sam he's so nice , he would drive us all down and then we would get out and we would just wait in the car for a bit until the scenes were ready . And since I usually don't like horror and I get kind of creeped out , so it was an actual haunted forest because that's what people went to , you know like see , like a hundred forest , and so we went there and there were some like really creepy props .

Speaker 3 6:05

So we would have to close my eyes to make sure I didn't see it , because I would get so scared . I saw it .

Speaker 1 6:12

Well , I was going to say , like that , that's when you're that scene you're talking about , because you're in that witch outfit , right , you're in that , yeah , yeah , yeah , and there's , it's kind of in the midst of this really intense and graphic scene too . So are you kind of off to the side . Are you even there ? Are you just like you said , covering your eyes ?

Speaker 3 6:29

Right . So I think that they might have filmed that at a different time , because I remember that Delaney , who I play a younger version of , so Jocelyn , she was going , she was , I think , on set that day at the same time I was . I think that they filmed that other scene , though a different time .

Speaker 2 6:53

I don't know Now , did you have to audition for this , or yes , so so .

Speaker 3 6:59

Yes , ok , my mama knows this person who she's in book club with , and I also was . I work with them a lot . So we were like she messaged mama and she was saying , hey , we need a kid to audition . Would Mary Jane like to audition tonight ? So she sent like these pictures of the script of what I'd be auditioning with . So we were like , yeah , sure , and we got there and I auditioned and then right after you know I was saying the script , they videoed it , sent it back to Colin and Johnny , who I love so much . They're like so awesome , good , and yeah , and they were like they came in and they said , all right , you got the role . And that night I found out when I was just like Wow .

Speaker 2 7:52

Now it normally doesn't happen that quick .

Speaker 1 7:55

Yeah , they normally see all sorts .

Speaker 2 7:58

Yeah , they see all sorts of actresses , so they obviously liked you right away .

Speaker 3 8:04

Well , yeah , I think they definitely needed someone soon , because I know that they were filming soon , so I think that they couldn't wait too long .

Speaker 2 8:15

Right , but still to land it on your first , it's amazing . Yeah , great , it's amazing , fantastic .

Speaker 1 8:22

Did you have to get out of school to film any of your scenes ? Or ?

Speaker 3 8:26

I didn't , because it was mostly at night , but then sometimes I would have to go in a bit late because I'd be so tired , because we would get home at like three in the morning , because it was so late .

Speaker 2 8:38

So there was no rule against you like , like , how late did you stay on the in the graveyard ? Say , oh , because obviously that's at night .

Speaker 3 8:49

Yeah , so we stayed at that probably for until like maybe one in the morning . Wow , but we were , there was a lot of waiting around , so when we would wait it would take a long time to get to that . So we would wait like three hours or something in the green room and then I was like so tired and I was crying . But then we went on to set and I was like oh , yeah , yeah .

Speaker 1 9:24

Your excitement makes me think , if we saw that post of you kind of reacting to seeing your name in the credits , Now did you get to see it in the theater .

Speaker 3 9:35

I did , yeah , and we didn't know if the cast and everyone else went to different theaters . So we asked Sam and Delaney and they were both going to theater six and it was perfect because almost all of the cast was in there , so it was like the perfect theater to go into .

Speaker 1 9:54

Oh , that's great . So how was it working with Colin ? You said you got along well , but how was it working with him on the set ?

Speaker 3 10:01

He was just so flexible and so kind to me and just so awesome and it was just great Cause we would refilm stuff , cause it was annoying , cause there's an airplane that just kept flying by and then they had to get all the fog right , so , like he was a champ , you know , he was great .

Acting and Filming Experiences

Speaker 1 10:24

And then how about your co-star ? So you work with Matt .

Speaker 3 10:28

Yes , yes Of course you know .

Speaker 1 10:30

Everybody knows he's been a lot of things that Mike he's in . You said what billions right ?

Speaker 2 10:34

Yeah , he's in billions right now .

Speaker 1 10:36

Yeah , what was it like working with him on set ? You had that scene where you , you know , with the pumpkin and all that .

Speaker 3 10:41

Yes , he's so nice too . He is like it was awesome cause we were filming and I'm fidgety , you know . So I was playing with the little pumpkin seeds and it was just really fun , cause I just put it like in my lap and I was just like playing with it the whole scene and I had to just look straight . But it was also really cool because he I watched him get his makeup on for the veins like when all that .

Speaker 2 11:17

Yeah .

Speaker 3 11:18

So I was getting my makeup done and I looked over and he was getting all that makeup on . I was like it was crazy .

Speaker 1 11:25

So is it really pretty ? You know cause ? I think a lot of people wonder , especially when you're filming a horror movie , right , is there any moment where you're really kind of like it gets really intense ? Or you're just so wrapped up in the production of it that you're not really . It's not like , oh my God , this is so scary . Or you know what was . What was your experience ?

Speaker 3 11:41

It wasn't very scary cause I knew everybody on set . I watched all of it happen . You know I understood more and . But when we went through the mark-offs thing I had to cover my eyes on some things . But I also walked right by Michael when he was wearing the jester , the whole jester costume .

Speaker 1 12:06

Yeah , right .

Speaker 3 12:08

So it was really funny .

Speaker 1 12:10

Now do you , do you trick or treat up there in Maryland ?

Speaker 3 12:14

I do I always trick or treat . I'm gonna be weird Barbie for Halloween .

Speaker 1 12:17

Oh see , now I was gonna say , you could go as yourself . I mean , you were oh yeah .

Speaker 3 12:22

I have that shirt still . I have like the shirt I filmed in .

Speaker 1 12:26

So , oh so weird . Barbie , which was Kate McKinnon , right , you played yes , yeah , yeah . Now you said you're not typically a fan of horror or scary movies , but what type of movies do you like the best ?

Speaker 3 12:38

I like Disney movies and I like the like teen drama , chick flick movies and all of that .

Speaker 1 12:45

Yeah , we've covered a few of those on the podcast .

Speaker 2 12:48

Definitely .

Speaker 3 12:49

Yeah .

Speaker 2 12:51

And now is acting in your blood . Do you think this is something you're gonna do for the rest of your life ?

Speaker 3 12:57

100% . Yeah , this is what I wanna do for my whole life . Good answer .

Speaker 2 13:02

That's great . Now what does your mom think of you ? Know you choosing acting .

Speaker 3 13:07

My parents . They love it , they fully support it and they're always at like all my shows , which I love .

Speaker 2 13:14

That's great Rats throw yeah . Now , dan , you used to be neighbors , almost right with her .

Speaker 1 13:21

Yeah , so I lived in Frederick for 12 years so I was telling when we talked to Colin you know we're starting to do some prep to interview him I was seeing some of his posts on his social feed and kind of following , and then when I saw the opening shot of the movie , I knew exactly . I said that's Carol Creek , like I knew exactly where everything was . And there was a scene between the , you know , lane and Lailia , where they're in Bush Wallace downtown . Yeah , yeah . So that was really wild and you know I love living up there . I miss it .

Speaker 2 13:58

Me too .

Speaker 1 13:59

It's a nice time of year right now . Right , you're getting , the colors are changing and you're getting all that going on .

Speaker 3 14:04

It's beautiful down here . It's all the orange leaves on Carol Creek , like on all the bushes on the side . It's just so pretty .

Speaker 1 14:12

It's a beautiful location to shoot Now . Are you aware of any other movies that have filmed around there before , or I know of the Blair witch project . That's right .

Speaker 3 14:22

Yeah , but I think that's it yeah .

Speaker 1 14:24

I think that was in Birkitsville . I think yeah yeah . So are you currently auditioning for other things or kind of ? What's the plan there ? Just kind of keeping your eye out to see what , what comes along , or well , I have my school play Beauty and the Beast and .

Speaker 3 14:41

Yeah , I'm really excited to try out for that . That's next week .

Speaker 2 14:45

Are you gonna trial for Belle ?

Speaker 3 14:47

I'm gonna try it for Belle and Chip . Okay , so do you sing ? I do , I love to sing .

Speaker 1 14:53

I love Musical theater , theater , like I love all of it great , wow and so , and you said you love Disney movies , so that must be exciting . Now , do you ? I'm assuming you've seen the original animated Beauty and the Beast ? Yes , do you ? Do you know who the voice of Belle is in Beauty and the Beast ? By chance ? I don't think so . So her name is Paige O'Hara , and Actually met her a few times down here where I'm at in Florida . I live about 10 minutes from Disney World , so maybe , maybe you'll be the one doing the meet and greets here at she would . She would come out to the parks . She's a very talented artist , like you . She's very multi-talented and it's in paints .

Speaker 2 15:40

She paints and and the little mermaid , the , the 4k of the little mermaid . She painted that design .

Speaker 3 15:51

That's so cool .

Speaker 2 15:53

Now , when you were getting ready for the gesture and you knew you were playing a younger version of another actor yeah , did you watch her to pick up any mannerisms ?

Speaker 3 16:05

So when I first met her , she came up and gave me like the biggest hug and was like so then when I watched Her getting into character , you know , getting her makeup done , practicing some of her lines , I was trying to get a bit of a sense of how you know how she acted . But I Think that when I got on set I didn't , I just like was focusing on the acting , I was just having a hard time remembering that you know .

Speaker 2 16:42

that's more important because I remember I did a Play . You know it's called who's afraid of Virginia Woolf I don't know if you've ever heard of it . No , but who's Elizabeth Taylor ? She was in it and I I forget whoever she was married to was an amazing , great actor and I watched him like I watched the movie five times because they have a movie of the play oh , wow , and I then I saw myself because they filmed it and I was like , oh my god , I'm a horrible actor Because I was trying to pretend to be him Instead of just being me and saying the lines the way I would say them yeah . So yeah , it's interesting because you do try to pick up things like that .

Speaker 3 17:34

Yeah , why ? But you're a great actor .

Speaker 2 17:37

No , although Dan would be a better judge , I guess .

Speaker 1 17:43

We'll talk about that off air yeah .

Speaker 2 17:47

So you said you're hooked up with the Met . Is that right ? So , like , how does that work ? How do you ? How do you go there ?

Speaker 3 17:55

so for my school plays they were the ones who would organize all of it . And so when I just met the teachers and then I went to fun camps there and did plays there aside from school and everything , and they were just so nice there by acting teachers and One of them , miss Carly Carly Cole , she lives three doors down . She just moved in three doors down , which is really cool , oh nice .

Speaker 1 18:27

So what was your ? What inspired you to get into this at such a young age ?

Speaker 3 18:34

I don't know . I know that my cousin Audrey , she well , she's like my sister because she's living next door to me my whole entire life . So she was in a play . She doesn't do theater anymore , but she was in a play for fun when she was , I think , seven or no eight , and I was six and I joined and I really wanted to do it with her . So it was called Kid Frankenstein and I played Miss McGillicuddy . I played like the little old lady in it and she played the bully T-Bone , and so then I did that and it was with the Met and I was just like I love this and so I kept doing it . I did my school plays and then I started doing things out of school and then I started doing like acting classes and then I started . You know , yeah .

Speaker 2 19:26

So what grade are you in now ? I'm in sixth grade . Sixth grade , so you got a ways to go , yeah , and now are you thinking ahead , like are you going to move to Hollywood , or you know .

Speaker 3 19:38

I wish . I mean , I really want to go to NYU Great school , yeah , or any acting school , and I want to just have that be my career .

Speaker 2 19:54

Great . I mean , you know , that was the thing when I was in college . That's when I did most of my plays . Yeah , I was in college but everybody was kind of like , well , you can't go to school for acting because you know what happens if you don't get hired . Then you , you know , you don't have a skill or whatever , right , so I want to go into law school . A huge , huge regret . Oh , I wish I could go back and talk to you and say , let's , let's both be actors . Yeah , and don't look back , especially if you got the support of your parents .

Speaker 1 20:32

Yeah , that's wonderful . Yeah , and listen , your , your , your mom doesn't want to teach yoga for the rest of her life , you know . So you got to , you got to make the big bucks and tie your mom . Now , have you got ? Have you been down to Disney before ? Have you visited Disney ? So we went ?

Speaker 3 20:47

was it last week ? I think ? Yeah , last week we got back from Disney and it was my first time ever being there . So it was , yeah , I loved it . It was my first time being in Florida and Disney .

Speaker 1 21:02

Oh , that's amazing Now , did you coordinate that to be here when the film was being screened down here at city walks ?

Speaker 3 21:08

So we didn't know , so we didn't know we would have , but it was three days before we went , so it was like , oh man .

Speaker 1 21:19

Just missed it .

Speaker 3 21:20

Yeah .

Speaker 1 21:21

I missed that autograph opportunity .

Speaker 3 21:23

Oh , okay .

Speaker 1 21:25

Next time you come down . So listen , we do this on the podcast for everybody that we interview and we're not going to leave you out of it . We're going to do the same test , which is we have to know what are , what is Mary Jane's top five favorite films ?

Speaker 3 21:43

I've been thinking about this .

Speaker 1 21:46

And so really good . So you watched the show .

Speaker 3 21:49

Okay , good , yeah , yeah , yeah I watched a bit of Collins and it's really hard because I have a hard time picking favorites , but I like it Mean girls and clueless and I like , I love the gesture , love it so much . I like the new little mermaid movie the live-action one yeah , yeah . Yeah , I like finding Ohana and Hugo . That's a good one too .

Speaker 1 22:17

Oh good , oh , that's a great list , if the gesture of course has to be .

Speaker 2 22:22

So what do your friends think ?

Speaker 3 22:24

yeah , no of this they are all the , they all are really nice about it , but they since they didn't believe me at first , now it's good because I can just show them my IMBD and show them the pictures from the premiere and be like alright , here you go .

Speaker 2 22:40

Yeah and .

Speaker 3 22:42

But yeah , they , they're all like I want to be in a movie , you know if it act . A lot of them really want to be in a movie , but they don't do any acting .

Speaker 2 22:54

Yeah , it takes work . Yeah , you know , and they're asking where to do it .

Speaker 3 23:00

You just gotta know the right people , you know right .

Speaker 1 23:03

So do you think you'll go on any other podcast after this experience , mary Jane , or have we ruined it for you ?

Speaker 3 23:10

I really hope to .

Speaker 2 23:12

I really hope you got a promise us that you know years from now it might happen next year , might happen 10 years . When you win the Academy Award , you have to thank us Only the first one . After that you could forget about us .

Speaker 1 23:30

And if you leave Mike out of the speech . Yeah , listen , annie , was was right on the right on the mark there that You've , you've got the goods .

Speaker 3 23:43

Yeah you're delightful the personality You're .

Speaker 1 23:47

You're . You're definitely on your way , mary Jane . So , and and I love to hear it's so you know , mike and I , like he said earlier , it's exciting to talk to a younger person who has such a passion and knows very clearly already what they want to do , because Mike and I both regret Casing that more aggressively when we were your age .

Speaker 2 24:09

Yeah , all right , don't let anybody bump you off that path . You know what you like to do . Make sure you know the money will come . You know , like people always say how you're gonna pay the rent , it will come Well .

Speaker 1 24:28

Mary Jane , it's been an absolute thrill . Now Do you have any plans for your birthday ?

Speaker 3 24:32

Oh , Hmm , I don't know honestly .

Speaker 1 24:37

No yeah . Yeah , just to celebrate being 12 is enough , right .

Speaker 3 24:42

Yes , yes and my dog and cat , will I always throw them little birthday parties . And if you know , it's probably my dog , because he's always very loud .

Speaker 1 24:53

But yeah , can hear , we can hear some prancing feet there .

Speaker 2 24:57

And then you know one lot do you have anything lined up right now ? Or he's just kind of in limbo right now waiting ?

Speaker 3 25:03

I'm just waiting , I mean for the auditions . Maybe that's all I've got right now .

Well Wishes for Mary Jane's Career

Speaker 2 25:09

Okay . It's this there's plenty more coming . I think you'll be a great bell , so I hope you get let us know we're gonna follow your career .

Speaker 1 25:19

Absolutely . Yeah yeah , we'll be checking in with mama and make sure you know that we're getting all the 4-1-1 on Mary . Mary Jane , it's been an absolute , absolute pleasure . Wish you nothing but the best and continued success , and congratulations again on the jester . Yeah .

Speaker 3 25:37

Thank you , you guys too , thank you for having me .

Speaker 2 25:41

Oh , thanks for coming on and we'll see you down the road , okay .

Speaker 3 25:44

Yeah , see you All right .

Speaker 1 25:46

Take care , mary Jane you do .