Recently we got to interview Owen Wilder Vaccaro. Owen is 9 years old and has been busy filming some exciting movies!
Owen can be seen playing Dylan in the movie “Daddy’s Home” where he stars opposite Will Ferrell, Linda Cardellini & Mark Wahlberg. The movie will premiere in December.
He is also currently filming the movie “Mother’s Day” where he is playing the role of Charlie. Owen stars opposite Kate Hudson, Sarah Chalke and Jennifer Aniston in this Gary Marshall movie.
upfrontNY: How did you get involved with acting?
Owen: My first grade teacher was Mrs. Betts. She told my mom that she thought I needed to do theater and drama. My mom and dad had already tried lots of different activities for me, but nothing really caught me. Mrs. Betts told my mom about MZ Stageworks and said she thought I would LOVE it. She was right! My parents always say they are so grateful to Mrs. Betts for telling us about MZ. I love theater so much and probably never would’ve thought to do it. Theater helped me get into film…and now I get to do both.
upfrontNY:What was the best part of filming, “Daddy’s Home” ?
Owen: The best part of filming Daddy’s Home was meeting all these really cool people. We were in New Orleans for over 3 months so you get to know the crew really well. My “sister” in Daddy’s Home is Scarlett Estevez. She is one of my very best friends. We did everything together while we were there. We lived right next door to each other in the hotel. We would wake up in the morning and have breakfast together and then go to work together. At night, we always watched movies, played in the pool or just played around at the hotel. I miss her so much. We face time a lot. We used to knock on the wall between our rooms to signal to each other. It was so fun!
On set, there are lots of fun things. Mr. Anders was the director and he made it really fun for us. Mr. Wahlberg and Mr. Ferrell acted silly a lot and it made the filming part funny. During breaks, we would hang out in our trailer or raid Craft services. Scarlett and her mom always hung out with us in our trailer! We practiced lines together and had dance parties! Also, the Assistant Director would let Scarlett and I use the microphone to call out…”Action” or “Cut”…I loved that part. There were also really fun scenes in Daddy’s Home. We had one scene with Kobe Bryant at the Smoothie King Center in New Orleans. We had a scene with live animals and a scene with Tony Hawk and a HUGE tree house. There was also a dog in the movie that we played with sometimes. And we got to film at the Aquarium!! Our teacher was super fun, too. He took us on field trips and played with us a lot. I learned lots of games from him…he is coming to Atlanta to film another movie and I’m going to get to see him.
upfrontNY: Who are you going to see the movie with when it comes out?
Owen: I am not sure yet what theater, but somewhere in Buckhead. I am really happy it’s rated PG so my friends can all see it. I will see it for the first time in NYC for the Premier on December 13th. My mom and dad said I can sit next to Scarlett! When the movie actually comes out…I will go with my parents, our best friends (The Castelos) and probably my grandparents. I am hoping my cousins come for Christmas and then we will all go together. I saw the trailer while I was in the movie Jem and the Holograms and we all got really excited!
upfrontNY: Can you tell us about your role in “Mother’s Day,” the new movie that you’re filming?
Owen: Mother’s Day is a movie about different moms that have different families that tie together. I play Charlie who is the nephew of Kate Hudson and the son of Sarah Chalke and Cameron Esposito. Charlie is a really smart little boy that loves to read! He has two moms in the movie. There are funny circumstances with Charlie and what his Grandparents don’t know about his moms. Ms. Esposito is a stand up comedian and she’s really funny! This movie was filmed in Atlanta so I was home at night. Garry Marshall is the director and he made it really fun for us and always checked to make sure I was happy and doing okay. The assistant Director was David Venghaus. I loved seeing him every day. We had a secret handshake and he loved to make me laugh. He was one of my favorite parts of that movie. I also got to work with a baby named Ayden. He was really cute. A lot of our scenes were together and because he was so little, he would need to be entertained between the shots. I loved that! I could make him laugh, play with him…he was a great little, baby actor! This was a really fun movie to make…my first day of filming, they had me sliding down a huge backyard water slide. That was awesome!
upfrontNY: What is your favorite…
Movie: Jurassic World or Inside Out
Actor: Chris Pratt or Dylan Minnette
Song: that’s easy…Love Story by Taylor Swift
Snack: popcorn…I have it every day.
Thing you do when you are not acting: I love to do Gymnastics. We have a trampoline in our back yard that I use all the time. I love to play video games and XBox with my friends. I take voice lessons and do theater, too.
Thanks to Owen for taking some time to answer our questions!
Follow him on twitter! @OwenVaccaro
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