By Tonisha Johnson

Both of your performances are amazing. You look at them and think star quality. Are you shocked by the response you’re getting?
Zelda Williams: It’s not like something you see the see the results personally. I think it was an amazing movie to work on, personally. For the first movie you do to have such a cast, it’s a great experience.

What about your preparation for the role?
Anton Yelchin: Before I started working on it, this has happened more and more recently. What I’ll do is sit around and read the script and make random notes. Some of the notes I don’t even agree with when we start filming. With “House of D” I got sick so on the weekends I’d be home. So what I’d do I’d just read the script over and over again. So by the time we got ready to film I pretty much knew everything I was thinking and kind of figured every scene out, what I wanted to do. I’ll get new ideas as I go along, and sometimes I’ll figure it out on the set.

Zelda Williams: It was such a surprise, almost an accident me getting the part. It was such a rush, that I had to hit down and go for the ride. It being my first film I don’t think I knew how to prepare myself. The only preparation I had was my dad, who kind of kept me there and not letting me fall to pieces. I didn’t know what I was doing. I shouldn’t have been there I should have been in school. It’s a big change to go from the middle of Infinity suddenly to New York. It’s a strange concept.

What’s Infinity class?
Zelda Williams: Oh God. Infinity is a philosophy course. I was sitting in for my first trimester, I’m not actually in it yet – next year. I’ve got to say right now, I’m on the Tech Committee. I’m a computer geek.

St. Petersburg to Hollywood doesn’t seem like a very direct route?
Anton Yelchin: I was in St. Petersburger… Did I say St. Petersburger? (He laughed embarrassed) I’m sorry. I came here (New York) from St. Petersburg when I was six months old. I was really shy and a friend recommended going to an acting class, basically, because I wasn’t good at talking to people. And I really enjoyed it. It was the first thing I enjoyed. 
During soccer, which my parents made me do, I’d get cramps from eating these huge sandwiches during half time. And I wouldn’t hit girls at karate and they’d always hit me. I still don’t hit girls. I think that’s terrible. And so I’d get the wind knocked out of me. With acting most of the time you don’t get cramps and you don’t get the wind knocked out of you.

Except if it’s an action movie…
Anton Yelchin: Yea, I just worked on a movie “Alpha Dog” and Fernando Vargas is it in. He’s the middleweight champion. The thing is, there’s a scene where they grab me and starting beating on me and I was so honored. Fernando Vargas was beating the shit out of me. Who can say they came of out of fight with Fernando Vargas alive. Not many people. (Director) Nick Cassavetes said that nobody had got that hurt on a set before. And it wasn’t Fernando’s fault because when I’m acting I don’t think about what is happening to me at all. I ran and fell and had a huge scar and Fernando’s nails dug into my shoulder, but otherwise, I haven’t got a cramp.

When you see the movie what do you focus on?
Zelda Williams: I’m overly critical, pessimistic, self-deprecating person, my own biggest critic. So I don’t see it getting any better. I was literally cringing watching my self on the screen. But the movie, itself, was actually fun to watch. It’s always the hardest seeing yourself blown up God knows how big. To see yourself that big is scary, horrifying.

When you go to school now do you feel different?
Zelda Williams: It was a lot harder when I used to go to an all-girls’ Catholic school. It was kind of a shock value to them.

So you can identify with the all-girls Catholic school in “House of D?”
Zelda Williams: I didn’t identify with it then and I don’t really identify now, but I could identify with the uniform. I haven’t had a normal childhood, but the thing that was great is how normal my parents tried to make it, or at least us. They didn’t want us growing up to be Paris Hilton or whatever that group is.

What was it like working with Erykah Badu?
Anton Yelchin: We didn’t really work together. I met her once. She was really nice and really interesting. She gave me her scarf to wear because it was really cold.
She read one time, and I read once, but I guess it worked out well. It was David reading the lines for both of us. There was a part of the end where I went “Yeah!” because David really pissed me off.

Were there any scenes cut from the film that you were disappointed about?
Zelda Williams: Not that I know about. There were a couple of minutes in the hallway where you and Dad were riffing about the meat (looking at Anton). That could have been a whole movie in itself.
AT: There was one minute, not even a scene, when he runs to Lady to tell her how wonderful the dance was. Something wasn’t working. I think it was the camera. It was just too much.

Did you find your dad could make you feel more confident when you were going “Oh my God,” and he’s say, “No you were great” while watching the final print?
Zelda Williams: Well, I had my older brother next to me. When I was cringing, it was comforting to have him there. He’s always thought of me as his little sister, whatever. He’d be like, “Oh no, don’t watch,” and like covering my eyes. It was funny because at that point I was “like shot me.”

If you were offered a screenplay like “Thirteen” what would your parents say?
Anton Yelchin: You mean to play one of the girls…My parents would probably say “No.”
Zelda Williams: A gender-bender (she chuckled). My parents are very supportive and I think it’s up to what they think is my better judgment. I’ve auditioned for movies, that now I look back and think “Oh my God. What was I thinking?” They’ve always left it up to me.

You act and then go home, is everything still normal?
Anton Yelchin: It’s like people have hobbies. Acting for me is more than a hobby. I love it so much. I want to do it for the rest of my life. When you go home you do all the same stuff. I’m lucky enough to be able to do this.

Zelda Williams: I’m not going to lie, I haven’t had a normal job yet. I don’t think I’d be the same person if I did. I’ve been given a lot of opportunities that I really feel blessed. It’s made me certainly more mature, more well-rounded person at a younger age.
Going into acting, whatever personal life you had and I’m more of a recluse kind of person, it’s a choice you have to be mature to make.

How do you friends react to the fact that your father is Robin Williams?
Zelda Williams: I don’t think it’s something they exactly notice. Like “Oh, There you are.” It doesn’t help that on the San Francisco high school circuit, I’m the only girl with the name Zelda. It’s not something I announce, “Like I’ve talked to you long enough, I’ll tell you my father is Robin Williams.” I don’t attach his name to mine. It’s two separate people. It doesn’t help that my first movie is with him, but I like to think that we’re two separate people. I didn’t grow up with his umbilical cord.

Do they expect you to be different?
Zelda Williams: No, but I think they expect me to be more Hollywood. Like I’ve been asked, “Why don’t you have a body guard?” I’ll answer, “Why? Have I pissed someone off? Should I have one? Should I be worried about you?” People have made actors into deities. They’ve made them these untouchable people. Suddenly, if you have met this person then you can relate to anyone else in the world that knows who this person is. It’s a connection. That’s why they figure these people as gods. I can’t say it’s easy to have everyone know your father, because people used to spend more time with him on vacation than I did. He’s still my dad and I love him dearly.

Did you guys know David before this, from the “X-Files?”
Zelda Williams: I’m not that young. Yes, I’m a huge sci-fi fan. I’ve always loved the philosophy behind “X-Files.” “X-Files” was right down my alley at a certain point in time.
Anton Yelchin: I didn’t watch the “X-Files.”

Acting is constant rejection. You’re being evaluated on your looks, your talent. It’s hard for adults, how do you deal with it?
Anton Yelchin: I think if you go to school everyone evaluates you all the time and you just never stop being evaluated. People are crazy, insane at school. It’s become a horrible environment in some schools. Funny, it’s like that sometimes on sets. It wasn’t like that on “House of D.” There are sets like, I’m on a show called “Huff” and there’s all these executive producers and everybody sucks up to them. But school can be the exact same thing, so school can be the same thing. But at school I don’t criticize myself. When I watch a movie I go nuts criticizing myself. Everything little single thing, like how my nose looked when I started crying. Do I actually cry like that?

And what about you?
Zelda Williams: You mean being critical? I went to an all-girl Catholic school so I can’t say it’s the most welcoming environment. Especially if you go in there with what people might view as an advantage or disadvantage. I went in there with my dad’s name attached to me, seven years old. I transferred from a very liberal school, and I can’t say I’m a better person in the long run, because I learned what people can and can not be like. There can be good and a lot of bad in people and especially girls. It’s not like they can let something go. I grew up between two brothers so you can kind of hit them and they’ll hit you back and then that’s the end of it. But when you’re with a school of girls nothing is forgotten.  And when you’re doing something like movies it’s in between. Things can be forgotten or follow you through your entire career. Things can be very cursing.  I don’t know who said it, but the only person that can make you feel inferior is yourself. You have to feel inferior first before anyone can make you feel inferior. I think that made me stronger.