J-14: Tell us a little bit about your Den Brother characters.
Hutch Dano: Den Brother is about Alex Pierson — a seventeen-year-old hockey player. He has a bit of an ego that gets in the way of him being a cool dude. He never goes out of his way to help others, but he is so nice to his sister Emily, and he’ll pretty much do anything for her. Eventually Emily convinces him to join the Den Brother troop and he ends up having to go through all of these crazy things. For the part, I have to dress up as a woman. I skate with latex on. I do all sorts of Bumblebee troop activities. You slowly but surely see Alex become someone who actually wants to help other people.
Kelsey Chow: Matisse is a junior helper for her little sisters bumble bee troop. She is definitely into Alex, but she knows that Alex is only concerned with himself so she is not quite ready to give in just yet. She is very caring and very family oriented. She is a really nice girl.
J-14: Are you similar to your characters in real life?
Hutch: I had to find a way to play oblivious. Alex is not that he is a bad guy, he just doesn’t understand that the world doesn’t revolve around him. The whole first part of the movie, I had to go, “Okay. How can I somehow connect with this character? He just doesn’t get it.” That’s not how I am. I’ve always been aware of how I sound to someone and the way I treat them. That was probably the one of the biggest challenges – connecting with him in the beginning because I relate to him more after he changes.
Kelsey: Absolutely. I think Matisse and I are both definitely loyal friends. She is really close to her sister and I am as well.
J-14: Did the cast hang out offset too?
Kelsey: Yes. Absolutely. We filmed in Salt Lake City so the whole cast really got to bond being on location over there. Our favorite spots were fast food restaurants. We loved trying different restaurants. David Lambert, who also in the film, would walk around the city to get a grasp of where we were and try to find cool things to do.
J-14: What was your most embarrassing moment on set?
Hutch: One of the funniest times was when I had to be in the makeup chair for three or four hours when I did all the stuff to play a woman. I had on latex, a false nose, eyelashes, red lipstick. I went out to shoot the first scene and all five girls were in the scene. They all looked at me and gasped and immediately burst out laughing. It took them five minutes to stop. We actually held production up for a second because the girls could not act when they looked at me.
J-14: Does a romance between Alex and Matisse ever evolve?
Kelsey: I guess you’ll have to watch…