Sammi Hanratty stars in Disney’s Christmas Carol, on DVD and Blu-Ray just in time for the Holiday Season! The talented Sammi plays not one, not two but THREE characters in the movie … we asked her about how she managed to juggle the roles and much more!
Kidzworld: Hi Sammi! Welcome to Kidzworld! How old are you?
Sammi: Hey! I’m 15.
Kidzworld: Do you have brothers and sisters? Are any of them actors, as well?
Sammi: I have four sisters. One of them used to act and we played sisters on the CBS show The Unit for four years.
Kidzworld: When and how did you first know you wanted to be an actor?
Sammi: When I was two, I started telling my mom that I wanted to be on TV or on the “stage.”
Kidzworld: How did you break into show business?
Sammi: At the age of six, my mom finally gave in and contacted an agent by sending them two photos of me just being a kid. They called us and set up an appointment and I met with them a week later. To our surprise, I booked my first job the next day! It is definitely not the way things usually work in the acting business, so I feel extremely blessed.
Kidzworld: What’s been your favorite acting role so far?
Sammi: That’s tough because I love them all. If I had to choose right now, I guess I would have to say playing Whitney Brown in The Greening of Whitney Brown. Working with Brooke Shields, Aidan Quinn and Kris Kristopherson was amazing, but spending every day with my co-star Bob, was a dream come true!!
Kidzworld: What was it like playing three different characters in Disney’s A Christmas Carol?
Sammi: It was so much fun and just an incredible experience to work with Robert Zemeckis and Jim Carrey. It was also sometimes challenging, which is what I really liked about it. When you are shooting a motion capture movie you don’t change your wardrobe or your hairstyle, so you have to use your imagination more to get into character. I love doing improv, so I loved it!
Courtesy of Disney
Kidzworld: Which was your favorite to play?
Sammi: My favorite character to play was the Young Cratchit Girl. She had the biggest range of my characters, from the excitement of smelling their Christmas Goose cooking at the baker’s shop, to comforting her father [played by Gary Oldman] when dealing with his grief.
Courtesy of Disney
Kidzworld: Did it ever get confusing, trying to keep all three straight?
Sammi: It didn’t get confusing for me, but it might have been for the crew. We all looked alike out on set because we were all in the same outfits, and the helmets we wore had cameras attached covering a lot of our faces. We all wore nametags with our real names on them and of which character we were playing at the time to keep things from getting confusing.
Kidzworld: What’s your favorite thing about the holiday season?
Sammi: Spending time with my family. I love going to Phoenix and hanging out with my cousins.
Kidzworld: What do you do for fun/in your spare time?
Sammi: I love to ice skate, rollerblade and ride my horse.
Kidzworld: Who are your inspirations in the acting world?
Sammi: Will Smith in I Am Legend. He carried the entire movie by himself and showed such incredible range as an actor. Saoirse Ronan in The Lovely Bones. Wow, I can’t say enough about her. I think she is so amazingly talented!!
Kidzworld: Who do you hope to work with one day?
Sammi: Will Smith, Saoirse Ronan, Nicole Kidman…the list goes on!
Kidzworld: How do you keep in touch with your fans?
Sammi: I use my YouTube and Twitter accounts the most to keep in touch with my fans.
Kidzworld: Let’s play favorites:
- Animal: Penguins and snow leopards
- Color: Purple
- Food: Cookie pizza
- Ice-cream flavor: Cookies and cream
- TV show: Pretty Little Liars and Glee
- Movie: A Christmas Carol, Easy A, and my all-time favorite, The Breakfast Club
- Book: The Bible
- Actor/actress: Will Smith
- Musician: Carrie Underwood
- Sport: Ice skating and horseback riding
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