While "Charlie Bartlett" is set to hit screens Feb. 22, the Virginia Tech Union is hosting a free advanced screening of the film at the Lyric on Sunday, Feb. 10 at 9 p.m. Hilton will perform, as well as answer questions following the movie.
Q
: To start off with your most recent project, what did you like most about the "Charlie Bartlett" movie?
A
: I thought it was interesting, I thought the plot was interesting, and I really liked my character. I don't know, I just thought there was something different about it.
I've never read a movie like that; it kept me interested the whole time. Especially the character I was trying out for, I really liked that character.
Q
: How would you compare yourself to the character you play in "Charlie Bartlett"?
A
: Oh, no, we're pretty different. He pretty much lives alone in the garage and doesn't even have a family. He loves watching violence over and over, he likes beating people up; he's just so sadistic.
I can't say I'm nothing like him because we grew up in such different environments. So I don't know, maybe I'd be like him if I had to live in his circumstances.
Q
: How did you get along with the lead character, Anton Yelchin? What was it like to work with him?
A
: We got along really well. When I went to Toronto to film the movie, I hung out with him and his mom a lot. I think he was 17 when he filmed the movie.
He was a really nice guy; he's so interesting and such a precocious little kid. I was so impressed with him. He loves old blues music like I do, and he loves great literature, great movies, great poets, and he's always writing or learning harmonica. He's just a very artsy kid, so I really liked hanging with him.
Q
: What kind of experience was it for you to work with Robert Downey, Jr.?
A
: It was good; I was nervous to meet him and excited. I was for sure star-struck, like "whoa it's Robert Downey, Jr." But I knew he had a record out, and so that made me feel good that he was a musician … I felt like we had that in common.
He's another guy who's really artsy, you know he loves music, he loves movies.
He's been through so many crazy experiences in his life, you know he's just an interesting dude. And no matter how long you hang out with him, you feel like you're only scratching the surface, like there's got to be more there.
Q
: How did you actually get into acting, anyway?
A
: I really got into acting seriously in high school because I had this great theater program, and this great theater teacher, and I didn't make the golf team.
I did "Walk the Line" and that was the first time I really did professional acting. So after that I thought, 'I really would like to do that in a career.'
Q
: So what if you had no musical or acting talent whatsoever? What do you think you'd be doing right now?
A
: I think I would be a lawyer probably; I would enjoy being like the one I see in movies. I want to be the young, Washington, D.C., litigator with the big leather chair.
But I would be a teacher for sure. I'd teach history, and I'd be real weird — you know, dress up like Mark Twain and s---, and get really into it.
Actually, I pick that one, just saying that gives me tingles in my belly.
Q
: Even though you're currently in Nashville right now, if nothing else in your career mattered, and you could just put a house on a piece of land anywhere, where would you want it ideally?
A
: Of the places I've been, to be honest with you, I'd want Spain. That'd be great actually. I lived there for a little bit, it's pretty amazing over there.
Q
: What were you like during your high school years?
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