An Interview with Neil Hopkins from Skyline

Last week, I got the chance to chat with Neil Hopkins, an actor originally from New Hope, Pennsylvania; currently starring in the sci-fi epic Skyline. Some of you might recognize Neil from his role on Lost as Charlie’s brother Liam Pace. In Skyline, Neil plays Ray, a lighter role.

It was great chatting with him about Skyline and what it was like working on this highly anticipated sci-fi film.

What attracted you to the role of Ray in Skyline?

Well, I originally went in December for the lead role. They weren’t showing much of the script at that time, I think they were only using the lead role as audition material. So I went in and found out they were very interested in me, they were fans of mine from Lost. I went away on Christmas break and came back and they offered me the role of Ray.

Ray is kind of a goofy more funny type of character, it was cool because I don’t usually get to play the goofy, funny characters. I usually play the edgy and dark characters and it was great to mix it up because comedy is the reason I originally got into acting to begin with. It was a lot of fun to play the role, and they had definitely written a lot of humor into the role. It was great working with them on the project and getting to play a lighter role in the picture.

For what started out as low budget independent effects driven film, Skyline has transformed into the herald of the holiday film season; was that anticipated at all when you were in production?

No, none of us knew that. I was just at a mixer promoting Skyline in Hollywood last night and I was with the cast, the directors and writers and we were all talking about everyone is just in disbelief at not only how huge it has become, but how quickly it became this huge. Just because it’s unheard of for a film with something like 900 special effects shots to be turned around this quickly.  I think we finished shooting in early March and they basically have turned it around in well under a year.

For a huge theatrical release that is really remarkable and maybe even unprecedented. We are all just kind of in shock and pleasantly so about how huge it has become and we are all hoping it has a really great life in the theaters.

Is it difficult for you as an actor to work on such an effects heavy film such as Skyline?

Yeah, I think it is. It has its own set of challenges as every role does. It’s very difficult, because it feels in a lot of ways, and I am sure most actors will say this, very unnatural to be acting against something that is not really there.

But to their credit Colin and Greg Strause were very easy on the cast, because before we even started shooting they took us into their screening room in their effect house Hydraulx in Santa Monica, and they showed us this trailer they had already cut.

The trailer was very similar to the one that is airing in theaters, and they had shot it with their friends on the Red Cam, which is what they shot the film on and all the effects shots in the trailer were finished. So we got to see what it really was going to look like, and that was pretty amazing and made things so much easier because we really didn’t have to stretch our imaginations too far as some people have to do in these films when they don’t necessarily know what the monster is going to look like.

So they made it very real for us, before we even started shooting and that was a huge advantage for everyone in the cast.

Most of our readers would probably know you from your role as Charlie’s brother Liam from Lost, can you tell us what you perceive as the differences between working in a medium such as film compared to television?

Its not as different as it probably use to be because television has become a lot more film-like, and of course a lot of stuff on cable has become very cinematic and that is a good thing. I feel television right now is where its at, in terms of story, writers, directors everyone wants to come to TV and they are. So there is not a huge difference anymore, the biggest difference though is scheduling.

A prime-time hour long show usually shoot in 8 days and a half an hour show they usually shoot in 5 days and I just worked on a show that shot 30 pages in 3 days which was pretty insane. Television works really fast, but so does independent film and Skyline was produced totally independently and shot on a pretty tight schedule.

So the lines are blurring I think, especially from an acting standpoint; cause I feel the content in TV is strong if not stronger than a lot of films out there.

What was it like working with the Strause Brothers this is their second feature, with their first being Alien vs. Predator: Requiem?

It was great working with the Strause Brothers, they are really good guys, completely down to earth and young. They know their shit and they know what they are doing and it was exciting working with directors who had such a clear vision ahead of time about what they wanted.

The did the film their way, they financed it themselves and I really think they are also going to reap the rewards and already are for taking that risk. I think they have huge careers ahead of them as directors, not just effects guys and they carved their own path which is pretty inspiring.

I heard the sequel has already been announced before the first film has even been released.

It has, which is so funny because of how fast things can happen. Because you spend so much time in this business getting bogged down and things get stalled, there are a lot of false starts in this business getting something off the ground can take years.

So it was refreshing to work on a project that got turned around this quickly.