A Visit To The Set of Disney’s New Film Alexander And The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.

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Last year I had the amazing opportunity to attend a set visit for the upcoming Disney Film Alexander And The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. The film stars Jennifer Garner and Steve Carell as the parents of Alexander. While on the set we got to chat with Alexander himself (Ed Oxenbould) and Jennifer Garner who plays Alexander’s mom.

The film is based on the book of the same name published in 1972. It was written by Judith Viorst, illustrated by Ray Cruzand inspired by Viorst’s sons Alexander, Anthony and Nicholas.With more than 2 million copies in print, it became an ALA Notable Children’s Book and won a George G. Stone Center Recognition of Merit, a Georgia Children’s Book Award, and distinction as a Reading Rainbow book. It now comes to life in this amazing big screen adaptation.

If you’re not familiar with the story, here is a little synopsis of the film:

Disney’s “Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day” follows the exploits of 11-year-old Alexander (Ed Oxenbould) as he experiences the most terrible and horrible day of his young life—a day that begins with gum stuck in his hair, followed by one calamity after another. But when Alexander tells his upbeat family about the misadventures of his disastrous day, he finds little sympathy and begins to wonder if bad things only happen to him. He soon learns that he’s not alone when his mom (Jennifer Garner), dad (Steve Carell), brother (Dylan Minnette) and sister (Kerris Dorsey) all find themselves living through their own terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. Anyone who says there is no such thing as a bad day just hasn’t had one.

As you can see Jennifer Garner’s character was having a very bad day when we came to visit on set. We were lucky as Dick Van Dyke also happened to be shooting his cameo in the film that day. It was an honor to meet a living legend like him.

They were shooting inside of one of the last remaining book stores here in Los Angeles and when they took a break from filming we chatted with Jennifer about why she wanted to be a part of this film and more.

Did you grow up with this book? Or were you very familiar with the Book?

JENNIFER GARNER:

I have known about the book my whole life. my whole life. When I was little, I wanted to be a children’s book librarian and a children’s book author. I really truly did. You can ask my school librarian from Oakwood Elementary. I could pretty recite it to you.

Is that, is that what made you really want to be a part of this film? The love of the book?

JENNIFER GARNER:

Without a doubt. It’s awesome. I mean bringing a kid’s book to life to me there is nothing better, and to do it with Steve Carell. And for Disney. They’re so amazing. It’s been kinda dreamy.

That’s some great hair you have?  Can you explain the helmet hair?

JENNIFER GARNER:

The helmet hair is that I go to work, we’re  clearly we’re having a bad day. And I go to work and something has happened with the book that I am in charge of launching. Instead of saying get ready to jump on the party, it says get ready to dump on the potty. And I have to stop Dick Van Dyke from saying it out loud. So there’s no car available, so I borrow someone’s bike and I ride so hard that when I get here I have helmet hair. It’s perfectly awful in addition to being a terrible, horrible, very bad day. Yes, a terrible, horrible, very bad hair day.

What are some things you do when you have a terrible, horrible bad day?

JENNIFER GARNER:

You know when you wake up and everybody just kind of is going nuts at the same time? Luckily I live in LA, so you just go outside. You have to go outside. You have to change the energy, get out of the house. Do something even it’s raining. It doesn’t matter. Just, just toss ‘em out and close the door and lock it. That’s what I do.

What’s it like working with Steve Carell?

JENNIFER GARNER:

Working with Steve has been, you know, a dream come true. You want people that you’ve looked up to forever to be as great as you imagine they’re gonna be and he surpasses that in every way.

After we finished chatting with Jennifer Garner we chatted with Ed Oxenbould who plays Alexander. He’s from Australia so we were very curious of what his experience was like living in the states and playing the role of Alexander.

Is it very hard to do an American accent? We know you’re from Australia.

ED OXENBOULD:

It’s just a basic, LA accent. It’s just a bit as everyone is saying, it’s a bit lazy. That’s what everyone says. It’s pretty much it. It’s not great.

Did you know this story when you signed on to do this movie?

ED OXENBOULD:

I had heard of the book. I’d never read it, but I had actually seen parodies of it in a “MAD Magazine.” That’s actually where I’d first heard of it, and now I’ve read it a couple of times, and yeah, it’s a little bit different from the book, and there’s not much to make a movie out of, like, ten pages. But, yeah. It’s pretty true to the book.

Can you relate to the character?

ED OXENBOULD:

Yeah. I can. ‘Cause it’s kind of about a family that doesn’t really listen to him, and that’s kind of my family as well. I’m in trouble now.

What’s been your favorite part of making this film, so far?

ED OXENBOULD:

Uh, the other day,  I had to do a stunt, and there was no stunt double, so I had to light something on fire,  like, a big periodic table, and it just went up in flames. Which is really fun You know? A little bit dangerous, but it was fun.

It was a very fun day for me to have the opportunity to visit the set. Looking forward to seeing the completed film!

Check out the trailer for the film below:

For more info on the film…

Like ALEXANDER on Facebook: Facebook.com/DisneyAlexander and Follow ALEXANDER on Twitter: @DisneyPictures.

ALEXANDER AND THE TERRIBLE, HORRIBLE, NO GOOD, VERY BAD DAY opens in theaters October 10th!