'Night At The Museum' Is Heaven For Gugino
When actress Carla Gugino was a girl, she said she would go to museums and think about what would happen if the displays came to life. What would they say if she got a chance to talk to them? So when she read the script for the new movie, "Night at the Museum," she said "eager to sign on.
"I was blown away by sort of the magic of it and heart-fullness of it — in addition to the fact it's hilarious," she told The Early Show co-anchor Hannah Storm.
"Night at the Museum" stars Ben Stiller as a hapless nigh security guard at the Museum of Natural History in New York. He is forced to contend with the chaos that ensues when the displays awaken and take over the museum at night.
"So much was improvisation," Gugino said, "and for me, it's just heaven on earth with him (Stiller) because he improvises from a character standpoint so you get to go to town together and find great stuff. The only sad thing is some of Ben is not in the movie — but a lot of Ben is."
Gugino plays a history student named Rebecca who is obsessed with the Indian guide Sacagawea, who led explorers Lewis and Clark across the United States in the early 19th century. Interestingly, when Gugino was a child, she underwent serious kidney operation — after which she and her mother lived in a teepee for about six months.
"My mom wanted to go somewhere in nature together and a friend of ours had this real Indian teepee," she said. "She erected it, and we had two twin beds and a fire pit in the middle. As a kid, it was dreamy."
The special effects used in "Night at the Museum" are also dreamy and surreal. Sacagawea comes alive. Dinosaurs run rampant around the museum. Owen Wilson, who plays a miniature cowboy, comes to life and can fit in the palm of Stiller's hand. Gugino said her experience on the "Spy Kids" movies helped her with working the cinematic magic.
"One of the things that I learned from 'Spy Kids' specifically, was that when you work with kids they have an amazing imagination," she said. "They don't look at it like a limitation; they imagine whatever they want to. I think Ben is genius with it in this movie. You believe everything is around him."
Gugino is also working in an off-Broadway performance of the classic Tennessee Williams Play, "Suddenly Last Summer," also starring Blythe Danner. Taking on such an acclaimed play written by one of America's most celebrated playwrights was a daunting experience, Gugino said, and initially, she was hesitant to accept the role.
"I didn't realize until later that I was absolutely terrified that I wouldn't be able to go there, but it's one of the most incredible roles I have played," she said. "Every performance I find something new."
