Movieline caught up with Fisher (who has a recurring role on Showtime's Shameless) to discuss Battle: Los Angeles, his one-time brush with Charlie Sheen, and other highlights of his fast-developing career as he was literally making his way back home to Vancouver for his biggest job to date -- playing the ancient Romanian vampire Vladimir in Bill Condon's The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn. How much can you discuss during a car ride to the airport?
Pfc. Lenihan is a character so young and so green that we really feel for him when he's deployed and even more when he's separated from his unit. How difficult was it for you to get into the skin of a young soldier in this position, alien enemies aside?
I try to do the same thing with every character that I play, and that's to do some research and really just try and live in their skin. We were really lucky that we had Jonathan [Liebesman] as a director because he worked so well with Chris Bertolini who wrote this great script, and they basically let us take a lot of moments, bring whatever we could bring or felt in the moment. That was really freeing in terms of getting to that place of fear.
Getting ready for this film taught me a number of things; I mean, the boot camp was a really big learning experience just in terms of the conditions that our armed services work in. I have a massive amount of respect for how insanely difficult of a job they have. There's so much... just the kind of equipment that they carry, I think one of the Marines told me, is something like 60-70 lbs. Just all the time, on them. Our stuff was not real, a lot of it, but even that mentality -- we were lucky that everybody on this movie wanted to make it really realistic. That helped get into the whole mindset, because we were tired, we were stressed out, from the circumstances of making a movie like this there were a lot of physical demands. And it added a lot to the experiences and the performances, I think.
In your research, did you speak with anyone in the armed forces who was your age or younger?
I actually lived in a building with a guy who was an American soldier who ended up doing some U.N. missions in, I believe, the Bosnia conflict, and he talked to me about just being in firefights and what that's like. That was really helpful.
You also played a soldier before on The Pacific. Did preparing for that role help you on Battle: Los Angeles?
I did an episode of The Pacific, and I had not a huge part in it so my boot camp was very small. But I still got to spend a lot of time with the team that was there in Australia and gained a lot of insights, kept in touch with them. So that was interesting to hear.
You bring a wonderful fragility to Lenihan in Battle: Los Angeles, whose fear and inexperience underscores how young he and the other soldiers being sent into battle really are.
Thank you! That's what I was going to. I wanted to make you care -- I think that's what this movie was trying to do, make you care about these people. It's not even so much a sci-fi movie in a lot of ways. At least when we were shooting it, it felt very much like a war movie.
In addition to Shreveport you also filmed in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, which is also where you recently shot part of Breaking Dawn, isn't it?
Yes! Louisiana is a really fun place to shoot. The people in Louisiana -- I had to spend another two months there for Breaking Dawn -- they're just so friendly! I was staying at the Hilton downtown in Baton Rouge and all the people that worked there remembered all the boys from Battle: Los Angeles. They welcome you back home, like family.
And as we speak you're now literally on your way to Vancouver, your home town?
Born and raised! And this is the first time since I moved to Los Angeles that I've gotten to go back home for work, which is going to be nice. I've just never booked anything that's worked out of Vancouver. It's a nice way to go home!
Does that mean you get to bring your cast mates over to your parents' home for house parties and show them around town?
[Laughs] I've been asked for some good restaurant locations and stuff like that, so hopefully I won't disappoint.
Your character in Breaking Dawn is an ancient Romanian vampire. What was your approach to the character of Vladimir when you auditioned?
I read the book, re-watched the movies. I watched some other vampire movies and really tried to immerse myself in the Twilight world and this idea of being so ancient. I play a vampire that's very old.
It seems as though this kind of character would offer a new challenge especially to a young actor, in that you get to play a very, very old soul. Vladimir has been around for centuries and has even ruled the vampire world.
Again, the script was done in a really great way, and Stephenie [Meyer] wrote the characters in a great way so that they are quite different from the rest of the vampires we've seen. They come from a much more vicious, kind of ruthless period of time. He's been a lot of fun to play.
Vladimir has a Romanian vampire buddy, Stefan. Is it fair to call them hetero vampire life partners, a la Jay and Silent Bob?
Yes! Well, they're kind of brothers in arms, that's how I would describe it. They're the only two remaining Romanian vampires left, I believe, so they are kind of brothers in their need for vengeance and that's what keeps us going.
Your character, Vladimir, interacts a bit with the Renesmee character in Breaking Dawn, who's played by Mackenzie Foy --
Who is awesome, by the way. She is fantastic. She's just a beautiful little soul, and she's going to be awesome. I can't wait for everyone to get to meet her.
Was green screen or CG involved in your scenes together?
I can't tell you. My lips are sealed! I wish I could. You call me back in a year and I'll tell you all about it.
Fair enough. What's Bill Condon like to work with, and how do his sensibilities as a director mesh with the material?
I think it's a perfect fit. Bill Condon is obviously just an amazingly talented director and working with him has really been... I don't want to be tacky, but it is very much an awe-inspiring experience. He's got this massive cast and he is so energized and so loving what he's doing. He will take time; if you don't have a single line in the scene, he is so happy to take time and talk with you about where your character's at and what's going on. He's really happy to be doing what he's doing, and that's one of the greatest things. I think that's the mark of a good director, in a lot of ways. It was the same with Jonathan Liebesman on Battle: Los Angeles. He's just a big kid, but the movie is very much like a bunch of kids getting to play. It's a bunch of guys running around in Marines costumes with rifles and stuff, and it's like the games you played as a 12-year-old boy but with way, way better props.
You've been acting for a while and have many credits under your belt in television and film, but there's one in particular I have to ask about. What do you recall of your episode guest-starring on Two and a Half Men?
[Laughs] Yes, with Megan Fox! That was a long time ago. You know, I had nothing but a good experience on that.
Was there any indication back then of the type of behavior that led to Charlie Sheen's eventu
al meltdown [known around Movieline HQ as Sheenpocalypse]?
Everyone on the set was really gracious and really friendly with me. Jon Cryer was so wonderful and so was Charlie. Everyone was just really friendly. So that was a positive experience -- and it was the only sitcom I've ever done.
You're 26 years old, but you have this ability to play teenage characters. Does that give you more freedom to pursue a wider range of roles, or do you find that it limits you in ways?
I do very much have a baby face. I've been very fortunate with the projects that I've gotten to work on. I've played very young roles, and right now I'm playing a 3,000+ year-old vampire. So there's a nice big range of things. That's one of the main things I enjoy about acting. I'm not forcing anything; I think other roles will come as they come. I'm just trying to enjoy the parts I get to do now, and the other ones I'll enjoy then. That's part of the beauty of growing older, and I'm looking forward to that. The main thing for me is that I just want to play in parts that I'm really excited about. I'm also doing a recurring role on Shameless, and he is a completely different, crazy character who's also different from Lenihan in Battle: Los Angeles, who is also so different from Vladimir in Twilight. That's one of my favorite things about my job. I get to explore as many parts of the human condition as I possibly can.
To that point, I saw you a few years back in a segment in the indie film After Sex, in which you play a young man struggling to come to terms with his feelings for another man.
Oh, yes! That was one of the first jobs I ever booked in Los Angeles. That was great.
There were a lot of intense emotions to play in that one short segment.
Yes, and that's thanks to some really beautiful writing from the writer-director. That was fantastic. It was a good welcome to Los Angeles.
How long have you been in Los Angeles?
I've been here on and off for six years or so. I did my first move in 2002, the year I graduated high school. Maybe 2003. I came back and forth for a couple of years, between Los Angeles and Vancouver, and then I kind of made it more permanent when I booked the pilot of The Riches. That was kind of the beginning of specific roots in Los Angeles. So, since The Riches. That's when I really got to stay.
And what are you looking forward to after you finish filming Breaking Dawn?
I just heard that Shameless got picked up for a second season, so hopefully I'll get to come back and play with them again. I actually moved down to Los Angeles with Justin Chatwin, who's one of the leads on that, so it's really fun to go to work with my old roommate! Small world. Very small world. We lived together for two or three years. He's one of my best friends, and I get to work with him.