as Rachel Kramer

Released on February 3, 2012
Directed by Ken Kwapis
Written by Jack Amiel, Michael Begler,
Also starring John Krasinski, Ted Danson, Dermot Mulroney, Kristen Bell, Vinessa Shaw
Genre: Drama/ Romance
MPAA Rating: PG for Language

The amazing true story that inspired the world and captured the hearts of millions. When a family of whales is trapped by rapidly forming ice in the Arctic Circle, a small-town reporter (Krasinski) and an animal-loving volunteer (Barrymore) rally an unlikely coalition of Alaskan natives, oil tycoons and the Russian and American military to set aside their differences and free the whales before it’s too late.

Production Images

Trailer

Facts & Trivia

• The movie was filmed under the working title “Everybody Loves Whales.”
• Much of the footage for the film was shot in and around Anchorage, Alaska. The ice scenes were filmed at Beluga Point south of Anchorage, and several scenes which in the film took place in California were actually shot on location in the Turnagain neighborhood in west Anchorage: plants native to Southern California were used to dress the houses in those scenes. Real Alaska National Guardsmen were used to play the Guardsmen in the film.
• One of the reporters shown in the movie is played by Jackie Purcell, real-life chief meteorologist for KTUU-NBC Channel 2 in Anchorage, Alaska – the station for which Adam Carlson, John Krasinski’s character, works in the film.

Quotes From Drew

On filming his audition tape
I was making a film in North Carolina with Chloe Moretz and Blake Lively. One night, we did karaoke at Blake’s house. I was just singing and they were like, ‘Ed, aren’t they going to make ‘Les Mis’? Shouldn’t you try auditioning?’ A couple of nights later, I was in a trailer. It was a night shoot, about 2:00 in the morning. I sat procrastinating and I was like, why not give it a shot? Dressed as a cowboy with a limp, I sat in my trailer and filmed myself with my iPhone singing ‘Empty Chairs at Empty Tables.’ I did it three or four times and then took the role of a director and cut all the crap ones.

On Hugh Jackman
Hugh was such a bastion and leader on this film. For everything he had to go through, he never had a complaint.

About Samantha Barks singing ‘On My Own’
When she sang that song, it broke my heart. There was something that she did in that song. I remember I was with Danny Cohen, the cinematographer. Samantha had to sing in the rain again and again. She was shivering.
There’s a moment when she has sung her huge last note. She has her head into her chest and she goes, ‘I love him,’ and her head comes up. It’s like she finds the thought. It is when her head is almost away from the camera.
All of us behind the monitors went, ‘Oh.’ There was still that chill in our arms. I remember Danny saying, ‘I wish more film actors would realize the strength of keeping your head away from the camera sometimes.’ This moment of her, hidden, and then coming up broke my heart.

On filming the sewer scene
Tom kept saying it was chocolate. I guarantee you it wasn’t chocolate. It was a mixture of very cold water, mud and clay. I couldn’t complain because Hugh Jackman had to carry me through all that stuff.

On his favorite character in Les Mis.
I first saw the play when I was 7 and I just thought Gavroche was a total rock star. I actually wanted to be him and then when I the read the script, performed Marius, and watched the film, I still wanted to be him.

On the difference between himself and Marius
I’ve always found Eponine to be very sexy.

On working with Tom Hooper before Les Misérables
After reading for Elizabeth I, I was stopped at the door and Tom asked if I could ride a horse and I said “yes.” Next thing you know, I was in Lithuania with 40+ men galloping on horses. I’m in spurs on a huge stallion behind Helen Mirren, who’s in a rather large, opulent dress. I thought to myself, “At what point do I admit I wasn’t totally telling the truth?” Within a few moments, Tom picked up a big speaker and shouted, “Redmayne you’re a bloody liar!” And so then during Les Misérables, he asked, “Can you actually sing?” And of course, somehow I ended up on a giant horse waving a huge flag [in Les Misérables]. [I’m] only assuming it was payback.

Character Quotes

Adam: Rachel, I’d like you to meet Fred.
Rachel: Hi Fred!
Adam: [second whale pops up] … and Wilma.
Rachel: Good morning, Wilma! You’re beautiful!
Adam: [third whale, the baby, comes up] And this, is Bam Bam!
Rachel: Hi Bam Bam! Wait… wasn’t Pebbles Fred and Wilma’s kid?
Adam: Yeah, but Pebbles was also a girl.

Éponine: Waiting here…

Marius: [about Cosette] Eponine, find her for me!
Éponine: What will you give me?
Marius: Anything!
Éponine: Got you all excited now, but God knows what you see in her! Aren’t you all delighted now?

Marius: In my life, there is someone who touches my life. Waiting near…
Éponine: Waiting here…

Enjolras: One more day before the storm…
Marius: Do I follow where she goes?
Enjolras: …at the barricades of freedom!
Marius: Shall I join my brothers there?
Enjolras: When our ranks begin to form…
Marius: Do I stay, and do I dare?
Enjolras: …will you take your place with me?

Marius: Oh my friends, my friends, forgive me, that I live and you are gone… There’s a grief that can’t be spoken, there’s a pain goes on and on. There’s a pain goes on and on. Empty chairs at empty tables… now my friends are dead and gone.

Marius: Oh, my friends! My friends, don’t ask me what your sacrifice was for! Empty chairs at empty tables, where my friends shall sing no more.

Marius: Here they talked of revolution. Here it was they lit the flame.
Here they sang about ‘tomorrow’ And tomorrow never came.

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