bonniegrrl | Geek Monthly profiles Wil Wheaton

(photo by Bonnie Burton)

I recently interviewed actor, author, gamer and blogger Wil Wheaton for the July 2008 issue of GEEK Monthly Magazine and thought you all would dig learning more about his books, his Secret of NIMH connection and what he's doing in the latest GTA game.

EXCERPT:

For the longest time I thought your first big acting role was in Stand by Me, but fans might be shocked to learn before that you played the mouse Martin in The Secret of NIMH!

Back then I would go with tons of other kids for different roles. I went into the audition and the director Don Bluth hired me on the spot. I remember walking back to the car where my mom was and I told her, "He wants me to come back tomorrow for the job." At that time I didn't know that with animation they record the voices first. I was excited because I thought I could watch the cartoon while I was doing the voice. I didn't know any better, I was probably eight or nine when I did the movie. It took forever for the movie to come out, and when I finally got to see it I remember being so upset that they drew my character Martin as really tubby, and he didn't look anything like me! I guess I had a husky voice as a kid. (laughs)

I had read Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH, which is an absolutely magnificent book. It should really be required reading for nine- and ten-year-olds. That actually explains the roots of my love of science fiction, because after I read that book, I knew the author's name, Robert C. O'Brien. So when his name was brought up again as another suggested book to read, I grabbed it. It was a book called Z for Zachariah. It's a post-apocalyptic story about a girl who lives in a valley and there's a global thermonuclear war. The way that the weather works in her valley, the fallout never comes in. She and her brothers and her father survive and live on a little farm. After a while they notice no one is coming into the valley anymore. So her father and brothers go to check things out and they don't come back. Some time goes by and she sees smoke on the horizon and it gets closer and closer. And eventually this dude comes in and he's got a radiation suit on, pulling a radiation wagon. The bulk of the story is finding out this guy is bad. It exposed me to post-apocalyptic fiction, which is my absolute favorite kind of science fiction. This stemmed from recognizing the author's name which wouldn't have happened if I wasn't involved in NIMH.

Read the full interview here:
Geek Monthly magazine: Wil Wheaton