CBS's "The Promised Land"

Boxtop presents

May 22, 1998

Actor Austin O’Brien discusses his role on the CBS series “The Promised Land”.

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Speaker: Talk City Presents in association with BoxTop Live (tm) welcomes you to tonight's Feature Presentation. Tonight, we welcome Austin O'Brien, from the hit television series “The Promised Land”.

Mysterygirl: Austin, welcome to Talk City! You've proven yourself versatile in film and TV work. How does being on a regular series compare to the other work you've done?

AustinO: It's a totally different world! In film you don't really have a finished date that you have to be done by, so you have more time to work on it. With TV you have a date that you have to be finished, and it's all crammed into 8 days to be done. It's more stressful with TV, but it's also a challenge, and lots of fun!

Lindsey1: What character did you play in Apollo 13 and what was it like to be able to work w/ Tom Hanks and Ron Howard?

AustinO: My character actually got cut out of the movie, but I was the whiz kid, talking about the shuttle going up, and how at any time it could blow up if something went wrong - I was sitting right behind the wives of the astronauts. I didn't get to work with Tom Hanks, but I got to work with Ron Howard, and he was great to work with - three cameras working at one time. An incredibly nice, talented guy.

Ogy: I know you were a model before you acted. Just how did you get involved in acting. Did you always want to do that?

AustinO: I did model just once - a little ad for a Japanese spread. But I was actually involved with acting at that time as well, with commercials. From there I kept doing commercials and then got into film. I've been doing it since I was four years old, and I love it. My next door neighbors were in the business, and they thought my sister, brother and I looked 'cute' for the business. They sent some pictures to an agency, and they started sending us out on stuff. I loved the creative experience of it, and just grew with it.

Kris23: Does your family approve of your acting? Do they help out?

AustinO: Yes, actually, my family is my biggest support group, which has been really cool for me. It can be really easy in the acting business to lose your grip on who you are and what you stand for. They've kept me level-headed, and supported me in what I wanted to do. They took me to auditions, they help me run lines and stuff - nobody's jealous or anything like that. We just stick by each other It's been really, really cool. (smiling)

Suer: Are you still in school? Are you going to go to college? What is your favorite subject?

AustinO: Yes, I'm still in school. I'll be a senior in high school next year. I'm thinking about where I want to go to college, I'm not sure yet. I'm thinking of a large range of subjects, maybe something involved with music and business. Or something in the sciences. My favorite subjects now are math and biology.

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