The hard gritty streets of “Dogtown” in Venice, California didn’t look like much to outsiders in the 1970s, but to a handful of teenage surfers like Stacy Peralta, Tony Alva and Jay Adams, it was the bomb. In the new movie Lords of Dogtown, we see how these three Z-Boys–mostly kids with rough home lives and rougher attitudes–revolutionized the skateboarding world, taking their aggressive, wave-riding moves to the concrete curves and becoming legendary sensations. Hollywood.com got to talk with the hot, young stars of Dogtown–as well as the original Z-Boys themselves, albeit a bit older and wiser–to discuss pool skating, fame and doggin’ it in Dogtown.
Emile Hirsch on playing Jay Adams
“He couldn’t market himself the same way as the other guys. Jay was never really into the business side of it. He was more of the skate and destroy kind…He always disliked ego and people thinking they were better than anyone else because they could do something.” (Get full story)
Victor Rasuk on playing Tony Alva
“It was weird at first and kind of nerve wracking because Tony Alva is so well known for telling people what’s on his mind. So at first I thought he was going to completely dog me, like this New York kid from the lower east side Manhattan coming to L.A. and portraying somebody as influential as him. (Get full story)
John Robinson on playing Stacy Peralta
“…he didn’t want to be like ‘Mr. Critical’, which was really nice, obviously. I met with him and basically just in talking with him and through him showing me different moves and stuff like that, it made it a lot easier for me. I think the difficulty was the action. I mean, this was such an action movie and I felt like I had to be able to at least look like I could skate…” (Get full story)
The Original Z-Boys on having their lives displayed on screen
Stacy Peralta: “It’s been a surreal experience that none of us, I mean, I think I can speak for all of us–we never expected this to happen. It’s like tearing a little bit of the fabric of the dream of our lives and stepping back and being able to relive it a little bit.” (Get full story)
