Source: MyFoxLA.com

James Marsden is having one of the most unusual years for a leading man in some time. We asked the star of this Fall’s Straw Dogs remake about making the transition from acting opposite a CGI rabbit to a gang of bloodthirsty rednecks

Here’s a hypothesis: No leading man in the long history of cinema has ever starred in two more outrageously opposite movies in a single year than James Marsden. First movie of 2011: Hop, a zany Easter flick for kids in which he stars alongside a tiny CGI bunny. The second: Straw Dogs, a remake of Sam Peckinpah’s ultraviolent home-invasion rape-and-kill-fest, in which Marsden burns off James Woods’s face with a pot of scalding hot water. “I made Straw Dogs first,” he says, “and now I think you know why I did Hop. I needed to do some goofy pratfalls and talk to a rabbit for a few months.”

In the 1971 Straw Dogs, Dustin Hoffman played David, a nebbishy mathematician who goes Seal Team Six on a pack of local lowlifes after they rape his wife. Marsden’s rakishly handsome David? A “Hollywood screenwriter.” This isn’t the only break with the original, and Marsden, 37, is already bracing for the critique that sanding away Peckinpah’s more provocative sexual politics leaves nothing more than an exploitative southern-gothic bloodbath.

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James Marsden had a pretty good weekend. HOP, the new family film, opened last Friday and came in number one at the box office. Besides starring in films like Hairspray and Enchanted, Marsden is busy raising his ten-year-old boy and five-year-old daughter making doing a family film like this a pretty sweet treat. He recently sat down with a group of mommy bloggers to discuss Hop, Easter and of course the Easter Bunny.

What were some of your favorite Easter traditions growing up or with your family now? What are you going to do?

James Marsden: We did the normal traditions. We did Easter Eve, we never called it that, but the night before, we would die eggs and paint them. We didn’t do anything outlandish or too different than most. We would wake up and the baskets and the candy would be there and we would have a hunt in the backyard, which always ended up in a fight, by the way.

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James Marsden’s new comedy, “Hop,” is a blend of state-of-the-art animation with live action. The actor, who continues to carve out a distinctive place in Hollywood with both comedic and dramatic roles, plays a 30-something out-of-work slacker named Fred who is trying to pull his life together. After he accidentally runs over E.B. (Russell Brand), the Easter Bunny’s son, while driving in Hollywood, the two develop an unusual friendship that leads Fred to discover his real purpose in life.

James sat down with us recently at a press conference in Los Angeles to talk about his new movie. He told us how he prepared for the role, what it was like working with improvisational comedian Russell Brand, and why it was challenging to shoot a film with a rabbit as his co-star. He also described how he celebrates the Easter holiday tradition with his children and why he made this film for them.

Q: You got to spend some time watching Russell do his recording sessions, how did that inform your performance and did it help being able to see what he was doing?

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A hyper-energized CG bunny voiced by Russell Brand may flit maniacally around James Marsden almost constantly in this week’s live-action/animated Easter adventure Hop, but it’s very much Marsden’s moment to shine. As Fred, a 30-year-old loser still searching for direction, the Oklahoma-born actor plays straight man to Brand’s rambunctious teenage rabbit in a PG-rated film filled with gleaming candy factories and Cute Overload-ready characters. He’s come quite a long way, and deliberately so, from his role as a disturbed husband pushed to the brink of violence in the upcoming Straw Dogs remake.

Such a drastic change of pace was necessary for mental well-being, Marsden says, but Hop also marks a few key milestones in the actor’s career: It’s his biggest leading role to date and establishes him as an actor capable of broad, slapsticky, crowd-pleasing comedy. And after struggling against typecasting early in his career — he pegs it around his X-Men days, interestingly enough — Marsden’s right where he wants to be, fast-accumulating a reputation for versatility to go with those pesky good looks.

The candid and jovial Marsden phoned Movieline to talk about cleansing the palate with Hop, battling narrow industry perceptions, the possibility of donning Cyclops’ suit once more for future X-Men films, his heartbreak over David O. Russell’s still-unfinished comedy Nailed, and how close he is to sealing the deal to play Larry in the Farrelly Brothers’ Three Stooges film. And why exactly was 27 Dresses so important to him?

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I’ve also uploaded 9 HQ photos from the show to the gallery.

GALLERY LINK:
Public Appearances > 2011 Appearances >[2011.03.31]”Late Night with Jimmy Fallon” (HQ)

In the family comedy Hop, actor James Marsden plays Fred, a 30-year-old on a directionless path, who is trying to pull his life together. His family keeps telling him to grow up, but Fred knows that he is destined for something great. Then, he meets E.B. (voiced by Russell Brand), the teenage son of the Easter Bunny who also happens to be next in line for the coveted position, but who wants to give it all up in pursuit of his dream to become a drummer. The presence of E.B. brings back memories from when Fred was a little boy and saw E.B.’s dad delivering his Easter basket early one morning, and he soon realizes that his calling just might be the thing that E.B. is running from.

At the film’s press day, James Marsden talked about acting opposite a bunny that wasn’t there, developing the dynamic and chemistry with Russell Brand that was necessary to bring their performances to life, the fact that he is a bit of a perpetual child like Fred, and that the film shows the importance of following your dream and finding your passion in life, even if that’s becoming the Easter Bunny. Check out what he had to say after the jump:

Question: Was doing the live-action with the animation the toughest thing you’ve had to do so far?

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ComingSoon.net has talked with Jimmy at the press junket for “Hop”, and here is the full interview.

ComingSoon.net: So, yes, this is going to be just like talking to a rabbit.
James Marsden: Exactly. Without the British accent.

CS: I can do a British accent if that’s throwing you off.
Marsden: Actually, I think I’ve had my fill of that. (Laughs)

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James Marsden has joked that a few nights out on the town helped him prepare for his new children’s film.

The actor voices a dog called Diggs in Cats And Dogs: The Revenge Of Kitty Galore, and he explained: “I would start planning these voice sessions for early in the morning because my voice was sleepy and lower.”

“It worked better for the physicality of the dog, rolling out of bed. I made sure I had a rough night the night before, a couple of scotches, then three hours later I rolled out and did some good work!” he teased.Joking aside, the former Versace model revealed he wanted to make the family-friendly film for his nine-year-old son, Jack, and four-year-old daughter, Mary.

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