Eleven-year-old Daryl Sabara began performing at the age of four with a professional ballet company. The three "Spy Kids" films comprise his major screen credits, though he contributes additional voices to the forthcoming "Finding Nemo". In his spare time he composes music.
Was there more pressure on you this time around, shouldering pretty much the whole film?
I thought it was a lot more fun because I got to do all my own stunts on this movie. I actually went through some intense physical training - for four months, four hours a day, six days a week - with running, weightlifting, jumping and obstacle courses. It was pretty intense but fun. And it got me buff, so you can't complain too much about that.
Are you a video games player yourself?
I play millions of video games, and given the fact that Robert [Rodriguez] has video games on set, that makes it more convenient. But I can't really play all the teenage, mature games. I like to keep it simple.
How is it for you, working against a green screen and having to imagine all the stuff around you?
Your imagination has to run wild. Since we have the green screen we don't see anything but green. Robert just draws a picture and tells us this is what he thinks the scene is going to look like. While we were using the green screen, we had no idea what was going on and Robert was just shouting "There's a big monster behind you!" He's right there by the camera saying all these things. And that's pretty much how we use the green screen. About 90% of the film was done in that way.
You and Alexa Vega have played brother and sister for three films now. How do you get along in real life?
I guess we are like a real brother and sister, we see each other pretty much constantly when we're doing publicity and stuff. We have our arguments but we have our good loveable moments too.
