- Welcome to a special edition
of "Behind the Scenes of The Waltons."
Today, I'm talking with Marcelle LeBlanc,
the adorable young actress
who played the role of Mary Ellen
in the recent remake of "The Homecoming."
And she took some time out
so we could sit and talk about "The Homecoming"
and playing the character of Mary Ellen.
Yeah, so how's it been?
I did a little overview
for my YouTube channel,
letting people know it was gonna be on,
and encouraging them to give it a look,
and try not to look at it as a copy,
but just as its own show. - Right.
- And I said, "Think of it as Walton cousins or something."
(Judy laughs) - Yes.
I like that analogy.
I like that analogy a lot.
When we were making it,
obviously we took some liberties
and we made it our own,
and we didn't do an exact copy of the original "Homecoming,"
'cause it almost would have been wrong for us
to do an exact copy of the original "Homecoming,"
because it was so incredible and brilliantly done,
and is so loved.
It would have been wrong of us to just completely redo it,
because that's already there.
So we wanted to take it and make our own spin on it,
and do something new to it,
to help bring the Waltons to a newer generation,
which I'm really excited about.
And I know that a bunch of people came up to me,
and they were like, "I know 'The Waltons,'
"my grandparents watch that show,"
or, "I know 'The Waltons,' my parents watch that show.
"And when I was a little kid,
"it would always be playing when I was in the house,
"but I was never really aware of what it was.
"And now that you're in it,
"I've gone back and watched the original series
"and been aware of it.
"And I love it, and I'm so excited for you guys."
So it's been really great to bring the Waltons
to an entire new generation that didn't even know about it.
And now they know about it,
so everybody is getting to love it now,
just as much as we do, and as I'm sure you guys do.
- Had you seen the original "Homecoming" movie
before you did this one?
- When I got my audition,
I remember looking at the breakdown,
and I was like, "Mom, why does this sound so familiar?"
And my mom started losing her mind.
She was like, "Oh, my gosh, they're redoing 'The Waltons!'"
And I was like, "What do you mean?"
And she looked at me, and she went,
"You know, the 'Goodnight, John Boy,
"'goodnight, Mary Ellen, goodnight, Jim Bob?'"
I was like, "Yeah, of course."
And she was like, "That's 'The Waltons.'"
And was like, "Oh, my gosh!
"I can't believe I'm auditioning for that!"
So I was so excited.
And then, when I was cast as Mary Ellen,
I was like, "Oh, well I'm going and watch it now."
And then, our first rehearsal,
the creative team sat us down, and was like,
"If you have not already,
"do not watch the original 'Homecoming'
"or the original series."
And we were all confused.
We were like, "Why wouldn't we watch the original series?
"I mean, we're recreating 'The Waltons,'
"why wouldn't we?"
And they told us, they were like,
"When we are done filming,
"we want you to go back and watch it,
"but while we are making it,
"we want to make sure that you are preserving
"as much of your own interpretations of these characters
"in this storyline as possible."
Because it was so iconic,
it was so easy for us to get in our heads.
I know that going into filming,
there was a lot of pressure that I had put on myself,
'cause I was like, we are recreating something
that is so iconic and that so many people know.
I want to do the best that I can,
so I was gonna go watch it to be able to do that.
But I know now, being able to watch it after,
I know if I had watched it,
and watched the series before filming,
I would've gotten so in my head.
Because I know that there is no way I will be able
to play Mary Ellen the way that you played Mary Ellen,
and I've found ways that I could bring my own interpretation
of her into the role.
- And then, did you watch it after?
- I did, and I loved it.
Oh, my goodness, it's the sweetest movie.
There's so much about it that was so needed then,
and is so needed now.
And I think that it's so special
that whether it's the original "Homecoming"
or our "Homecoming,"
there is a movie that families can sit down together
and watch together as a whole family,
and find characters that everybody can identify with.
Whether you are 80 years old or 8 years old,
you can watch "The Waltons"
and find somebody that you identify with,
or find something that you feel strongly connected to,
which is so rare in television.
So I'm just so grateful to be a part of something like that.
And when I went back and watched the original,
I just fell even more in love with the story.
- That's cool.
How did you see Mary Ellen?
What was your take on her when you read it,
and were developing the character,
and playing the scenes?
- The immediate takeaways from Mary Ellen
is how feisty she is.
I mean, she's a fighter, and she knows exactly who she is.
And that's something that I like to think
a lot of myself is,
'cause it took me a while to get to that point
of feeling like who I was was enough,
and feeling so strong about myself.
And what I admire a lot about Mary Ellen
is she is 14 years old, and she knows exactly who she is,
and she is not gonna let anybody tell her
that who she is is not okay.
And that's something that I am so grateful to be portraying
to a young audience of, especially young females,
is I know it took me a while to get to a point
where I was feeling confident in my skin
and confident in who I was,
and now, I am playing a character
where I get to portray that to everybody watching,
and that makes me just so ecstatic.
- Cool.
And are you a tomboy in real life?
- I have had my tomboy phases, for sure.
As of right now, no.
I am Miss America's
Outstanding Teen right now. - Oh, awesome.
- So I am currently in a crowns, and sashes,
and gowns era of my life. (Judy chuckles)
- Did you, because of the experience there,
in the filming, were there questions that you had
or things that you wished you had known,
or said, "Gosh, if I could just ask this question,"
or, "If I just knew this."
Were there any things like that that crossed your mind
while you were going through the process of doing it?
- I think the biggest question I had going into it,
was how much of the original story are we keeping,
and how much of the original story have we altered
and made our own?
And that was always my biggest question when filming.
'Cause I remember thinking, I was like,
"Oh, I can't wait to show this scene to a new audience."
And then, I was like, "Wait, maybe I'm not showing it
"to a new audience,
"because maybe this scene has never happened before."
'Cause I remember thinking for the longest time,
that in the original film,
Mary Ellen went to chop down the Christmas tree.
Because it was in ours,
so I just thought that that happened in the original.
And then, when I went back and watched it,
I was like, "Oh, wait, I guess not."
So that was probably my biggest question,
was just wondering how much of the story did we keep intact,
and how much of the story was altered.
- Yeah.
Yeah, I thought that was really cool.
I mean, as you saw in the original,
Mary Ellen was a very featured character in both versions.
And there were things, as I was watching the new version,
where I went, "Oh, that would've been cool.
"That would've been fun to go out
"and be involved in chopping the tree."
And I ended up with different sorts of scenes,
particularly with John Boy, with Richard,
and the stuff in the barn,
and that whole way that that side
of her inner turmoil,
and the growing pains, and the angst,
and all of that teenage stuff was all reflected more
through some of those scenes,
and her insecurities about her looks,
and all that kind of thing.
So I thought it was interesting,
the variation on how they chose
to portray those aspects
of the character. - Right
- Yeah.
But I always found her a really fun character to play.
- Oh, she- - I don't know about you-
- She is a fun character to play.
- I was not as much of a rebel in real life.
I was a wannabe rebel.
(Marcelle laughs) I wanted to be,
but I didn't like
to get in trouble. - Oh, me either.
- So I was the teacher's pet in school.
So it's like...
- I feel like I get my fill when I'm Mary Ellen.
I get my fill of rebel when I get to be Mary Ellen.
And then, I step out of that, and then, no more.
- Yeah, I love it because there
weren't the consequences. - But I get my fill of that.
I get the thrill as Mary Ellen.
(Judy and Marcelle laughing)
- I can get in all the trouble
and not really pay the price.
(Judy laughs) - Yes! (Marcelle laughs)
- Well, you are absolutely adorable as Mary Ellen.
Congratulations on that.
Now, we shot October, in the studio,
and first week of November.
So it was cold.
We were in the snow,
which made it so we were freezing
while we were filming. - Right.
- As opposed to all you. - I wish we were freezing.
- I wish so badly we were freezing. (laughs)
- So when and where, for everyone watching?
What time of year, and where were you filming,
and what was all that?
- So we were filming in Covington, Georgia in June,
so it was about 115 degrees outside
with, I mean, 1933 winter clothes is no joke.
I mean, it was wool,
and it was so, so hot.
But we had these vests under all of our clothes
where they could slip ice packs in the back of them,
so if we were outside,
I remember my first day of filming was the graveyard scene.
And when we were walking to the graveyard
and chopping down the tree,
that was all the first day of filming.
And we filmed that entire day outside,
so they were constantly changing those ice packs out.
And then, our holding tent had AC pumping through it.
So they were trying.
They did, they went above and beyond
to make sure we were not dying.
But it was very hot.
I've never experienced heat like that in my life,
and I will never take air conditioning for granted
ever again.
- Yeah, those are tough. (Marcelle chuckles)
And what about all this?
Because they did this amazing scenery with all of this snow,
so was all of the snow there fake?
How did they do that?
- So I have some pictures of it,
but there was a lot of snow sheets.
And they laid these snow sheets out for,
I think there was a certain amount of acres
where they laid them all out with closeups.
And for a majority of it,
you could see the snow on the ground.
And then, when we were filming close-ups,
they would have, obviously,
they would have fake snow falling
in front of the camera, and falling around us,
so that you could see the snow.
But then, when it came to the actual,
when we were walking into the cemetery,
and it comes up, and you see Walton's Mountain,
none of that was there.
- Okay, so that was all computer CGI?
- Yes, which, I mean, it turned out so beautiful.
I've actually had people ask me,
they were like, "So you filmed this in Canada, right?"
And I was like, "Nope, I filmed it in Georgia."
They were like, "How did you do that?
"That looks nothing like Georgia!"
But it's part of, it's what's so cool,
especially about filming stuff like that,
is that I saw the beginning of it.
I was there when I filmed the cemetery scene,
and it looked nothing like that.
But now, and it's so beautiful.
So it was really cool to see how it all turned out.
- Yeah.
Was there, and you mentioned that you're from Alabama.
- I am.
- Okay, and most of the cast
is from parts of the South, or?
- So there were three: John Boy, Olivia,
and adult John were all cast out of LA,
and then the rest of the cast,
anybody else that came on screen, was cast out of Atlanta.
So we were all, except for, I believe, Callaway.
Callaway was cast out of Atlanta,
but she's from Colorado.
- Okay.
- But we are all Southeast actors,
so all of us are very close to the Atlanta area.
- So how were those relationships,
as you built them personally and for the characters?
- I mean,
I have never experienced
a bond quite like the one that we made
on set for "The Waltons."
And I remember before filming "The Waltons,"
I had never been able to pinpoint
a favorite project I had done,
because I loved them all equally,
and I had so much fun on all of them.
And now, whenever people ask me
what my favorite project I've filmed is,
my mind immediately jumps to "The Waltons," no hesitation.
- Cool, have you heard anything,
have you been given any information
about what's happening going forward?
- Not quite yet.
We haven't been given any definites
as to what's happening going forward,
but we were able to hit a season high
in viewers for The CW, which was so incredible,
and obviously, The CW and Warner Brothers
were very excited about that,
and seeing just how well "The Waltons" was received.
Because "The Waltons" is "The Waltons,"
and they were so excited to see
that it is still just as relevant today.
So we are so excited to hopefully, fingers crossed,
move forward with it.
- For us, we shot in the '70s,
so we were still pretty far removed from,
I mean, I had no, obviously, no personal experience
of The Depression or anything like that.
Now, being this much further removed,
how was that in terms of building a sense
of the early 1930s and The Depression?
How much research or checking around?
Was it all, you felt, in the script,
or how did you address that?
How did the company and the team address that?
- So, we were actually,
a lot of the cast was given,
it's almost like a booklet about 1933,
so that we could all have a better understanding of that.
Because especially for the younger people on set,
the most that we know about 1933
is what we learned in history class.
And obviously, that is not enough information
to quite go back to that time,
and be like, "Now I'm living in 1933."
That's the biggest thing I'm curious about right now,
and anxious about,
is seeing if we were to continue,
what direction would we take that in?
And I'm really anxious to see that.
And I also know that,
and I know you know this as well,
that our executive producer has talked about wanting
to bring the original cast back in different roles.
And I would be really curious to see
how he's planning on integrating you guys.
- And I hear he said that he's gonna bring Ben back,
which I know there was a lot of-
- Yes! (Judy chuckles)
I'm very excited about that.
- A little bit of uproar about the missing Ben.
- Because our little family of six is so close,
but we are anxious to get in another one.
(Judy chuckles) I mean, I am so excited
that we are gonna bring Ben back,
'cause I remember when I got the audition,
I was like, "I feel like something's missing."
And I looked it up on IMDB,
I was like, "There's a seventh kid!
"Where's the seventh kid?"
And after hearing our executive producer talk,
he wanted to make sure that all of the characters
that he had in our movie,
had a substantial storyline,
and he didn't really,
he didn't want to have a seventh kid
that would just be there for filler lines.
Because if Ben was there,
he wanted Ben to be there and have a story,
and not just be there for the sake of having him there.
- I want to thank Marcelle
for taking time out of her schedule
to sit and talk with me.
And I'll be back
with more "Behind the Scenes of The Waltons"
and more "Ask Judy."
Thanks for watching.