Interview: Little Focker's Colin Baiocchi And Daisy Tahan

It’s time for you to meet the little Fockers, Colin Baiocchi and Daisy Tahan. The kids are the newest addition to the Meet the Parents franchise and are the focus of the third film, appropriately titled Little Fockers. Recently you might have caught Baiocchi as Kevin in Couples Retreat, the kid who took the liberty of using a model toilet in a retail store and Tahan alongside Uma Thurman in Motherhood.

Here they’re Henry and Samantha, Greg and Pam’s twins. As grandpa Jack says, Henry is the one who got a “double dose” of Focker. While Samantha is busy snooping around the house spying and maintaining a vow of silence with her father, Henry is getting into all sorts of trouble, a tendency that doesn’t work in his favor when his parents try to get him into the prestigious Early Human School. However, getting through the vomit, broken bones and some very disturbing images is no problem because at the end of the road is their massive birthday party packed with a ball pit, bouncy castle, blowup obstacles courses and much more.

Clearly snagging a role in Little Fockers is every kid’s dream and not just because it means they’ll be sharing the screen with some of the greats like Robert De Niro, Dustin Hoffman and Ben Stiller. Tahan and Baiocchi particularly like the party rides, Teri Polo’s incredible Elmo impression and their toy-packed bedroom. Check out their take on working on Little Fockers below.

You have that big birthday party in the movie. Did you get to go in the ball pit and bouncy castle?

Colin Baiocchi: Yeah, it was really fun because sometimes I’d be in between takes and at the end of the day could get to go on everything. We went on everything like five times.

What was your favorite?

Daisy Tahan: Probably the ball pit because it was so deep. I thought it was going to be pretty shallow, but I couldn’t touch my feet to the ground.

Baiocchi: I really liked the obstacle courses because there’s a dragon obstacle course and then there’s this caterpillar obstacle course. On the dragon obstacle course the top was actually open, but in the caterpillar you were inside this tube. It was really fun.

Was it weird seeing your faces on those giant balloons in the movie? Were those balloons?

Tahan: No, I think they were just like statues of our faces and that was really funny.

Who was the most fun in between takes?

Baiocchi: Definitely Teri Polo because she could imitate Elmo.

Tahan: It was kind of scary because she sounded so much like Elmo. She could be Elmo.

There are a lot of really big stars in this movie. Have you seen any of their other films?

Baiocchi: We’ve both seen Madagascar and Night at the Museum. I hadn’t heard of Dustin Hoffman, but then when we were doing reshoots and he was gonna be in it and I saw Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium.

Daisy, did you know who most of these guys were?

Tahan: I only knew who Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson were before that.

Were you allowed to see the movie with your parents?

Baiocchi: Yeah, we had a cast and crew screening and everyone from the cast and crew got to go and could invite anybody.

This is a movie about family, so of the cast, who would you want to be in your family?

Tahan: Teri, definitely.

Baiocchi: Teri and Ben probably because Ben’s just really funny and plus I really wish I had that room for real because there were these soldier guys that Daisy played with. It was so awesome.

When did you first know you wanted to be an actor and actress?

Baiocchi: I started commercials when I was two but then I got Couples Retreat and then I really wanted to continue being an actor because you get to do so many stunts and you get to do so many special effects.

Tahan: I never knew that I really wanted to be an actress, I just went for an audition one day because they asked me to and then I did modeling and then I did commercials and now I’m doing movies and TV.

What’d you think about that scene when you puke on Ben?

Baiocchi: It was not really fun ‘cause the rig that went up, it had a tear in it so when it pushed everything down, it just exploded inside my clothes. It was not funny. It was really gross.

Tahan: It smelled like real puke. It was disgusting.

What was it?

Baiocchi: It was mashed up vegetable lasagna with water in it to make it liquidy. And after the tear went, everyone was like, ‘Okay, no more puking for the rest of the movie. We’re done!’

What’s the best birthday party you’ve ever had?

Baiocchi: I’ve had a lot of birthday parties at my grandpa’s house, but I think if I had to pick your backyard or even if I had a backyard [as] big [as the one from the movie], I would love to have that birthday party because it’s got a giant bouncy castle!

Tahan: First of all, I would love to have a birthday party like the one in the movie, but my favorite birthday party was probably the one, I forget where it was, but it was at this little place where you could hold all these animals and there was this giant turtle that I got to pet.

Daisy, your character is pretty tough and doesn’t talk to her dad almost the whole movie and Colin gets scared easily. Are you guys like your characters at all?

Baiocchi: I’m really different from Henry because I don’t really get that scared, but I really like to go outside a lot. I like to do new things. Like on the rock wall at school, I’m really good at climbing it because I just go really fast.

Tahan: There’s only one thing that I’m exactly like Samantha and it’s because she spies a lot and I do that with my neighbor Alex. We just go around the neighborhood hiding behind trees and going up into the trees and just spying on people inside their windows and stuff. [Laughs]

Do you get in trouble?

Tahan: No.

Colin, did you get to keep the pet lizard?

Baiocchi: No because I have two cats, plus a fish and plus two cats that are just running around the house and that’s just not a good idea.

Can you tell us about what it’s like at school for you?

Baiocchi: I go to public school. I’m in the second grade. School is kind of easy for me. The hardest thing is learning new stuff in math. I can do one problem and then I get to hang it and I can be done with the last problem the minute the teacher flips over the paper to the back.

Tahan: It’s kind of easy because when you go away for the movies the teachers usually give you work to do with the tutor that’s on the movie set and you just do it there and then when you go back to school you’re all caught up.

Was it fun for you guys playing brother and sister?

Baiocchi: We’re actually twins. Yeah, because we get the same room, but what’s kind of funny is Daisy, her character, she actually plays with war figures. I was expecting her to play with Barbie dolls.

What do you guys think when you see yourselves on the big poster?

Baiocchi: I think I should get a million bucks.

Perri Nemiroff

Staff Writer for CinemaBlend.