Raven-Symone

Interview By: Andrea Tuccillo
AndreaTuccillo@TheCinemaSource.com

To an older generation, Raven Symone will always be Olivia, the cute-as-a-button little girl who charmed Bill Cosby on The Cosby Show. To today's younger Disney-obsessed generation, she's the troublemaking psychic teen Raven Baxter on the hit television show That's So Raven. She has also made a name for herself as one-fourth of the fictional pop group The Cheetah Girls (the popular franchise that paved the way for the High School Musical juggernaut) and by touring and performing her own musical material. But who is Raven, really' She's a fast-talking, funny, down-to-earth gal'a 20-year-old who lives on her own yet still calls her mom to ask permission to go out, and isn't afraid of being deemed 'family-friendly.'

This month Raven lends her bubbly effervescence to an animated character in the baseball-themed tale of perseverance, Everyone's Hero. The late Christopher Reeve was the film's originating director and executive producer and it was his spirit which inspired the film's message of succeeding against all odds. Everyone's Hero is about a young boy named Yankee Irving who goes on a journey to help his beloved namesake team win the World Series. Raven voices the young boy's friend.

'The character I play is Marty'she's a tomboy,' Raven says. 'She reminds me a lot of me when I was younger in school like 9, 10, 11 years old wearing the big pants and the skater clothes. I always thought I was such a guy.'

Raven's part in Everyone's Hero may be small, but it's significant. She certainly plays a pivotal role in the film.

'I think it's fabulous that we're encompassing the whole entire ethnic background of how baseball was back in that day,' says Raven. 'My father was very important in the film; that's one of Yankee's favorite players in the Negro League. It's great for me; I love it'especially because she's a girl too.'

The voice-over work in Everyone's Hero was different for Raven, but a welcome change of pace'especially since being off-camera means not having to worry about your appearance!

'No makeup, no hair, pajamas, and you in a room by yourself,' she says. 'Maybe once or twice they bring a camera in they only got a couple of words just to get my facial expressions, but otherwise it was freedom. Imagine you get to do what you love and not have any restrictions whatsoever. You can be as loud as you want, as ugly-faced as you want. It's great.'

Although Christopher Reeve never got to see his project through, the film is meant to capture his ideals and the legacy he left behind. Raven reminisces about her first memories of the legend, who proved to be a Superman on camera and off.

'Tights. I remember the tights,' she jokes.

Although as a child Raven was more interested in watching Flip Wilson and Lucille Ball than watching superheroes fly, she still made time to watch the Superman movies with her father. But it was Christopher Reeve's off-screen presence that impressed her even more than his super alter ego.

'I think it was more of him and not his characters that I identified with,' she says. 'He always stressed the importance of hero and being ok with yourself and overcoming your difficulties especially when he took his turn in his life. Some people go crazy like, 'Oh my goodness my hair color is awful!' What's wrong with you' Look at the world and what you could be going through. And Christopher Reeve made it seem in a sense so easy because he understood that that is what had to happen to him and he has to just make good with what it is. And I think that's a lesson that all people can get through and an underlining one in Everyone's Hero.'

So who is Raven's hero' 'I can't say just one person because every day I meet someone that has risked something or has given something up in their life and I admire that,' she says. 'If I pick just one then I can't do justice to the people I meet. I work with the Make a Wish Foundation and there are so many children that you just look at them everyday like'the reason I'm not going through what you're going through is because I can't handle it and you can. You're a hero to me.'

Raven herself proves to be a hero to her many young fans, and she plans to keep them satisfied whether it is through her touring (she has been selling out small venues all around the country) or her movies (next up is a Disney fairytale called Tinker Bell, starring Lucy Liu and Brittany Murphy). Raven doesn't seem satisfied unless the room is sprinkled with laugher. Her amazing sense of humor begs the question: is she ever not funny' Of course, she responds the best way she knows how'with a joke.

'I don't like to touch that sad place,' she says. 'I don't like to internalize my feelings. I go to a psychiatrist for that. Child stars, I swear. We need a psychiatrist.'

It seems like she's doing just fine.