Olivia Wilde Enters the Game Grid of Tron Legacy

Can you describe the experience of working within this unique world that's been created for Tron Legacy?

Olivia Wilde: It was incredible. Each day I was on the most beautiful sets, working with incredible actors and with a creative team that was really breaking many boundaries. You had the sense that each department was doing something revolutionary. For instance, the costumes were using several different types of technology that have never been used. There's the electro-luminescent lamps running through the suits - that's never been done before. They've never been able to be that flexible. We each had a battery pack on our backs so that we could be turned on from afar by a remote. So you'd be in the middle of this incredible set - like the safe house that you saw, that white room - about to start a scene and they'd say, 'turn them on,' and suddenly the suits would go 'bing!' That was extraordinary. So that was that department.

Then there was Eric Barba creating these special effects that were so incredible. There was Claudio Miranda, DP, shooting this incredibly beautiful world and Joe Kosinski, our director, who created an alternate universe unlike anything we'd ever seen. Each day felt like you were part of this movement, and this exciting revolutionary spirit and there was a sense of pride that really permeated every part of the movie.

What are the differences between working on a movie like Tron Legacy and your TV work?

Olivia Wilde: Well I went from theater to TV to film and then back to TV and then back to film. I think mixing it up is the most interesting thing to do. The most basic difference between television and film is that in television you have quite a long time to develop a character's arc. Even if you have thirteen episodes, it's quite a long time to discover who this person is. It's an interesting back and forth with the writers as well because these people control your fate. So you pick up the script for next week and you think, 'Oh my god, my character's pregnant. It's something I never thought of.' Or, 'Oh my god, I have a talent I never knew about,' or, 'Oh my gosh, there's this relationship that I never considered' It's this really odd discovery of fate and you have to know your characters so well on television that you're flexible to whatever curveball they throw at you.

In film, the script is in place beforehand, hopefully, and you have a certain amount of time with which to create this character - two hours to complete that arc. The energy that goes into a film is different because it's not a 9-5 kind of job. It's everybody on the film, from the crew to the cast, breaking their backs for a couple of months to get something made. It's a miracle any movie gets made because it's the ultimate labor of love. So they're very different. But I've had a lot of fun the past couple of years doing these films, and doing House. I've been very spoiled by good material recently. 

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