Maggie & Justin Live Free on Die Hard Junket
October 29, 2007

As is often the case on DVD release press junket, the big guns who came out to promotee a film when it was released theatrically are suddenly “unavailable” when it comes time to do the DVD publicity several months later. Such was the case for Live Free or Die Hard, the fourth entry in the venerable Die Hard series, which Fox will issue on disc on Nov. 20. Bruce Willis didn’t make it to the early November promotional gathering at New York’s Ritz Carlton Hotel, nor did director Len Wiseman (who may have been busy preparing the third installment in his vampires vs. werewolves epic Underworld), but in their place, the DVD press got a chance to spend a few minutes with Live Free or Die Hard co-stars Maggie Q and Justin Long!

The pair, it seems, have grown quite close and appear to enjoy promoting the film together, having traveled the world for the theatrical publicity this past summer, and now the hoping around the U.S. for the DVD release.

Several movie-themed message boards and blogs are linking the two together romantically, but I don’t think that’s the case—the two young stars just really, really like each other’s company.

Sitting around a junket table with other journalists and their microcassette recorders, Maggie and Justin joined us and began joking, giggling, smirking and relating cutesy stories as they spoke over each other and created havoc for writers who have to decipher the mess when we play it back! Sifting through the audio detritus, I found that the most memorable thoughts to emerge from the session didn’t concern the film, but other, funnier subjects. Here’s a couple of such moment from the two, who may very well be planning to bring the “Maggie & Justin Show” on the road:

Let’s starting with Maggie, relating tales of her Asian fanbase:

“I received an email from a sweet girl who runs my fan club in Asia, and she told me how everyone in Asia hates me because I’ve forgot where I’m from and that I only speak English now. I’m not even from Asia—I’m from the U.S. and English is my first language!! I had to learn Chinese for all the movies I did in China!!”

And then there’s Justin, speaking of his early roles in the Jeepers Creepers series:

“The Jeepers Creepers movies are so cultish, it’s out of control. I could do, like Gone with the Wind with Cate Blanchett, and it would piss off fans of those movies because they thing I should only being doing horror movies. I get a lot of ‘When are they gonna make Part Three?’ questions from those people all the time. Meanwhile, I’m in a video store the other day with Maggie and I see that Jeepers Creepers, the first one and the second one, are offered in a combo-pack for, like, $5.99! I mean, does that mean that they’re classics?!?”

Posted by Laurence Lerman on October 29, 2007 | Comments (0)