Production Companies RV Camping Productions Ltd., Red Wagon Productions, IMF Internationale Medien und Film GmbH & Co. 3. Produktions KG, Intermedia Films, Relativity Media
Part of the fun of her role, Chenoweth explains, was the chance to act “big” with someone else who is playing “big.” “Probably the biggest surprise for me on this movie was having so much fun playing opposite Jeff. We had something that really worked. Plus, he’s huge, very tall. I felt so little around him. Not that I don’t always, but Jeff was so big and I just loved it. The contrast was really funny.”
Levesque’s first album went double platinum — which is not bad for a 14-year old. After finishing RV, she put the finishing touches on her follow-up album. For her, her film debut represented the ideal intersection of acting and her musical talents. All the members of the Munro family have their own MP3 players in the film and, in one memorable scene, are all off in their own musical worlds. “That scene was fun to shoot,” says Levesque, “especially since I get to act like a. complete idiot. With the earphones on, I couldn’t hear myself at all. And when you can't hear yourself, you sing much louder than you’re aware of. And that's what I was doing. People who know me as JoJo the singer, are going to be surprised. They’ll be, like...’Damn! Is she really that bad?’ But, just so you know, I sang that way on purpose.”
Hines, however, though personally proud of her singing, says she doesn’t have a particularly good voice, though she was more than willing to sing out in a way that turned out to be quite hilarious. “She picked octaves that no girl should pick,” laughs Sonnenfeld. “She was a basso profundo, rather than an alto or a soprano.”
Adds Williams: “Cheryl, when she sings, oh, man, a really deep voice. Then she changes to a normal voice and she sings in a way that's hysterical.”
This inviting blend of music and infectious laughter typified the working experience on RV, according to Daniels, for which he gives full credit to Sonnenfeld. “In his career, Barry’s worked with some of the biggest stars on some of the biggest movies. He knows the camera. He knows how to direct. He knows how to handle the egos. And with all that, he still brings a sense of fun to the project and makes us all feel how lucky we are to be doing what we do for a living. You want to come to work because Barry will say things that no other director would say to an actor — he’s so brutally honest. Like one day he called out to me after a take, ‘Jeff? Act better.’”
“He’s a strange mixture,” Daniels continues. “He’s Jewish and yet, he’s a cowboy. Robin calls him ‘The Kosher Cowboy.’” (Sonnenfeld has a fondness for cowboy hats and boots and will often even mount a saddle on the set instead of a director’s chair – though he says he has never been on a horse).
Rounding out the cast of the Munro family is Josh Hutcherson as Carl Munro, the youngest member of the family. Hutcherson, who most recently starred in Columbia Pictures’ sci-fi family film Zathura: A Space Adventure, says he enjoyed playing Carl, a character he describes as “small for his age, so he tries to make up for it by being tough and going the gangsta’ route. He listens to hardcore rap music and wears baggy clothes.”
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