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Tinsel Korey and Booboo Stewart:
Shedding Light on Eclipse
Interviewed by Matthew Anderson
Page 2

Tinsel

"I'm an Aries, so I'm a very opinionated person," Tinsel said of herself. "I'm a very emo person, and I'm an artist too, so I have that 'woe is me' sort of thing. I'm the type of person that a hundred people in the room can be like, 'You're awesome!' and one person's like, 'Meh, she's all right,' and I'll focus on that and dissect it, but I'm slowly starting to move past that and be like, 'I don't care.' It's a work in progress."

About me and Vlad the Impaler

Seemingly a clash of interests with her musical and artistic interests, Tinsel is also into boxing. Regarding that clash, Tinsel also proves to be quick-witted as she quipped, "If you don't like my music, I start swinging."

"For me, the problem is every single time I get serious about music, acting seems to jump in the way and then I get pulled out of it," Tinsel said.

She's been meeting a lot of great musicians in Los Angeles and knows she needs to get a full album out there to advance her musical ambitions. "My fans have been really patient with me, but this year!" she said, setting expectations for that album finally seeing completion. For now, while not on the Twilight circuit, Tinsel performs at the occasional festival, but without an album to promote, it doesn't make sense to rack up the expenses of a full-blown tour.

Based on the music that is already available online, there are plenty of reasons to expect Tinsel to gain a larger musical following. Her music covers shades of the blues and jazz and her vocals are reminiscent of Norah Jones' style, while mining a different background and collection of experiences.

One of Tinsel's songs that has earned a lot of attention is Into the West, an evocative song she wrote after having been inspired while working on the Steven Spielberg-produced TV mini-series of the same title. "The great thing about that song was that it's actually been received well by all different cultures and people and people just seem to feel it. I put my heart and soul into it, so I think that's what people are gravitating towards."

Regarding what feeds her musical inspirations, Tinsel said, "I think it's the simple moments that can be captured more in music, you know? It's a lot of human study, and watching, the simple things that happen in life." And political issues also get her mojo going.

As for performaing live, Tinsel said, "You get nervous at the beginning, and once you're on stage you feel this energy and then you just kind of fall into it. It's great because you get a reaction from the crowd and you can feel it and there's all this awesome energy stuff that's happening, so it's cool."

Also on the horizon is her first lead role in the indie movie Stained, in which she plays a borderline schizophrenic bookstore owner whose past lover re-enters the picture and stirs up a lot of chaos. "It was a really, really dark role," Tinsel said of the experience, "and a lot of crying and a lot of emotional stress, but the end product, I was happy with it."

Booboo

Booboo, whose birth name is Nils Stewart, Jr., got his nickname as a baby and has stuck with it since it's a name people remember. Similar to Tinsel, he's already an accomplished musician, actor, and martial artist. In addition to a slew of TV and movie roles, Booboo worked as a motion capture stunt double for Beowulf in Robert Zemeckis' animated adventure.

On the musical front, Booboo performed in the tween group T-Squad and toured the country while opening for Miley Cyrus, the Jonas Brothers, and the Cheetah Girls.

"We did some fun tours," Booboo said of that chapter in his then 12-year-old life. "It was insane. We did the Honda Center for Cheetah Girls one time, that was 15,000 people. It's fun though; it's easier to perform in front of thousands of people than it is to perform in front of, like, a hundred people because you know everyone's staring at you. You can see everyone's face right there and you get so much more nervous."

"I think if you don't get nervous before you go on stage, something's wrong," said Booboo. "Or for me, I just get really nervous. But I think it's really cool that people actually come out to see you perform."

Interested in dreaming up music different from the T-Squad's pop sound, Booboo, who's been playing guitar for 6 1/2 years, is now working on some alternative rock with his sisters. Booboo and Fivel have a track available on iTunes and a full album is in the works.

Life in the Stewart house, a diva-like walkout, and boxing

"It's a noisy house, I think. Everyone's always singing super loud or doing something loud. But, you know, it's really fun," Booboo said of life in the Stewart house. "We all get along, we're always with each other traveling."

But it's not all fun and games. "Our parents keep us really grounded," Booboo said. "The first day, when I got the call saying, 'You got the part of Seth,' my mom made me go do yard work."

Booboo's also working on a comic book project called Millennium Man, about a kid with super powers that allow him to control electricity. It's the type of project that requires a lot of concentration and turning off all the gadgets, except for maybe his iPod.

"It's definitely the hardest job I've ever done," Booboo said of his duties as the comic book series' illustrator. "It's so hard, you just have to focus. Aargh! I messed up his eye. Erase it. Argh! I erased the whole face. Darn it!"

Mutual Causes

In addition to their creative pursuits, both Tinsel and Booboo find satisfaction in giving back to their communities.

The two are collaborating on a venture far from the world of werewolves and vampires, working with Chaske Spencer at United Global Shift. The organization helps those with ideas for community improvement projects find the resources needed to make their ideas a reality.

Aside from that, Tinsel is also starting up a foundation with a short-term goal of bringing art programs into Native American communities that don't have them. "For me, if I didn't have art, I don't know where I would be," Tinsel said. "As young people, you always have all these emotions and you don't know where to put them. I think art is a positive place to do it."

The foundation has a five-year goal of expanding the programs into Third World countries.

Booboo also finds working with the Muscular Dystrophy Assocation rewarding. As he noted, "It makes you realize how much you have just being able to walk and use your hands."

A slightly modified version was published at MovieHabit.com.