Amanda Righetti & Danielle Panabaker Interview, Friday the 13th

MoviesOnline chatted recently with Amanda Righetti and Danielle Panabaker about their starring roles in the new “Friday the 13th,” a chilling re-imagining of the classic horror film directed by Marcus Nispel from a screenplay by Damian Shannon & Mark Swift.

Against the advice of police and cautions from the locals, Clay Miller (Jared Padalecki) pursues what few leads he has in the search for his missing sister, Whitney (Righetti), with the help of Jenna (Panabaker), a young woman he meets among a group of college kids up at Crystal Lake for an all-thrills weekend. But they are all about to find much more than they bargained for. Little do they know, they’ve entered the domain of one of the most terrifying specters in American film history—the infamous killer who haunts the eerie woods of Crystal Lake, armed with a razor-sharp machete… Jason Voorhees (Derek Mears). The film also stars Aaron Yoo and Travis Van Winkle.

Danielle Panabaker garnered critical acclaim for her breakout performance in the HBO miniseries "Empire Falls," in which she starred opposite Paul Newman and Ed Harris. More recently, she starred as James Woods' unwaveringly wise daughter on the CBS drama "Shark."

Panabaker's television credits also include starring roles in "Searching for David's Heart," for which she won the 2005 Young Artist Award for Best Performance for a TV Movie Leading Young Actress; the Lifetime movies "Mom at Sixteen" and "Sex & the Single Mom"; and the Disney Channel Original Movie "Stuck in the Suburbs." Her series guest star credits include "The Guardian," for which she won the 2004 Young Artist Award for Best Performance in a TV Series Guest Starring Young Actress; "Summerland"; "Law and Order: SVU"; "CSI"; and "Malcolm in the Middle." Additionally, she appeared in the Disney Channel Original Movie "Read It and Weep," in which she and her sister, Kay, played versions of the same character.

Her feature credits include the thriller "Mr. Brooks," opposite Kevin Costner and Dane Cook; "Yours, Mine and Ours," with Renee Russo and Dennis Quaid; and "Sky High," alongside Kurt Russell and Kelly Preston.

Amanda Righetti can currently be seen in the new CBS drama series "The Mentalist," alongside Simon Baker. On the big screen, she most recently co-starred with Seann William Scott and Paul Rudd in the hit comedy "Role Models." Earlier in her career, she secured the lead in the FOX pilot "No Place Like Home," from producers Chris Keyser and Amy Lippman, which led to her landing the recurring role of Hailey Nichol on the hit show "The O.C." In addition, she has starred on two other FOX series, playing Tessa Lewis on "North Shore" and Jenna Moretti on "Reunion." Her additional television credits include a guest-starring role on the CBS drama "CSI" and a supporting role in the television movie "Romy & Michele: In the Beginning."

Amanda Righetti and Danielle Panabaker are fabulous people and we really appreciated their time. Here’s what they had to tell us about their new movie:

MoviesOnline: Were you a fan of the franchise?

AMANDA: How can you not be, it’s Friday the 13th. Yeah, to a certain extent, yeah, I don’t particularly seek going to see horror films, it’s kind of a once in a blue moon kind of thing for me, but I grew up around the franchise, as I’m sure Danielle did.

DANIELLE: I’m a bit of a sissy. I can’t watch horror movies, so when I first heard about this, I had to run out and find Friday the 13th but insisted on watching it when it was daylight out, and I had all the curtains open for fear that I would be traumatized and have nightmares.

MoviesOnline: Did being in one desensitize you?

DANIELLE: I don’t think so, we just saw the movie the other night and it’s still pretty scary, even though I knew – like, I’d read the script, I’d been there when we were shooting, I knew when the scares were coming, but I still screamed and I still jumped, so I don’t think I was desensitized at all.

AMANDA: Yeah, I don’t think I was either. I jumped a few times, things definitely got me.

MoviesOnline: I don’t think you want to say too much about what happens to your character, because it’s a surprise, so what should we say about it?

AMANDA: I don’t know, I asked Warner Brothers the same thing, I’m like, I don’t really know what to say. The best I can really say is that my character is Jared Padalecki’s sister in the movie, and her mom’s been sick and I’ve been taking care of her, and then my boyfriend kind of drags me out to the woods for a camping trip and that’s about the extent of it, the rest I’m sure you can assume from there.

MoviesOnline: You can say you have a great moment with Jason in the beginning?

AMANDA: There you go, I do, I do have a great moment with Jason in the beginning.

MoviesOnline: How did the rest of the camping trip go?

AMANDA: I think it was a disaster, maybe as bad as it could have gone.

MoviesOnline: How hard is it for you to do a TV show and try to do movies at the same time? Is it hard to fit in a movie in a week or hiatus? Were you on a big break when you did this?

AMANDA: Personally, I was going back and forth between L.A. and Austin in the beginning, because we were shooting the pilot for The Mentalist. So I was kind of back and forth, and then once The Mentalist wrapped I was in Austin for good, and we were all sort of waiting to find out what was happening at May sweeps.

MoviesOnline: Were you on Shark?

DANIELLE: Yeah, we wrapped Shark on a Friday and I flew to Texas on a Sunday, so it was that quick. Yeah, I think Jared has it the worst because he’s got so much pressure on him through Supernatural and all that.

AMANDA: And there’s also just him and Jensen, it’s not like a big ensemble cast where they can give you a few days off, it’s a lot of work for them to carry.

MoviesOnline: But was it a good break for you?

DANIELLE: Yeah, usually the hiatus – it just depends on how they arrange their seasons. It’s been a really weird couple of years because of the writers’ strike and now SAG sort of rearing their ugly head, but yeah, it usually is like two and a half to three months for hiatus. It’s enough time to squeeze one (a movie) in.

MoviesOnline: Did you see the movie at a public screening or was it a private screening?

DANIELLE: No, it was just a few of us there.

AMANDA: I’m curious to see it with an audience.

DANIELLE: Yeah, I’m excited for the premiere with hundreds of people and to see how infectious the screaming and the laughing is.

MoviesOnline: There’s sometimes cheering after a kill, too.

DANIELLE: Oh really. (they laugh) That’s awesome.

MoviesOnline: I was wondering how an actor might feel about seeing himself get killed on screen and then hear this big cheer?

DANIELLE: It’s great, if the audience is so enthusiastic and so enraptured with the film, I love that.

MoviesOnline: Well, they’re cheering the kill, not because they’re gone.

MoviesOnline: Speak for yourself!

DANIELLE: (laughs) Get rid of those actors!

MoviesOnline: When we were on set, you were talking about how you got knocked out, what scene was that in?

DANIELLE: That was the scene that literally is on film for maybe five seconds, the scene where I’m running between Jared and Travis from upstairs to downstairs, and that scene – it was a doozy! (laughs) It doesn’t look like it would be anything, but because we were fighting the sun coming up, we were rushing and Travis ran into me by accident and I hit my chin, and blacked out and cut my chin open, all very dramatic and ugly bruises later, but I felt like I was one of the guys after that, like I had my battle wounds.

MoviesOnline: Did you have to keep working with it?

DANIELLE: No, I went to the emergency room and got great medication and got a day off to recover and have all the swelling go down, but it was dramatic.

MoviesOnline: Still bruises and stitches, they had to cover it up?

DANIELLE: Yes, they did, and shot around it, and the DP was really great about lighting so you didn’t see the big like honking bruise and the scab on my chin.

MoviesOnline: Amanda, did anything like that happen to you? Did you get hurt?

AMANDA: I just like had really massive damage done to my knees. Yeah, I had a lot of bruising stuff on my knees and hands from crawling around and all that stuff, but I didn’t have any open wounds, more physical therapy kind of wounds.

MoviesOnline: Can you talk about working with Derek? Did he work with you or did he keep off the set so that you didn’t really get to see him until you had to do the scenes?

AMANDA: Derek was amazing, he comes from a stunt background so he’s very aware of your personal space, and he was very adamant about rehearsing things so people wouldn’t get hurt, and it was really refreshing to have somebody like that that knew – because he knows he’s a big guy, and some people have no sense of their space or how they relate to other people within the stunt world, and he was really great about it. And really lovely about always asking, ‘Are you okay? Is this okay for you? I want to make sure that you’re not getting hurt.’ So he was brilliant in that way, and also just a really sweet guy, we used to have stupid giggle fits, and it was like, ‘Okay, shut up, focus.’

DANIELLE: He’s so funny, and in addition to his stunt background, he comes from a comedy world as well, so he’s a really wonderful man to be around.

MoviesOnline: Did he play any jokes with you on the set?

AMANDA: No, but we did to (Jonathan) Sadowski (who plays Wade), were you there that day?

DANIELLE: No, I don’t think so, but it sounds amazing.

AMANDA: We were shooting the campfire scene in the beginning, and they had this sort of portable bathroom, but you’d have to walk forever to get to it, and you’d have to walk down this really dark path, so Ben Feldman (who plays Richie) decided it would be really funny to have Derek go hide in the bushes when Sadowski went to go to the bathroom, and he jumped out and scared the piss out of him. It was pretty funny.

DANIELLE: (laughs) Sadowski and Feldman are so funny in the movie together, they are like an old married couple.

AMANDA: And they are in person, too. It’s pretty funny.

MoviesOnline: What are you guys scared of in real life?

DANIELLE: Spiders

MoviesOnline: Really?

DANIELLE: Oh yeah.

MoviesOnline: Any size, any kind?

DANIELLE: Oh yeah, any size, any kind.

MoviesOnline: What about you?

DANIELLE: Yeah, I’d say spiders, but cockroaches that are bigger than my hand. I know that they’re something you can just squish and step on but they creep me out, creepy, crawly things. They’re pretty narly, like when you find centipedes in your bed in Hawaii. Hawaii is big on the bugs, so yeah, that kind of stuff.

MoviesOnline: Did this script surprise you in any way? We actually like the characters and feel for them and things happen that are completely unexpected. You realize this does break new ground for the Friday franchise, right?

AMANDA: Yeah, it’s definitely a new spin on an old story, and, for me, I think I was really pleasantly surprised because when you read it on paper you imagine it a certain way, but once you get the whole cast together and you finally see it come to light, it really brings it to life in such a different way.

DANIELLE: There’s an incredible chemistry between all the cast members. I mean, I’ll be watching the Super Bowl at Sadowski’s house tomorrow afternoon after we finish (the press junket), so there is a great chemistry between everyone and I think that translates well. Aaron Yoo and Arlen Escarpeta are amazing together and a lot of their dialogue is completely improv-ed, so I think it’s great.

MoviesOnline: When was the first time you guys saw Derek in make-up?

AMANDA: For me, it was when he chases me down finally at the campsite, and I remember when he first walked out with the full garb on, I had chills down my spine.

DANIELLE: He’s terrifying because he’s a big guy as it is and then they put more on top of it. And his mobility becomes limited and so he becomes this big, hulking monster, which is scary –

AMANDA: But don’t call him a monster, he doesn’t like it.

MoviesOnline: What did you find scarier, the hockey mask or the sack?

AMANDA: They’re both scary.

DANIELLE; One’s a bit more primitive, but then I think the mask is almost more meditated and terrifying.

AMANDA: I think even without the mask that the make-up that they did to him was really frightening.

MoviesOnline: We don’t get to see that very long.

AMANDA: They don’t show it, but there was some stuff that was cut out that we had shot with him without the mask and Scott Stoddard (special make-up effects artist) was amazing, I mean the guy’s so talented. And what they did to Jason’s face, to Derek, to make him look so dilapidated and vile, it was really frightening. But you don’t really see it in the movie, but all of it –

DANIELLE: But I think even that glimpse of him through the broken mirror is scary, that gave me nightmares.

MoviesOnline: When you saw the movie, did you actually watch all the kills?

DANIELLE: I was kicking and screaming as I watched them. I was sitting there next to my manager grabbing her arm and wincing in terror, and that’s I think what’s really great about this movie is that someone who was around for so much of those kills and had seen them made, I’ve seen people put the units on, they’re still scary. I knew it was fake, but I was still scared.

MoviesOnline: Were you scared by Mr. Brooks also?

DANIELLE: Yeah, that in a more like scared of Kevin Costner kind of way, because he’s so devious and intense.

MoviesOnline: It was very psychological but so was your character in that movie – were you able to scare yourself?

DANIELLE: You know, I’m an actor so I’m always hypercritical, but I was proud of the movie. I was really proud of the movie.

MoviesOnline: When you put a hockey mask on Kevin Costner, now that’s scary.

DANIELLE: I’m out of here.

MoviesOnline: Did you guys hang out in Austin while you were shooting and what did you do?

DANIELLE: I had the best time. I feel like everything involved water, wake boarding, tubing, which is my new favorite pastime.

AMANDA: I wasn’t there for the tubing day, but the wake boarding was a lot of fun. Checking out Austin, Austin’s a really cool city.

DANIELLE: I feel like it was great for our cast too, because it’s a younger cast and being able to hang out in the college scene. If anybody’s been to Austin, it’s 6th Street and all that.

MoviesOnline: Did Derek go with you guys and hang out?

DANIELLE: Of course.

AMANDA: We were all one big happy family, it was kind of stupid.

DANIELLE: It was summer time at the Four Seasons in Austin, you can’t really complain.

MoviesOnline: Danielle, do you have another horror thriller coming up?

DANIELLE: Prodigy. For me, it feels more like an action movie. There’s at least four to six weeks of fight training before we go to Spain, so it is action but there’s also that suspense element to it. It takes place about 40 years in the future and it’s about this high school where the kids are essentially bred to be the best of the best, and given all the medication, and when someone tries to take advantage of all that power, the whole system comes crumbling down.

MoviesOnline: Do you have something scheduled for your next hiatus?

AMANDA: I’m still working on it. It’s been tough with the TV schedule. 

MoviesOnline: What sort of fighting are you learning in four to six weeks?

DANIELLE: I think they still have to pick – it’s actually quite an ordeal to pick the specific stunt master, because everyone from what I understand has their own style and vibe, so that will be up to the director to find. I think there will be martial arts in there, I’m excited. We’re still a couple of months away from really getting going on that, but I can’t wait.

MoviesOnline: Do you know what your special powers will be?

DANIELLE: They’re all human so it’s just the physical – like they’re sparring and that kind of thing. It’ll be great, I’m excited.

MoviesOnline: When the original Friday the 13th came out, it was considered misogynistic. Was that a concern for you when you first read the script?

AMANDA: I don’t think I scrutinized it in that way. You walk a fine line as an actor, you don’t want to judge too harshly what you’re doing, because then you start to get into trouble, but for me it really was a leap of faith because I hadn’t seen the script until a week before I went to Austin. So I kind of went, okay, well these are great producers, a great director, it’s a good cast, let’s just hope that it all comes together in the end.

DANIELLE: And I feel like with this movie everybody gets it -- man, woman, child. If you’re going to get it from Jason, you’re going to get it pretty hard. So I don’t feel like any special treatment was given to the women in this movie.

MoviesOnline: Would you have done a nude scene?

AMANDA: No.

DANIELLE: No, I don’t think it’s right, not right now.

“Friday the 13th” opens on February 13th!