Nick Zano and Haley Webb Interview, The Final Destination

MoviesOnline sat down with Nick Zano and Haley Webb to talk about their new movie, The Final Destination 3D. The film marks the latest in the highly popular "Final Destination" series, and its first 3D installment, giving horror fans an especially visceral thrill ride.

On what should have been a fun-filled day at the races, Nick O'Bannon (Bobby Campo) has a horrific premonition in which a bizarre sequence of events causes multiple race cars to crash, sending flaming debris into the stands, brutally killing his friends and causing the upper deck of the stands to collapse on him. When he comes out of this grisly nightmare, Nick panics, persuading his girlfriend, Lori (Shantel VanSanten), and their friends, Janet (Haley Webb) and Hunt (Nick Zano), to leave...escaping seconds before Nick's frightening vision becomes a terrible reality.

Thinking they've cheated death, the group has a new lease on life, but unfortunately for Nick and Lori, it is only the beginning. As his premonitions continue and the crash survivors begin to die one-by-one--in increasingly gruesome ways--Nick must figure out how to cheat death once and for all before he, too, reaches his final destination.

The filmmakers thought Haley Webb was a real find, the girl next door who's incredibly funny and charming. Her character is pursued by would-be Romeo Hunt Wynorski, for whom they needed an actor that had the kind of confidence and quick wit that the character embodies. They found what they were looking for in Nick Zano.

Zano was already a fan of the franchise. "I don't really think of a 'Final' as a horror movie. To me, it's more of a cat-and-mouse chase with Death. It's like trying to escape something you can't escape." His character, Hunt, isn't the most likeable guy. "He's a little crass, he's rude, but there's something redeemable about him. Everybody has a friend like Hunt in their life."

Haley Webb made her feature film debut in the action thriller "Big Game," alongside C. Thomas Howell. She will next be seen opposite Nick Stahl in the thriller "In NorthWood." For television, Webb has appeared on the CBS series "Close to Home" and "Shark," starring James Woods.

Nick Zano was seen last year in "Beverly Hills Chihuahua," "College"; and "Joy Ride 2: Dead Ahead." His previous feature credits include "My Sexiest Year" and "Fat Albert." He made his feature film debut in Steven Spielberg's 2002 Oscar-nominated hit "Catch Me If You Can." For television, Zano served as producer and host for the first season of MTV's hit reality series "Why Can't I Be You?" He spent three seasons as a series regular on The WB's hit "What I Like About You," starring Amanda Bynes, and was a recurring cast member in the final season of the network's acclaimed dramatic series "7th Heaven." His telefilm credits include a starring role in ABC Family's romantic comedy "Everything You Want," opposite Shiri Appleby, and last year's FOX comedy "Ernesto." Zano recently wrapped production on USA Network's upcoming dramatic telefilm "Operating Instructions," directed by Andy Tennant.

Here’s what Nick Zano and Haley Webb had to tell us:

Q: Nick, when you read the script and you saw that your character’s buns gets stuck in a draining pool, did you go, ‘I can’t wait to do this movie?’

Nick: How did that work out? That worked out as like one of those things where David Ellis was like, ‘It’s gonna look cool.’ And I’m just like, ‘Right,’ and he’s like, ‘Don’t over think it, it’s gonna look cool.’ And I’m like, ‘Alright, dude. I’m with you. Submerge me.’

Q: Were you good at holding your breath?

Nick: I’m not bad, but I can do it over a minute easy. But if I flail, we’re looking at 17 seconds. That’s legitimate, where you’re like thrashing and then you need air.

Q: And Haley, with the car wash, there was a lot of water in this. Was that frightening?

Haley: Oh yeah, definitely. And the thing is too, Nick was literally under the water for so long and I was really in this car that was filling up with water like to my chest at a really rapid pace, and the same thing, you exert so much energy that you don’t expect to be out of energy in four seconds. It was about three days filming and it was very, very scary.

Nick: It’s an interesting day of work when you’re passing each other in the lobby, like, ‘What are you doing?’ ‘Oh, I die tomorrow.’ ‘Oh, you’re dying tomorrow, I’m going to come watch you. I’ll come by and watch.’ Everyone comes around for deaths, and [are like], ‘That was really good, it looked great.’

Q: She wondered why you just didn’t take off your swimming trunks.

Nick: I already think they asked for enough nudity. They got their nudity max out of me; different movie altogether.

Q: Did you know this franchise before you signed on?

Haley: Yeah, but I think the thing with these is sometimes I can’t do gore for gore sake, but I do really enjoy this story. I do really enjoy this idea, I think it’s really creative. I love the fact that it happens in order, because there’s always the question, ‘Can you beat death?’ Well, what does that mean? Like, let’s get to the bottom of it. And I think there’s more to these than – I think the story carries the franchise, so I was definitely a fan before, I had seen the movies, because I just enjoyed the idea of it.

Nick: Yeah, the first one left an impression. I think the first one struck a nerve with everyone who saw it.

Q: Is that the plane crash?

Nick: The plane crash one. Few movies could get four made, there has to be something about the movies that people liked, because they’ve made four of them, and three of them have done very well. Everybody feels good about this one; it’s hitting a nerve with a lot of people

Q: Did any of the cast know each other before? Did you bond in New Orleans, did you get to do anything?

Nick: Oh, we just worked and drank and ??

Haley: All while the camera was rolling.

Nick: We thought we were on The Real World and then [found] we were making Final Destination.

Haley: And found we were making a movie. No, none of us really knew each other. I knew Nick in the call back I had for the movie, because they did a chemistry test to see how the characters worked off of each other, and Nick was one of the picks for Hunt. And I just remember being like, ‘Please let this guy get this job,’ because they told me I got it and I was like, ‘Cool. Who got Hunt.’

Nick: I’ll tell you what, we had to spend 15 days in this opening, it was 15 days, so we’d sit there for 15 days and, if not for this girl, I would have lost my mind day 6. I mean, 6 out of 15 with so much left to do. And then 8 out of 15, you still have so much left to do. So it was just one of those things where we wouldn’t even look at each other, we would just talk and stare, things would blow up.

Haley: One of my favorite things was Nick before every single take would just be sitting there with his coin, and then all of a sudden lean over and like punch me in the knee, and I know I’m okay.

Q: You were there last night at the screening?

Haley: I was there on Friday, he was there last night

Q: But you’ve both seen it? What do you think when you see your deaths?

Nick: I’m glad it came across, because a lot of work was put into it. There’s a lot of danger, there’s a good payoff. When we did the pool, I was a lifeguard for a long time, so if you’re down there, ignorance is bliss, but I knew all the variables that would get me killed, and I’m sitting there like, ‘don’t acknowledge them, just push them down, just do this.’ There was a group of stunt guys that were like such brass men that you didn’t want to look like a total wimp. They would totally make fun of you and tell you how they got stabbed in the bear suit and they are just fine, and I’m like, ‘Wow, sorry that I complained about being tied down underwater. And I’m sorry you were stabbed while wearing a bear suit.’

Q: Did the fact that the director was a stuntman bring a different kind of vibe to the set?

Haley: Definitely, definitely. Oh yeah, because he’d worked with Brand X the stunt team for such a long time and David had such a great career as a stuntman that it was very  - a lot of jokes, it was very fun, a lot of punching, there was a lot of punching.

Nick: We had so many stunt – we didn’t even know some of the stuntmen were stuntmen. I think the funniest is the day where the crowd disperses in the opening, everybody’s running, we didn’t know who were stunt people, who were extras, so we’d run and wait off camera, and we’d look back and it was chaos, and all of a sudden you’d see a woman crack her head, you go, ‘Oh my God, that woman just cracked her head,’ and she gets up and everybody’s like, yeah (gives high fives). What the hell happened?

Q: If you guys knew you were on some sort of death list, would you just party or would you try to do everything you could to stop it?

Nick: I would have to go the sentimental route and just

Someone says Party

Nick: No, I wish I liked partying that much but I don’t, but I’d have to spend it with my family and my friends, people I love. I got to get that last minute of face time with them before it goes.

Haley: Yeah, definitely. I agree, way to steal my answer. It’s sort of a tough thing to imagine. You can imagine it, but then when it’s really in your face you want to say, ‘Oh yeah, I’ll be totally fine, whatever, it’s my time.’ But then you’re faced with it and you’re just like, ‘Oh great, wow.’ And the first instinct is to be around people that you love.

Q: Now that you’ve done this film, do you look at things differently when you go into a room?

Nick: The plane ride to New Orleans, the cast, we all flew over together, and as soon as we got on the plane, I’m like, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me. All of you are on this plane? Come on, man.’ This is the most poorly planned – a movie about death, spawned from a first movie [that’s] based on a plane crash.

Haley: It does make you more aware, which isn’t necessarily the best thing, like maybe it wasn’t the greatest thing to do this – but the fact of the matter is, there are a number of things that could go wrong right now, and I think that just to give that up, I can’t go around thinking, ‘What if this? And what if this, and what if this,’ I would drive myself, and everyone around me, insane. So I think it definitely makes you more aware, but not really paranoid if that makes sense.

Q: Are you doing more TV?

Nick: I just got on Cougar Town, I play Courteney Cox’s boyfriend, which has been  fun. It’s awesome, the guy who created Scrubs is the creator of the show. Courteney is a lovely lady, super motivated for the level of success that she’s had. She’s insanely motivated. I wish I had that. I realize why certain people are so successful and I got it hour one with her. ‘Oh, you’re really motivated, that’s what it is.’

Q: How did it feel to do the sex scene in the movie?

Nick: You mean, borderline porn? To deliver borderline porn to the masses? That’s a weird day on set. We adlibbed a lot. That joke they used was one out of maybe 8 to 16, and it went on and on to the point where I’m like, ‘Dave, I don’t know what to say anymore. This is getting obscene. It’s almost inappropriate. Let’s wrap it up.’

Haley: I do remember seeing different takes of Nick’s directions to this girl or responses to this girl, whatever you want to call it, but the one that’s in the movie is just so brilliant. I remember seeing it and just being like that’s …

Nick: Art is in the eye of the beholder.

Q: What are you doing next Haley?

Haley: Oh, I am currently reading a few scripts and I have a few movies that will hopefully happen either this year or next.   

Q: What about Northwood?

Haley: Northwood is a movie that I filmed last year actually that will probably be coming out later this year and I play Nick Stahl’s girlfriend in that.

Nick: I like Nick Stahl.

Haley: Nick Stahl is a fabulous man; he’s incredibly nice and extremely talented. So like I was saying, he’s great. That, and I’m also writing a few things.

Q: Is there a difference between working on TV and films?

Nick: It’s different. There are sitcoms, there are single camera and then there are movies. Movies and single camera kind of run the same lines. Sitcom is pure theatre, it’s 100 percent theatre. It’s rehearsal, rehearsal, rehearsal, bring the people in, live show, 11 pages by comparison to an 1/8 of a page at a time. One is far more complex than the other, but all three versions is the same skill and I love doing it.

”The Final Destination” opens in theaters on August 28th.