Texas Chainsaw Massacre & Blade Trinity

Did you have any makeup at all in this movie?
Not much. We started the day, of course we had foundation and stuff like that but I wore chapstick, I wore a tinted chapstick, and mascara and by lunch it just was all gone.

Was it real sweat or did they spray you?
It was both. They did spray but we were all so sweaty anyway. A lot of it was real.

Was Chainsaw an attempt to break away from the family image?
I don’t want to break away from any image. 7th Heaven has been wonderful to me. The only thing they ever gave me was a strong character who was a normal girl who made mistakes, like every other kid makes, but who is still smart and who’s an athlete which is a good thing for girls to look up to and I think that is a really great image. It was never a conscious choice. When Rules of Attraction came along, I met with Roger [Avary] and he was amazing. And I thought, “I’ve got to be part of this.” Texas Chainsaw Massacre came along, I met with Marcus and I thought, “I have to be part of this.” It was never like, “Okay, Rules of Attraction, I’ll look hot and sexy and older.” It was never about that. “And in Texas now I’m strong and cool. It was never like “Let’s get away from that image.” It just kind of happened. I think also as you get older, you’re tastes change. You never think that’s going to happen. I still remember being 15 thinking, “I’m going to read Seventeen forever.” I remember thinking that and I don’t even own a subscription to 17 anymore. You just change so much and you don’t think it’s going to happen.

How taxing was the shoot?
I would just go home and pass out. I was just out. I didn’t dream, I didn’t have nightmares. It was so taxing. I just remember every day my eyes and my eyelids, I looked like I’d been in a boxing match. My lips were swollen, my eyelids were swollen, I just cried all day long. It was like being premenstrual for like a month at a time. It was very taxing.

What was the most physically difficult scene?
I guess the obvious answer is the running, but you know what the most physical scene in Texas for me was dragging [Jonathan] Tucker around. Tucker, he was into it, which is so good and he literally just let himself be dragged. And he might look kind of not like he’s going to weigh a lot, but he’s heavy. And I dragged him many, many takes and after that, my muscles were burning. That was a really hard scene. That was really hard.

Did the physicality of this prepare you for Blade 3?
Yeah, I guess it did. I mean, I did a lot of running in this movie. Blade, I’ve been training like a maniac. It’s so much more physically demanding then Texas Chainsaw Massacre was. This man I’m working with, Chuck Jeffreys, he’s this amazing martial artist and what’s cool about Blade is I’m not learning just one. He has experience in I think probably hundreds of techniques of different martial arts and boxing and street fighting. What’s cool about it is it’s not going to be anything like Crouching Tiger. No one’s like spinning through the air. This is back to old school fighting techniques. I’m just kicking people in the head all the time.

Do you have any superpowers?
No superpowers. I’m completely human. I’m just very bad ass. I’m an archer, so I’ve been working with this compound bow for the last month and a half. That’s my signature weapon.

Do you have a cool outfit?
I have a cool outfit. I do. But it’s not very Blade. I’m not in leather pants and a leather shirt and all this cool leather stuff. I’m more casual. I have all these different outfits but my outfit that I like the best is this cool like almost like workout pants. Like black workout stretch pants and I have a cool brown leather vest. And I’m wearing like a sports bra. And it was really cool. I’m really dressed for the part because there’s no way you could go out in a Wonderbra and do this.

What are the pressures of being an action heroine?
It’s nerve-wracking. It’s always nerve-wracking for me I think. I always feel like I got myself into something that I don't know if I’ll be able to handle. Not that I won’t be able to handle, just will I be able to do as well as I want to do? It’s always a concern when you star in something, especially something that is such a huge budget and huge people and everyone is expecting so much great stuff. It’s kind of nice with Texas, no one expected anything. Then oh great, it’s good. It’s just a lot of pressure. I feel a lot of pressure to look right physically to make this character look believable and realistic, like she can kick these guys in the head. And also to kind of if this movie were to be great, Blade/Wesley would kind of be handing the torch off to Ryan [Reynolds] and I. If it’s good, there might be possibility of a spin-off. And so that’s a little scary. Oh my God, more pressure? But it’s also very exciting. I’m not at all complaining about it and I’m excited. I’m having a great time. That’s one of the things about the martial arts is it’s really fun. It is so fun. Every day, instead of having these long dialogue scenes or long crying scenes, I’m just fighting with cool stunt people and we’re making this great action and it’s nothing like I’ve ever done before. It’s really fun.

Are you working a lot with Wesley?
I’ve actually only worked one day on Blade so far. I’ve just been there training for a month and a half. My first day was with Wes. I didn’t have any dialogue with him but he’s really cool. He’s interesting. He’s kind of more of a reserved person than I would have expected, but he’s really funny and he’s kind of coming out of his shell and he’s really nice. I’m getting along really well with him.

Can you watch yourself on film?
I’m pretty critical. I’m analyzing a lot of the time. I need to see the completed version at least three or four times before I can just let it go and just watch it as a whole, watch the whole thing and stop just watching myself and going, “I hated that line” or something like that. I mean, I do that all the time. I’m pretty critical.

Are you signed on for a Texas sequel?
No, I don't think there’s anything about sequels in our contract.

Would you do one?
I don't think so. I have a problem with sequels, and now I’m doing a third, of course. I have a problem with doing a sequel for this movie. It’s just not needed. What would it be to do? It’s the same story again? To make more money? It would be done just for a commercial payoff or something. It wouldn’t be for like another acting piece. It’s like you can’t really keep this going. And the sequels that have been done from the original, I personally think really stink. They were not good at all. And it starts being silly. People are like, “Okay, okay.”

Like the Matthew McConaughey/Renee Zellweger one?
Yeah, not a good one. I saw that too.