Urban Legends: Final Cut

Interview With Jennifer Morrison & Joseph Lawrence
   (part 2)

Q : This would be for both of you. Culturally, people seem to enjoy scary movies in the same way that we enjoy urban legends. Why do you think it is that we love to be scared? And that is something you thought - - is that something you thought about while you were working on the film?

JM : I think it's interesting, because I always shied away from scary movies when I was younger until I started working on a lot of - - you know, doing Stir of Echoes and stuff. I started having different interests in it. There's that adrenaline thrill. I think it's almost like riding a roller coaster - - you know, when you're watching a movie and you get that same kind of excited thrill of the anticipation of something. I mean, even watching this movie knowing what's coming next - - . I was sitting there with my agent watching her. Oh, my God, what's happening next? It's like, Jennie, you know the script. But there's something that we love about that like little feeling you get inside when you get excited, or there's that total terror tension going on. So I think that it's kind of a rush.

JL : Yeah, I just think so many times, people in real life are - - we are scared of real things. And I think that to go to a film and - - you know it's not real. And I think that's the whole point of - - you know, we could be - - we could go in there and enjoy ourselves and enjoy being scared, whereas so many times in life when we're scared, we can't enjoy it. Because it's really scary, you know. So I think that's the fun of it for me, is that you can go in there and scream and get nervous. And, you know - - and so at the end of it, you walk out. And for that hour and thirty-five minutes, life is kind of stopped. And then, you know, it'll kind of start up again, so, yeah.

Q : Joseph, what attracted you to this film?

JL : Well, for me, it was a - - you know, coming back off like three years of not working, and being away, and kind of stepping out of the limelight there. It was an opportunity to kind of come back and just play a part that people wouldn't necessarily associate with me. Because they all think that [LAUGHTER] I walk with ripped jeans and, you know, like touting woe and whatever. So, [LAUGHTER] yeah, it was - - you know, this guy is kind of a dark character with a lot of problems. And I think it was a good first role for people to see me in. And it was good for me as an actor to kind of just be able to play something a little bit different, 'cause that's kind of what I'm looking to do right now is just play different roles in different things and experience situations with different characters. You know, that's what I'm trying to flex my wings a little bit here.

Q : So Jennifer, any directing aspirations now that you've played a film student?

JM : Oh, yeah, I've always actually had directing aspirations.

JL : It's a good leeway. When you're an actor, it just lends itself to directing, I think.

JM : Yeah, when you're around on set, and especially for me with this film, having been on set as much as I was and really getting along with John [SOUNDS LIKE: ought-man] so well. And his mind working as an editor really helped me understand how things piece together in a film. And it really helped me develop my character having - - getting along with him so well. Because I was able to kind of pick up things and understand the way he looked at things, and understood things, and pieced them all together. And so I've definitely got a really strong grasp on that and would like to pursue that eventually, yeah, definitely.

Q : Why do you think women are so often the protagonists for slasher and horror movies?

JM : Wow, there's lot of different potential answers for that. [LAUGHTER]

JL : For like fifty years of guys being them. [LAUGHTER] I mean, I think it's time for girls. [LAUGHTER] It's always the guys.

JM : Well, this was a totally different kind of woman protagonist, though. I mean, she's intelligent, and she's with it. And she's creating something. And I - - that was what really drew me to the character in the first place - - you know, a lot of the women who are in these kind of films are like running around in wet T-shirts and screaming, you know. And - -

JL : We tried to get a wet T-shirt - - [LAUGHTER]

JM : It wasn't in my contract, you know. [LAUGHTER]

JM : Gosh, you know, I don't know. Maybe I really - - that's a really tough question to ask. I think there's - - it pretty much evens out if you look at all of them, maybe because we tend to think that the killer's always a guy or something. I don't know.

JL : Early on it was a T and A thing. And now, it's a woman's strength thing. Like we can be heroes too.

JM : Yeah, it - - that may be part of it. I think was a huge drawn for girls, especially - - I think definitely with this particular film - - I was trying to think of other films. But I think with this particular film, it was definitely, you know, a woman hero story. And that's really an interesting way to start taking the genre, because, you know, it makes me proud to be a woman.

Q : Were there any real life spooky happenings on the live set or did everything go to script?

JM : I had a couple pretty crazy little incidences. We were filming in a forest for a while. And I was walking back from lunch, and there was no one walking back with me, which was really odd. 'Cause with the AD's are usually like suctions to us, you know. And I don't know how I managed to sneak away. I didn't mean to. But I walking back alone from this forest, and I was absolutely scared out of my mind. Because it was like everything that can possibly happen in a horror movie was going through my head as I walking through. And then the only other thing that was funny was, I was in bed at night, one night. And I was living by myself, filming a horror film, so I was always kind of like subconsciously on edge about things. And it was like one in the morning, and it sounded like someone was opening my door. And I get freaked out in hotels, because so many people have keys.

JL : It wasn't locked. I didn't know. I was trying to - - [LAUGHTER]

JM : But, you know, all the maintenance people, all the cleaning people, they all have keys, so you kind of get freaked out. So I fly up in my bed. I'm like, don't come in, and I'm screaming. And then I like wait, and I don't here anything. And it's like, God, what happened? So I like get out of my bed, and I'm like really scared to walk over there. And someone had slipped my call sheet like through the mail slot instead of under the door, so it had made extra noise. And I was just imagining the poor hotel guy who put the thing under the door. And here's this girl screaming at the top of her lungs, like don't come in.

JM : So I had a couple - - I think it was totally affecting me a little bit more subconsciously than I realized. [LAUGHTER]

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