Warning: The following interview contains major spoilers! Proceed with caution.
It's impressive to see how you've transformed yourself for this role. I had no idea I was watching the girl from Hot Tub Time Machine.
Yeah, I know, right? [Laughs.] That's one of the reasons why I wanted to do it, because it was such a different thing. And obviously to work with John Carpenter.
Did you grow up watching his films?
Yeah, I loved Halloween and The Thing. They were my favorite genre movies. I'm definitely a horror film fan. He's like a really laid-back, down-to-earth guy, and what's really cool is that he's very specific with what he wants. So he's not somebody who's going to show up on set and think about it for three hours or rehearse for three hours. You show up and he's already set up and he knows exactly what he wants, and he's very fast.
Without spoiling too much, the film plays very differently the second time one sees it, after understanding the secret behind the characters. Can you talk about how you played the role of Iris knowing this? Because you're sort of playing two different people.
Right. Basically the movie's about one person, and we're all playing aspects of different personalities, different parts of that one person. I think that John really created an environment where he wanted all of us girls to work together. So in the beginning we did a lot of talking about the script and the story. Just getting everything together so we could all play one person together. Then I just worked on my own character development. Iris is somebody who sees the art and the beauty in everything she does. And she's very, very concerned about getting free – she wants to move on. It's pretty much what I concentrated on. She's an artist, everything that she thinks and feels and sees is because of the beauty in something, whether it's the lighting, the shadows that she wants to draw, or dancing, music, whatever. She's kind of like a good student. She's the nerdy girl. She likes to impress the doctor and she wants to get out.
What was the most memorable scene for you to shoot?
I've never died in a movie before. So that was weird. [Laughs.] That was a fun thing. And John was actually the one holding the weapon, because he didn't trust anyone else to have it so close to my eye. So it was actually John holding that thing they stuck in my eye.
Nice to know you were in good hands.
Yes, I was. [Laughs.]
Did you find yourself working especially closely with Amber, so that your performances shared certain characteristics?
Yeah, but not just Amber – all of us. Like I said, we all had a big long powwow and a table read just to kind of get on the same page and talk about multiple personality disorder, and kind of clinically what it's about, and emotionally what this girl's going through, so that it didn't feel like, when you get the twist at the end and you go back and think about it, you don't feel like there were so many different people. It was actually just one person. So we worked really hard at that.
Were there any physical mannerisms you tried to share?
Yeah, I think it was just the sense that whatever emotions were happening throughout the script, we were all supposed to be feeling them. It's not about a ghost chasing us, it's about a personality that's about to die. So we each had our times where our personality would be really fearful of that, and the other ones were trying to save it and hold on to it. We all had moments we picked where our character would be having that moment.
Do you start shooting the second season of Nikita soon?
Yeah, I actually leave in a couple of days to start the second season, and I just finished a television movie about breast cancer for Lifetime. It's a really, really incredible project that I got to be a part of. I was just really impressed by the people involved. So it'll be out in October. Then we start season 2 next week.
What's in store for Alex, your Nikita character, in season 2?
Everything that you know from season 1 has changed. It's kind of like musical chairs. There's gonna be a new head of division; there's gonna be a different Nikita storyline. I'm gonna be working a lot more with Amanda (Melinda Clarke). I'm gonna work with division but not for division. I'm gonna be a little bit more on my own. I'm really just gonna be trying to find the man who ordered the hit on my father. It's gonna be about me trying to find him and get my revenge.
Would you like to see that revenge come this season, or play out a little longer?
I think it will probably get resolved eventually. It's not something that will ever go away completely from an emotional standpoint. But by the end of the second season I think things are really going to be different. I think there will be a lot of relationships torn apart.
Have you heard anything yet about Kick-Ass 2?
You know, I haven't. I know that everyone really wants to do it, but there is not a script yet. So I just don't know. I don't know if Matthew Vaughn's ready. We all want to, but there's not a script yet.
In real life, what's your greatest fear?
Drowning. I hate water. [Laughs.]
Thank you for your time, Lyndsy.
Oh sure. My pleasure!
