By Christina Radish

Sara Paxton at the premiere of "The Last House on the Left" held at the ArcLight Cinemas in Hollywood, Calif. on March 10, 2009.

Star Sara Paxton, best known for her work on such films as Aquamarine and Sydney White, spoke with MediaBlvd Magazine about making this re-imagining of the 1972 Wes Craven terrifying landmark shocker.

MediaBlvd Magazine> Did the fact that you and Garret have worked together before, help you with the scenes that you had to do together?

Sara Paxton> Definitely. Garret and I met a couple of years ago. I was about 15 and I was doing a pilot, called Mr. Ed, that was a remake of the original television show. I got along really well with Garret on that set, so when I heard that he was going to be playing Krug, I was honestly so relieved because all I could keep thinking was, “Who’s going to be playing Krug?” Some actors don’t want to form a relationship because, if they have to hate you on screen, they want to not get to know you in real life. So, I was nervous about that, and about trusting the person. When I knew it was Garret, he’s so unlike Krug. He’s so gentle, sweet and thoughtful, so I knew we weren’t going to have a problem communicating and really going full force in that scene. I didn’t want us to hold anything back. You can’t. Otherwise, it’s not realistic.

MediaBlvd> What are the actor discussions you have, when you’re staging a graphic scene like the one you have in this film?

Sara> (Director) Dennis Iliadis was really great because he really cared about the actors. We had this lengthy rehearsal process for two weeks, before actually stepping foot on the set for the first time, and that was just mainly to sit around as a team and go over the script, figure out your character, and go scene by scene. We played out the physicality of the scene, so that on the day, I didn’t need to think about it. I already knew what I was going to be doing. All I had to worry about was my head space and the emotional aspect, that day.

MediaBlvd> Were you concerned who was going to play Krug because of the script or because of the source material?

Sara> Because I’d read the script and I knew the scene. I just feel, to really get the full performance and for me to really let go, I needed to trust the people I’m working with and feel protected, and that’s what happened. I ended up being able to open up more and do things I hadn’t even planned on being able to do because I had really bonded with the cast so much.

MediaBlvd> How challenging is it to go from the light-hearted comedic roles you’ve played in the past to something like this, that’s so physically and emotionally draining?

Sara> It was definitely a challenge, but when I read the script, I was looking for a challenge, at that time. I’d just finished doing Aquamarine and Sydney White, which were really fluffy, light-hearted comedies, so I really wanted to challenge myself and show people that I can do different things. I never wanted to be put in any kind of box because it’s really depressing to me to always be playing the same thing. I was definitely ready. It was crazy, really. As much as I had imagined it, in my head, I had no idea it was going to be that much more in real life, actually doing it.

MediaBlvd> Did you do a lot of the swimming for real?

Sara> I did. Oh, my gosh! In the audition, Dennis was like, “So, how’s your swimming ability?” And, I was like, “I played a mermaid in Aquamarine. I’m an amazing swimmer. You have no idea. I’m great!” And then, I actually got on set and I just remember submerging in the water and hearing, “Cut! Oh, my God, she’s drowning! Somebody get her some floaties!” And, I was like, “I guess I wasn’t that good.” I was more talk than anything.

MediaBlvd> Was that their misconception of it, or were you really in trouble?

Sara> Oh, no. In the movie, she’s supposed to be this intense swimmer, and I guess I thought I was better than I actually was. In the original script, she was supposed to butterfly, so I was doing these lessons and I was like, “Five lessons in the shallow pool and they want me to be fully able to butterfly? It’s not going to happen. I’m sorry.”

MediaBlvd> While you were in South Africa, were you way out in the boonies where you couldn’t go into town to blow off some steam, or did you get to hang out in Cape Town?

Sara> It was strange because, when we first got there, they put us in these lavish condos on the marina and I was like, “Yeah, this is going to be great!” And then, they were like, “No, no, no, when we’re filming, we’re going to go way out into the forest and you’re going to be living there,” and I was like, “What happened to this condo?” They said, “Well you can stay there on the weekend.” We literally stayed in these 18^th century wooden cabins with bugs. It was historically beautiful, but it was really crazy, actually staying there with the cast. We definitely had to blow off some steam. After a day of filming like that, we would all call each other and just be like, “Let’s go to the one restaurant in town.” We would just go to the same restaurant, every night, and just relax and talk about the day because I think we’d all go insane, if we didn’t have each other to talk to.                         

MediaBlvd> Is it hard to work opposite actors who play despicable characters, when you’re all going out and having a good time?

Sara> It definitely became harder for the bad guys because they started to feel bad about what they were doing once we were all really good friends. I know that they felt protective of me and I totally respected them. We all had mutual respect and trust, and it was great. It brought out the best in everyone, and we all had a real chemistry.

MediaBlvd> Did you go on any safaris while you were in South Africa?

Sara> Yeah, we did. We went on safari. It’s too bad that it was freezing when we were on the safari because, at that point, I didn’t even care about the animals. I was like, “Rhinos, lions, we’ve got them all. Let’s go back!” I was just freezing. I didn’t go on the first safari. Jonathan, Cody and Riki went on the first safari, and their truck got attacked by a lion. The lion was leaping into the car and everyone was screaming. We would also go out. I was of legal age to have a drink there. We went dancing all the time. We had to blow off steam. We were so tense and stressed, during the work week.

MediaBlvd> How did you deal with crawling through mud in your underwear, at 4am?

Sara> I don’t know why, when I was reading this script, it didn’t quite hit me -- mud, cold, rain, wind machines, underwear. It didn’t really all fit together until that day and I was like, “What can I do now? I’ve just got to go for it. I’ve just got to do it.” The swimming scenes in the pool were actually the worst for me. I actually enjoyed the mud more than the pool because the water was so freezing and it was five in the morning and the water was so cold. The First A.D. actually pushed me in the pool because I was too scared to go in.

MediaBlvd> Did you ever tease Garret on the set?

Sara> I called him Sharpie eyebrows because they would dye his eyebrows, and it just looked so funny. They were like Sharpie eyebrows. He’s naturally blonde. He’s so fair. When we started filming, he had the beard and he had been growing out the hair, but it wasn’t black. And then, Dennis made the decision, “Let’s go black and make him scary.” So, the first day after they’d dyed it, it just looked like they had drawn on his eyebrows with a Sharpie. I definitely made fun of him for that. Also, on the day of the assault scene, it was such a touchy subject because it was so emotional and horrific, but at the same time, there were moments when I just had to laugh because we had to wear these little nude patches on our private parts, and I was just envisioning Garret getting his glued on.                       

MediaBlvd> What was it like to work with Spencer? Did you ever discuss your weird relationship in the film?

Sara> We discussed every character’s connection with each other. We decided that, had this tragedy not happened, Justin and Mari would have probably become good friends and really bonded because they both have had hard lives and deaths in the family. That’s what we always say would have happened. Spencer’s hilarious, though. He’s such a college boy. He gets excited about everything. He would go, “Dude, we’re going rock climbing! Dude, we’re going windsurfing!” Actually, on the second day of filming, I injured him, and we promised not to say anything because I was so terrified that the make-up artist would get mad at me. It was our first day at the cottage hotel and I was like, “Oh, did you see the trampoline? Let’s go play on the trampoline.” And Spencer was like, “No, Sara. It’s only one person at a time on the trampoline.” And I was like, “Oh, who cares?!” So we both jumped on the trampoline and, little did we know, my tooth collided with his head and split his whole forehead open. I was like, “Oh, I taste blood.” I was freaking out. I was a bad influence on Spencer. I was telling him to lie, saying “You’ve got to lie, Spencer. Don’t say you were with me. Say you fell and slipped in the shower.” He was like, “Wouldn’t it look weird, if we said we were in the shower together?” I was like, “No, not together! You say you were alone! You weren’t wearing your glasses.” He still has a scar. He’s like, “Sara, when I’m 80 years old, I’m gonna tell my children that you bit my face.”

MediaBlvd> So then, the decision to have him wear a hoodie was because of that?

Sara> That’s why his hair is in front of his eyes, the entire time. I’m not kidding.

MediaBlvd> Were you familiar with the original movie? Did you see it prior to doing this?

Sara> I had not seen the original, and it was a conscious decision for me not to see the original while we were filming because I didn’t want to have any kind of preconceived notions of the character or the film or anything, since we were not trying to copy the movie or remake it, page by page. We’re just trying to breathe new life into this story. So, I watched the movie after we finished filming most of my stuff. I can definitely see how it influenced the entire genre. It was very powerful. Obviously, it was something completely different for its time. I can totally see how it could become a cult classic to some people.

MediaBlvd> What do you think of Wes Craven and his work?

Sara> Of course, some of his movies came out before I was alive. When I think of Wes Craven, I’ve always thought of him as an icon. He’s this legend of horror. He’s a complete master of what he does and he’s so amazing to talk to. He has so much information about the genre and it’s great hearing his old stories about filming the original. I actually get really nervous around him. I start getting really shy and tongue-tied when he starts talking to me and asking me questions. I just sound like an idiot. He’s so calm and he has this presence. It’s really cool. He’s definitely an American icon.

MediaBlvd> Was he there when you auditioned for the part, or did you send him a tape?

Sara> Sean Cunningham was there a lot. They’re a team. I met Wes a couple months ago. He was never there physically while we were working, but of course, he was manning the controls. He was the captain of the boat, that we just never really saw. I didn’t actually meet him until last year, in December.

MediaBlvd> Did you work with his son on set?

Sara> Yes. Jonathan was amazing. I cannot stress how welcoming he was, and he wanted to make us all feel so comfortable, at all times. We were all really passionate about it, but Jonathan especially worked so hard, staying up until all hours of the night, and still being so kind and warm. It was so funny. I was scared to go into the water, so Jonathan and Cody (Zwieg) were like, “If we go in the water first, will you go in the water?” The first day, they stripped down to their underwear and jumped in the water for me. I was like, “Wow!” I’d never worked with producers who would ever do that. We would go out to dinners and just have a great time together. I didn’t feel uncomfortable because they were producers. They were just my friends.

MediaBlvd> How cold was the water?

Sara> It was freezing! We had a medic on set, 24/7. Of course, you have to have a medic on set, but Dennis wanted all of the actors’ injuries to be as realistic as possible, so we had the medic on set to constantly be telling us, “Oh, that doesn’t look real. That would never happen in real life.” We actually had a hypothermia truck because it was so cold. He would test how long the body could be in the cold without reaching hypothermia and, once it hit that minute, he was like, “She needs to come out!,” and he would drag me out of the water and I’d be shaking. He’d put space blankets on me and heaters and check my temperature.

 MediaBlvd> Was it challenging to also have to act on top of the fact that you were already freezing?

Sara> Oh, yeah, definitely. We all hated the rain machine. It was the most physically challenging thing I have ever done. We got bruised and beaten up, every day. I still have so many scars from getting so injured. The scene in the car, where we had the huge fight sequence, was actually my favorite scene to film. We had to take the entire back seat of the car out and move it back, and there were a couple nails sticking up. I was fighting with Riki Lindhome and she was pulling my hair, and it got so intense and real that I landed on one of the nails. It went under my knee cap and I screamed out, and Dennis was like, “Cut! Print that! That was the best one! It was so real! How did you do that?” I was like, “It was real!” They used so much make-up, every day, to cover up all of our injuries. Every single one of us had something bad that happened to us, injury wise, so make-up had to cover it up. So, if you look really carefully in the movie, when everything is fine and normal, my legs are purple, but nobody seemed to notice that.

MediaBlvd> Can you talk about Tony Goldwyn and Monica Potter, and how you connected with them?

Sara> Tony and Monica were the last to arrive. We had already filmed everything in the forest, by the time they arrived, and we had already bonded so much. We felt bad that Tony and Monica didn’t get a chance to be a part of that, so we all took them out. I immediately bonded with Monica because we were both the goofballs with the corny jokes that nobody laughs at. And, Tony is really cool. He was really easy to bond with. He’s a father, and he has a daughter my age, so it was really easy for me to get along with them.

MediaBlvd> What was Dennis Iliadis like, as a director?

Sara> Dennis is so amazing! I love Dennis because he knows how to have the right balance of getting the actors focused, but not tense. He knew how to loosen it up. I thought the rehearsal process was great because we were able to form a natural chemistry and really bond and get the physicalities out of the way, for every scene. I loved that. Dennis is very protective of his actors. I love working with people like that. If we’re all happy, then you get a better movie, so it’s better that way.

MediaBlvd> Do you think Mari will be okay in the future? Will she recover from this experience?

Sara> I thought about that. Watching the movie, I was like, “Gosh, what happens? After all that, where does she end up? And, where does Justin end up? What happens to everyone?” I really don’t know. I don’t think they’ll ever be going back there for a family vacation, ever again. They’ll probably just stay inside their home and lock their doors, for the rest of their lives, and be traumatized, and crawl into a ball on the floor and cry.

MediaBlvd> What do you think of the horror genre, and where do you see it going?

Sara> I consider this movie to be a suspense thriller, not a horror movie. I’m not a big fan of those torture porn movies. I don’t like being grossed out. I like this movie because, even while filming it, I would be standing there in the woods, at six in the morning, getting ready for the scene, and it was so creepy. All I could think to myself was, “This has really happened to someone and we just don’t know about it. Someone has died here, alone in these woods, and that just sent shivers down my spine.” That’s what was really scary -- the kind of scary that disturbs you for a long time. 

MediaBlvd> What’s been your experience so far, in terms of doing auditions and being a young actor?

Sara> It’s really hard auditioning because, once people get an idea of who you are, they think they know you and they only want to see you in that way. When I auditioned for The Last House on the Left, I didn’t even think I had a chance in hell of getting this part. I only went in as an acting exercise. My manager was like, “Just go in for fun.” I thought, “They’re never going to give me this part. They only see me as Aquamarine and Sydney White.” And then, they did and I was just flabbergasted. I was shocked and ecstatic. I hope, when this movie comes out, more people can see that I really do want to do these types of roles. I like doing it all. I don’t want to be stuck in just one box.

MediaBlvd> Do you live in L.A.?

Sara> I do. I was born here. My parents live out in the Calabasas/Thousand Oaks area, and that’s where I grew up.

MediaBlvd> What’s next for you?

Sara> I’m possibly doing a movie, called Gravy. It’s kind of a horror movie too, but not really. There’s comedy in it. I guess I don’t know what genre that would be. But, I just don’t want to be stuck doing one thing. I don’t care what I do, as long as it’s a good role and a good character, and it’s something different because I don’t ever want to be that girl that does just one thing.