Exclusive 1-1 With Scout Taylor-Compton On Halloween

By Ian Spelling on July 20, 2007

Scout Taylor-Compton and Jamie Lee Curtis have a bloody little something in common. They’ve both played Laurie Strode. Curtis rode the character to stardom in John Carpenter’s 1978 horror classic, and Taylor-Compton is hoping to do the same thing in Rob Zombie’s eagerly awaited remake, which slashes into theaters on August 31 and features a kick-ass cast that includes Malcolm McDowell, Udo Kier, Clint Howard, Tyler Mane, Sheri Moon, Danielle Harris and William Forsythe. Curtis, however, had only a handful of TV guest spots before her first encounter with Michael Myers, whereas Taylor-Compton had nearly 30 film and TV credits – from Ally McBeal and Gilmore Girls and Hidden Howie to Charmed, Wicked Little Things and the upcoming film An American Crime – under her belt. Latino Review recently caught up with 18-year-old Taylor-Compton for this exclusive interview about Halloween.
 
Latino Review: Heading into your auditions for Halloween you repeated watched Jamie Lee Curtis’ performance in the original film. What interested you about her work? What did you want to borrow from her and what did you want to do differently?
 
Taylor-Compton: From watching it, I just wanted to make sure that I got her sincerity and her movements and how she was as a character. Her friends were always the wild ones and she was sort of like the mother, the person left out, and I just wanted to make sure that I had matched her with what I had. The sides that I had were really similar to some of the scenes in the original movie, and I just worked at it and worked and I practiced. When we finally got on set and I realized what kind of environment I was in and how we were doing something different and how Tyler Mane (as Michael Myers) was different and how my character’s parents were different and my friends were different, and finally sitting down and talking to Rob about the character, I realized I didn’t have to do exactly what Jamie Lee Curtis had done. And I talked to Rob before each scene about what he wanted, what he didn’t want, what I wanted, what I didn’t want. It’s great to have a director that will listen to you and an actor that will listen to the director. We had a bond. It just clicked. We changed Laurie up a bit. She blends a little bit more with the environment she’s in and with her friends and with her family. She’s not the outsider anymore.
 
Latino Review: No one’s quite sure if Zombie is pulling a Gus Van Sant/Psycho and remaking the Carpenter film pretty much shot for shot, beat for beat, or if he’s doing his own thing with the material. So, what’s he up to?
 
Taylor-Compton: You know, Rob always brought (Carpenter) up. He’s following in his footsteps, but it’s still a Rob Zombie film. It’s going to be different, but it’s still the same. There are going to be a few surprises that people will have to look out for, but it’s still the same.
 
Latino Review: Zombie has some great people in the movie, like Malcolm McDowell (as Dr. Loomis), Udo Kier, Brad Dourif (as Sheriff Brackett). Who did you actually get to work with and what did you make of them?
 
Taylor-Compton: I only had the chance to work with Brad in two scenes and finally meeting him, he’s such a funny person. He loves to have a conversation. He loves to make people laugh. He’ll just sit there and anything he says you’ll find funny. I’m a fan of horror films, and I’m a big fan of the Chucky films, but I didn’t know that he did the voice for Chucky. So when I found that out I was a little psyched. I remember talking to him about it, and he was so open and has such a great personality. Working with Malcolm McDowell, I grew a crush on Malcolm the first day, just hearing him talk. And watching him do his performance was so amazing. Sitting down with him and hearing about his past and his acting and hearing what he went through and how sometimes it was so easy and sometimes it was so hard, I learned a lot. I have to say that I learned a lot from Malcolm, just talking to him and also working with him. Working with him on set was really, really easy, and I was so blessed that I had the opportunity to work with him. Rob is such a big fan of Malcolm’s from A Clockwork Orange. Tyler and I actually watched that on set during our breaks. Malcolm young, he was really, really cute. I have heard so much about Udo and everyone talks about him, but I never had the pleasure of meeting him. We were filming on different days. Everyone was talking about Udo and I’d see pictures of him and everything, but I never met him. I’m hoping I get to meet him at the Halloween premiere.
 
Latino Review: And you no doubt spent a lot of time with Tyler Mane and Dee Wallace Stone…
 
Taylor-Compton: I did. Tyler was amazing to work with. Tyler can be a character; let’s just say that. He’s such a gentleman. He did an amazing job. I was a little nervous working with Dee because I’d been a fan of hers, and first meeting her the first thing that she said to me, ‘You beat out a lot of girls.’ I was a little scared. I was like, ‘Oh, yeah, I guess I did.’ It hadn’t hit me yet. Working with her, she made me feel comfortable. We would act silly on set. We’d goof around. We were like mother and daughter in real life. It was a blast working with her. She’s such a sweetheart. Dee was at the wrap party, and I got to meet her daughter. Working with Dee was pretty cool.
 
Latino Review: What was the “Holy shit! moment,” the bit you were shooting where it really kicked in that you were remaking Halloween? Maybe the tombstone on the bed or the body hanging on the door?
 
Taylor-Compton:  I think I thought that every single day, just showing up on set and not knowing what to expect, not knowing who was going to die that day, not knowing where I was going to be chased, not knowing what stunt I was going to be doing. You have to understand, going on the Halloween set, we’d all be eating breakfast and Rob would be like, ‘Hey dude, what’s up? Are you ready to get blood all over your face and get chased by Michael?’ Reading the sides, yes, you know what’s going on, but actually getting on set with Rob and Tyler and acting it out and tweaking it up a little bit – because Rob would always change something – made every moment of that film like, ‘Oh my God, are you serious? Oh my gosh, OK, we’re doing this.’ It was nuts. It was pretty nice getting on set and doing a workout.
 
Latino Review: How concerned or not are you about becoming a scream queen?
 
Taylor-Compton: If it happens, it happens. It’d be great. I screamed my butt off. Jamie Lee Curtis had a great attitude about it, and I have the same attitude. If I come out to be the second scream queen to Jamie Lee Curtis, that’d be fine. That’d be great.
 
Latino Review: We’re hearing that Zombie went back and shot a couple of new death scenes and re-did a couple of other sequences that he’d already been done, but we’re guessing you survive and that if this is a hit there will be at least one sequel. How open would you be to coming back?
 
Taylor-Compton: I’m very, very, very, very open. I have to say Halloween has been the most interesting and creative and fun experience I have ever had in my life. And I would love to do the sequel to Halloween. It would be a blast, coming back with Tyler and Malcolm and the whole family again.

Source:Latino Review

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