Amber Tamblyn: Excerpt Interview
You may remember young hottie AMBER TAMBLYN from her cult TV Show Joan of Arcadia and as the opening victim in THE RING (remake). Now you'll know her as the lead in the upcoming THE GRUDGE 2 (Hitting the screens on October 13 2006). A bunch of us lowly journalists had the chance to chit-chat with the smart beyond her years and charming actress on The Grudge 2 set in Japan, and here are the beans that she spilled... 

He cast you? (Sam Raimi)

Yeah, he was a part of it. It was Sam Raimi, and it was everybody at Mandate, Nathan Kahane at Mandate, and Sony.

Ever write a screenplay yourself?
I think that could be in my near future at some point. There's a few things that I've been exploring and thinking about. It's just, to be honest, like finding the time. Which kind of sucks.

What do you think the film is about?

I think that they're about the dark side of human nature. I don't know. They could be about ghosts, too. To each their own. I think everybody takes a piece of it. But just like I said that Shimizu-san told me he was affected by that film Demon, and, you know, about this young kid who has to live with the devil of a stepmother. I think that there is ... a huge undercurrent in all of these films with domestic violence as well. In fact, there was a whole sequence ... Did he like release a director's cut of the first one? So I didn't see that. Did it show the scene where Takeo is like beating the crap out of Kayako? OK, that was a scene that they shot and apparently they were not allowed to release it because it's not PG-13, because of domestic violence.

And that was like a really crazy thing to watch. But when you watch a thing like that, it's really interesting to think about how you as human beings can almost take on a ghostly affect, or your spirit can take on a ghostly affect, if you have gone through any traumatic experiences like that, whether it be any kind of abuse on any scale. So I think you're talking about real human nature, but you are emphasizing the unknown about it: What it does to your psyche and your brain and those areas. And so that's what make it really scary, the idea that someone who can go through such a terrifying violence that we can identify with, like domestic violence or whatever--not personally identify with it, but we know what it is--and then they themselves can go on and do a violence against you as an audience member, which is to terrify you. So it's almost like you are second-hand experiencing what they are going through. I don't know, that's the way that I see it. I see these films being a commentary on what we as humans, what violence does to us.

What affected you?

The Haunting. That was like, that movie still to this day really terrifies me. Rosemary's Baby, probably one of the most brilliant. ... The first time ever that I had really started studying the editing and the way that people shot horror films. And like the first time I had ever started to think about what makes a film scary. Going from like huge wide shots of an empty room into tights of Mia Farrow's face, so that you feel isolated and things like that. It's just really interesting, the psychological trip that horror films take you on. Way more than thrillers. Way more than most films. Interesting.

Anybody in the future you'd like to work with?

I think David Lynch. Yeah, my dad got to work with him. And I'm extremely jealous. So that would be a real honourable moment for me.

You got to meet him at least?

Uh-huh. But I was like seven, so I don't even think I knew who he was. I was like, "Oh, he's got a funny voice."

www.joblo.com  4/12/06