Victoria Justice for Fun Size

By: Lynn Barker

The popular Nick series “Victorious” ran for three seasons and its star Victoria Justice (her friends call her Vic) has also appeared in the musical movie “Spectacular”, “The Boy Who Cried Werewolf” and lot of other Nick series.

Since “Victorious” wrapped, the actress, who will celebrate her 20^th birthday Feb. 19^th, has been concentrating on her music career and will launch a cool tour this summer. Meanwhile, you can take home the Blu-ray or DVD of her wacky “adventures-in-babysitting” romp Fun Size. We’re talking to the star about fun while making the movie, her plans for music and a message to her “Victorious” fans.

Kidzworld: Hey Victoria, your birthday is the 19^th of this month, the same day the Fun Size Blu-ray comes out. Any plans yet?

• Victoria: I don’t have any plans for my actual birthday yet. It’ll probably just be very low-key. I’ll just hang out with my family and a few close friends and go grab dinner or something. But, I think I’ll have a birthday party the beginning of March. That’s exciting.

Kidzworld: You recorded “Almost Paradise” for the Footloose soundtrack and you’re about to go on tour with your music. Tell us about that.

• Victoria: I am! It’s my second headlining tour, my “Here’s to Us” tour. I’m doing a bunch of songs from “Victorious” and a few covers. I wanted to do this one for the fans and do one big summer party with surprises and special guests.

Kidzworld: Very cool! You had been on your Nick show “Victorious” since you were 16. Are you happy about how the show wrapped up, final episodes?

• Victoria: There was actually no final ending. When we were filming the last episode of “Victorious”, I didn’t know that it would be the last episode. I thought that we were definitely coming back for another season. (laughs) But, I was incorrect and we didn’t get picked up. It would have been nice to have a final episode for the fans just to sum everything up. I feel like the fans deserved that. “iCarly” had one of those. But, at the end of the day, I have no regrets. It was an honor playing her.

Kidzworld: Back to Fun Size. Were you happy for your co-star Thomas Mann when he got the part of Link in the new Beautiful Creatures film? Talk about working on this movie with him. 

• Victoria: I’m a big Thomas Mann fan. I think he’s a super talented guy and also very down-to-earth and grounded and we actually became very good friends while working on Fun Size and we hang out in L.A. sometimes. I’m super happy for him and hope he continues to be successful and I think he deserves great things.

Kidzworld: Any fun times off-set or between scenes on Fun Size?

• Victoria: Yeah, we definitely had fun and hung out as a cast. The great thing about Fun Size is that we all really clicked as a group and as friends. We’d get dinner and go to the movies; just normal stuff. It was great working with everyone.

Kidzworld: A large part of the story takes place on Halloween. Do you have any really fun Halloween memories or were there any cool costumes you wore?

• Victoria: My most recent Halloween costume I dressed up as Abraham Lincoln so that’s a favorite of mine.. with the top hat and the beard.

Kidzworld: Very appropriate with the Lincoln movie out and everything. So, your character Wren in Fun Size is liked by two very different guys. Which type of guy would Victoria go for; the sweet science nerd or the hot fellow who fancies himself a singer?

• Victoria: In real life I think I’d just go for the most genuine, nice guy. Whoever is the nicest to me and treats me the best. That’s important.

Kidzworld: Who was the biggest prankster on the Fun Size set and what did he or she pull?

• Victoria: Probably Jackson Nicoll who played my little brother Albert. He’s definitely a handful. It’s deceiving because he has this cute, adorable little face but when he opens his mouth he’s feisty and crazy and awesome. He was a little jokester. He and Johnny Knoxville got along really well.

Kidzworld: I’ll bet! Do you have a younger brother? Or ever babysit as a younger teen and have some real troublemakers like Albert to deal with?

• Victoria: Not really. I never really did the whole babysitting thing. I have a younger sister three and a half years younger than I am but I never got to babysit her. Now she’s too old. So, I missed that.

Kidzworld: Can you relate to any of the crazy adventures in this movie? Like did you ever end up in embarrassing situations while out with friends?  

• Victoria: Hummm. Actually, my friend Avan Jogia who plays Becks on “Victorious” and I did a little European vacation together. We were in London for two weeks and so we got into a lot of fun, crazy adventures there and made some new friends. It was fun to have a partner in crime throughout the whole thing.

Kidzworld: In which scene did you find it really hard to keep a straight face?

• Victoria: If you see the blooper reel on the DVD, you’ll see us constantly cracking up and making fun of ourselves but probably when we filmed the scenes with Roosevelt’s (Thomas Mann’s character) two moms, when we meet them for the first time, I was biting my lip so much to keep from laughing. Those two ladies; Ana Gasteyer and Abby Elliott are on “Saturday Night Live” they are super talented and hilarious at improv. They would make lines up and we’d start cracking up.

Kidzworld: Are you up for being in a new TV series or are you concentrating on your music or films now?

• Victoria: I’m really concentrated on music right now. I’ve been doing a lot of writing sessions and getting ready to release my first single this year and prepping for the tour. Acting-wise, I want to be very careful about the next project that I choose. At this point it doesn’t matter to me if it’s a TV show or a movie. I just want to play a character that I find really interesting and I want to feel a lot of love for the script and the project so I’m waiting for the right thing to come along and we’ll see what happens.

Kidzworld: Why will tweens and teens especially enjoy seeing Fun Size and collecting the DVD or Blu-ray?

• Victoria: I think there’s lots of action and adventure but it’s obviously a comedy so there are some really funny moments. My character Wren is a very relatable teenage high school girl dealing with new love and crushing and finding her place in high school and the world. That’s a very relatable topic. That’s why I enjoy it so hopefully, they will too.