EXCLUSIVE Interview: The Goosebumps Cast Talks Fun and Frights

By: Lynn Barker

In the new film version of R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps, author Stine, played by talented Jack Black, is the dad of a teen daughter (Odeya Rush of The Odd Life of Timothy Green).  When the cute new boy next door (Dylan Minnette of the “Alexander” movie) teams up with a new, nerdy pal (Super 8’s Ryan Lee) to see why she barely leaves her house, they discover all of Stine’s locked manuscripts. Opening them sets loose all the creepy monsters in the “Goosebumps” universe.

Kidzworld got the young cast on the phone to talk fave monsters, working and playing with Jack Black, their most memorable Halloween costumes when they were little and much more.

Kidzworld: I know some of the creatures you are reacting to in the movie weren’t really there on set but you must have seen either video after they were added or art or storyboards sooo which one, for each of you, was the most fascinating or scary?

• Odeya: I thought the vampire poodle was pretty scary. It’s very deceiving. It looks very cute at first.
• Ryan: I would say the abominable snowman.
• Dylan: I really liked how the lawn gnomes in the kitchen turned out. I thought that scene was fun and pretty creepy. There’s a lot of them and they’re little and they kind of cracked when they moved, just creepy.
• Ryan: Then they rebuild themselves.

Kidzworld: Weird! Did any of the monster actors on set just stay in character like at lunch and creep you out?

• Dylan: The graveyard ghouls would all sit at the same table at lunch like a little clique at school.
• Ryan: The clown stayed in character though. He was a method clown. It was very creepy how he would not say hi to us and would just stare at us.
• Odeya: Yeah, the clown was pretty creepy and the ghouls, not just at lunch. I think some of them were from the set of “The Walking Dead” (which, like this film, is shot in Georgia).  When they were running after us, I didn’t know they’d be that realistic and run that fast so that really caught me by surprise.

Kidzworld: Ryan, you give new meaning to “screaming like a girl” in the abominable snowman scene. How did you perfect that? Did your director say to do that?

• Ryan: (laughs) It sort of just came out. I didn’t have to do too much preparation. That’s just my scream.

Kidzworld: Well it is blood-curdling! R.L. Stine in the movie has all his manuscripts under lock and key. Do any of you think you would be curious enough to unlock the books in your neighbor’s house or would you just leave them alone?

• Odeya: I’m kind of curious. There is a term ‘stolen water tastes sweeter’. It’s like you’re not supposed to open them. They’re upstairs. There’s a key. Knowing myself, I would open them.
• Ryan: But, I probably wouldn’t break into anybody’s house though.
• Odeya: Well, I was already there. I lived there (the two boys break in).

Kidzworld: Dylan, your character Zach is the new kid in town and not liking it a lot at first. Have you ever moved to a new school or town where you felt out of place? How did you fix that?

• Dylan: I actually did move into another town that I was kind of worried about. I moved to a small town in Illinois. I think this was third grade. Most people pretty much accepted me right away but I only went there two years because I had to keep going back and forth for acting. It definitely happened then but they were accepting. Good ole’ Midwestern hospitality.

Kidzworld: Everybody talk about working with Jack Black and was he fun on set when you weren’t shooting?

• Dylan: He’s pretty professional but we just had a lot of fun times with him. We got to play basketball. He invited us into his trailer and we watched movies with him.
• Ryan: And he and Dylan would jam out on their guitars while Odeya and I would nod our heads (to the music). Jack sings all the time too.

Goosebumps Movie Trailer

 

Kidzworld: Also, Odeya, you play his daughter Hannah in the film. Did you have any meetings with Jack to build that relationship?

• Odeya: From the chemistry read we just got along. We had to do this improvisation thing together and we realized we could really bounce off each other. Jack is such an approachable person and so down-to-earth. It’s kind of impossible not to get along with him.

Kidzworld: Odeya, Jack, as R.L. Stine, your dad is pretty overprotective in the movie. Are your parents that way or do they let you do your own thing a lot?

• Odeya: My dad is sooo overprotective. I think, in his mind, he thinks I’m going to get married when I’m thirty-seven. I’m not allowed to hold hands with guys. I think he’d kill guys and I want people to keep living.

Kidzworld: That’s harsh! You guys shot in several Georgia locations. Which was the most fun?

• Dylan: Atlanta is a really cool city. I particularly liked working there. If I had a summer vacation I would go there from now on. The town was just cool. The sets they built were really cool especially the amusement park they built in the woods. Also Madison, Georgia, a small town outside of Atlanta was really cool. It was a small population, a little community but it was really fun being there in this kind of bed and breakfast place in the middle of their downtown next to ice cream shops and the locals are so excited and supportive of the movie being there.

Kidzworld: Fun! It’s almost Halloween! What do you think your parents would pick as the cutest Halloween costume you wore as a little kid?

• Dylan: My gosh. Me and my sister, for a couple of years in a row, she went as Pooh and I went as Tigger.
• Odeya: Awwwww. I was Snow White and my dress had little.. What are they? Gnomes?

Kidzworld: Dwarves.

• Odeya: Dwarves on it. I think my mom made it. There were dwarves on the bottom of it to represent all seven of them.
• Ryan: I was a Power Ranger a few times.  

Kidzworld: Anybody have a favorite scary movie?

• Dylan: I love Halloween, the classic with Michael Meyers and as far as newer ones It Follows was a great movie that came out this year.
• Odeya: I liked Monsters Inc.

Kidzworld: Oh a cute scary one.

• Ryan: I don’t know if I have a favorite.

Kidzworld: Was there a prankster or jokester on set trying to crack everybody up?

• Ryan: It was probably me. I started a trend of taking selfies on everybody’s phone. Just kept pressing the button till somebody realized I was doing it. Everybody got me back. I did another one where we were filming in the woods and there was a safety meeting about ticks and all the bugs out in the woods and I would pick up some blade of grass because I was bored and go over to people and put the blade in people’s ears. They’d scream and I’d get a kick out of it.

Kidzworld: You are a little devil! What character in fiction or real life person would you like to play some day?

• Ryan: Spider-Man!
• Odeya: If they made a live action Mulan. I think she’s so bad-ass.
• Dylan: I might be too old now but I always wanted them to do a live action film of The Iron Giant. I really wanted to play Hogarth.

Kidzworld: Good answers. Why do you all think tweens and teens will especially love seeing this Goosebumps movie?

• Dylan: For me, growing up, a lot of important movies in my childhood were these PG or PG-13 family movies or adventure movies. I think it’s important to make a movie like that because they aren’t really made much anymore. I hope it inspires and resonates to a whole new generation.
• Odeya: That was perfect!

R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps is in theaters October 16^th!

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