FILM INTERVIEW: RUMOR WILLIS & JAMIE CHUNG

Stars of 'Sorority Row' Discuss Sisterhood, Suspense & Slashers

Izumi Hasegawa: Were either of you familiar with the original House on Sorority Row?

 

Jamie Chung: We were advised not to watch it.

 

IH: Really? Why?

 

JC: Just so we wouldn’t ruin the new vision for the revised script.

 

IH: Did you get a chance to watch it after or see it again?

 

JC: No, we’re saving it.

 

Rumer Willis: We’re going to have a slumber party.

 

JC: I know it sounds weird, but that’s how much we love each other. We’re going to watch it together.

 

IH: Speaking of loving each other, we heard about a night after dinner where you went down to the piano and were tinkering around…

 

JC: Oh yeah, second floor — all of us.

 

RW: I think we had come in late one night after work, and Briana [Evigan] and I — all of us were kind of messing around, and it was really funny because the security guard just came over and we were like, “Oh no, here we go…”

 

JC: “He’s going to kick us out.” And he was kind of just hanging out and listening.

 

RW: He just stood there and we were like, “Okay.”

 

JC: These girls are very talented. They can sing. [Rumer] has a voice. Briana can sing and Margo has a great voice, and Briana and Rumer can play the piano, so…

 

RW: We should start a girl band or something.

 

JC: I know.

 

IH: The hot tub scene with the bubble was very cool. What was that like to shoot?

 

JC: You would think it’s fun, but…no. The bubbles were chemicals, so they tasted awful. It was bizarre. But the scene where I’m dragged across the porch — that was fun. It was terrifying for my character, but it was fun for me during rehearsals.

 

IH: How was it using the flare gun?

 

JC: It was never loaded [laughs], and I never got to fire it, unfortunately.

 

RW: There are so many things people have been asking us too, like if we played any pranks. We were talking about it the other day, that we wished we’d thought about it then more and tried to pull one over on a couple of people while we were there.

 

IH: Jamie, your character has a real arc because you start out supporting the bad girl or the kind of evil sorority queen, and then you start seeing the pain around you and you start changing. Was that something that attracted you to the script?

 

JC: Absolutely. The character does have a change of heart, and you really see it in the scene with her and Cassidy [Briana Evigan] doing her make-up. You see it throughout, even in the hot tub scene. You think she’s being promiscuous, trying to get some action in the hot tub, but really she’s just filling a void, and I think that’s what a lot of girls in college with insecurities do. They’ll fill it with sex and boys and superficial things, and things that really don’t mean much to them. It’s like they’re just filling it, like that’s what really makes them happy, but really she was just trying to keep herself distracted. She has a breaking point. Yeah, that did attract me to that role. What also attracted me to that role was that it wasn’t written for an ethnic girl, and I think what’s great about Rich Mento and the other casting directors, and the producers and director of this film — they really wanted to think outside the box, which was pretty cool.

 

IH: Rumer, what attracted you to your role?

 

RW: I had read the script and then I went to go meet Stewart [Hendler]. I was a little hesitant about doing another sorority film because I just didn’t know what it would be like. I talked to him, and just the way he talked about it, he wasn’t trying to take it so seriously, because I feel like either they’re on one end of the spectrum and really just making fun of it and it’s just kind of a spoof, or they just take it so seriously. But Stewart really had a good vibe about him, and the way he talked about wanting to do it just interested me even more. So I went in and auditioned. The group of girls that they brought together, just the casting, I think, is absolutely perfect. It just ended up working out so well for all of us.

 

IH: Did you study scream queens or study screams, or go look at a bunch of people screaming in old movies?

 

RW: Stewart put together this kind of care package for all of us that had Scream, Heathers, and Mean Girls. I think we all watched them in the trailers during the lunch time. We definitely watched that, but I don’t know if I was consciously thinking about “I want to sound like this.”

 

IH: Well, it was a good scream.

 

RW: Thank you.

 

IH: Jamie, we heard you’re the only one in the cast who has actually been in a sorority. How did that help you, or did it help you in any way?

 

JC: The bonds of sisterhood… No, it didn’t help whatsoever. I mean, little things here and there, like trying to make it sound non-intelligent. [Laughs] No, we hung out. It was great. We bonded just like sorority girls do, and just little things, like in meetings, the girls are clapping like, “No, no, no. Sorority girls — we snap.” I think that was my only contribution to being in a sorority, so there you go.

 

IH: Can you both talk about working with the great Carrie Fisher as your house-mom?

 

RW: Unbelievably professional and so intelligent and witty, and I think deserves so much more credit than people give to her, because everyone immediately goes to Star Wars and Princess Leia, but there’s so much more to her than that.

 

JC: She has a very interesting life history — her parents and her life struggles growing up. She has a biography out, which is fascinating.

 

RW: The cover alone…

 

JC: It’s pretty hilarious.

 

RW: She has her one-woman show as well.

 

JC: Awesome. I did not know that.

 

IH: Wishful Drinking, it’s called. Rumer, was it always a given that you were going to go into this business?

 

RW: I think so. It just honestly was always something I wanted to do, and I guess it was never something that I thought about, like “Oh, I guess I want to do this,” because I always just knew it was something I wanted to do and that I was interested in continuing.

 

IH: What are the pros and cons of having famous parents when you’re trying to establish a name for yourself?

 

RW: Honestly, for me, I’m really neutral on it because, at the end of the day, if I’m going in to audition, my parents aren’t going to be the ones acting in the movie, so if I suck, they’re not going to give me the job. At the end of the day, it really comes down to the work that you do. Just like Jamie said — if you go in and you audition for any role, if you’re good and you fit what they’re looking for, then that’s why you’ll get the job, not really for any other reason, because at a certain point, people have seen everything. “Oh, I know this person and I know this person…” Casting directors don’t care. You could be anybody.

 

JC: Yeah, they really don’t care.

 

RW: They don’t at all.

 

IH: Is it hard for you that all the other girls in the movies are also young actresses and they can build up their career very slowly, and your first movie is watched by the whole world, or your second movie or your third movie? Are you friends? Everybody’s watching every step you take instead of building up slowly?

 

RW: I think the only difference is just that the amount of work I’ve done is not necessarily equal to the amount of attention I get. But if that can help bring more awareness, or whatever it may be, to a project that I’ve worked on and that I’m proud of and that I support, then that’s great. But other than that, again, if people like it, it’s in the work. If you do a good job, people notice that, and I hope not what tabloids say.

 

IH: Did you have any trouble with the stunt work? Jamie, I know you do stunts all the time, and martial arts. Was it interesting or fun? You’re pumping a shotgun at the end. Anything different that was challenging in the stunts?

 

JC: No, I can handle it all. [Laughs] Bring it.

 

RW: You do most of it in a short dress and heels.

 

JC:  That’s one of the challenges — doing it in scandalous clothes and in my heels. There you go.

 

RW: I don’t think I could do that in heels. I’d probably fall or trip in the first second.

 

JC: It was difficult with heels.

 

IH: Rumer, I know you don’t want to talk about your parents all day, but I just wanted to ask you what advice they had given you about acting. What have they told you about it, and if you hoped to eventually act with them again?

 

RW: There’s not necessarily one specific piece of advice that I could really say, but honestly, as I’m sure with all of our parents, they’re just extremely supportive, and that’s all I could really ask for.

 

IH: They didn’t tell you to run for the hills or anything?

 

RW: No, no, no. But yeah, I would love to be able to work with them in the future. I think that would be awesome.

 

IH: Were you at all disappointed that you didn’t get a cool death scene in the movie?

 

JC: Maybe in the sequel — you never know.

 

RW: I love that kind of stuff — getting to do the prosthetics and things. I would love, honestly, to be in a movie where I just got to totally transform myself and look entirely different — just do something crazy where you have to get your whole body painted or something — just out there. [To Jamie] You had a lot of fun with that.

 

JC: Oh yeah, with prosthetics?

 

RW: How long were you sitting [in make-up]? How long did that take?

 

JC: Two-and-a-half hours.

 

IH: Can you talk about what made you want to become an actress? Do you recall the moment, or was there something that happened to you that made you decide you wanted to be an actress?

 

RW: No. Like I was saying before, it was just something that I always knew I wanted to do and go into.

 

IH: How did you know?

 

RW: I don’t know. I’ve been on movie sets since I was a little kid, and it was just something I always knew I wanted to do.

 

IH: Did you study filmmaking in college? I read on imdb that you enrolled at USC…

 

RW: Yeah, I went to USC for a semester. It just wasn’t necessarily the right place for me at the time. I wanted to be acting and working and auditioning, so I left and was doing my own thing. I was auditioning, and that’s when I got the first movie I did.

 

IH: Do you have any aspirations to work behind the camera — to direct or produce or write?

 

RW: Sure, I would love to. As I’m sure…[to Jamie] you’re always on about that stuff. You always know what’s going on. If I ever need anything, I look to Jamie because she always knows what’s going on with that kind of stuff. [Laughs] I think it’d be fun.

 

JC: I think it’d be fantastic, especially if there’s a project or a topic that you’re really passionate about that someone hasn’t made yet, whether or not it’s a particular story from World War II about comfort women or historic…because movies are so powerful. They really can — I know it’s a little silly but — sometimes educate people on past events that kids kind of skim over in history class.

 

IH: Could each of you say what you’re actually scared of?

 

RW: I don’t know. I’ve heard all the other girls’ fears.

 

JC: Okay. I thought of a new one because it is really scary. Other than death and being under a flock of birds…

 

IH: You mean getting pooped on?

 

JC: Isn’t that terrifying? It’s terrifying. You’re always like, “Oh my God! It’s awful!” It’s giving labor. Labor pains.

 

RW: Whoa!

 

JC: Don’t you think that’d be…

 

RW: That’s scary. Yeah.

 

JC: Yes, that’s [scary]. Or like being a bone marrow donor? I saw the needle. That was scary.

 

IH: What about you, Rumer?

 

RW: I’m honestly not a girly girl about a lot of things, but I see bugs and I flip out. I hate bugs so much. I don’t know what it is.

 

IH: No movies in the Amazon for you, right?

 

RW: Honestly, I might be able to do it, but I’d probably have to have one of those nets surrounding me at all times. We were talking about it earlier because we were talking about Alien and that scene where they have to swim. Anything for me having to be trapped under water — that’s one of my worst fears — of not necessarily drowning but being trapped in something underwater.

 

IH: What are some of your favorite horror movies?

 

JC: The Shining, Psycho, Birds… [Laughs]

 

RW: Yeah, right. I was going to say…

 

JC: I was telling you they’re scary.

 

RW: I don’t know. What’s another good scary movie?

 

JC: Drag Me to Hell – lots of humor.

RW: I haven’t seen that one yet. I want to.

 

JC: Sam Raimi has another cult horror movie that was roughly based on Drag Me to Hell – the one with the hand. What was that called? Do you remember that?

 

RW: The Hand?

 

JC: Was it The Hand? Oh man, I’m so on it. I don’t even mean to be on it, but I’m on it.

 

RW: I’m not scared. I can’t watch those movies — the ones they’ve made in Japan, and they’re the remakes, like Shutter.

 

JC: The Grudge…

 

RW: Shutter and The Grudge. I’m like this the whole time [hides her eyes behind her hands].

 

JC: Who do they hire? Contortionists? It’s creepy.

 

RW: Just the way they move like that — that’s just…

 

JC: It’s creepy.

 

IH: Can you talk about what you’re currently working on? Jamie, you’re doing Sucker Punch; and Rumer, you’re working on 90210. Can you talk about your characters in those?

 

JC: I also just finished a movie with the biggest cast ever, The Grown Ups — Adam Sandler, Chris Rock, Rob Schneider, David Spade, Salma Hayek, Maria Bello, Maya Rudolph, Steve Buscemi…the list goes on. You should see the star trailers. I was like, “What is going on?” Assistants, private drivers…I was like, “Man, it must be nice.” That’s a family comedy that comes out in the summer, and I play one of Rob Schneider’s daughters — the history of us. So I’m the Asian, and then there’s the tall beautiful blonde — all from different mothers, obviously — and a shorter version of Rob Schneider’s twin, but his third daughter. I’m currently in pre-production for Sucker Punch. It’s a fantastic story that Zack Snyder co-wrote with Steve Shibuya, and it’s amazing. It’s fantasy. It’s 300 meets Alice in Wonderland meets Girl Interrupted with a little bit of Moulin Rouge. It’s insane.

 

IH: Who do you play in that, and how was it working with him?

 

JC: He’s the nicest guy. For someone so nice and kind and smiling all the time to come up with something so twisted and dark blows my mind. But it’s the happiest set in the world. It really is. It’s very positive. It’s safe, as an actor. There’s lots of physical training involved. It’s the same guys that trained and did the fight choreography for 300, so you can only imagine the level of intensity in that, and they’re not going soft on us just because we’re girls. No way. Abbie Cornish is deadlifting 210 pounds. She’s insanely strong.

 

RW: What?! I want to come visit.

 

JC: Those girls look amazing. I’m proud to be a part of the project. It’s a fascinating story with an interesting twist.

 

IH: Who do you play in it?

 

JC: I play Amber, one of the four girls that helps our lead hero escape the insane asylum. Whether she does or doesn’t, it’s…it’s great.

 

RW: I’m excited about all these original ideas for movies. I feel like for so long there’s been so many of the same.

 

JC: It’s so different.

 

IH: Rumer, can you talk about 90210?

 

RW: I’ve shot two episodes already, and right after Sorority Row comes out, I start shooting the third one. It’s been really fun, honestly. It’s always a little scary when you’re going into a cast that’s already worked together for awhile, but they were so welcoming and just so sweet and fun. I’m really excited.

 

JC: What’s your character?

 

RW: Her name is Gia and she is a journalist, so she’s kind of pent-up. [Laughs] I’m doing all my research today.

 

IH: What are your favorite Bruce Willis and Demi Moore movies? Do you have any favorites?

 

RW: The Fifth Element, 12 Monkeys, Nothing But Trouble, and The Butcher’s Wife.

 

IH: What about your buzz on Twitter, and what do you think about Twitter as a medium? You’re both using it and have a lot of followers.

 

RW: It’s because my mom gave me a shout-out. [Laughs]

 

IH: What do you think about your mom opening up about your private life on Twitter?

 

RW: Honestly, I think my mom brought this up to me because I didn’t really understand it at first, and I was like, “Do people really care that I’m doing my laundry or something?” It’s the first forum to really connect to fans just straight from you, because the majority of the time, the only way that the majority of people really get to know you is through other people’s opinions or just through the media, so I think it’s a great way to just be able to not only control your own media but talk to people and have them really get to know you. So that’s been a really cool thing. Also, it can help, like, “Hey, I’m shooting Sucker Punch.” It helps all of us just keep putting ourselves out there.