People often like to compare Odette Yustman to Megan Fox, and on the one hand, you can see their point. Both actresses are knockout brunettes, and when Yustman plays the former high school mean girl tormenting the nerdy Kristen Bell in You Again, it’s almost as though she’s doing a less supernatural take on Fox’s haughty Jennifer Body’sperformance. The key difference is that Yustman has a more expansive range and a more extroverted nature, especially in person, when she practically leaps from her seat while answering questions. The super-sweet 25-year-old told Movieline how good it is to be bad, what’s behind the world domination of her You Againcostar Betty White, and what auteur she plans to stalk.

You have to be sweet and sympathetic for a good chunk of this movie, but you also get to be bad. Is that more fun?
Oh yeah! I feel like Joanna is the first time that I was actually able to play a character, because previously, I’ve played people who were more like me that I could relate to. Joanna is really layered, so I had a lot of fun drawing from memories of a couple girls who were… [she makes a face]. So I thought, this is my opportunity to channel this sort of person I used to know, and it was so much fun, but it was also challenging to make the audience feel bad for her. It’s difficult because she was such a mean girl, and if she could just apologize [to Kristen Bell’s character], it’d be great and done.

Is there a limit to how mean you can make her, or does the audience enjoy that? You watch a movie like Mean Girls, and it’s almost like the audience prefers the bad behavior.
They’re ready for it! Absolutely. There were a couple of times where I thought, “Wow, I seem like such a bitch, and I’d better be careful — I’ll walk away from this movie and people are going to hate me!” But then I thought exactly what you just said, that this is what they’re expecting and you just have to let everything else go, because it’ll make it even more worthwhile when you have to be sympathetic at the end. Hopefully, it works.

You mentioned channeling some mean girls in school, and you did a little bit of acting when you were growing up — you even appeared in Kindergarten Cop. Did that affect how your classmates treated you?
Yes. Kids are horrible! They can be so mean, and I never really experienced it until I was in high school. I went to a really small school with a class of 67 kids…

Wait, you grew up in Riverside, right? They have classes that small in California?
Crazy, right? And everybody knew each other, so it almost made it worse, because you were this big family, but like in every school, you had your bullies. Of course, I was really lanky and pretty awkward, and this one girl did not like me so much. So yeah, those memories stuck out and it was easy to draw inspiration from that, because I’ve been there. I know how those girls treated me, so it was easy to pretend to be them.

You initially pursued a totally different career in college. Did you have second thoughts about acting?
Well, here’s the deal. I did grow up doing it, but I really wanted to focus on school and have a normal childhood. Growing up about an hour and a half away from Los Angeles, the commute was really brutal, as you know.

I hate that drive to Riverside.
It’s ridiculous. It’s not fun, especially when you’re seven years old and all you want to do is play with your girlfriends, but you’re in a car for two hours to go to an audition that you don’t even know if you’ll book. So it was a little difficult, but I really did enjoy acting, and it wasn’t my parents pushing me. They’re not stage parents at all — they said, “Do whatever you want to do, but maybe go to [college] for a year.” So I went to a community college for a year and a half and then I thought about going to Loyola Marymount for business finance, but I thought, “You know what? That’s not what I want to do. What am I going to do with business finance? That’s a joke. I want to act, and I’m not going to half-ass it and go to school at the same time. If I’m gonna do it, I’m gonna do it.” So I moved out to Los Angeles at 19 and that’s when I took it seriously and said, “Parents, friends, everybody: This is my goal, and I’m going to do it. And if I don’t, I can fall back on school and have a back-up plan.” • Continue Reading?

Her very first gig was acting alongside her current Governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, in the iconic Kindergarten Cop, and it’s only gotten better from there. With roles in Cloverfield and TV’s October Road plus this month’s starring role in The Unborn, ODETTE YUSTMAN is definitely a name you’re going to want to know.

So your first movie was Kindergarten Cop?
[Laughs.] Yeah, it’s kind of weird. I never realized it would get the hype that it did. I was 4 years old, I didn’t know what I was doing. I didn’t know who Arnold Schwarzenegger was. I had a great time, you know, I was with 30 kids my own age, just hangin’ out.

Were you one of the kids with a hilarious line?
I actually said something really creepy in Spanish. I said, “My father works in the house and plays with me a lot.” I mean, really? [Laughs.] That’s what I said!

Tell us about your character in The Unborn.
I play this girl, a normal girl, you know, normal life. And all of a sudden, creepy things start happening to her. She starts hallucinating and having these recurring dreams. She finds out that she’s a twin and her unborn twin died in utero. So there is basically this spirit that’s haunting her. The movie is her finding out how to get rid of it and what is really wrong with her. It’s a psychological thriller. It gets in your head; it’s pretty creepy.

What was the scariest part to film?
We were shooting in this insane asylum. The wing that we were shooting in had been shut down for years. So we’re shooting in it, and this huge light just starts flickering and then during another scene, it just kind of exploded. Then I was going down a stairway and it was dark, and I took a picture and [in the photo] you can clearly see this face thing. Crazy things were happening! I was terrified.

So do you believe in ghosts now?
You know what, I really never did. I kind of didn’t ever open myself up to that, but I mean it was kind of just obvious something was happening.

What’s rocking your iPod these days?
I definitely always have my few favorites: Damien Rice, a little Bob Marley, Bob Dylan, Amos Lee, Ben Harper and recently, Katy Perry.

CHEAT SHEET >> Odette Yustman got up close and personal with the Governator when she was just a tot in Kindergarten Cop. Since then, she’s guested on TV’s Quintuplets and Life On Mars, and took a pipe through her shoulder in Cloverfield. This month she does mental battle with her dead twin inThe Unborn.

From the millisecond the first trailer for “The Unborn” finished unspooling on my screen, I had to rewatch it. “Did that old man’s head just do a 180?” The answer was yes. Same answer applies to, “Will I be seeing the movie ASAP?”For once Hollywood wasn’t shoving another horror movie remake down our throats – this was a brand new shockfest from David S. Goyer, the writer of “The Dark Knight,” and starring Odette Yustman, whose beauty drove four friends to the ends of NYC in “Cloverfield.”

This time around she’s playing a woman stalked by the spirit of her unborn brother. I know, typical dead fetus fun. But if the actual film is half as scary as the stellar trailer (watch) we’re all in for many sleepless nights.

PopWrap: I haven’t gotten a chance to see the movie yet, but I hear it’s super scary.
Odette Yustman: I hope it’s what everyone expects. I haven’t seen it either though. Well, I saw a rough cut, but without the music and everything. I’m going to try and catch it in theaters today.

PW: Do you prefer seeing your movies that way, filled with an audience of honest reactions?
Odette: I think that’s the most exciting part. When “Cloverfield” came out, that’s what we did. Just to see their reaction is such an adrenaline rush. I’m kinda terrified about it though.

PW: What initially attracted you to this movie?
Odette: As an actress, playing this role was a very exciting prospect. It’s an emotional roller coaster for me, and being able to carry a film is really exciting. There isn’t one scene I’m not in … which is terrifying at the same time. And knowing that David Goyer wrote the script, well, I’ve just been a fan of his for so long. Plus, this isn’t a remake. It’s a completely original script. • Continue Reading?

I have uploaded new screen captures & a video of Odette in Daily 10 show, thanks many to Becca for capping this video for us. She was chatting about The Unborn with the interviewer at her own house backyard. Thanks again to Becca for capping it!

GALLERY LINK:
- News Segment: 2009: Daily 10 [The Unborn]

Sitting alone in a hotel bedroom with Odette Yustman isn’t easy. Okay, not alone per se, her friend is in the next room. Still, the stunningly beautiful and gregarious actress is sitting before me, curled up in a chair and beneath a blanket while I’m across from her sitting on the bed. The bed. Now, how does one make that not look awkward? Through focus.

We’re each here at the Four Seasons in Beverly Hills to talk about her latest foray in the horror genre, David Goyer’s The Unborn (opening January 9th). And the threat she’s up against this time is not a towering beast of unknown origin (Cloverfield), an alien robot steering wheel (Transformers, in which she had a “blink and you’ll miss it” role) or a drooling, Google image searching, obsessed fan. Instead, Yustman’s being stalked by a demonic presence vexed that she was born and her twin died in utero. Because of this, she is plagued by possession and outlandish, dreadful visions, from eyeless creatures with gaping maws that look inspired by Dick Smith’s work on Ghost Story to dogs with wonky heads.

“I definitely wanted to stay away from the horror-thriller thing,” Yustman says explaining her initial post-Cloverfield plans. “I couldn’t pass this up because of David Goyer and his script was so good. I loved the character and the story was original, it wasn’t a remake. I got to tap into things I haven’t been able to do yet. I think it’s essential to take baby steps and to prove yourself.”

The actress endured a frigid two and a half months in Chicago lensing the Platinum Dunes/Rogue production facing lengthy night shoots, contact lenses that impaired her vision and voracious potato bugs. “They were huge and that big,” she exclaims measuring their length for me with her fingers. Yeah, they’re apparently pretty big. “Horrible creatures with no purpose in this world. They bite, they eat each other. They eat potatoes? Wow, great,” Yustman laughs followed by a painfully cute, “Assholes.”

With that our conversation stays on track yet turns to some of her other projects including a possible sequel to The Unborn, should the film hit the big time, to a picture called Rogue’s Gallery in which she gets to exercise her action and comedic chops. A Cloverfield sequel? Tough call. She doesn’t sound rather optimistic about her character’s fate.

I had the chance to speak to both Yustman and writer-director David Goyer earlier in the day on camera about The Unborn. Below Yustman offers her take on the scariest canines in the film and Goyer dishes the dirt on some of his inspirations and explains how the Dark Knight helped him shoot in Chicago.

Source: http://shocktillyoudrop.com

Ready for a terrifying glimpse into the life of the undead? Odette Yustman recently talked to MoviesOnline about her new movie, The Unborn, a supernatural thriller directed by David Goyer. Yustman plays Casey, a young woman who is pulled into a world of nightmares when a demonic spirit haunts her and threatens everyone she loves. The Unborn’s supporting cast includes Gary Oldman, Cam Gigandet, and Jane Alexander.

Yustman made her mark starring in J.J. Abrams’ groundbreaking action-thriller “Cloverfield” and recently starred as college graduate student Aubrey Diaz on the critically acclaimed ABC television series “October Road.” Her other film credits include The Holiday, Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, Transformers, and Dear God.

Odette Yustman turns in a strong performance in The Unborn and we really appreciated her time. Here’s what she had to tell us about her character’s nightmarish journey:

MoviesOnline: How did you feel when David snuck up on you with the eye speculum and didn’t tell you about the bugs?

Odette: Oh, my gosh. I was about to kill him. I really was because he said “I have an idea for this scene.” I’m like “What do you mean you have an idea for this scene?” He’s like “Well, there’s this thing. It’s called a speculum and it kind of goes in your eye but you numb it so you’re not gonna feel it and you only have to do it once.” I’m like “Okay, but if I have to do it, then you have to do it.” He’s like “Sure, no problem.” So, we do it and it’s horrible and then “Don’t blink! Don’t blink!” I’m like (scared voice) “Okay, okay.” And then, he’s like “Wow, that looks really cool! I want a cross shot right here. I want a shot right here. I want a shot right here.” So we ended up doing it like six times and he didn’t do it at all. Great. But it was horrible. • Continue Reading?

Cloverfield ingénue Odette Yustman returns to the PG-13 horror world with The Unborn, a scary ghost story written and directed by David Goyer. Odette plays Casey, a young woman haunted by the ghost of her twin brother, who died while they were both in the womb. The Unborn has all the right elements for the genre: creepy kids, dogs with upside-down heads, Nazis, and a Jewish exorcism. (Plus, you don’t want to miss Gary Oldman as a rabbi.) Yustman talked to us at the LA press junket for The Unborn about foreign objects in her eye, bugs in her bra, and why her childhood hobby was smashing porcelain dolls with a hammer.

I’m sure this is something you have discussed a million times before, but how did you feel when David Goyer sneaked in the eye speculum scene?

I was about to kill him. I really was. He said, “I have an idea for this scene.” I said, “What do you mean you ‘have an idea’?” He said, “There’s this thing, it’s called a speculum… it kind of goes in your eye, but you numb it, so you don’t really feel it, and you only have to do it once.” I said, “Fine, but if I have to do it, you have to do it.” He said, “Sure, no problem.” So we do it, and it is horrible. They told me, “Don’t blink, don’t blink.” David thought it looked really cool, and wanted all these different angles. We ended up shooting it six times, and David didn’t [wear the speculum] at all. • Continue Reading?