Nineteen-year-old Canadian born actress Kirsten Prout has been making a name for herself in film and television, since getting bitten by the acting but at the very young age of two. After her feature film debut in 2005 as Abby, sidekick to Jennifer Garner's character in the superhero flick Elektra, she went on to play Amanda, the girl-next-door love interest for Kyle on the ABC Family drama Kyle XY.
This June, Kirsten Prout will be in her most visible project to date, as vampire Lucy in the highly anticipated The Twilight Saga: Eclipse. In the third installment of the popular film franchise, her character is seen in flashbacks that give insight into the backstory of Jasper (Jackson Rathbone) and how he was created.
In this exclusive interview, the rising star talked to IESB about the experience of playing her darkest role yet, in such a high-profile film.
IESB: What initially drew you to acting? Since you were so young when you started, were you even aware of what you were doing?
Kirsten: When I was younger, I used to watch television and Disney movies, and that kind of thing, and it started out as just wanting to play characters and just a love of story. I had a very active imagination. I was making requests to my parents, not necessarily to get into film or television, but to play characters. And my mom, for a long time, understandably didn't want to expose her child to an industry with so much rejection. So for years, I would just keep asking and asking, and eventually I figured out that I could actually make a career of it and it was called being an actress.
Finally, when I was 10 years old, she let me go to my first audition because she thought I'd just get it out of my system. She thought I'd just go and nothing would happen, and I'd just give up on it. So, I went to auditions and I actually started doing well. It was something that I really loved to do. As soon as I started working on television, in shows and playing characters, I just knew that's what I had to do. I was never a commercial kid. I told my mother and my agent, when I was 11 years old and so pretentious, "Yeah, I think I'm going to pass on doing commercials." I was always just in it because I love storytelling and I love getting into the mind-set of different characters. It just snowballed from there.
IESB: Was there something specific that made you realize acting could be a career?
Kirsten: I knew that I wanted to be a Disney princess, or experiencing the life of someone on a television show that I loved. I just realized that actors are the people that did that, and therefore I should become an actor to do it. I was pretty young when I decided that it was what I wanted to do and that it's what I love.
Q: How did you get involved with The Twilight Saga: Eclipse? Was it just a regular audition?
Kirsten: Yeah, it was just a regular audition. I had just come off of two films, and it was after Kyle XY, which was a television show I worked on for three years. I had been working on it for so long and, before that, I hadn't taken a real break because I had been working steadily since I was 10 years old. So, at the end of Kyle XY, which also happen to coincide with the end of my high school career, I decided to go off to University and leave the industry. I went for a year to McGill University and I majored in English literature, and I took all my advanced classes that I prepared for in high school, and I had a great time there. I got straight A's and was on the honor roll. But then, when I came back to Vancouver during the summer, I went for an audition because it was what I was used to doing, and I booked it. And then, I booked something right after that was a mini-series that would shoot into the school year. So, at that point, I decided to put off going back to University.
I had just come off of two shows and, in between filming them, I had gone for Eclipse. I read for a different vampire, called Bree, who is a brunette with short, short hair that is 13 years old and completely not me, but I went for the audition just because it was a big project. I can tell you that I've never felt that level of nervousness in an audition room, in my whole career. I had read the books, but it hadn't really sunk in what a huge phenomenon Twilight was. I went into it and it was an important audition, but I wasn't really nervous. I was just focusing on my work, but a lot of people were just so stressed out. I went to the audition room, and then I heard back about the audition that I was wrong for the character, but they wanted me to come back for another vampire that was essentially the same size role and everything, except she had long blonde hair, was extremely pale and was older. So I went in, did one audition and a week later, I got a call and then showed up on set. It was pretty rapid. I only had one audition for it because I'd already auditioned for another character and they'd seen what I could do.
IESB: Had you seen Twilight before auditioning?
Kirsten: Yeah, I had. I was very familiar with the franchise, just because my younger sister was reading the books. I was curious about what she was reading because she was just going through them like nothing. I was like, "What is that?" And she said, "It's Twilight. It's a vampire romance." And I was like, "Oh, that sounds kind of cool." I started reading it and I just shot through it. It was very readable stuff. And I'd seen the movie because everyone's seen it.
IESB: What can you say about your character in Eclipse? How does she fit into the story?
Kirsten: Without revealing too much, Lucy is one of the vampires that turns Jasper, played by Jackson Rathbone. Jasper gets turned while he is an officer, and I'm one of the vampires that causes Jasper to be turned during his military career. Lucy appears to be an innocent little victim, and then she turns into something a lot more sinister.
IESB: Is Lucy the darkest character you've ever played?
Kirsten: I've always been on the good side. I've never played a villain, in my entire career. I'm the girl next door, or the girl who helps out, or the girl that makes an innocent escape. For once, I got to look all innocent and have that angelic quality, and then, all of a sudden, turn into something really dark. That was fun for me. That was the first villain that I've ever played.
IESB: Did you do anything to get to know Jackson before filming, or did you just click right away?
Kirsten: We actually got along really well. We met in the make-up trailer, during the make-up testing, before filming even started. When I first got the part, they had to figure out whether they had to airbrush you, which in my case they didn't really because I'm already pale enough. But, they take a look at you, and design your hair and the hair pieces you're going to wear, and all that. So, I met Jackson when he was getting his hair done. He was getting his hair dyed by the on-set stylist, and he was getting weird patterns shaved into it underneath, which was kind of funny.
IESB: Playing a vampire, were you at all disappointed that you weren't going to get to wear fangs?
Kirsten: When I was reading the books, I was very surprised that there weren't fangs. The vampires in the Twilight Saga don't have fangs. We sparkle. No, I wasn't disappointed. The thing is, a lot of the actors that have been hired have very nice teeth that are very noticeable. They've picked people with teeth that stand out. It's more threatening. You notice that there's something different about that person's teeth, but it's not fangs. It's not obvious. You don't know you're going to get bitten. I was not disappointed. When someone tells you you're going to be a vampire in Twilight, the reaction is not disappointment. I've had to deal with prosthetic teeth and it's not fun.
IESB: How secretive were they with you, when you were auditioning? Did you get to read actual scenes?
Kirsten: No. The technique that they used for the audition was that they made the scenes exact transcripts from the book. It was very strange to audition with them because they were written to be read and they weren't adapted yet. They didn't give the screenplay out. So, the audition side was just reading a page of Twilight and reading the lines that were interspersed between the descriptions. That's what it was like. They could never distribute that. Even when I got the job, the secrecy was so high in the Twilight world.
IESB: While you were shooting, did you have any experiences with the paparazzi?
Kirsten: Oh, yeah. The first day that Jackson came into work, he almost tripped on the stairs, coming out of his house, because there were so many photographers that he couldn't even see. The circus around all the trailers and everything was crazy. They had giant black dividers to keep paparazzi out. On the first day, they took down all the signage and blocked everything out. All the actors had to wear bathrobes to cover their wardrobe in between scenes. It was really intense.
I was born and raised in Vancouver, and I've done a lot of film work in Vancouver. I worked with Jennifer Garner on Elektra and there was a lot of paparazzi on that as well. But, Vancouver has changed a lot since Twilight. It's changed the whole media culture there. We didn't used to have paparazzi. You'd get five, tops. And then, on Twilight, all of a sudden it was like, "Where did all these photographers come from?" They were hiding everywhere. There were hundreds, just waiting. It's part of the whole phenomenon of Twilight. You have to just take it as it comes because it's just nuts.
IESB: How was David Slade, as a director? Had you been familiar with any of his previous work?
Kirsten: Yeah, I had. He's a great guy because his way of working is so open. He just says, "Do what you do," and lets you play with it. If he has notes, he gives them to you, but he's a very open director. He keeps it light. He loves his job and he's very serious about it. He's a great director.
IESB: What is Seven Deadly Sins and who do you play in that?
Kirsten: I play a character named Miranda. It's a cool concept because each character, and there's seven main character, all have a sin. It's a story that revolves around the sin that we perpetrate and how it changes the plot. It starts off with a very basic high school group of friends, but it slowly unravels. Through envy, sloth and all the sins, it slowly turns into this situation which is very high drama.
It was good to work on a drama and have some gritty material. My sin was envy. My character starts out as a good girl and, throughout the movie, because she's envious, she becomes harder and harder and more deceitful. By the end of the film, she's completely different and she's definitely learned a lesson. I really enjoyed working on that. The actors were just phenomenal. We had a great time together. We filmed in Victoria and all stayed in the same hotel. It was like staying in a sorority and a frat house combined.
IESB: Are you personally more like Miranda in Seven Deadly Sins, or are you more like Amanda from Kyle XY?
Kirsten: Amanda was very sweet and docile, and she didn't have that kick or bite to her. I think I'm more like Miranda because she has a bit of an edge to her and she stands up for herself. She's got more of a strength. I think I'm more like Miranda. I can kick butt when I have to.
IESB: Do you enjoy working in these types of ensembles? As an actor, is that something that you feel helps you learn from the other actors?
Kirsten: Oh, yeah. Also, because I grew up in the film industry, I've been working with people who are older than me, my whole life. Even on Kyle XY, everyone else was hired to be a 17-year-old, and I wasn't even 17 yet. I got hired when I was 14, so I was playing 17 when I was 14. I've always been around people that are older. So when I see a cast, and I'm at that age where I'm around people who are my peers, it's very exciting for me to come onto a set and have that bonding opportunity.
Working with the cast of Twilight, that's so young, and also working with the cast of Seven Deadly Sins, with a lot of up and coming actors who are very seasoned, we're able to learn from each other and everyone understands what you're going through. Everyone is going through the same thing. So, it's great. I look forward to doing it more.
IESB: When you work on projects that are based on novels, like with the Twilight Saga and Seven Deadly Sins, do you like to use that source material, or do you prefer to just stick with what is in the script?
Kirsten: With Twilight, the plot is basically just rearranged to fit a film. I had to read the books because it's so similar and I wanted to get all the subtext of what's been written to learn what the characters were thinking. In the script, you don't get that. In a book, you have someone tell you what everyone's thinking. That was an important tool for me to use. It's far more similar than other projects that I've worked on that have adapted books into screenplays.
Whereas with Seven Deadly Sins, it was a concept that was based on the book, but it's entirely different. The plot is completely different than the books. And, my character is supposed to have a huge nose, be a redhead and be super-gawky. She never makes a transformation into something sexier, which my character does, by the end of the film. She's the dork of the entire story. If I had read the books before auditioning, I would have totally had a different way of going into the audition room. But, I was told that, because the concept was taken from the books, but it was so different, that I shouldn't even read them. So going into it, I prepared for the role without reading about the other characters. Of course, I read the books after I had the part and I read the script and understood the concept, just to get a taste for it and to get into the author's mind. I just read it for fun. Honestly, it was so different. Some of the characters are similar, but my character was completely taken out and changed to fit the new plot
IESB: What was the experience of making Meteor Storm like?
Kirsten: It's about the end of the world. To be honest, I had just come out of University and I was looking for something that I had never done before, that was so nuts and crazy. I just wanted to get back into the industry, get back on a set and just do something that was completely different. I read Meteor Storm and it was just fun. It will have a cult audience of people who are into apocalyptic films. It was so much fun to film. I love the two actors that I worked with, Brett Dier and Travis Nelson. They were my age, and we had a great time making the film. But, that said, what I do enjoy more are character studies, more like Seven Deadly Sins or Eclipse, where I can actually get into a stylized character.
IESB: Who do you play in Meteor Storm?
Kirsten: She's just the average teenage girl. The film is about a completely average, normal American family has to cope with an extremely crazy situation. For me, it was just about taking it and stripping it down to the basics. It was about wondering, "How would a normal person naturally react to something that's so unbelievable?" That was a good exercise for me.
IESB: When you make a movie with that type of subject matter, do you try not to think about the reality of something like that ever happening?
Kirsten: I don't really think about the world being destroyed. Sometimes it's fun, just in the creative process. I was in a scene where things were blowing up, and I stopped to think, "If this actually happened in my everyday life, what would my reaction be?" It's very easy, as an actor, to just go, "Oh, my God!," and scream. But, it's the actors that pause and take the time to give that look like, "What the hell is happening!?," that seem more real. That was fun for me to play with.
IESB: Would you consider doing another television series?
Kirsten: Yeah, totally. The thing with my career is that I've never said, "I'm only going to do this. I'm only going to do that." For me, seeing material that I like is the most important part. I look for something that I'm passionate about. If a television series came my way and I read the script and loved it, I would totally do another television series. But, if I read a feature film and I absolutely adored it, I would go for that as well. It's about the character, the story and what I connect with. And, it's about where I am in my career, at that point.
IESB: Where would you like to see your career go next?
Kirsten: I love dramatic roles. I love situational comedy with a darker sense of humor. I love playing those characters that are going through a struggle or something darker. I watched The Road recently, and I'm not saying that I would want something as dark as that, but that was something that showed me how these small choices that you can make, with such high stakes and such drama, that would be the ultimate challenge, as an actor. So, I'd love to do something darker. I've been reading some scripts that are not as bright as Little Miss Sunshine, but they're around that area. It's that humor and that everyday struggle and those weird events that just make you laugh, but are serious, at the same time. I'd love to do something that I could just explore a little more, that's a little more dramatic.
THE TWILIGHT SAGA: ECLIPSE opens in theaters June 30, 2010
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