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First printed at www.movingpicturesnetwork.com

Interview by Elliot V. Kotek
(from the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival)

Moving Pictures sat down for a brief discussion with Candice Accola, who can be seen in the new film Deadgirl.

Moving Pictures magazine: Welcome to the Moving Pictures Media Studio in Toronto. Congratulations on Deadgirl.
Candice Accola: Thank you.

MPM: Crazy movie.
Accola: Very crazy.

MPM:  Hard to recognize you from it, because you were a true redhead.
Accola: Yes.

MPM: Are you a true redhead?
Accola: I’m actually a true blonde but, for fun, I had red hair for a couple of years. I didn’t want all my fans from Deadgirl to recognize me, so I dyed it back. [Laughs]
MPM:  Very cool.

MPM: How did you get involved in this and what made you want to be a part of it?
Accola: It was very simple, getting involved. I auditioned, and I auditioned again and took a meeting with Gadi and Marcel. Before – obviously, at that point I’d read the script, and it was definitely interesting. My manager prepared me, and she was, like, “It’s not your average script, just be warned.” And it wasn’t.

I think that’s what drew me to it, that it wasn’t your run-of-the-mill horror/suspense film. You know – six kids go on a camping trip, what’s going to happen next? It was very unique, and there were parts that physically made me sick to my stomach. Blood doesn’t really creep me out, so if there can be anything that evokes that kind of emotion, that’s a good sign.

MPM: Deadgirl is quite a bit different from the film you had here at Toronto last year.
Accola: Yeah.

MPM:  Juno was such a huge phenomenon. What was that experience like?
Accola: Completely unexpected. My computer was on the fritz, so I didn’t even know what I was getting into until after the fact, or how amazing the movie was going to be. I was just excited to work with Ellen Page and Michael Cera and Jason Reitman. I loved Thank you for Smoking, and I’d heard the buzz on Diablo Cody. Now, I just can’t get enough of her. I think she’s great. So, it was great. I went up there for a weekend and had a really fun scene and got to work with really talented people.

MPM:  Canada’s kind of becoming like a second home for you.
Accola: Yeah. I love Canada, eh. See – all about it.

MPM:  It must have been crazy on the set. Did you rely on and bond with the other actors, or did you turn to the directors?
Accola: A little bit of both. Gadi and Marcel understood that we all had an understanding of our characters. It was very fortunate for us that we got a chance to explore our characters instead of them saying, “Okay, this is what you do now.” I think they gave each of us the perfect amount of trust to figure it out. Working with Shiloh Fernandez and Noah Segan was great. We all are within the same management family, so we’d all met before we started filming and bonded immediately. I learned a lot just by watching them. They’re brilliant boys and they’re going to do wonders in their careers. It was great. I think I took from both, the actors and the directors.

MPM:  Tell me a little bit about the next project you’ve got going.
Accola: We’ll see. I’m just reading scripts and auditioning and interested in some parts – seeing what’s going to happen. I’m also a singer, and I have a record being released in Japan. I’m very excited about that.

MPM:  Are you going to get to tour Japan?
Accola: I hope so. What I want for Christmas is to be a Japanese pop star. [Laughs] Santa can’t exactly put that under the tree, but I’m hoping that some magic will happen overseas.

MPM: Then you can come back and say that you are huge in Japan.
Accola: Exactly. I quit the movies. Japan, I’ll just stay there. No – but that’s kind of what I’m doing right now: music, and just enjoying reading some scripts.

MPM:  Very cool. Well, congratulations on your expanding career.     
Accola: Thank you so much.