Thanks soooo much to Tona for sending in a scan of the February/March issue of BlackBook. Be sure to check out her lovely fansite shannon-woodward.com.

In other Amanda news, there has been some buzz about a possible Friday the 13th sequel. If you haven’t seen the remake as of yet, the article at dreadcentral.com includes some spoilers about what happens to Amanda’s character. So, if you don’t want to know, then don’t click the link.

TheCinemaSource.com has posted a new interview with Amanda.

Interview By: Joe Drew
Only in the early stages of her career, Amanda Righetti seems to be hitting all the right notes. From her role in the hit series, The Mentalist on CBS, to starring in the new Friday the 13th, Righetti is a name we’re going to be hearing more often. In Friday the 13th she plays ‘Whitney’ the missing sister of ‘Clay,’ played by Supernatural star Jared Padalecki. Clay’s search for his sister leads him to the hallowed ground of Camp Crystal Lake. There he meets ‘Jenna’ (Danielle Panabaker) and a group of stereotypical college students, who, by the conventions of the genre are conspicuously placed for Jason to toy with like a cat. All the while our heroes struggle to survive as they elude the cold calculation of Jason’s machete.
Whereas most characters are often running away and only get a short glimpse of Jason before their untimely deaths, Righetti’s character spends an unusual amount of living time with Jason. She explains what it was like filming such intense one on one scene’s with the seminal horror movie anti-hero. “ It was intense those days we shot that stuff. It was really intense and Derek (Jason) was really lovely about it, and always right there with me on the same page, and always respectful and professional about it. We, you know, did what we had to do. You know.”

Despite what appears in the film, Righetti explains there were more scenes with only her and Jason but were served best to be cut from the film. “There’s a section where I kind of get out and he (Jason) comes back and finds me and takes me back to his cave and all that stuff. There was more stuff of us one on one of me trying to get away. I think the way it cuts together it just works better, the stuff they cut out, it wasn’t really necessary, they didn’t need it. Because of it I think it moves really quick, I mean the movie is so fast paced it’s great. There’s not a moment you’re sitting there going, get on with it already, they did a good job of just keeping it simple.”

But for Righetti, the process of making this movie was anything but simple. “It’s physically challenging when you do stuff like this. Before ever doing a horror movie, looking at them you don’t realize the work that goes into putting them together. You know it’s emotionally very challenging and grueling and physically, especially when you are doing night shoots. For me I don’t do night shoots very well. I get insomnia really bad, I just feel guilty if the sun is out and I’m not out there enjoying it, so it’s hard.” She continues, “Like it was always for me the race to get back to the hotel before the sun was up and as long as I did that I was ok, so yeah, you kind of just live like a vampire for a little bit, but like Danielle Panabaker said we had an amazing group of people, so it all fell into place. We all had each other to lean on and support one another. Overall it was a great experience I wouldn’t give it up for anything.”
What then does Righetti think of taking on a film and a character that has seen nearly 10 installments in some form or another since 1980? “There’s a built in audience, but there’s also the younger demographic that didn’t necessarily grow up with the Friday the 13th films. So, I think it will really attract an array of people, which is exciting.”

At 25, not quite old enough to have grown up as a fan of the movies, but not too young to be ignorant of them, Righetti did have go back and re-watch some of the films. “I saw a few of them when I was young, too young, then I revisited the original, which was very funny, because you know as a kid when you’re too young to be seeing horror movies, it’s like you know you get really terrified. Then when I revisited it, I didn’t know what I was so scared about, it was very funny. But yeah I think its such a huge franchise it’s hard not to be a fan of Friday the 13th, it’s such an iconic character, Jason.”

Righetti does not come across like the typical slasher film star; thoughtful and intelligent, she freely admits that horror isn’t for her. Why then does she think that people come out to see these films in droves? “I guess that’s the million dollar question. You know I don’t know. I think in some ways it goes back to gladiator days. Something that naturally… I think there’s something imbedded in human nature that feels they get off on violence or something, I don’t know to be honest. I’m on the same page with Danielle Panabaker I’m not a big fan of horror movies, its not my first genre to run out the movies to see. I think what’s interesting to me is how much more violent movies have gotten and how people respond to that. It’s a little bit disconcerting. There’s something built into our brains, I don’t know.” She then adds later on, “Its also, you know sometimes the way the writers will write it, you have those annoying characters which sometimes the audience really wants to see them die. So they get off on it, they cheer for that like, ‘oh you deserve to die kind of mentality.’ You don’t but there’s something about it that people get off on.”