We See "Saw" with Shawnee Smith

What do the Saw III cast and crew do between shooting gruesome horror scenes? Joke around with whoopie cushions of course! It's hard to picture the creepy Jigsaw killer (Tobin Bell) joking with fellow castmembers, but the film's star Shawnee Smith says it happens. This series of horror films is so intense that the cast has to blow off steam somehow! New castmember Angus MacFayden tells us that Friday night was "get hammered" night for the gang working on Saw III after a week of shooting scenes of torture "games".

Shawnee met with us in Beverly Hills this week and gave us the real behind-the-scenes lowdown on the new film, in which she gets a much larger role than she had in Saw or Saw II. Looking very New York chic in black turtleneck, black boots and jeans, the horror diva told us that Saw III is a kind of twisted love story (between her character Amanda and Jigsaw). We will say that you do learn a lot more about the two characters. The actress also told us about salsa lessons on set and a ton of hilarious pranks she and others pulled to stay sane while creating visual nightmares for the rest of us. It's all rotten eggs and whoopie cushions... check it out. We will warn you that Saw III is R-Rated for gore and the like, so make your filmgoing choices accordingly.

TeenHollywood: Were you excited to get the script for Saw III, which goes into far more detail on your character Amanda?

Shawnee: Are you kidding? Oh my gosh. And then it evolved. It's a truly collaborative process, these Saw movies, which make them just so unique and satisfying for everybody.

TeenHollywood: Can you take us back to the beginning? Was it the plan from the very start to make Amanda a central character?

Shawnee: Not at all. But it's kind of got like this force of its own. It totally snuck up on me that I have this [character] arc now and somehow it all connects in a meaningful way.

TeenHollywood: You were in the sitcom "Becker" for a few years. How do you feel about doing a sitcom versus something like Saw movies?

Shawnee: I think like the light and the dark in this world, they're both useful. And it's the quality of the work that is fulfilling. It was the level of quality in "Becker" that I would say, is as good as it gets. And it's the same quality in Saw. It's the same approach to the work, and the same kind of repertory feel, having the same crew and the same writing team and the same producer.

TeenHollywood: What is it like working with a guy as intense as Jigsaw.. (Tobin Bell)?

Shawnee: I'm a pretty intuitive actor. I'll meticulously search for truth. And Tobin... [laughs] Tobin's like a whole other level, right? He raised the bar. And acting is a tennis match. So the better your opponent, the better you're going to be. If I was a superstar and could choose my cast, I would always choose people who were better than me, because then you raise to their level. Tobin is incredibly industrious. He's instinctual, but he's also very meticulous mentally about it.

TeenHollywood: Angus told us about some pretty hard partying on Friday nights. Did you go out on the Friday night binges with the guys?

Shawnee: You know, I can party like a rock star. I really can. But, on Saw II, I was pregnant, right? And I couldn't tell anybody. So they thought I was really anti-social. They thought I was like method acting in my chair with my headphones on. I was just trying to not throw up and conserve my energy. [laughs] And then in Saw III, I had this four-month-old son, and my daughter, who turned 7 while we were filming. We had a great big birthday cake.

TeenHollywood: Somehow it's hard to picture a child's birthday party on the Saw set!

Shawnee: Yeah. Oh, it's great. I went from like some twisted scene, right, to Verve's birthday party at lunchtime. I'd clean myself up really quick so she doesn't see any kind of [gore] residue, and come out, and they were slicing the cake, and I'm saying, 'Make sure you serve everybody' like it's 'Little House on the Prairie'. [laughs] It's hilarious. You know, but this is life. There's the light and there's the dark.

TeenHollywood: Were you looking at the cake knife with a whole different perspective?

Shawnee: [laughs] Yeah. Totally. It's great.

TeenHollywood: Do you guys goof off between takes to lessen the tension?

Shawnee: Oh, please! You have to! I think about this all the time: I was a kid and I did Iron Eagle, and I was working with Lou Gossett, Jr. and it was intense. They'd say 'action', and spit was flying out of his mouth. I mean, he was so razor-focused and they'd say 'cut', and he'd be like, [casually] 'So, anyways...' like in the middle of a joke. And then, 'Okay, rolling, action!' Right back there. And I said, 'How do you do this?' And he said, 'Oh my gosh, Shawnee, if I tried to stay in this state all day long, I'd be wiped.' You know, like you've got to be conservative about your energy. In that kind of environment, you, as an actress, you feel safe to relax, and play, and experiment, and grow, and take the chances. And that's such a gift.

TeenHollywood: What, exactly do you do to goof off?

Shawnee: The joke theme of Saw III was definitely flatulence. And [director]Darren Bousman didn't want eggs on the set because, on Saw II, at a certain time of the day apparently, everyone would get really bad gas. I had an egg in my hand, and I was about to eat it, and he was like, 'Ugh! Gross! Get off of my set! Don't eat that thing on my set, there are no eggs allowed!' And I was like, 'What are you talking about?' And he was really like awful about it. So he turned his head for a second, and I took the egg, and I scrunched it and dropped it in his side pocket of his [director's]chair and made like I ate the thing defiantly.

TeenHollywood: Did he notice it? What did he do?

Shawnee: For like hours, he kept smelling...He's like, 'I told you I'd smell that'. I'm in the make-up room, and one of the ADs, comes, she says, 'Darren wants to see you on set'. He says, 'Shawnee, I smell egg! I smell rotten egg!' [laughs] I'm like, 'Darren, you're tripping. I don't know what you're talking about.' He could not figure it out! He was so upset by it.

TeenHollywood: Did he eventually find the squished egg?

Shawnee: He found it. I still have yet to see it, but the video guy, I told him, 'You've got to stick around and be here for when he finds this.' He found it. I emptied it out and I scrubbed it and got all the egg smell out.

TeenHollywood: Was Darren right? Did flatulence ever mess up a scene?

Shawnee: There was a very emotional scene between Tobin and me. Darren says, 'Shawnee, you have to see this scene in the editing room. You f**ted. I said, 'Darren, my God. I've been married for seven years, he's never heard me f**t. Believe me, I'd remember if something slipped while we were filming this incredibly emotional scene! It wasn't me.' So he brought Tobin in. 'Tobin, did you f**t'? So, now [the joke] was out, and there were high-tech whoopie cushions stashed here and there.

TeenHollywood: This is hilarious. Did you participate in any of the flatulence jokes?

Shawnee: My big f**t moment was at the end of the movie, my last scene, which was Tobin circling me, 'I'm your master and I'm circling you, and I'm blah blah blah.' So I just have this old school [whoopie cushion]. It's really great. And I fill it up, and I get it behind my [outfit], and I'm standing there, and I couldn't get it to go. [laughs] And I'm holding in my laughter, and Tobin doesn't know if I'm crying or laughing. At some point, I said 'I'm sorry, Tobin but I'm trying to do a f**t joke. Here it is. I can't make it work!' So then he tries to do it. He can't. He doesn't know how to do a whoopie cushion, like at all. It was a total failure.

TeenHollywood: When you weren't joking around, was this the most emotional Saw movie to do?

Shawnee: By far. Part one was just an utter horror. Just pick one thing that you care about in this world and then fight for it. There you go. Saw II was like being disconnected from everybody and hiding and working against caring. For me, by far, the most upsetting scene in Saw II was when Beverley Mitchell's character died in my arms. But part three is like a love story. I mean, she, with heart, mind, and soul, is devoted to John [Jigsaw], and she loves him. He's her everything. And she's devoted to this truth. Just to serve another human being out of choice and sacrifice, that's big. And 95% of her is capable, but there's 5%...[that can't] and that's all it takes to bring down a house.

TeenHollywood: Didn't you do a TV movie recently?

Shawnee: I just did this Lifetime movie, "Undercover". It was great. It was the lead part and they offered it to me and I got to come in and sit down with the director. It was great. We got to do a little polish on the script over two days, and filming nine pages a day, and we would play with every scene, and laugh, and had fun.

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Lynn Barker is a Hollywood-based entertainment journalist and produced screenwriter.