Alison Lohman: Cursed and Loving It!

Pretty, petite 20-something actress Alison Lohman has never been on the run from a "Freddie", a "Jason" or Leatherface. In fact, horror films scare her silly! It wasn't until Spider-Man director Sam Raimi convinced her to give the goosebump genre a try that Alison signed on for his gallows humor scarefest Drag Me to Hell only to learn how physical horror films are. The brave actress was covered in mud, suffered cuts and bruises and was yanked on wires all over set. But hey, she told us that she had a blast!

Alison first impressed us as a baby-faced con-woman in Matchstick Men opposite Nic Cage. She's played a sweet teen who loves her horse Flicka, was Michelle Pfeiffer's emotional daughter in the drama White Oleander and was animated by computer as Beowulf's young mistress.

In "Hell", Alison's character Christine Brown is a young, ambitious loan officer at a bank vying with the new guy for a promotion. When, to please the boss, she denies a home loan extension to a very strange-looking old woman, she must suffer a terrible gypsy curse. Even her supportive boyfriend, played by Justin Long of He's Just Not That Into You, isn't quite sure the curse is real and that Christine hasn't just gone bonkers. Will this bright, young career woman impress the boyfriend's snooty parents, beat the curse and live happily ever after? It's a horror film called Drag Me to Hell... not likely.

We sat down with Alison at the 4 Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills recently and loved her young and fresh one piece jumper outfit consisting of black shorts topped with a sleeveless blue stripe, low-cut ruffled blouse accessorized with big hoop earrings and some very, very high black heels that she immediately removed on sitting down to chat with us. The actress tucked her legs under her in her chair and we're off and chatting....until a spooky noise on the hotel patio interrupts....

TeenHollywood: So, Alison, why did you not give that old lady a break?

Alison: [laughing] I should have, but no.

TeenHollywood: Well, then you wouldn't have a movie. In real life, would you give this old woman, who has already had two loan extensions, another one?

Alison: Knowing now what my character had to go through, I'd probably give her the extension!

TeenHollywood: This isn't the type of film that you've done in the past. Was it wanting to work with Sam Raimi?

Alison: Yeah, it was Sam. I thought working with Sam would be fun and, when he told me the story, it sounded like it was good and that he would inspire me doing a horror movie because I wasn't a big fan of them before.

TeenHollywood: Did you have to screen test for the role?

Alison: No. It was a phone call that [Sam] made and he introduced the film to me. He told the story for three hours in depth, in detail and I was by myself at home, at night and I really felt that I was there with him. And I thought, 'I could be inspired' because I wasn't really a big horror movie person. There are certain people who can get me in that mood and he's one of them.

TeenHollywood: You are practically in every scene in this film. Did you feel the stress of that?

Alison: Not at all. Just stress in terms of what I was having to go through every day and lack of sleep.

TeenHollywood: There are some very physical scenes in the film. How was shooting that scene in the [parking] garage?

Alison: It was scary. It lasted a while, that scene. It was very intense. I'd show up for work and Mrs. Ganush [scary gypsy lady played by character actress Lorna Raver] is strangling me at six in the morning. It was difficult but we got through it. We both got bruises and cuts but nothing too intense.

TeenHollywood: You also look like you are swallowing some pretty gross gook. Also new for you. How did you handle that?

Alison: The maggots gook? There's lots of different kinds of stuff. The maggots were pasta and the blood is just a sugary something.

TeenHollywood: And the gooky, muddy stuff in the grave?

Alison: Actually that was Calistoga Spa mud. I asked them for it, not because I'm a diva but because they were doing tests for mud on me to see if I was allergic because I'm allergic to a million things. With the chemical mud, my skin would actually break out and get really red. But with Calistoga Spa mud, it actually worked.

TeenHollywood: And you get a spa treatment!

Alison: Yeah. But... not really.

TeenHollywood: So you enjoyed being a real action girl for the first time?

Alison: It was great! I loved it. I really liked that aspect of the character. My character starts out submissive and kind of meek, this quiet girl from Missouri who grew up on a farm and she comes to L.A. to reinvent herself. She has a new job, new boyfriend, then meets this woman. I really liked that and then the transition into her becoming strong and empowered, taking charge to survive, I just really liked that. Just the change in her is interesting to me.

TeenHollywood: Are there any scenes you remember shooting that didn't end up in the theatrical cut?

Alison: Some scenes with my roommate. Actually, all the scenes with my roommate because I don't have a roommate now.

TeenHollywood: What was the hardest scene for you to shoot?

Alison: I think the last two weeks of filming because by then I was really tired and I would have to be wet from morning to night in mud. It got to be pretty cold sometimes.

TeenHollywood: Did they shoot this in order?

Alison: Sequential? They kind of did, yeah.

TeenHollywood: How did Sam, as a director, help you shape your performance or did he just let you go with it?

Alison: We talked about it before, about the subtleties, nothing too obvious. I just wanted to be really real; not anything caricaturish. Just trying to draw from my own experiences and then Sam, reminding me because, a lot of times, you get so caught up in it, you forget.

TeenHollywood: What was it like working with Justin? He's the world's best boyfriend in this film.

Alison: [laughs] He is. I'm sure he is the world's best boyfriend. He's so supportive and he's comic relief for me because I was having to go through so much that any dose of a sense of humor about anything was great. So, I loved Justin. Before this movie I'd thought of Justin just in the comedies he did and 'oh, he's so funny' but he's a dramatic actor. He has so much range as an actor and depth that I don't think anybody hardly knows about.

TeenHollywood: Are you PC or Mac? [referring to Justin's popular Mac commercials]

Alison: [smiles] I have a Mac.

TeenHollywood: Have you had any of those horrible "meet the boyfriend's parents" moments where things go terribly wrong like your character does?

Alison: I have. I think I've blocked it out. I've had two moments, I think, like that. Really, like sitting with them and going 'what am I talking about right now?'

TeenHollywood: Where do you stand on the whole occult thing? Are you into it at all?

Alison: A little bit. I've had my fortune read a couple of times and those things did happen later. I didn't know they would happen. And there were times in my life where I believe it and times where I don't. Sometimes, I'll walk in a room and have no thought of anything supernatural at all and think 'is somebody in here?' and there's nobody there but still I feel like there is a presence in the room. So, I think 'humm, maybe there are spirits'.

TeenHollywood: Did anything strange happen during filming?

Alison: Many strange things happened. The first day of shooting, I had a juicer. I was juicing and the stick got stuck, and I pulled it back and hit my forehead. I didn't think I was bleeding. I went into the make-up trailer and they were like, 'Oh, my God!' I had blood dribbling down. And then, the week after, I fell down the stairs. I was just falling all the time. Sam thought I was a klutz, but I'm not. That was a little strange. And then, after the movie, I got shingles because I was exhausted. And then, after that, I broke my foot, and I'd never broken a bone in my life. Nothing hardly ever happens to me.

TeenHollywood: Did you watch any horror films to inspire you before shooting this? Or did Sam suggest you watch any?

Alison: No. He didn't mention any of that. My character is innocent and we just kind of wanted to keep it [that way]. But, toward the end, I needed to have more inspiration so there's this movie called Don't Scare Jessica To Death and there's a scene in there in particular and I would just use that one scene. It was the only horror movie I'd seen, and I'd seen a lot researching this movie, that I felt was shocking and so real. You know there's no monsters in the lake but I felt that there were! I wanted to create that. I wanted to be like that. I wanted to be as real as possible.

TeenHollywood: I know that horror films scare you so did anyone try to pull something on you on set? Pull a joke on you? [There is a big noise outside on the hotel patio and we both look but nothing is there.. oooooooo].

Alison: What's that? It's the curse!! [we laugh] Nobody played a joke but every day was one big joke like 'What? [The creepy old woman is] suckling on my chin? You've got to be joking me!' [more laughs]. So every day was something like that.

TeenHollywood: Your next film is a thriller. Can you comment on who you play in that?

Alison: Yes, it's a movie called Gamer and Gerard Butler and Amber Valleta are in it. It's set in a dystopian future where humans are playing humans, on a global scale, in three video games. My character is Trace and I'm part of the resistance movement trying to get Gerard Butler back to his family. I ride a motorcycle and have dreadlocks, very different.

TeenHollywood: I'll say. Would you want to do a sequel to Drag Me to Hell?

Alison: I don't know [she looks out to the patio]. I don't think so.