Amanda Crew: "Charlie's" Angel

"She's that girl who got to make out with Zac Efron in Charlie St. Cloud". Is pretty young Canadian actress Amana Crew worried about that description? Not at all. She's the first to admit that locking lips with the "High School Musical" hunk wasn't all work and no play. "He's a dreamboat. All of a sudden I'm turning into a 12-year-old girl and giggling. 'Where did that laugh come from?'"

Amanda, whom you might have seen in various Canadian TV shows like "Whistler" and American indie films like Final Destination 3 and She's the Man, was astounded to land the part opposite one of the hottest young actors in Hollywood. On learning that the role was hers, she was "hunched over crying" in her agent's office.

We are really finding Amanda to be humble, funny, bright and candid at our sit-down in Marina Del Rey, California where she is sharing the fact that she is a klutz, which didn't help her play Tess in the film; a champion sailboat racer. On first hearing she'd be sailing in the film she thought, "Sweet! Bikinis and champagne" and found out just how much serious sailing isn't about lounging on the deck.

Let's talk Zac and more Zac, funny stories from set, sailing mishaps and Amanda's stint as the local, hometown Vancouver tour guide for her co-stars. Picture this tall brunette in classy black and white patterned halter sundress by Bill Blass with gathers on bodice and skirt and accessorizing with super high beige heels. On to the dish....

TeenHollywood: Let's get to it. Are you ready for a lot of girls and teens to be jealous as hell of you?

Amanda: [laughing] Well, so far I've met a lot of Zac's fans because they would be around the set. He has really great fans. I haven't had any mean fans there. They just want to know what he's like and, thankfully, I have only amazing things to say about him.

TeenHollywood: What was the whole process of meeting Zac like and how would you describe him?

Amanda: Well, the first time I met him was at the chemistry read [to see how she and Zac would click]. Obviously he's a good-looking guy but I was never that girl that had his poster above my bed or anything but then I met him and he has this effect on people and I'm sure all of us ladies have felt it. He's a dreamboat. All of a sudden I'm turning into a 12-year-old girl and giggling. 'Where did that laugh come from?' But he puts you at ease so quickly.

TeenHollywood: How do you think he does that?

Amanda: He's just so down to Earth. He is genuine. He's humble. He's normal and no ego. So, we did a lot of rehearsals before we actually started filming which was great because we did build this great friendship between us. I think part of that is to do with the fact that he's not this guarded guy, 'I'm God. I'm Zac Efron'. I didn't know him before he had all this success but I feel like the person I'm meeting today is the same person as before all the success hit him.

TeenHollywood: Did you know Zac was in the movie when you went to audition? How did that process of landing the role of Tess go?

Amanda: My agent sent me the script and she was like 'this is an amazing script. You have to read this' and, at the time Zac was attached and I'm like 'who's Zac Efron?' I had to look him up. Then I saw his picture and was like 'I don't know if this will work. I don't know if there's any chemistry there'. No. [she's kidding]

Then the audition process started. I met with Burr [Steers], the director first and then got the call on my birthday that I'd be doing a chemistry read with Zac which was just like 'Oh my God!' To be considered for the part was such an honor. So then the chemistry read and the screen test and blah, blah, blah, long process. And then getting the call that I got [the part]. I was actually in my agent's office and I've got a photo of me because I'm hunched over crying. Dream come true.

TeenHollywood: What was it about the character of Tess that you felt like you connected with?

Amanda: It's really hard to find strong roles for girls my age. A lot of the time it's just the pretty girl who serves as the love interest and that's it. What I loved about this character was she's such a strong, independent woman who knows what she wants in life. She's unapologetic about it. She has these goals and she's gonna go for it. I think that's a great role model for girls. She's going to sail around the world by herself. She's brave and ambitious.

I do come across as very similar to the character in that I know what I want in life but, for some reason, the part about the character I struggled with the most was the unapologetic part because I'm Canadian and Burr was like 'Stop apologizing'. 'I'm sorry. I mean okay, I'm sor....okay! I'll do it. I'll do it'. But I came out of the film and carried some of the character with me so I'm just trying to carry that strength with me for the rest of my life.

TeenHollywood: You were shooting on your own turf up in the Vancouver area. Did you show Zac and everybody around?

Amanda: A bit of that, yeah. I took them some places and then also, it's cool being in your hometown but with tourists because you find out things about the city that you had no idea about. It's always nice being with Zac because people are more willing to show him different stuff because it's Zac Efron so we got to see some cool stuff. We all went up to Whistler one weekend zip lining and stuff like that. So, we were always trying to find something to do.

TeenHollywood: Was there any location in Canada that you hadn't been to? Did you have a favorite one?

Amanda: We got to go up to Gibsons which is an island off the coast up there. I have a dog named Gibson so that was the running joke, 'Is Gibson coming to Gibsons?' Ha ha. We filmed some of the stuff on the boat outside of Zac's cottage and some of the sailing sequences were filmed up there. That was amazing. That was the first time when I surprise Zac with his boat and we go sailing.

Usually the sail boat was rigged to another boat and it's all movie magic. But, at one point, they were like 'Okay. Training wheels are off. You guys are goin' off out in the water.' And we'd never sailed together. We'd done our separate sailing so we sailed together and it was amazing. It was so windy but to actually feel like we were doing it on our own. So, I think that was well captured on film. But, it was mainly Zac telling me what to do because I had no idea. He was like 'Go right. Your other right!' 'Okay. Okay'. [laughs]

TeenHollywood: Tess was going to sail around the world solo. Did you try to keep track of the 16-year-old Thousand Oaks, Ca. girl Abby Sunderland who tried to do just that?

Amanda: Yeah. To do this trek, I admire anyone who can do it, especially at that age. It's crazy but my sailing coach was telling me that people who sail around the world, you kind of have to be a little bit crazy because you're spending all this time by yourself and there is a schedule; you sail for four hours and you can sleep for twenty minutes and sail another four hours and that's for weeks on end. That's all you're doing and you're eating dehydrated food. It's so physically demanding but also mentally. I'm sure that would mess with you a little bit.

TeenHollywood: Did you get any tips from young sailors?

Amanda: We had a lot of different sailing coaches and trainers on the set. One specifically was this guy named Sterling. He's young, early 20's so he was great. He told me just little things to do like when I'm standing on my boat in the scene where I'm talking to Zac. This boat is [her] baby. It's [her] home. [She] knows everything about it so [she] doesn't just stand on [her] boat, [she] does stuff. He'd constantly check in with me, 'touch this' or 'play with this rope'. 'Tie this up' so we actually looked like we knew what we were doing.

TeenHollywood: Can you tell us a funny story from set?

Amanda: The sailing stuff was always a disaster with me. Zac picked it up really quickly but I'm not very athletic. We did a lot of sailing training and we had personal trainers to do a lot of weight training in the gym but I'm a klutz. I had bruises all over my body through the entire shoot just from falling over. Just before the screen test, a friend of mine, he's a professional sailor and he's like 'Come up to San Francisco. We've got this amazing boat. We're doing a practice run'. 'Sweet! Bikinis and champagne'. That's what I pictured sailing to be. It's not.

It's a sport.

We were going back and forth and pretty much my job was to run from one side [of the boat] to the other for the weight thing which you would think is easy but it's not and I slipped and fell on the deck so hard and had this massive bruise down my leg and arm. So, I show up to the screen test the next day with bruises. 'What happened?' 'I have an abusive boyfriend.' I'm like 'I went sailing. I swear I'll be good if you hire me'.

TeenHollywood: How many lessons did you have before you actually started shooting?

Amanda: We were on the water every day for at least three hours then in the gym every day. I'm so glad that we did that because I never felt so physically strong. Not just mentally connected to the character but also physically connected just because we had been doing all that work. Burr was always like 'When you're doing your sailing training, don't be Amanda sailing, be Tess sailing. So Amanda sailing is 'oops! Sorry. Sorry' and Tess sailing is like 'Yeah, this is what I'm doin' and I'm doin' it wrong but I'm doin' it'. So, he was always just getting us to be in character.

TeenHollywood: You were talking about a lack of good roles for young women so does that make you back off and take fewer roles in order to find those good ones? Or, at this point in your career, is it more important to be visible, even if it's not in great roles?

Amanda: I would rather take less roles and be working on films that I'm passionate about and that are going to challenge me and that I'm going to be growing from. I don't ever want to take a movie just for the sake of working. [Looking at] the next project, it's always about is it going to push me out of my comfort zone? Am I doing something different? Am I working with people who are passionate about what they're doing? At the end of the day, if I'm going to be bored on set then I'm not gonna be happy. Life is too short to be doing work that doesn't make you feel happy and fulfilled. So, I'd rather wait for the right project as opposed to just taking whatever is handed to me.

TeenHollywood: What's next for you that we haven't seen yet?

Amanda: I finished an independent film in January called Repeaters. It's a Canadian indie that's directed by Carl Bessai who I've wanted to work with for a while and that was a really great experience because it's a really dark role. I play a drug addict and I've always wanted to be seen in something like that but hadn't so it was a great opportunity, a great learning experience. And then now, it's just the patience game waiting for the next one that speaks to me. Just waiting for the right script to come along.

TeenHollywood: Would you be willing to do television? There are a lot of opportunities right now like in cable.

Amanda: I was just talking to someone about how television has kind of changed. There's obviously the generic shows. But, on HBO and AMC, some really great series so I'm not closed off to television. If there's an amazing role with amazing people, great story, I'd definitely be open to it. I did television a lot in my earlier years so to do the high school student that's just the pretty girl, I've done that before so I really don't have any interest in that one.

TeenHollywood: Was that what "Whistler" was about, like Whistler, the mountain?

Amanda: Yeah Whistler like the mountain. It was about the people that lived there. It had a bit of a "Six Feet Under" meets "The O.C." element to it. There was deceit, lies, sex, drugs, all that.

TeenHollywood: And skiing. Are you based in Canada still or do you live here in L.A. now?

Amanda: I do live here now. I've lived here for a couple of years but work keeps bringing me back up to Vancouver. No complaints.