The "Soulful" Max Thieriot

21-year-old actor Max Thieriot played Emma Roberts' guy in Nancy Drew, he was a drifter accused of stealing in Kitt Kittridge: An American Girl and his light brown hair was bleached to the max for his role in The Pacifier. This week you can really get in a Halloween mood by catching Max as a shy high schooler with multiple personalities in the Wes Craven horror thriller My Soul to Take.

Max is on the cell with us from New York talking his fave horror films, fun on set, how he gets stoked up for action scenes by listening to heavy metal bands and just how darn sticky that fake blood in movies really is. Check it out.

TeenHollywood: Are you a horror film fan and, if so, films more like Saw or the psych thrillers?

Max: I'm not really a Saw fan. I'm not into the gore stuff, more the psychological thrillers. I really like Hitchcock stuff; classics like Rear Window or Psycho. That was a cross (of gory and psych) I guess but it has a lot of strange psych stuff in it too.

TeenHollywood: You joined the cast of My Soul to Take late when someone else had to drop out so was there any rehearsal period at all? Or, you just arrive on set and poof! You're on? (note: Henry Lee Hopper, son of late actor Dennis Hopper, was originally cast in the lead role of Adam "Bug" Hellerman, but was replaced by Max after Hopper caught mononucleosis.)

Max: That was pretty much it. We had already had a cast read-through and did another one once I came onboard. But there wasn't a whole lot of time. I think we started shooting a week after I got brought on.

TeenHollywood: Did you have time to research multiple personalities for your role in this film?

Max: I did as much as I could. I was doing it throughout filming as well. I was always looking up videos and doing research online and watching a lot of stuff on how they work and then watching the other actors play their characters in the movie. Then, just spending a lot of time on my own thinking about it. I've been getting into (research) more and more as I get older. I find it helpful.

TeenHollywood: What about your character Bug or this story grabbed you? It's more complex than most.

Max: It is. Yeah, obviously it was that it was (written, directed and produced by) Wes Craven. It's the first time he's done this in a while. If I'm going to do a film in this genre, he's the guy to do it.

He's the master of the genre; doing it forever (the Nightmare on Elm Street "Freddy" films, The Hills Have Eyes, etc. etc.) And, I'm not doing a Wes Craven re-make, I'm in a full-on Wes Craven. That brought my attention to it. Bug has a really great arc throughout the film too.

TeenHollywood: You had to talk in different voices? How weird was that?

Max: Wes helped me with that. I sound like some of the other characters in the film.

TeenHollywood: Was there a lot of laughing and fun on set between takes or did you and the others mostly just stay quiet or listen to your i-pods to stay in a dark mood?

Max: It was a pretty light mood most of the time on set. Wes is really funny, playing jokes and talking. It was really like a tight-knit family on set but, obviously, there were times like at three o'clock in the morning when everybody had to get on top of their game and be serious.

TeenHollywood: How was working way out in the Connecticut woods? I hear there were bee stings and ticks and cold.

Max: Yeah there were all sorts of elements we were dealing with. I was good. Nothing bad like that happened to me. No ticks or anything.

TeenHollywood: Did you listen to your own i-pod sometimes between scenes? If so, what music?

Max: I listen to it sometimes. I listen, strangely enough, to a lot of Simon and Garfunkle stuff. There would be times when I'd be trying to get pumped up for a scene and I'd listen to heavy metal.

TeenHollywood: Who was the prankster on set?

Max: I'd say Nick (Lashaway) was definitely a prankster a lot but John Magaro and I were at times and there were times where John would be off listening to his headphones and we'd mess with him and I was telling jokes and goofing off.

TeenHollywood: I read that Raul Esparza who plays the creepy Ripper character was covered in gooey stage blood and, in the woods, everything was just sticking to him. Did you see like candy wrappers and pine cones on him or anything funny?

Max: (laughing). No but I had things stuck on me sometimes too. It gets annoying, it's so sticky. It's gross.

TeenHollywood: Did anything spooky actually happen during the production?

Max: We didn't really have creepy moments but the woods we were filming in, we were a little freaked out about them sometimes on a dark night.

TeenHollywood: Did you keep a prop or something from the film?

Max: I just kept my (director's) chair back (with his name and the name of the film on it).

TeenHollywood: A lot of great young actors are in the film. Have you stayed friends with any of them?

Max: Yeah, I talk to John Magaro and Emily Meade the most. We keep in touch.
They're from New York so whenever I come out here, I get in touch.

TeenHollywood: Did Wes give you any acting advice that really stuck strongly with you?

Max: Not specifically but he taught me a lot of small things that you don't really pay attention to as an actor. He knows so much about the film industry in general. He's just really insightful.

TeenHollywood: What are you doing for Halloween? Do you have a costume planned?

Max: Not yet. I've thought about being Kenny Powers from "Eastbound and Down".

TeenHollywood: That'll be hilarious. Have you finished The House at the End of the Street? Who do you play in it and what was working with Jennifer Lawrence like. She's really good.

Max: I have finished. Jennifer is awesome and it was a lot of fun. I play the guy who survives the massacre and she's the new girl in town. Jennifer and I had a lot of fun on set. I wasn't extremely familiar with her work. She's extremely talented and light and fun too, always having a good time. If anyone is down she picks up on it and makes everyone feel good.

TeenHollywood: What else is coming up for you?

Max: This film called Yellow. I play the younger Ben Foster. The movie is about this woman and her addictions and problems growing up in Oklahoma in this strange family where she had this incestuous relationship with her older brother. It's going to be heavy.

TeenHollywood: Why should teens and college-age kids go see My Soul to Take?

Max: I think they'll really like it because it has more aspects than everyday horror films. It has a coming-of-age story to it. They can relate to the characters. We're playing a little younger but we're all college age. It has comedy stuff in there too. It's Stand by Me.... with knives (we laugh).