Can you talk about casting Odette Yustman and Cam Gigandet?
We saw a lot of young actors. We weren’t specifically looking for “new” actors. We saw over 100 actresses for Casey [Odette’s role]. Odette was far and away the best one we saw. She is a really great actress, she’s a fresh face. I think she has a really exotic beauty. The camera loves her and audiences find her sympathetic. It was a pretty unanimous decision when she auditioned – everyone wanted her. All the actresses we saw, we made them scream. My point was not that you had to be a great screamer, but I needed to know the actors would go there. If you are not willing scream in front of three producers, you won’t be willing to scream in front of 200 crew members. In terms of Cam, I thought he had a young Steve McQueen quality. I don’t think he had done Twilight yet when we cast him. He was sick of playing bad guys, so he was happy to do it. Gary Oldman I knew, of course, from the Batman films – that got my foot in the door. Fortunately he is a fan of horror films. You didn’t warn Odet
