Just Jared Spotlight Interview

Just Jared: How did your Spotlight shoot go?

Holland Roden: I had so much fun because [the photographer] Justin has a very particular vision, for everything in life including how to switch lanes. It was fun having him take complete creative control and seeing where it lands.

JJ: We heard you had a little mishap… in the toilet?

HR: I can’t say that! (laughs) Oh my gosh! (laughs) Okay, so when stylists come to shoots, they bring undergarments for talent. I don’t know if I would be called talent in this situation, more like amateur, wannabe actor/model. (laughs) But yes, I had a pair of um, underwear, and when you’re in a restroom, and there’s a toilet, and there’s something waddish in your hand, it was underwear you’re supposed to be putting on. I accidentally threw it in the toilet. And I’m going to go ahead and end that story there. (laughs)

JJ: What do you mean by waddish?

HR: You know, when there’s a piece of fabric, wadded up in your hand. I just assumed it was toilet paper, and I thought that was interesting feeling toilet paper. I looked in the toilet and was like, “Holland, that was the one pair of underwear that they gave you.” (laughs)

JJ: So tell us, how did you get into acting?

HR: Oh that’s such a convoluted story! I got into acting essentially because I love science. I was pre-med in college, and a very long story short, I went to an all girls school most of my life. And I switched to a huge co-ed school that I was not used to, and started taking acting classes outside of it, some sort of outlet that I could enjoy. The coach said, “You could do this professionally. Have you thought about it?” So when I came out here for college, I sort of attempted both. I thought okay, I’ll major in molecular biology as well as pursue acting, and that’s how. I got really lucky a couple months into and booked a show for HBO called 12 Miles of Bad Road, in a nutshell.

JJ: If you weren’t an actor, you’d be a doctor? What kind?

HR: Yeah, I’d probably be a doctor. I liked cardiothoracic but, honestly, I have a huge passion for what’s in our food. The FDA, the EPC, I think a lot needs to be changed. We’re going to look back in our textbooks 50 years from now and say, “The Frankenstein era of our diet.” And then our health problems, obviously they come hand in hand, so I would have loved to have had a hand in, no pun intended, diet and hormones and how it affects disease.

JJ: And you’re almost wrapped on season three of Teen Wolf? What are you most excited about it?

HR: I am, yes. I like that it’s psychological. I think the scarier things that I have viewed in my life are not what you can’t see but what you can, and that’s very much the theme of this season.

JJ: Do you have a favorite prop from set?

HR: That’s a good question. I’m actually gonna go ahead and say details. I love details and our set designers are incredible with details. I think props is one of the most fun departments on set. So I’m going to have to just say the details of everything. If you look at every book, if you look at every journal, they’ve filled it out. It’s unreal, the amount of time they’ve put in.

JJ: You have a lot of early morning shoots, and late night shoots. Do you have a regimen of you stay awake or how you wake up?

HR: Well, this is a funny story of how I stay awake on our night shoots. I’ve never been a morning person. I’m vehemently against the sun rising in the east. It’s funny, because my father said, “What job is going to pay you to sleep in?” And I can actually say to my father now, “Teen Wolf pays me to sleep in.”

JJ: Okay, now describe your cast members in one word. Tyler Posey.

HR: Skateboards. (laughs)

JJ: Crystal Reed.

HR: Pretty!

JJ: Dylan O’Brien.

HR: Dylan. I just think of Dill Pill. Pickle.

JJ: Tyler Hoechlin.

HR: Christian abs. That’s two, but we’ll hyphen it.

JJ: Max Carver.

HR: Amazing.

JJ: Charlie Carver.

HR: Makes you always laugh. That’s so not one word, but you cannot keep a straight face. What can I say about those two? I think there’s not enough to say about those two.

JJ: Ian Bohen.

HR: Mini Altoids. (laughs)

JJ: Daniel Sharman.

HR: Greek. He looks like a Greek god to me, and I don’t mean it in the heartthrob way, he actually looks like a Greek god to me.

JJ: Arden Cho.

HR: Perfect skin.

JJ: Shelley Hennig.

HR: I think a friend of ours, a mutual friend of who we met through, her name is Brittany. (laughs)

JJ: Tell us about your recent camping trip.

HR: My camping trip! A few of the Teen Wolf cast members and I, Charlie, Max, Daniel, and I went on a camping trip with a few of our mutual friends (including Julian Morris) and what didn’t we do? We played an amazing game of capture the flag, which might I add, nobody wanted to play except Max and I. And I proceeded to dive over one of our friends, which it’s been almost a month and my ankle still hasn’t heeled.

JJ: If you had a motto to sum who you are, what would it be?

HR: I don’t know about a motto to sum up entirely who I am, but one thing I’ve always lived by, and people try and convince me out of it, and I just don’t believe in it is, I’ve never been a dater. I’ve never gone on true dates before. Really, with anyone. I’ve had a few boyfriends before but I’ve never truly just gone on random dates. When people ask why, I’ve always said I feel like dates are like interviews, and I refuse to be romantically employed.

JJ: If you could be a breakfast food, which breakfast food would you be?

HR: Icing.

JJ: (laughs) You eat icing for breakfast??

HR: Like the funnel cake icing that you put on waffles. I eat breakfast at Six Flags, clearly.

JJ: Amazing. What would your spirit animal be?

HR: So funny, I’ve done spirit animals before but I think I don’t get the jist of them. I think I’m so squirrelish. It’s kind of like what you resemble to me. More aesthetically really, than anything.

JJ: Do any of your cast members stand out as spirit animals to you?

HR: I’d probably put Hoechlin as a wooly mammoth. I would put Posey as a jackrabbit. These are so off the cuff by the way! I’d put Dylan as like a flounder fish. He just reminds me of Flounder. I mean, these are just totally grab bag. What does Max remind me of? He reminds me of a deer I think. Like a really beautiful elk, because they’re very, just regal. Charlie, what does Charlie remind me of? Chipmunk. Sharman reminds me of a giraffe. He’s just too tall for his own good. Also I’m too short for my own good. Crystal would be a koala bear maybe.

JJ: Have you ever gotten the Carver twins mixed up?

HR: Not really. I mean, occasionally in the very, very beginning.

JJ: What fashion pieces do you own that you can’t live without?

HR: As I’m wearing them now, I love red shoes. And I love a good fit, a good structure on a woman. In my case, at 5’3? being a pear shape, that would be called A Line. So anything A Line, I love.

JJ: What was the last movie you saw? Did you like it?

HR:Out of the Furnace, with Christian Bale. It was quite depressing. Don’t get me wrong, I completely buy into it, myself as an actor, myself as a viewer. But it’s funny to me that it’s almost like these movie stars try to one up themselves. And that the more successful they become, and I’m assuming the more lucrative and marketable they become. …The poorer they portray in their movies, like the more down and out they are. It’s like, “Well in my movie, I’m going to have, you know, I’m gonna live in a hole. In my movie, all my money got lost and I had to dig my way out through pennies.” It’s really funny that they have these contests and Christian Bale would be no exception. It was a very depressing movie about a mining town. But it was an excellent movie. Excellent, excellent movie.

JJ: Do you have a favorite movie?

HR: I have a collection of them. Harold and Maude is one of my favorites. And I love that Bud Cort. That part almost went to Elton John. It’s pretty big, it would have changed his career. I love Annie Hall. E.T., Titanic, and I love Shawshank Redemption. That’s one of my favorites. And As Good As It Gets.

JJ: Do you have any favorite TV shows?

HR: Ooooh, right now I’m watching a British show called Utopia. It’s incredible, I’m obsessed. It aired on BBC in Britain, last January. And so I got a hold of some copies of it and so I’m checking those out right now. And then I’m also your typical Lost, Breaking Bad kind of girl, Curb [Your Enthusiasm]. Love me some Tina Fey, love 30 Rock. I like Portlandia, you know, not on a regular basis, but it’s nice for a little pop every now and then. It’s like when you want junk food. Yeah, I’d say that’s a collection of what I like.

JJ: What’s the last album or song you downloaded?

HR: I’ve downloaded some Deptford Goth lately, but I’m also way behind the eight ball. I just saw Searching for Sugar Man. Have you seen that? And I downloaded both of [Santo] Rodriguez’s albums. And he’s still touring, in his seventies. So I’m really excited that I’m embarrassingly just on the bandwagon of Rodriguez. I have Robert Rodriguez, but I did not have Rodriguez. So that’s the last album I downloaded.

JJ: Do you have favorite music artists?

HR: Right now, I’m listening to Stone Roses, Craft Spells, Deptford Goth, BANKS. Love me some Group Love, they’re blowin’ up like, oh gosh, pop tarts in the microwave for too long. They’re just, they’re doing really well, and I’m really proud of them. Because I don’t know them, but I feel like I know them. That’s what we are when we’re groupies.

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