The actress talks her love of horror and her new role in a film by the makers of 'Get Out.'

Madison Iseman seems destined for Hollywood. All blonde locks and bright white smile, the 23-year-old actress fits right in in sunny Southern California. You would almost never guess she was a bona fide <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/film-tv/halloween-anti-heroine-horror-movies">horror</a> buff who spent her childhood making homemade slasher flicks on a camcorder. &ldquo;My friends and I were having a sleepover and I burned a copy of the scary part of The Ring and put it into the DVD we were going to watch that night,&rdquo; she laughs. &nbsp;&nbsp;

Iseman&rsquo;s breakout role came in the 2017 blockbuster film Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, where she portrayed&nbsp;a vain high schooler trapped in the body of none other than Jack Black. She has since starred in the sequel, Jumanji: The Next Level, indulged in her penchant for horror films in Annabel Comes Home, and played a gutsy high school senior in The F**k-It List, which released on Netflix over the summer.

Now the actress has two more films coming to streamers next month, one being Clouds, the Disney+ teen drama that follows the true story of Zach Sobiech, a teenager with a rare bone cancer whose song went viral prior to his death in 2013. She will also star opposite <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/film-tv/sydney-sweeney-interview-Euphoria-season-2">Sydney Sweeney</a> in Nocturne, a Blumhouse Television thriller about a talented pianist whose competition with her sister takes a turn for the sinister.&nbsp; Here,&nbsp;L&#39;OFFICIEL&nbsp;speaks to&nbsp;the actress about horror films, being stereotyped, and her upcoming projects.

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L&#39;Officiel: You&rsquo;ve had roles across so many genres, is that a conscious choice? Is there a certain genre you enjoy more than others?

Madison Iseman: It was a little intentional, because after <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/pop%20culture/90s-movies-watch-stream-film">Jumanji</a> came out there was a time where I would only get auditions to play the blonde bimbo with a phone in her hand. I&rsquo;m so much more than that, so it was important for me to stretch myself so I wouldn&rsquo;t be typecasted. I do love <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/film-tv/chic-halloween-costume-films">horror movies</a> because they&rsquo;re so much fun, but I definitely like to switch it up and try different characters.

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L&#39;O: You moved to LA at a young age&mdash;what was that like?

MI: I grew up in South Carolina and my dream was always to make it out to LA somehow. I struggled in high school back home; I never really fit in or had a ton of friends so I was eager to find a way out. I found a school in California and then I just packed my bags and left halfway through my sophomore year. That was pretty scary, but I&rsquo;m glad I did it at the time!

&nbsp;

L&#39;O: You have two&nbsp;films coming out this month, Clouds and Nocturne, which are both about music but have very different tones. Do you have a musical background?

MI: I actually played violin in high school, so when I read the script for Nocturne I was super all in because it&rsquo;s all about the competitiveness of classical music and I&rsquo;m very familiar with that world.

L&#39;O: Clouds is based on Zach Sobiech&rsquo;s story, which happened not that long ago. What drew you to this project and did you know about Zach as his song went viral in 2012? 

MI: I never followed the story too closely, but when I played the song I definitely remembered it from somewhere. I&rsquo;ve always been wanting to be a part of something that was a little bigger than myself, and to be able to play a real person. It was really cool to get to know [Zach&#39;s friends and family] and tell their story the way they wanted it to be told. They were very involved from the beginning and were on set the whole time. It was a really unique experience.&nbsp;

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L&#39;O: What was it like to be portraying real people? What sort of prep did you do for that?

MI: I talked to Amy [Adamle] a ton. She gave Fin [Argus] and I the letters that she and Zach used to write each other. We also took a trip to their hometown and to the house that Zach grew up in and to his grave site. It was definitely overwhelming but in a very special and cool way, and I don&rsquo;t think the movie would be what it was if we didn&rsquo;t have those experiences.

They have all seen the film now a couple of times, but the first time we were all really nervous!

&nbsp;

L&#39;O: Your other film, Nocturne, is a bit darker. Can you tell us&nbsp;a bit about the film and your character?

MI: Nocturne is about a young pianist, Juliette [Sydney Sweeney], who discovers a dead girl&rsquo;s mysterious journal containing demonic diagrams that over time push her to do the worst and overtake her sister at their prestigious art school. I play her sister Vivian, who is the girl who has it all. She&rsquo;s super talented, she&rsquo;s uber confident, she has a spot waiting for her at Juilliard, and she kind of has everything going for her. Juliette tries to affect her artistic future, and that&rsquo;s where all the conflict comes from.

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L&#39;O: Do we get to see any of your musical chops?

MI: Sort of, in a way! Obviously we&rsquo;re playing Juilliard pianists, which I cannot do, but we spent hours mock-playing these pieces as if we&rsquo;d played them our whole lives. It was a really interesting experience, and I didn&rsquo;t expect it to be as hard as it was. We kind of learned it like a dance, where you put your hands exactly where they need to be at the exact time.

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L&#39;O: You and Sydney Sweeney were already friends before beginning filming, what was it like to work together?

MI: It was awesome, and honestly it&rsquo;s something we never get to do, being blonde women of the same age. We typically go out against each other so this was a really fun opportunity to get to play together. I remember during our chemistry read&mdash;I didn&rsquo;t know she was going to be there at the time&mdash;we were like, &lsquo;Oh my gosh, no way!&rsquo; It was so much fun, but it was a really exhausting chemistry read. Our director [Zu Quirke] is very, very in depth. &nbsp;

Jumanji's Madison Iseman is More than Meets the Eye

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