It wasn’t hard to pretend to have a crush on Patrick [Fugit]. He’s so charming and he has the best sense of humor. And I think that’s the most attractive thing about a guy – if he can make you laugh. He’s so funny. I mean, there’s not much acting required. I’m so lucky, I’ve worked with really handsome young men who are all just really wonderful people. It hasn’t been that hard to conjure up those feelings and pretend like you like them. I’ve been a very lucky girl. Every actor who I’ve had the opportunity to work with, they’ve been like really great people.
Brian Dannelly is a first time writer/director. What’s it like working with him and how free was he with allowing you to change the dialogue?
I loved doing this because it was an independent film and you didn’t have a bunch of people on your back or standing around the monitor all the time. He really just gave us complete freedom and control to go where we wanted with the characters. He was obviously really helpful and had lots of suggestions and ideas because this was his pet project, this was his baby. But he was great about letting us do what we wanted. We only had 28 days to shoot it and meanwhile we’re all having so much fun but when it came time to hunker down and get work done, we all did it really well.
Did you ever take a scene or the dialogue a different direction from the script?
I don’t think so, no. I think it was really important for both of us to not make Hilary Faye too much of like a caricature. I think it would be easy to go down that route. But I always remember the girls who were popular in middle school and high school always seemed to be a little over the top about things. Everything was so dramatic, and everything was so important to them, like the most trivial and insignificant things, so I wanted to make sure that it had a little bit of that in there but also that she had a very human quality to her, as well. I wanted to make sure that she maintained some level of reality to her.
You’ve kind of got a religious theme running through a few of your onscreen characters.
I know (laughing). I’ve had two films now where my first friend is pregnant. I’ve had two films now with a Christian theme to it. It’s all been purely coincidental.
This character is super Christian. Did you have any experiences you could draw on for this role?
None. I went to Catholic high school but, strangely enough, none of my friends were like this. I didn’t know anybody like this at all. Even though we had Mass and Theology and stuff, we never really talked about religion outside of that, outside of school, or even in other classes. It was almost taboo. It wasn’t like the cool thing to do. I didn’t understand the character necessarily from that perspective, but I also look at Hilary Faye like she is like every other popular girl. She’s a little bit crazier about this than, say, clothes shopping or music or boys. This is her passion, what her whole life sort of revolves around. I don’t think she was really all that different from any other popular girl in high school.
Were you in a clique in school?
No. In high school, I sort of floated in between. I had friends who were popular and then I had friends who were sort of more bookworm-y and scholarly. But I sort of was invisible in school, not in a bad way. If you probably would walk up to someone or walk into class and say, “Who is Mandy Moore?” Chances are people would be like, “I don’t know. Never heard of her.” I just wasn’t out there really involved in after school activities and things.
When you began singing, did you plan for a film career?
I grew up doing musical theater so I always loved acting as well. I knew that if I got in this business somehow, I’d want to try my hand at doing [acting]. It just happened to sort of luck out. Opportunities come about and doors open and I wanted to take advantage of it. I had a small part in “The Princess Diaries” and I wasn’t going to, obviously, continue if I didn’t like it, and I loved it. I’m like, “This is so different from being an artist and on the road and touring, and in the recording studio.” You get to spend more time with people; you’re in the same place for more than a couple of days. It’s such a team effort. I loved the whole creative aspect of it. It was so different from the music industry. I think that’s why I wanted to continue to do it.
PAGE 3: Mandy Moore on Future Projects and Rivalries
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:
Interviews with Jena Malone, Patrick Fugit/Heather Matarazzo, and Macaulay Culkin
"Saved!" Photos, Trailer and Credits
