Sunday, May 13, 2012

'Dark Shadows' Brings The 'Teenage Angst' Out Of Chloe Moretz

Michelle Pfeiffer and Bella Heathcote also open up to MTV News about their characters.
By Kara Warner


Chloë Grace Moretz, Gulliver McGrath and Johnny Depp in "Dark Shadows"
Photo: Peter Mountain/ Warner Bros.

Although much ado has been made over "Dark Shadows" star Johnny Depp's portrayal of reluctant vampire Barnabas Collins, the Tim Burton-directed, 1970s-set vampire dramedy also features a cast of equally quirky characters and talented actors like Michelle Pfeiffer, Chloë Moretz and newcomer Bella Heathcote.

Each and every character in the film has some serious baggage, which the audience becomes privy to over the course of the film. When MTV News caught up with Moretz and Heathcote recently, we asked them to give us the inside scoop on their characters: Moretz's saucy, over-sexual teenager Carolyn Collins and Heathcote, who plays double duty as both Barnabas' long-dead, ghostly love interest Josette, as well as the Collinses' new governess, Victoria.

"Let's just say teenage angst [is her issue]," Moretz said of Carolyn Collins. "To be general, but she's this flower girl stuck in middle of this seaport in Maine, and it's not the most romantic thing for her. She'd rather be at Woodstock, she'd rather be listening to music with a bunch of people with her."

Heathcote admitted that both of her characters are dealing with some baggage, whether of this world or not. "I think for [Victoria], she spends all of her adult life trying to hide something. Something happened in her childhood and she's got a lot of baggage from it. She's very guarded, she's a bit damaged but trying to put up a solid front," Heathcote explained. "Josette is basically the opposite. She's completely open, romantic, idealistic. It was fun to play both," she said. "It was fun to go into each character, each costume. They're so different, it was great to have the opportunity to do both."

For Michelle Pfeiffer, who plays the financially burdened and expectedly quirky Collins matriarch Elizabeth, the Oscar-nominated actress relished the opportunity to get into the headspace of an unbalanced woman, but even more so a second opportunity to work with creative and inventive director Tim Burton.

"It's so exhilarating walking this tightrope every day with Tim, who's so willing to take such huge chances and risks," Pfeiffer said of the joys of being in a Burton film. "For someone like me who likes to play things safe, he helps me bring that out in my performances, and I think just being in the presence of somebody with that much creativity and also the cast of characters he surrounds himself with, not only actors but in every department, is just exhilarating."

Check out everything we've got on "Dark Shadows."

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