I Know What You Did Last Summer's Madison Iseman on Playing Twins

Hello.

Hi, sorry, I can never figure this out. Okay, I think I'm good. Like two years into Zoom and still I will join mute or muted and they're like, turn on your mic. And I was like, sorry. I really like I don't think I will ever get used to it. It's so hard.

And when you were in Annabelle, you remember that? Well, obviously you remember that.

Yeah, that was the last time I was in your studio, right? I think so, yeah. With with everybody else.

Um, well, I went to the premiere with my friend that day Kate Konick. I don't know if you still even Yeah.

Yes, oh my god, yeah. Yeah, I was there and afterwards like I mean that was a long time ago now. We went through a whole pandemic in between that, but remember? And we went to uh AMC Burbank and we all went to go Oh my gosh, that was so much fun. That was like Oh, a long time ago, it feels.

Were years ago? No. Three. Maybe four. I don't know. It might be, honestly. I don't know. That was so much fun.

Yes, of course I remember that was awesome.

Now you're doing I know what you did last summer, which is also very, very good one. Did you get to watch at all?

I watched the I got screeners for the first episode. That was it though. Just the first one.

Okay. Yeah. So I I don't I don't know anything else, but, you know, it it was really like the first one I'm like, okay, can I get the screener for the rest of the episodes or do I have to wait?

Oh, just give the first one because I know uh October 15th, they're releasing the first four. Yeah. Which I think is smart. At the same time, I I love to binge an entire series. So I was a little bummed that like we weren't putting all of it out there, but I feel like four is the perfect amount to get everyone super hooked and like somewhat figure out what's going on. And then like we're going to spoon feed you the rest every Friday. little bit, bit by bit.

Well, in it, you have a twin. Yes. Well, how was that? How's acting out having a twin without actually having a twin? Because it looks really good in the show.

Great. Oh, that's so good to hear. Um, it was awesome. It was it was complicated in its own technical way. Like for me, my favorite part of it was creating these two sisters as individuals, but also, you know, who they are together as twins. And just like kind of building a life for them. Like I I journal a lot for my characters. So just kind of getting to explore that and in the side of them when they were like little girls and like who they are today. Um, because the first time you do meet them is at this grad party. And as you know, a lot goes down. So it was important for me to do the homework and like make a whole life for them off screen. Um, but technically, it's, you know, it's double the work, it's double memorizing, it's double time management. Um, so I I never played twins before. I'd always wanted to. I feel like it was on every actor's bucket list. And so it was one of the main things that attracted me to the role. Um, but it was a lot of fun.

Did you wish that you had a twin in real life like after doing it? I mean, it's different, but. Would you want a twin?

I definitely don't want twins like Alison and Lennon. Um, maybe a twin that's like maybe a little, um, not not so dramatic with all the drama that comes and follows with the show, but to be honest, it would be a really boring show if we didn't have it. So watching the show, I don't think I want to twin. But maybe maybe like before we did the show. And for the screen like when, okay, so you've watched, how many episodes have you watched so far?

We've watched four.

Okay, so you've only watched four. How do you how do you think it turns out like you like seeing double? Do you like seeing double of you?

I mean, okay, so I'm I'm one of those people where I don't love to watch myself, but I do. I know there's some actors who like refuse to watch themselves at all. I think it's a really good learning tool. So I watch myself a healthy amount to where I don't completely tear myself apart, you know. But it is weird, you know, like watching yourself is hard enough, but like watching yourself having a conversation with yourself is a whole another thing. I think like the first time I watched, I like completely blacked out. Like I was like, what the heck am I on? Yeah. Um.

And at that point there's three of you because it's you and then there's two on the screen.

It's definitely like an out of body experience. Um, but I had such a great acting double and she freaking killed it, you know, she had to be there with me the whole time and we had some dramatic things to say to each other. Um, so she was she was the best. She made it so easy. And uh, and it's and you know, it's really great when you can watch and like, I don't see my double at all, you know, it's like really it's ice cream so I think that's all kudos to the filmmakers and editors because they did a great job.

Yeah, that's so awesome. And so the original, uh, did you watch the original from like 1997? To like get in the part or did you avoid it?

I I was a fan. I've always been like a major horror movie fan. I've always loved any slasher. My favorite are like the demonic ones, but I do love a good slasher too. Um, so of course I was really excited just by the title. Um, but we did. I think I watched it for the first time. Obviously not in theaters because I was a Were you alive? I was here. I was born. I was born 97. So I was one. Um, but I think I probably watched it when I was maybe like 12 or 13 for the first time. Um, and was like huge fan. Um, so I I mean, yeah, we we rewatched all of them like I think even like before you started auditioning, I needed to get into like the mindset of exactly what this world was going to be. Um, they're still so good. They still live up to this day. They're great movies.

Right. And also it's okay. So we saw on the, I know what you did last summer's Instagram that they like they shouted you guys out. They made a video for you, right?

Yeah, they did. And it was so fun. We we had to keep it a secret for so long. Um, but yeah, I feel like getting their blessing is like the greatest thing that I've been like, I feel like now we can finally like breathe a little bit because it was like anticipating their reaction of how they were going to feel about the show. Uh, and they've like totally passed on the torch and it feels awesome. Um, and I don't know how many they've seen. I'm guessing they've probably seen one to four. So I'm curious what they think about the end. Right. Everyone thinks about the end. And I will say it's good, it's a really good pay off, but all collectively on set was trying to figure out who the killer was because we didn't know either when we first signed on.

Mm. Nobody knows anything. Like you're literally, you are the like you are it and you like didn't know. That's awesome.

We knew about the first four episodes when we got there. And uh, we were trying to figure it out like as we were filming. So if our characters look completely clueless, it's also because we personally had no idea what was going on.

And you've played a lot of like different like emotional roles, scary roles, like, how did you feel, like how do you mentally prepare because like you're really getting into it. Like you become a different person.

Um, I mean, it's you never really know until you get there, you know, like I I do all my homework at home. I I prepare. I prepare. And then like on the day you show up and and you just kind of get to work and it I feel like a lot of what this job is is trial and error and trying things and, you know, hopefully, and we were really lucky to work with amazing directors and a great showrunner who kind of gave us the reins to really like bring what we had and then you kind of like tweak it from there. Um, but I mean that's always been fun for me. I was always like a really dramatic kid. So I especially like horror movies, like I love to scream. Um, blood, running around, like that's always been my favorite.

That's so perfect. Okay. Now we're going to play a little game, okay? I themed it. It's like, I know what I did when. So it's like obviously your life, but we just named it that to be corny because, you know, I know what you did last summer. So, when you found out like, what did you do when you found out that you got this part?

What did I do when I found out I got this part? I was very excited. It was like, I think I got it the day before Christmas, so it was like the best Christmas present ever. Um, and I slowly started freaking out because we had to go to Hawaii in like two weeks and I had to figure out like where the heck I was going to live and move my life around. Um, so it was a little bit of a rollercoaster of emotions, but I was very excited.

Yeah, that's so awesome. Uh, what did you do the day that you wrapped filming? So last day on set, you wrapped. To go to the beach to celebrate, you're in Hawaii, have a party. What did you do?

We wrapped at 6:00 in the morning. Oh my god. Friday. Um, so the first thing I did, it was weird, you know, it was like so like late, early in the morning, we were up all night. Um, Yeah. It was a lot of emotions because it was definitely like, it was a challenging project. We filmed in the middle of COVID. It was like it's such a weird thing to be done. Um, so I think we almost kind of like, I think I cried. Like it was like we had this like it's over. And then I like didn't know what to do with myself in Hawaii. The tradition, they always lay you when, um, when you finished, everyone's throwing, you know, a bunch of lays and flowers all over me and it was just we had the greatest crew and it was just so awesome. So I think I I stayed around a little bit, um, when I personally wrapped because we still had like an hour left of shooting. And I just stayed and hung out with my friends because I knew it was the last time I'd be able to be with them. Um, and the next day we definitely went to the beach, but trying to get some.

That's so cute. Um, what did you do when you had a free day of filming?

We were always at the beach. Yeah. We did. I mean, we had our weekends and then every once in a while you'd like maybe have a Wednesday off, which we were very grateful for when we got. Um, so Hawaii is so beautiful. We we went to the beach a ton. We went hiking all the time, kayaking. It was COVID. We weren't really allowed to, you know, go out and explore indoors. But at least we had a great atmosphere to be outside fully. Um, so we took full advantage of the Hawaii atmosphere for sure.

So you're in Hawaii. Yeah. Uh, what did you do when you saw yourself on the billboard for the first time? We saw it on your Instagram. You're you're right. Big on that billboard.

Yeah, it's it's crazy. I think I think I've been on maybe like one or two billboards ever, but like I've never had twice of me on a billboard before. So I don't know what will ever happen again. So I tried to make sure to milk it like as much as I could. Um, I mean, it was pretty cool. And we didn't even try to find it. I think we were just driving down the road and we saw it and we're like, oh my god, pull over, pull over, pull over. We got to take a picture of it.

That's awesome. What did you do when you found out who your castmates were?

I mean, so excited. I think because I did do some chemistry reads. I did a chemistry read with both Zach and Brien, um, and they were just awesome and so great. So I mean, especially Brien, you know, I was I was always been a fan of hers. I loved scream. So I was so excited to be able to work with her and she's just honestly, the whole cast is just so great and so talented.

You guys look like you were actually like really friends, like not that it would be fake, but like you actually seemed like you were best friends outside of the show.

We totally all bonded and like had so much fun together and they we were best friends for five months straight. So they all have a special place in my heart. I really do. I love them all so much. And I like can't speak enough good words about them. I think they're all just so great and so talented.

For the theme of the show, you gave us like you guys are the perfect cast outside of it, you know, all of the commotion with, you know, murder and all that.

Well, and for us, it was important too. Like we had to sell these kids being friends for so long, you know, so it was important for us to make sure all of our chemistry was just super awesome on screen and and also because there in the scenes where they're specifically the five of us or how many of us? Six of us? Five of us? I don't remember. Six, I guess, including myself double. Um, but it was like a lot of the scenes are really chaotic. So we just need to keep them as authentic and as fun as possible. And our directors and showrunners were always up for us, you know, improv a little bit here and there and just like making it really authentic and real, especially at the grad night party stuff. A lot's going down. A lot's going down.

Well, it's a really good like it's such a good idea. I mean, it's a remake too, but I can't wait for people, I mean, myself too, included to be able to watch past episodes, but I I think what's so great about it too, like we have obviously like the charm from what the original gave us and our story start the same way. But at the same time, it's so fresh and new that like this new audience, I think is really going to love it. But also we have enough in there that the old audience will really love it too. So hopefully everyone will kind of feast and enjoy the whole thing. And the power of social media these days, because like the amount of TikToks that are probably going to be made about the show and everything, like they didn't have that with the original. So it's going to be very interesting to see how people react then versus now, you know.

Oh, watching is so interesting. Like even like I've had a I had a film that came out last year and just now on TikTok, it's like people are finding it. And I'm like this was last year, but okay. my mind, it's just it's a new world, it's a new way. And I'm I'm trying to be on TikTok. I'm I'm like feeling old now. It's really weird. But

You need to make TikToks like once the show blows up, like make a TikTok and then you'll just blow up on TikTok.

TikTok is basically just me and my cat the whole time.

I audience for that too. Like I think people like to see cat. I mean that's my whole for you pages just cat anyways. Yeah videos. Yeah. You're on cat TikTok and that's fine. Hopefully it's a little bit of you, you and your twins and then some cats you get in the mix.

Yeah, I'm fine with that. That would make me very happy. So we're up.

Oh, you're so nice and congratulations on everything that's going on with you and can't wait for the rest of the episodes.

Yeah, I'm so excited for you to see. I can't wait for you to like guess who you think the killer is. I know. That's like the worst.

Who do you think it is right now?

I honestly don't know. I really don't know. Because it's good in the sense like you won't know which one it is. Like you you feel it, but we're going to have to see, honestly. You'll just you'll just have to let me know. After you get through like episode four, just shoot me like a message being like, I think it's blah blah. I know it's blah blah.

Okay. Sick. Well, thank you so much. You'll be hearing from me.

I cannot wait. It was so good to see you again too. I know. Yeah. Post pandemic if it ever ends, just let me know what's up. See you later.