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 into&nbsp;sunny Southern California. You probably wouldn&#39;t have guessed that&nbsp;she&#39;s a bona fide horror buff who spent her childhood making slasher flicks on a camcorder. &ldquo;My friends and I were having a sleepover and I burned a copy of the scary part of&nbsp;The Ring&nbsp;and put it into the DVD we were going to watch,&rdquo; she laughs. &nbsp;&nbsp;

Iseman&rsquo;s breakout role came in the 2017 blockbuster film&nbsp;Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, where she portrayed&nbsp;a teenager&nbsp;trapped in the body of&nbsp;Jack Black. She has since starred in the sequel,&nbsp;Jumanji: The Next Level, indulged in her penchant for horror films in&nbsp;Annabel Comes Home,&nbsp;and played a gutsy high school senior in&nbsp;The F**k-It List,&nbsp;which released on Netflix over the summer.

Now, the actress has two more films coming to streamers next month, one being&nbsp;Clouds, the Disney+ teen drama that follows the true story of Zach Sobiech, a teenager with rare bone cancer whose song went viral prior to his death in 2013. She will also star opposite <a href="https://www.lofficielsingapore.com/Culture/euphoria-sweetheart-sydney-sweeney-is-taking-hollywood-by-storm">Sydney Sweeney</a>&nbsp;in&nbsp;Nocturne, a Blumhouse Television thriller about a talented pianist whose competition with her sister takes a turn for the sinister.&nbsp;Below,&nbsp;L&#39;Officiel&nbsp;speaks to&nbsp;the actress about horror films, being stereotyped, and her upcoming projects.&nbsp;

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You&rsquo;ve had roles across many genres.&nbsp;Is that a conscious choice? Is there a particular genre you enjoy more than others?

It was a little intentional, because after Jumanji&nbsp;came out, there was a time when I would only get auditions to play the blonde bimbo with a phone in her hand. I&rsquo;m much more than that, so it was important for me to stretch myself so I wouldn&rsquo;t be typecast. I love horror movies because they&rsquo;re a lot of fun, but I definitely like to switch it up and try different characters.

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You moved to LA at a young age &mdash; what was that like?

I grew up in South Carolina, and my dream was always to make it&nbsp;to LA.&nbsp;I struggled in high school back home; I never really fit in and I didn&#39;t have a ton of friends, so I was eager to find a way out. I found a school in California&nbsp;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!

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You have two&nbsp;films coming out this month,&nbsp;Clouds&nbsp;and&nbsp;Nocturne, both of which are about music, although with very different tones. Do you have a musical background?

I actually played violin in high school, so when I read the script for&nbsp;Nocturne&nbsp;I was all for it,&nbsp;because it&rsquo;s&nbsp;about the competitiveness of classical music, and I&#39;m very familiar with that world.

Clouds&nbsp;is based on Zach Sobiech&rsquo;s story. What drew you to this project and did you know about Zach as his song went viral in 2012?

I never followed the story closely, but when I played the song I definitely remembered it from somewhere. I&rsquo;ve always wanted&nbsp;to be a part of something 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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What was it like to be portraying real people? What sort of prep did you do for that?

I talked to Amy [Adamle] a ton. She gave Fin [Argus] and I the letters that she and Zach used to write&nbsp; to each other. We also took a trip to their hometown and to the house that Zach grew up in and to his grave. It was&nbsp;overwhelming, but in a special way, and I don&rsquo;t think the movie would be what it is&nbsp;if we didn&rsquo;t have those experiences.

They&#39;ve all seen the film a couple of times now, but the first time we were all&nbsp;nervous!

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Your other film,&nbsp;Nocturne, is a bit darker. Can you tell us&nbsp;about the film and your character?

Nocturne is about a young pianist, Juliette (played by 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 school. I play her sister Vivian, the girl who has it all. She&rsquo;s super talented and confident, she has a spot waiting for her at Juilliard, and she has everything going for her. Juliette tries to affect her artistic future, and that&rsquo;s where the conflict arises.

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Do we get to see any of your musical chops?

In a way! Obviously, we&rsquo;re playing Juilliard pianists, which I cannot do, but we did spend&nbsp;hours mock-playing these pieces. It was a really&nbsp;interesting experience, and I didn&rsquo;t expect it to be as hard as it was. We learned it like a dance &mdash; you put your hands exactly where they need to be at the exact time.

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You and <a href="https://www.lofficielsingapore.com/Culture/euphoria-sweetheart-sydney-sweeney-is-taking-hollywood-by-storm">Sydney Sweeney</a> were already friends before the film. What was it like to work together?

It was awesome! 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. 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, &quot;Oh my gosh, no way!&quot;&nbsp;It was so much fun, but it was an 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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