By Gill Pringle
“I’m blessed to be able to do this,” young actress, Odeya Rush, says of Goosebumps, the big budget kids’ horror comedy flick based on the hugely popular books of R.L. Stine. “It is a challenge though, because we have so much special effects work to do. There are a lot of monsters in the film that are all CGI, so we’re just looking at little dots, or we’re looking at a pole with a monster’s face on it, or we’re looking at a guy who’s supposed to be a werewolf, but he’s wearing a green suit. You use a lot of your imagination, because these things are supposed to be terrifying. That’s a challenge.”
In Goosebumps, Rush plays Hannah, the daughter of reclusive author, R.L. Stine (played in a meta twist by Jack Black), who must team up with her dad and her next door neighbour and potential romantic interest, Zach (Dylan Minnette), when the monsters from her father’s horror novels burst free from the page and terrorise their small hometown. “The real monsters are awesome,” Rush says of the select few monsters created using practical effects and prosthetics. “The first time that we were doing the ghouls in the cemetery and the people started walking from the graves, they were so real that I actually got scared. Our make-up is fantastic, and the actors who they’ve picked to portray these characters are amazing. When it’s the actual monsters, rather than CGI, it’s really believable. It’s a lot of fun to see it come to life.”
Odeya Rush was born in Haifa, Israel in 1997, and moved with her family to the US when she was nine so her father could take a job in Alabama as a security consultant. Two years later, the family moved to New Jersey, and then to LA so Odeya could pursue acting. “I had an Israeli accent,” says Rush, who now speaks in the familiar tones of an American teen. “Moving to California helped me lose it. They really stretch out their words in LA. They take time and stretch it out. In Hebrew, you don’t pronounce all these sounds as much. When I’m here, I don’t feel American, but when I’m in Israel, I feel American. I don’t know where to belong.” By the age of twelve, Rush had booked a host of commercials, short films, and print jobs, and then started appearing in TV series like Curb Your Enthusiasm and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. She made her big screen debut in 2012’s The Odd Life Of Timothy Green, and has since appeared in See You In Valhalla with Sarah Hyland, and opposite Brenton Thwaites and Jeff Bridges in The Giver. She currently has a whole host of projects on the “upcoming” list: the horror flick, When The Devil Comes; Holding Patterns, with Freddie Highmore and Haley Joel Osment; the thriller, Hunter’s Prayer, with Sam Worthington; and The Bachelors, with Oscar winner, J.K. Simmons and Julie Delpy. She’s even made her writing and directing debut with the short film, Thanks.
Already au fait with on-screen superstars (Meryl Streep and Taylor Swift also featured in The Giver), Rush found another one on the set of Goosebumps. “Jack Black takes good care of us,” the actress tells FilmInk on the film’s set. “Rob [Letterman], the director, always asks if we want another take, and Jack is always like, ‘Are we okay with that one?’ He’s always taking care of us. When someone hurts their hand or something, he’s the first person to call the medic. It’s nice because he’s really protecting us. You feel like you don’t have to worry too much. He’s really fun too. He just loves to hang out and play basketball and video games and talk. And play the guitar. He’s very musical. We play the guitar sometimes. I’m learning. I know a few chords now. Dylan [Minnette] taught me. I’m gonna surprise him!”
Goosebumps is available on DVD, Blu-ray, and Digital now.
