Spencer Locke

Vs. the

Monster House

by Lynn B

Pretty, blonde, 14-year-old Spencer Locke has had roles on popular TV shows like “Phil of the Future” and “That’s So Raven”. She is currently shooting the scary film Resident Evil: Extinction. The Florida native impressed bigtime producer/directors Steven Spielberg and Bob Zemeckis and they gave her the lead role of Jenny, a bright new girl in town who joins two neighborhood guys in fighting a spooky, possessed house in the computer-animated scare funfest Monster House.

Monster House is a motion capture film like The Polar Express but filmmakers went for a less photo-realistic look, opting for characters who look slightly more like traditional animated characters. Jenny doesn’t look like Spencer but, according to the teen, she does have some of her mannerisms. Spencer and her fellow actors had to wear strange, close-fitting motion capture suits so that animators could track their movements and use them for creating their animated counterparts. There was no monster home to look at, only a few props on set. This is where the real imagination of the actors has to come in. Well, let’s let Spencer tell you about it....

Spencer: We had props but nothing was there. We had to imagine everything. You’re getting chased by a house. So, it was difficult.

AGW: Did you make the movie a long time ago?

Spencer: Yeah it was weird. It was like, ‘guys, in two years this is going to be a movie’. It seems like a lifetime and I can't believe that it's finally here.

AGW: What of yourself do you see in your character?

Spencer: I definitely see everything that we did. It was all coming back. I can see my mannerisms. When Jenny gives a nasty look to Chowder, my sister said, ‘Oh, you've given me that look a hundred times. That's so you, Spencer.’ So I think you can see all of us in our characters in different ways. We’re all pretty much like our characters.

AGW: What was your reaction when you saw the film?

Spencer: Wow! We saw it again last night, and it seemed scarier than ever. And I can't wait to see it tonight at the premiere; it's going to be in 3D. It's going to be amazing.

AGW: Your director is really young. Was it just a fun set?

Spencer: Oh yeah, it was great. He let us improvise. it was really hard with Kevin James and Nick Cannon keeping a straight face. Man, they kept throwing out really funny lines and we had a really hard time not laughing.

AGW: So the movie is funny but it’s also scary. Will kids get freaked out by this movie?

Spencer: I think it really just depends on the kid because last night we saw it with a bunch of kids, and I was sitting in front of a 5-year-old girl thinking she'd be really scared. Afterwards, I asked her, ‘What did you think? Did you like it? Were you scared?’ And she said, ‘No, no. I wasn't scared. I loved it.’ And then there are the kids, the wimpy kids that might be a little afraid.

AGW: Your animated character has a little screen kiss with the Chowder character. Was that real?

Spencer: Yeah. It was cute. The couple times we have seen it, the audience goes, "Awww!" You know.

AGW: Some of the film takes place on Halloween. Do you remember any Halloween costumes you’ve had?

Spencer: I was a fairy princess and a butterfly once.

AGW: Your character in "Resident Evil 3" is called K-Mart?

Spencer: Yes, I play a girl, she's nicknamed K-Mart because she was found in the ruins of a K-Mart by Claire Redfield and the rest of their convoy. Basically the movie is about our journey to Alaska, which we think is this safe place with no infection.

AGW: So you have lots of fight scenes?

Spencer: Oh yeah. I get to blow an undead [away] with a shotgun. It's really cool. I got to train with a shotgun and a machinegun, which was amazing.

AGW: Is it weird going from this film, to horror to TV, etc.?

Spencer: Well, before Monster House, I had a recurring on "Ned's Declassified" on Nickelodeon and then after Monster House I did Disney's "Phil of the Future," a couple episodes of that, a couple other guest stars and then this amazing "Resident Evil," which is so cool because it's so different than anything I've ever done obviously.

AGW: We hear that you're good at pogo stick jumping?

Spencer: I am. Yeah, I can do 500 jumps on a pogo stick. Yup, I'm an expert pogo stick jumper.

AGW: Does that come in handy when you are bored between shots?

Spencer: Right. You never know. That could come in handy anytime.

AGW: Was there a lot of fun and camaraderie on set that made it hard to focus?

Spencer: Oh, I think there were definitely some times where we were really excited, and we had to calm down and focus. We had so much fun. Gil (the director) would just get us in the motion capture room and say ‘Okay guys, just let it out’.

AGW: How is this movie fun for teens?

Spencer: It's great because it's so funny. You're on the edge of your seat the whole time. It's like a roller coaster ride.

AGW: You shot a while before the adult actors joined you. Did it feel like the adults were invading your world?

Spencer: Well, when they came on, you know, they walked out in their wet suits and the dots on their faces and they were looking around like, ‘What is this? This is so weird!’ We had done it a couple of weeks, so we were like, ‘It's mo-cap! Just get used to it.’ It was funny to see their reactions, definitely. And I felt better seeing Maggie Gyllenhaal [who voices the boys’ babysitter] walk out in her wet suit too just like me. It was really cool.

pictures on this page courtesy of and copyright Columbia Pictures, 2006 and Internet Movie DataBase

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