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The world of horror can either be a blessing or a curse for an actor, particularly one like Max Thieriot. He started out as a model for The Gap before breaking out as a child star in films like The Pacifier and Catch That Kid.

Thieriot soon gained more visibility in films like The Astronaut Farmer, Jumper, Kitt Kittredge: An American Girl, and Chloe. The 21 year-old now hopes to heighten his profile with his first lead role in the new Wes Craven horror film My Soul To Take.

Max first discussed with us the rehearsal time for the film and how long the process was.

“A couple of days,” Thieriot recalls, “I know we spent one day, we hopped into wardrobe, so it was a little crazy. Wardrobe day, a cast read-through, we read through the script, and I think I had like a day or two to try and figure it out, but, yeah, it was a little insane.”

While most horror movie roles have had a long tradition since the 1970′s of often being paper-thin range-wise, Thieriot says this was not your average horror movie role.

“It was nerve-racking, but it was exciting for me,” Max says of it, “I like to do things that kind of scare me. I don’t know. I feel like I kind of push myself and challenge myself and this was definitely going to be pushing myself in really kind of short-term notice, to jump right in to figure out what this guy’s all about. It was a challenge, but I was definitely down to do it. It was exciting.”

Max further elaborated on this as he describes his character, Adam “Bug” Hellerman, who we learn is the son of the mysterious “Ripper” and is about to be possessed to kill teenagers born on the night of his death.

“Bug is like, gosh, he changes so much throughout the movie,” he describes, “I think he starts out being this naïve, quiet, like really innocent

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kind of kid and he really doesn’t know what’s going on in the town. Everyone kind of keeps these things from him. And then, as the film progresses, he kind of basically in the course of a day becomes a hero, like he all of a sudden becomes a teenager and he’s becoming like a man almost.”

“And at the same time, he’s taking on the responsibility of (A) finding out all these things and all this like knowledge and madness that’s happening and (B) having all this stuff happen to him at the same time,” Thieriot continues, “So he’s an interesting character because he really changes a lot throughout the film immediately. He becomes really complex by the end.”

Thieriot described the process of having to do multiple personalities as Bug.

“It’s difficult,” Max says of it, “It’s definitely really difficult. I’m not going to say that was easy. We all had kind of done a lot of research on it. Wes had done research on it. I had done research on it and then kind of tried to figure out how it was going to play on film. It’s hard to because what we’re doing in the movie is not really, it’s kind of different from what you see in real life.”

“It’s kind of a different version, so I just looked up all sorts of different videos on schizophrenia and multiple personality disorder,” he adds, “And at the same time, I think that one of the things that really helped was watching the other actors and their roles and trying to figure out what they did physically. And learning how to do the voices was probably the hardest part, like trying to sound like that was difficult. And I think I had most of them done pretty close. That was tough for sure.”

Max says that he believes doing the work needed to play Bug made him a better actor for it.

“I think I’ve learned a lot,”

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Thieriot believes, “Mostly, I learned a lot from Wes and I learned a lot from kind of pushing myself. I feel a lot like in my career previously I hadn’t really pushed myself. I kind of just got by. I had just done it because it hadn’t seemed that some of the stuff was that difficult to me. So doing this has helped me out a lot. It’s made me realize the amount of work I can put into something and come out of it.”

“And since then, I’ve been putting more work into all of my roles like into a lot of character development,” he continues, “And a lot of figuring out basically everything about a character before I play it rather than figuring out who they are in the script, figuring out who they are past that, like who they are, who their grandparents were, who their whatever, what their childhood was like, kind of everything, and this kind of snowballed for me, so that definitely helped.”

Thieriot also talked about what it was like to work with the film’s writer and director, Wes Craven, known for such horror shockers as the original The Last House On The Left and The Hills Have Eyes, as well as A Nightmare On Elm Street and its sequel New Nightmare, and the Scream films.

“He’s really awesome to work with,” he says of him, “I kind of thought the same thing going into it. I’m not really sure what he was going to be like. You hear the name Wes Craven and you kind of instantly have this image like the spooky guy. He must be because he created A Nightmare On Elm Street and brought us Freddy Krueger and that was what I thought going and meeting him.”

“Once I met him, I was like, what, like you, you come up with these ideas?” Max adds, “Honestly, I knew he was smart before because he had to be

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to come up with this stuff, but Wes is like, he’s like a genius. He knows everything about everything, not just in film, not just about horror. He’s extremely intelligent. He’s really kind of just sweet and gentle and like really nice and polite and kind of quiet, really funny and like, this was not what I expected. So it was a great experience. I learned a lot from him and had a good time.”

We asked Max if his reaction to Wes Craven’s surprisingly down-to-earth demeanor was one of disappointment.

“Almost,” he says “I wasn’t disappointed. I was just kind of like surprised, but yeah, at the same time, you’re like, what? I thought for sure, you’d be like this. I was more disappointed because I was completely expecting something else, but I wasn’t disappointed once I got to know him and stuff. He’s a great guy.”

Thieriot says that another surprising thing about shooting a movie Wes Craven was how surprisingly relaxed the atmosphere really was.

“We had a really good time on set the entire time,” Max recalls, “It’s funny. You think going into it that it’s going to be really serious or maybe, but it’s very light and everyone’s kind of joking around like, oh, you’re going to die, you’re dead today. And so, that’s always kind of fun and the makeup and the prosthetics and the special effects and all that stuff is kind of neat to do.”

“I say the only downside is you shoot a lot of nights because the nighttime is always scarier than the daytime,” he continues, “So you always end up working a lot and a lot of night. But other than that, it’s an enjoyable experience. I mean, the action stuff’s cool in it and people are killing people and all sorts of stuff and it makes it interesting.”

Max says he was impressed overall with the final cut of the film, which will be shown in theatres, as with

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many horror films in particular in recent years like My Bloody Valentine, Piranha, Resident Evil: Afterlife, and the upcoming seventh & (supposedly) final Saw film, in 3D.

“When you’re on set, you’re like, how’s this going to work?” Thieriot says, “But obviously, you never really think that when you have Wes Craven directing a movie. You’re like, OK, I think he knows exactly what he’s doing, so you’re never going to doubt him. But I really liked it.”

“I hadn’t seen it,” he adds, “I only saw a rough cut of it a long time ago, like for sure over a year ago, so I just saw it for the first time. It’s on 3D. And I really enjoyed it. I thought it was good. I thought the 3D was cool. I was kind of worried about what was going to be. I thought it was neat. I thought that everyone, all the actors did a really good job. I thought it worked out. I thought it looked really good.”

However, Thieriot admits he was initially lukewarm when first told that the film would be released in 3D.

“I was kind of disappointed at first,” Max recalls feeling, “I didn’t really know. I had never really seen a film in 3D. I haven’t seen Avatar yet, so I’m missing out on that 3D film. I’ve seen Up. That’s the only movie. I took my little 9 year-old brother to see Up, so that’s the only thing I’ve seen in 3D. So I was kind of like trying to figure out, like how’s this going to be in 3D? Why are they doing this? But it’s kind of like the way film is going whether you like it or not, like film is moving to 3D. And Wes sent me a really long e-mail kind of explaining everything and I fully trust him. I know he’s making it for a reason because he’s a smart guy.”

“So when I saw it,

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any doubts that I had were immediately turned around and I was happy with it,” he continues, “It adds some really cool elements to the film, I think, as far as like depth perception got to be the coolest thing. Everything’s like…I mean, obviously, that’s what 3D is, but like even simple things that you wouldn’t even really think about, like you look down, you see there’s a pool and you can see like the floaties at the top at the pool actually has like depth. It’s like everything kind of has just more intricate and detailed and of course, then, obviously, they’re still releasing the movie in 2D, so you can see it in regular film.”

We asked Max if its more fun to play a character who is being picked on or a character that is the hero.

“It’s more fun to kick some ass for sure,” he believes, “That was what was needed, but I kind of got to do everything. The problem with getting beaten and getting your ass kicked is you usually end up getting hit. You end up getting, when you’re doing action scenes and stuff, especially me because I always tell people. I’m like, just go, you got to go for it, go big, keep going, keep going.”

“I’m always trying to push people because, for me, like I hate watching films where stuff doesn’t look real, especially like stunt scenes,” Thieriot adds, “Like, OK, we’re obviously not punching each other. This looks really fake. So I always like and I end up now always getting hit because I end up punching people too far to the point where I always end up getting punched. But it was fun to do a little bit of everything. It definitely feels a little better when you get to be the one on the other side of it.”

We also Thieriot if he got any battle scars or wounds from shooting a film like this.

“Not

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from this,” Max replies, “I’ve broken a finger on one film. Like [my left ring finger], I got it smashed with a sledgehammer, nothing too bad. I got kicked in the kidney. I got my lip split open once. Small stuff, small cuts, nothing too big and exciting, thankfully actually. Some good falls and stuff like that, but yeah, nothing too bad.”

Max shared with us what film he has next in store to be released after My Soul To Take comes out.

“After I finished this, I did Chloe, which already came out with Liam Neeson and Julianne Moore and Amanda Seyfried,” Thieriot reveals, “And then, I just finished a film called House At The End Of The Street with Elizabeth Shue and Jennifer Lawrence. Mark Tonderai directed that and Aaron Ryder produced it. He did Memento and stuff so that should be good. I’m really excited for that.”

Thieriot explained to us what House At The End Of The Street will be about, which is set for release sometime in 2012.

“It’s not that hard to describe,” he claims, “Basically, this girl, Jennifer Lawrence, moves into this town with her mom and they move next door to this house where this girl murdered her family. And I play their son and I live there by myself basically. A lot of crazy turns happen in the movie and head games and when I read it for the first time, I said, after I finished it, I was like, ‘Wow!’ Really, I walked in the room, and I had some friends over or something and I immediately started inviting my girl friends and I started talking to them.”

“I was like, you’re not going to believe what happens in the script, like it really completely blew my mind,” Max continues, “And so, instantly, I was like, this is awesome. And basically, to give you an idea of what it’s all about, the movie’s kind of like a mix between

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Disturbia and Psycho, so it’s like Disturbia was to Rear Window, this is kind of like that to Psycho, but also has Disturbia-type elements. And at the same time, this movie has this feel of like American Beauty, kind of this love story underneath it all. Yeah, it’s pretty bizarre.”

Max also revealed the next film that he is a part of that will be shooting.

“In like a few weeks, I go and shoot Yellow,” he says, “Which is Nick Cassavetes’s new film with Ben Foster and Sienna Miller and David Morris and Hank Azaria and I think Luke Wilson is in it, Lucy Punch, Daveigh Chase, I don’t know, like a whole long list of people.”

“So that should be interesting, kind of a crazy, intense, dark movie about this woman and her major drug and alcohol problems,” Theiriot adds, “She’s like talking to her psychologist and it’s told in flashback of a really messed up life, growing up in Oklahoma and her incestuous relationship with her older brother, like yeah, some strange stuff, just the standard. So, yeah, that will be interesting.”

Finally, Theiriot gave this advice for young actors who are hoping to be a part of Wes Craven’s next horror film.

“Gosh, it’s strange because the casting process for me on this wasn’t like the standard casting process,” Max answers, “They had already had someone locked into the role and two of their people dropped out right at the last minute. And then, I came in like a couple of days before, so basically, I was just floating in New York and I met Wes and then, that was it, I was like, OK, let’s do it. So I don’t know. Honestly, I don’t know. Gosh, I guess just keep at it and just like nothing different from a regular auditioning tip process. Just try and be real and just come off as being like a real person and be yourself.”

“I think a lot of

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people, you notice, tend to cast around people that they relate to and people that they get along with,” he adds, “There’s a lot of things rather than just how well do they give me an idea of this character. Plus, like a lot of stuff is always just such a look. I mean that’s just how it is. It’s the truth. Like in some roles, directors have an image in their mind of what the character’s going to look like and there’s just so much that goes into it, but, yeah, keep at it for sure. And don’t expect him to be creepy when you go in, he’s not going to scare you. He’s really nice.”