Shenae Grimes on Scream 4, Franchise Fatigue and the Lack of Good Female Roles in Hollywood

You mentioned how there aren't a lot of great roles for young actresses. What have you seen lately that had a really meaty part for a young female?

(Long pause) Winter's Bone was one. I didn't see Black Swan yet, but I can only imagine what Natalie Portman did with that, and I've obviously heard all the rave reviews. So I'm sure that was amazing. (Long pause) I don't know. I don't like a lot of female roles, period. Let alone young female roles. I say Natalie Portman, but she's a handful of years older than me, and also has a much more mature look than I do. I could never get cast in something that she was going for. It's a completely different ballgame. When you look 14, it's also really hard to break out of the child genre and the teen dramedy thing. That seems to be what gets made in Hollywood. People don't want to take risk on a lot of great material nowadays. That's why Sugar -- we did it because we loved it, but we made nothing doing it and no one may ever see it. That's the bottom line. You're going in with that understanding because people don't want to take risks. The prequel or sequel or this horror flick or that action flick is all that gets made nowadays. Except like the odd one, like Blue Valentine, or any Danny Boyle flick that comes out. There are fortunately some great ones that get made, but just too few and far between.

I think I know the answer to this, but how frustrating is that for you as an actress? You want to take risks, but there aren't many Hollywood executives that share your enthusiasm.

Again, I just see it for what it is -- I don't think of myself as an actress at all. I've never called myself that and I would never describe myself as that to anybody else. For that reason, I think you can't put too many eggs in one basket. And for me, again that is one of the lesser stimulating things that I'd like to do in my life. C'est la vie, I'll just, again, try to take some half-assed script and make it something amazing. I think direction is like 85 percent of the battle. You're only given what you're given nowadays, and investors only want to invest in a very small category of things. But you can change the way audiences perceive it and you can change the way that the message comes across, based on how you break a film down and the choices you make. And that's direction. That interests me much more than just acting in it. I'm not willing to sit and wait around for that long is the bottom line (laughs). I just can't; I'm too ADD to sit around and wait for the decent role to come, and I don't like being an "actress on camera" enough to just do anything to be on set. I'd rather hold out for a few years, and direct projects that I'm producing and that no one is seeing, except for on YouTube, and that still fulfills me more than doing some cheesy film.

Do you see Sugar as a way to show people that you're capable of more than you've shown as an actress?

That's the ultimate goal. That would be a dream come true. But at the end of the day, the reason why I did this -- again, with the mindframe that no one will ever see this -- I just needed the confidence to know that I could do it. That's it. I just needed to know that I could do it for myself, because I've been fortunate enough to get really great jobs really quickly. I started working at 14 in Canada, then Degrassi fell into place, and things just kind of kept coming, kept happening, then 90210. "OK, great. I guess this is a career now, and I guess this is what I do." But I don't know how the hell I got here. All I've done is play a teenager on camera. That's not very hard, that's not a big challenge for me at all. I show up, I do my thing, and I think, "Wow, look at me having the easiest job in the world." I really do.

Sugar was not an easy job. At all. By any stretch of the imagination. That thing ran me ragged, and it was worth every tear and hair pulled out of my head. It was awesome, but extremely draining. But I needed to know that I could do that. And I was really proud of my performance, so even if everyone hates it, c'est la vie.

What are you planning on doing during your next hiatus from 90210?

Definitely not acting. I have gotten my fill this year. My manager will sh*t on me for saying that out loud, but -- I mean if some brilliant opportunity presented itself, who am I to turn it down? But that's not what I'm going out and searching for right now. I came up with this idea for a documentary, and I'm trying to see if that's an idea that can be developed. I'm also co-writing with a friend my first short to direct with dialogue. Because the last two that I did last hiatus didn't have dialogue in them. It was a good beginner run at directing and running a set and making sure you had all the details accounted for. And now I'll get to get into the beef of really working with actors and communicating. It should be very informative.

Do you think creative risks are headed to the Internet?

I believe so, which is just the biggest joke to me. I don't understand why a film like Blue Valentine -- get over it people, it's not that controversial; it's just reality. People are so terrified of real life, that I think that is why they constantly distract it with bad action and bad horror and bad prequels. It's easier -- you get to go nod along. Generally speaking, all of my friends and peers, obsess over the rare quality films that are out there. Those are the ones that everyone is talking about and raving about. When is the rest of the world going to catch up? I don't know. When are the money people going to catch on that people do want to be stimulated, people do want to think, people do want to be provoked? That's why we go to the movies -- to get invested in something for a couple of hours and learn something new about life, about a story, about a character. So, I pray that money people will start catching on and this won't have to stay on the Internet; won't have to stay free. It's hard to make a movie, man! It costs a lot of money. For films like mine which is great, but no one will pay any mind to -- it's really hard to work that hard and watch everyone make no money around you. It's really hard to survive like that. I'm lucky that I have a job that pays the bills, but if I didn't have that, I couldn't go around the rest of my life making great films for nothing. You can't get by like that. So, I really hope it does become a more substantial part of the industry. It's just a big joke -- and it has been really -- that's not where the money is going.

On the bright side, at least two films you mentioned -- Black Swan and Blue Valentine -- are doing well at the box office. Black Swan more than Blue Valentine, but you know what I mean.

They usually do well! It's just getting them in the box office. That's the problem. So many of these things -- they go to festivals, and even the one's they get acclaim at festivals still are never heard about by anyone, until someone thinks it's cool. Or hot. Or hip. I just hope people catch up. And I think they will. Because I think people are bored to death, and no one goes to the movies any more because the movies that play in the movie theater suck (laughs). That's the truth. I'm sorry, it just is.

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