GRUMPY MAGAZINE - Madison Iseman (Collector's Edition) by Grumpy Magazine

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About Grumpy Magazine is an international digital and print publication founded and curated by Jasmine Perrier. Selfpublished from Paris since 2016, we aim at covering the cultural landscape across the world and sharing a genuine vision of life to get you out of your grumpy mood. More than just a magazine, we are interested in aesthetically pleasing a modern take on traditional staples and thus offering a unique book capturing thoughtful stories and stimulating sceneries. This feature is taken from Grumpy Magazine’s COLLECTOR’S EDITIONS introducing a unique issue in collaboration with one previously featured talent and special guests, exclusively available as a solo print booklet featuring 20+ pages of interview and photos. Madison Iseman was previously featured in 2017.

Connect COVER | Madison Iseman wears Muse For All coat Past Midnight earrings

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Grumpy Team & Contributors Jasmine Perrier

Special thanks BACK COVER | Madison Iseman wears SKRT blouse

M adison Iseman TELLS OLIVIA HOLT HOW SHE INTENDS TO KEEP TAKING PEOPLE BY SURPRISE Interview by Olivia Holt Photos by Nicol Biesek Styling by Jessica Loria Makeup by Sarah Uslan at The Visionaries Hair by Scott King at The Only.Agency Stylist assistant Jennifer Hatch Location The Grand Califa Production Jasmine Perrier at Studio J•T•P

ADISON ISEMAN IS BRAVE, POISED, AND WARM-HEARTED. AS FAR BACK AS SHE CAN REMEMBER, SHE GREW UP WITH A PASSION FOR CREATIVE OUTLETS. HAILING FROM MYRTLE BEACH ON THE SOUTH

CAROLINA COAST, SHE THINKS BACK ON THE SHORT FILMS SHE ENJOYED MAKING WITH HER FRIENDS. ALMOST A DECADE AFTER SHE CONVINCED HER PARENTS TO LET HER MOVE TO LOS ANGELES TO PURSUE ACTING, HERE SHE IS, READY TO LEAVE HER MARK IN THE INDUSTRY WITH ALREADY SEVERAL MOVIE FRANCHISES SUCH AS JUMANJI, ANNABELLE, AND GOOSEBUMPS UNDER HER BELT. THIS FALL, SHE WAS SEEN AS THE LEAD IN AMAZON’S YA THRILLER I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER. THE EIGHT-EPISODE SERIES, FILMED IN HAWAII DURING THE PANDEMIC, WAS A NEW KIND OF EXPERIENCE FOR THE 24-YEAR-OLD ACTRESS WHO WAS GIVEN THE OPPORTUNITY TO PLAY TWO ROLES AT ONCE AND EXPAND HER ACTING RANGE.

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couple of days before Thanksgiving, Madison was back home in South Carolina, just hanging out in her dad’s office where she caught up on Zoom with her friend and fellow creative Olivia Holt. It felt like the right moment for Madison to look back on her journey since coming to Los Angeles at 16. After having a busy and exciting year, she found time to discuss her challenging double performance as twins with opposite personalities in I Know What You Did Last Summer, standing up to stereotypes, and proving there is more to her than meets the eye. This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

OLIVIA HOLT: I’m so excited that you asked me to do this! When we hang out, we both are so good at not talking about our jobs and work. There is a lot about you that I don’t know, so I’m excited to ask you stuff that we have never talked about before.

meeting you because I’d heard so much about you. We were both getting our hair colored, and you were sitting in the hair salon with a book in your hand, just reading. I was like, ‘‘That’s Madison Iseman.’’ And I’m so lame and never say hi to anybody.

MADISON ISEMAN: I’m nervous. OH: No don’t be, I’ll just ask you all of the hard questions [laughs].

MI: You know, that’s my problem too. I think that’s why it took us so long because we’re very much introverts. That’s why I always have a book with me.

MI: The nice thing about [our friendship] is that we don’t have to talk about it, because we talk about it so much in the everyday life.

OH: I also didn’t want to interrupt your reading so I was like, ‘‘Hi Madison, it’s Olivia.’’ [Laughs]

OH: Right, I agree. On that note, you are currently in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, where you grew up. Do you remember what inspired you to be an actor or to enter this entertainment industry?

MI: So, that was the first time we met, right? And then, I was so happy — you invited me to hang out with you guys. You went to go film your show for four months after that.

MI: You know this, I’m a huge Harry Potter fan. I think it was the first movie I saw. I even told my mom at the time, ‘‘I have to be Hermione Granger,’’ and she was like, ‘‘I don’t know how to make that happen, but sure, go for it.’’ From then on, I grew up in a school that wouldn’t have a theatrical department, so my friends and I would make stupid short films. They are all on YouTube, but I don’t remember my password to take them down.

OH: That’s the weird part of this industry. You meet people, and if you vibe with them, you have to really make an effort to make friends in Los Angeles because some people are busy and traveling. Moving from a small town in South Carolina, do you remember what your first few years in LA were like? MI: I feel like I blacked out. How old were you when you moved out? OH: I was 12.

OH: So, they are still out there, living in the world [laughs]. MI: They are out there, but under a fake name. That was what I did all through middle school and high school to have fun and be creative. I think putting [those films] together was my favorite part of it. And I was gonna go to school — I really wanted to go to SCAD [Savannah College of Art and Design] but somehow [moved] to Los Angeles. OH: That’s amazing. I remember you already had a decent amount of work [when we met], so you would have already been [in Los Angeles] for a while. MI: I want to say I was at least 21. I don’t know how we took so long to meet because we share an old publicist, we share the same colorist, we share friends... OH: I know! Well, I remember the first time

MI: So, I was at a very weird age because I was 16 and had never moved out of Myrtle Beach. But at the same time, I was so naive and went for it. I really had no idea what I was doing. I think that almost saved me and my ego in a way because there is a ton of rejection and it’s a very strange business. But I feel like I made my closest friends through work. You probably feel the same way — you get to meet so many great people in weird ways [because] you get super close for 2 or 3-4 months, but then when you go home, like you said, people work on other projects, and you don’t see each other for another year. OH: Do you feel like having that diverse group of friends has helped you find yourself in this world that we live in? MI: I think most of my friends are musicians, probably because of Spencer [Sutherland],

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my boyfriend. You’re a musician too. Maybe in another life, I would have really loved to be a musician, but I don’t have that special skill in my body. But going to shows is my favorite thing in the world, I love being a fangirl for all of my friends. I think musicians are on a whole other level of creativity because what you make is your own. [As actors], we’re hired so someone brings us an opportunity, we make it our own but it’s still someone else’s. OH: [Laughs] I’ve seen you in multiple concerts, you’re such a good fangirl for your friends. Do you feel like there’s anything that you’ve learned about yourself through the process of becoming an actor and finding your career path? MI: Yes, I feel like it’s still an ongoing process. Sometimes it gets exhausting but we’re also at such a young age where that’s just gonna happen. The past few years have been interesting. I’m constantly learning so much about myself and that’s the fun part about playing different characters too. As actors, you like the escapism of the job and it’s fun to be other people. OH: I’m actually really curious — how do you approach all of the characters that you play? What is your process like? MI: It’s different for everything I do. It obviously depends on how close the character is to yourself, I think. In [I Know What You Did Last Summer], playing two different people took a lot more prep work beforehand, just to figure out who they were. I also don’t feel personally close to either of the twins that I played, so I had to find out everything about them, every single tiny detail. For my characters, I do lots of journaling. I like to find music that they would listen to. I do lots of physical work too, I love finding out how my characters carry themselves, how they like to be touched, if they touch other people. OH: I actually really love what you said about the physicality, which I feel like a lot of people don’t think about when they are either watching a performance or themselves as an actor. MI: It was important to figure it out [in I Know

What You Did Last Summer] because they are twins, and they are wearing the exact same outfit — a white tank top and shorts — and I’m like, ‘‘If I ever play twins again, they have to have their own style.’’ I was fully relying on what I had — personality and physicalness. You know, Lennon is obviously way more confident and Allison is much more reserved. OH: I think it would be interesting for people to know about what it’s like auditioning for roles where you would get stereotyped. I’m very fascinated to know [if] it has determined what you seek out in roles. MI: The biggest one for me was probably after Jumanji. I feel like the only roles I was going out for were the blond girl with a phone in her hand. When I originally got the audition for Amy [in Clouds], I think I caught [director] Justin Baldoni by surprise — he didn’t say he didn’t think I could do it, but he wasn’t expecting anything. I think that’s because [Amy] was a very emotional role and a very much grounded person. OH: And a real person too! MI: Yeah, so I think that’s why after Jumanji I purposely tried to find roles that were very different. I wanted to do so many different things — to cut my hair, to dye it brown — because the number one thing people knew me from was the blond bimbo who’s taking selfies in her room [and] I was tired of playing that. I love Bethany and I would do her a million times again, but I don’t want to play million different versions of Bethany. OH: It totally makes sense. It’s always interesting how when you play roles, whether they are stereotypical to what you look like visually or not, they affect you not just professionally, but even personally. Have you met anybody, whether it’s been somebody in the industry or not, that’s given you a good piece of advice on how to navigate your career? MI: It’s always such a hard question. OH: I know, I know! But it doesn’t have to be a huge, awesome actor. MI: I always wish I had that answer — I

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worked with Jack Black [and] sometimes wish he gave me that [piece of advice]. OH: I feel the same way. I worked with so many incredible and brilliant people and I’m like, ‘‘I wish they had sat me down and given me a guidebook on how to navigate my career.’’ But you’re also very observant. Have there been things that you observed on a set that have maybe helped you? MI: I worked with Harry Connick Jr. [who is] my mentor and the greatest human in the world. We did a tiny little indie film [which] we shot in four weeks. It’s not the perfect film by any means, but it’s so beautifully done. It’s one of my favorite things that I’ve ever done. We had the best time ever and he’s a man, a father, who prioritizes happiness, family, and living. He always preached that if happiness is your goal, everything else will come. OH: That’s really cool to have somebody [who] is a legend in the entertainment industry, but also just human. MI: I think it’s hard to find people who genuinely care about everyone. Sometimes work can get stressful and he would never let that get in the way of his work, he was just being a good co-worker and a good human being. I’ve seen the opposite and I’m like, ‘‘That’s how I want to work. Those are the movies I want to work on, where you treat people like human beings.’’ OH: I love that. You know I’m obsessed with I Know What You Did Last Summer. MI: I do [laughs]. OH: I watched it every week. As soon as I got the notification that a new episode was out, I was on my couch watching. I would legitimately FaceTime you and tell you our theories in hopes that you would tell us the ending, but you never did. MI: You guys were wrong, I thought you would catch on, but you didn’t. OH: [We were] so very far from what the actual ending was. Do you remember what made you gravitate towards I Know What You Did Last Summer?

MI: I’m a huge Scary Movie fan, always have been. So obviously, the title grabbed my eye straight from the beginning. And then, I saw ‘‘twins’’ and I was like, ‘‘Wow, I’ve always wanted to do that.’’ I read the pilot [which] was so insane and interesting. It had the right amount of all the good things I wanted. I remember they had me audition for one of the twins, and I was very confused. OH: [Laughs] Did the breakdown say that you were going to have to play both roles? MI: It was very vague. It said, ‘‘Allison, Lennon, identical twins, read for Lennon,’’ and they sent the sides for Lennon. I was like, ‘‘I don’t have an identical twin and I don’t think there’s anyone who’s identical to me, so I’m gonna take both.’’ I put my hair in a ponytail, grabbed the sweatshirt, and taped for Allison too, which you know, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. It was a long round of auditioning right before Christmas, and I was actually here in South Carolina. I tapped a bunch, did a bunch of fun pandemic Zoom chemistry reads like we do right now, and in two weeks I was out in Hawaii, it was crazy. OH: I think it’s so fascinating for people to know what the auditioning process is like. I didn’t know that you took a risk and played the other role. MI: Auditioning in general is interesting. You’re trying to get them what they want, but you’re also trying to stand out. Going back to Jumanji, I was on a tiny TV show at the time, no one knew my name. But I went in there and I was like, ‘‘There is no way I’m going to get this.’’ [I think] I watched Bridesmaids [and] just did this weird Kristen Wiig [whiny] thing. I don’t even think that it made the cut, but I think it made me stand out in some way [laughs]. Because of that, I always try to find things in my auditions that are different because they are going through millions of tapes. I guess that’s my special thing. Sometimes it’s good, sometimes it’s not. But you never know. OH: You’re absolutely right. We’ve talked a lot about the nuances and elements that you brought to Allison and Lennon. Do you feel like they have taught you anything about yourself?

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MI: Yes and no [laughs]. They are very dark people, the whole show is very dark and dramatic. But at the same time, it was an interesting show to go into right after a year of not working, and in a way, I think it was maybe therapeutic to go through all those crazy emotions the two girls are feeling. The one thing they taught me is how to never treat your siblings [laughs]. OH: And you shot in the middle of the pandemic where everybody is still coping with what the Covid-19 protocols are, and that isn’t easy on top of playing two characters, sometimes at the same time. MI: Working during the pandemic is not the easiest thing in the world [but] we are all very grateful to be back and have a job. We didn’t get shut down once during the whole time filming. OH: With all of those different challenges, you guys still really crushed it. I, as a fan, just loved the show. Are you happy and proud of how the fans found out about the show? Without giving any spoilers away. MI: It’s a show that’s gotten a lot of mixed reviews, especially since the ending came out. My favorite thing about the show from the beginning was [its boldness]. The writing is insane. If you love chaos, it’s definitely the show for you. You also take those risks when you jump onto a show that is that bold — those are always the projects that I gravitate towards. I am very happy with how it ended. It’s a pretty crazy show, the people who do love it are obsessed with it and that’s awesome. That’s all you can ask for. OH: I thought it was such a good thrill. You are so good in that particular genre, and you said that you love horror and thriller. MI: I think I probably love it the most because it sets up a world with no rules. If your character makes a stupid decision, everyone gets over it because you have to have those things to move the story along. I love running, action sequences, screaming, practical effects... I’ve always been a huge fantasy person too. In Annabelle, we used a bunch of practical effects, all of our monsters and scary people were real people in costumes. As an actor, that’s the best

treat in the world where you can actually look at something and respond to it. OH: You’re giving the audience a chance to escape. And then, you get to create this fantasy world and live in it too. MI: Yes. Then, during Goosebumps, the whole film was CGI, so the whole time, we were acting to tennis balls on sticks. Have you ever done that before? OH: [Laughs] Yes. Or a mark where you have to scream at. MI: It’s gonna sound really weird coming out of my mouth [but] during the whole ending sequence in Goosebumps, I’m on a tower in the middle of the sky, up there by myself, running around, and I’m opposite Slappy who is that doll [and] CGI pretty much that whole sequence. I would love to see the footage without the doll because it probably looks absolutely ridiculous. OH: I would definitely want to see that. MI: People don’t understand how goofy this job is sometimes, which is also my favorite part of it. OH: You’ve done such an incredible work over the years. I’m so curious to know [if] there’s one thing that you are most proud of, whether it’s a project or particular moment. MI: For me, it was probably Fear of Rain, that small independent film I did with Harry [Connick Jr.]. I love those projects that are passion projects with people. There isn’t a ton of money backing it, everyone is just there to create and have fun. It’s fun too because it was supposed to have that theatrical debut [but] it got lost in a pandemic world with all the other films that didn’t come out. But recently, on TikTok of all places, people have been finding it randomly and it makes me so happy. When people discover [those tiny films] on their own, it just feels like a win. OH: What effect do you want to have on people, with all of the roles that you choose, all of the projects that you are a part of? MI: I want people to feel [what] I feel when I

go to the movies — I’m in a different world for an hour and a half, then it’s over and all you want is for that to be real or for you to be there. That’s the best feeling in the world and I think that’s why I do it. That probably comes from my love for Harry Potter when I was younger because all I wanted in the world was for Hogwarts to be real. The escapism is my favorite thing in the world. OH: You’ve been so busy. Over the last year, I may have only seen you a couple of times and you have more projects coming up. But a week ago, you and I hung out, had wine, ordered food, just had a chill night in. But what keeps you the most grounded when you are not working and what motivates you to keep going? MI: Music is my favorite thing in the world. I just got off tour with Spencer which I’ve never done before. [And] I’m lucky that I have so many talented friends, I love supporting them. That refuels me to go out there and be creative again. After going through the pandemic, it made me appreciate life so much, and just be happy and find time to sit and observe. Life goes by so fast that we forget to take everything in. OH: You’re such a present person though. Whether we’re just hanging out casually at one of our houses, or at a friend’s show, you’re always very much in the moment and not distracted by anything else. I think that says already a lot about you as a person. I think a lot of people should just know that because you’re not gonna say it. MI: I want to fully remember being in certain places that are the best moments of my life. Even sometimes, when cool things happen, I just sit in the back corner and watch. [During] my first premiere ever, I was like, ‘‘I’m gonna stand here and stare at everything, be excited,’’ because you just don’t get those moments again. OH: I also think when you’re younger, it can be incredibly overwhelming and it is harder to be a little bit more present and in the moment because there’s a lot happening. MI: People don’t understand those things are work as well. It is very glamorous and it’s so fun to get dressed up, wear the amazing

clothes, but then, you get there and you have the interviews, you gotta have your answers ready. So, it’s hard to remember the time to enjoy it. OH: Earlier you said that you were interested in editing. Is that a world that you could see yourself diving into? MI: I’ve always been a reader, so a dream of mine has always been to adapt a novel to screen, and just be on the production side of things. [But] I should probably leave the editing to people who did go to school for it [laughs]. OH: I’ve seen a music video pitch that you and Spencer made, and it was pretty great. I was like, ‘‘Why don’t you guys just start and create the whole music video?’’ MI: That’s the great thing about having friends in music too because directing a music video is much less of a budget and time. I think it’s important to try different things. I don’t know what the future holds, but Reese Witherspoon is for sure a goal/ role model. She’s the most impressive woman in the world and probably who I look up to the most. OH: I would agree with that. We’ve been friends for years now and we’ve had so many amazing conversations [but] I feel like I’ve just learned so much about you in the last 50 minutes. It’s really inspiring. Do you have a message that you would like to spread out there to anyone reading this interview? MI: Yes, I run all the Olivia Holt fanpages on Instagram [laughs]. I always have a hard time with that one because I’m like, ‘‘What do I want to say right now?’ But I feel like this has been a very big self-discovery year, we’re all growing and learning, and it’s important to appreciate what’s in front of you right now. That’s what I’m trying collectively to do at the moment. It has brought a lot of good into my life. And give a friend or family a hug, because that’s always nice. OH: This was fun, I loved this. Thank you for inviting me. MI: Thank you for doing it, I appreciate you a lot.

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‘‘I want people to feel [what] I feel when I go to

the movies - I’m in a different world for an hour and a half, then it ’s over and all you want is for that to be real or for you to be there. That ’s the best feeling in the world and I think that ’s why I do it ’’ madison iseman

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