In the movie, three popular girls are pushed to their romantic breaking points when they found out that they are dating the same guy at the same time - the hunky basketball team captain John Tucker. After comparing notes, the fuming trio - reporter wannabe Carrie (Arielle Kebbel), head cheerleader Heather (Ashanti) and vegan activist Beth (Sophia Bush) conspire to teach Tucker a lesson he'll never forget.
Arielle Kebbel, who was recently seen in Fox's Aquamarine, was hired to play the ambitious Carrie. Kebbel calls her character "the kind of girl a guy would want to bring home to his parents who has unstoppable energy, great resourcefulness, and definite intelligence.
Q: How was it to be cheated on by Jesse in this movie? Would you have done the same vengeance?
Arielle: Carrie hated it because he has power over her, but I loved it because it gave me the excuse to practice my slapping skills! I'd never do what my character did, which is why making this movie was so much fun.
Q: Any funny stories from the set with Ashanti and your other co-stars?
Arielle: The girl fight that takes place in the Gym was a day that all the girls were proud of. The reason was that we got paid to slap each other. The harder we slapped each other the harder we laughed and it was all worth it, because they did not end up needing to use any of our stunt doubles.
Chart-topping singing sensation Ashanti, who also acted in last year's feature Coach Carter, was chosen to portray the school's confident head cheerleader, Heather. "Ironically, in high school, I was a cheerleader and belonged to a clique, so my character and I share a few similarities," says Ashanti. "On the other hand, I was a lot more down-to-earth than Heather and also very humble. And I never tried to seek revenge against anyone!"
Q: Would you have dated a 'John Tucker' back then?
Ashanti: I didn't date any of them. I remember one time in high school, I was in math class with this kid named Ryan and he had two different girlfriends; I knew both of them, and they were both named Maria. He came to school with one hickey on one side and another on the other side; both of them found out, it was crazy, so it was very John Tucker-ish.
Q: Have you sought revenge on an ex-boyfriend?
Ashanti: I did but I wasn't as bad as the girls in the movie. But, when you get hurt, you have to take that anger out somewhere.
Sophia Bush, who plays Brooke Davis on the popular TV series One Tree Hill, was cast as Beth, John Tucker's ditzy vegan/environmentalist, retro hippy, save Mother Earth, tree hugging girlfriend who is a throwback to the "free love" movement.
Q: What made you decide to work on this movie?
Sophia: The movie spoke to me on many levels. I liked the way it looked at how men modify their behavior to be with women and the lies they tell to keep them interested. The script also said a lot about friendship - how boyfriends come and go, but friends are forever. That's a great message and I wanted to be a part of it.
Q: Are you anything like your character Beth in real life?
Sophia: Yeah. I knew that I was getting a little 'agro' with how environmentally conscious I'm becoming, because it's all that I've talked about with anybody for weeks. What I really identified with, with Beth, was being passionate about doing what you can. You know it's one of those things that I just think we've gotten to a point where we have to be responsible, and it's unacceptable now not to do something. So, see look I'm getting really heated about this...that's the thing that I really identify with as far as Beth goes.
Q: How would the other girls relate to this movie?
Sophia: As for my character Beth, she is learning the lesson as a girl in high school that you can't rely on being sexy to get you the guy or to get you anything that you want. And it's a nice thing to figure out because it's skin deep and it's like we're all aging, we're all getting older, it's not going to last forever. I think it's a valuable thing that we don't shove down anybody's throat but your friends are what matter. It's the people that you get along with, and that was the most valuable thing for me.
John Tucker Must Die is the wild movie comedy that proves, when it comes to high school, dating is still the hardest subject of them all. The idea for John Tucker Must Die came to screenwriter Jeff Lowell when he was entertaining his own romantic revenge fantasies. "I came to the conclusion that all heartbreak begins in the formative teenage years," says Lowell, "and started thinking about my own high school, where there was the 'Big Man on Campus' that every girl drooled over, including my girlfriend. Even back then, I realized there was nothing I could do about it. You can't define yourself by who you're dating. "And then I thought about the popular girls at school, who they were and how they acted," states Lowell.
JOHN TUCKER MUST DIE opens very soon in Philippine theaters from 20th Century Fox to be distributed by Warner Bros.