Brittany Snow: Dying to go to her “Prom Night”

Brittany Snow is one of the brightest and most engaging acting talents to emerge in recent years. She recently starred in “Hairspray,” “John Tucker Must Die,” “The Pacifier” and now, in Columbia Pictures’ new suspense thriller, “Prom Night.” In the film, the night every high school girl dreams of turns from magic to mayhem for Donna (Snow) when Fenton (Johnathon Schaech), the obsessed psychopath who killed her entire family escapes from prison and comes to claim her.

“I can’t think of a better personification of goodness and innocence than Brittany Snow,” says director Nelson McCormick. “I don’t think you can care about these films unless there’s a character that you get invested in. You need to fear for her and care for her. I think Brittany is someone you naturally want to protect and care for. There is something about watching someone as beautiful as Brittany is being attacked that just makes us fear.”

“Before this, I underestimated the people who do thrillers and horror movies,” says the 21-year-old actress. “I underestimated how much work it is. I feel like I really got to be a part of something very cool. As an actor, you are constantly in a heightened state in this kind of film,” she says. “You might have a scene where you’re hysterically crying, and then you take a break. In the next scene, you’re supposed to still be crying, but it’s a week later in real time and you have to be in the same place emotionally. I always want my work to be genuine, so that was challenging and rewarding.”

Snow studied the psychology of stalkers and the victims of stalkers before she started filming. “I wanted to immerse myself in things that were dark and eerie to help me get to that fear when I needed it,” the actress says. “I also watched a lot of [the NBC Dateline series] ‘To Catch a Predator,’ just to get into the mindset of the victim. What I learned through my research was that a lot of crazy killers are everyday people—cops, teachers, and astronauts—respected people. People you might meet on the street, or who live down your block. And they have this whole secret life.”

Asked how she spent her own prom night back in high school, Snow revealed that, ironically, she missed it. “I went to the prom on the TV series in ‘American Dreams,’ but I never went to a prom in real life. I was working the day of my high school prom. They tried to work it out with my production schedule but the way it worked out, I could either go to the prom, or go to my graduation party with my ten best girlfriends and all of our families. I thought it was more important for me to have this party with my girlfriends and have the inside jokes and the slide show and all of our families would get to be there. Everyone said our party was better than the prom, so I feel like I made the right choice.”

Opening across the Philippines, “Prom Night” is distributed by Columbia Pictures, local office of Sony Pictures Releasing International.