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She smokes, she drinks, she cusses, and she drives a muscle car to school. Who's this badass stealing scenes in the new religious comedy "Saved!"? She's 19-year-old Eva Amurri. As Cassandra, Amurri's role in "Saved!" is the disruptive hell-raiser — and only Jewish girl — at an all-Christian school. Her breakout performance might not come as a surprise when you discover her pedigree. The daughter of Susan Sarandon, Amurri got her start in Tim Robbins' "Bob Roberts" and "Dead Man Walking." MTV News' Rodrigo Perez tracked down Amurri to talk about playing a wild child in the movie while hijacking school buses in real life.
MTV: In "Saved!" you play Cassandra, who's a total badass. How much of a badass are you in real life?
Eva Amurri: I guess I've had that streak in me a little bit. I've always been a curious, mischievous person ... but not to the extent she is. That's why it was fun for me to just indulge that side of myself.
MTV: Was your high school experience as rigid as the one portrayed in the movie?
Amurri: My high school experience was really great. I went to a really liberal, exciting high school. ... Not as much in high school, but in middle school I sort of experienced that clique thing, that leader of the pack [phenomenon]. Fights in the movie, I could definitely relate to. I had experience with that myself in middle school.
MTV: Was the process of making this movie at all like being in school?
Amurri: Yeah, filming the prom scenes. None of us in the cast had ever had a prom before, so we kind of had our first prom together filming the movie. And then our afterparty for the premiere was like a prom afterparty and there was a place where you could take a picture and stuff, so it was really fun.
MTV: Were there things from your past that you were able to channel for your rebellious character?
Amurri: Actually, I became more rebellious, I think, as I was making the movie. The cast as a whole, we had a little bit of fun together sometimes. But you know, [when I was younger,] I really never felt the need to be rebellious in that acting-out sort of way that I think Cassandra really exemplifies, because I didn't grow up in a way that I needed that acting out to be heard. So in that way I didn't have too much. Something that I really respected about Cassandra from the moment I read her on the pages is that she has such a strong sense of herself and who she was and what she believed in, and she wasn't willing to compromise that, which is something that I really respected and something I hope to apply to myself and my own set of values.
MTV: In what ways did you become more rebellious during the making of the movie?
Amurri: Jena [Malone] and I tried to steal a school bus. ... When you rent buses, there are bus wranglers — there is this guy who comes with the bus who keeps an eye on it. So we decided that we wanted to drive the bus away from the set and take it somewhere, this huge yellow school bus. So we coaxed him away from the school bus on the walkie talkie ... tore across the parking lot, got in the bus and, you know, there's a reason there are three-week courses teaching you how to drive a bus, because it's absolutely impossible. There are levers and buttons. So I'm trying to figure out how to do it, and she's trying, and the guy figures out what we're doing and starts running back across the parking lot. She takes off and leaves me in the bus to talk our way out of the situation. That was interesting. It was a failed attempt. We were always trying to do things like that.
MTV: Wow. Now, although this film is subversive about religion, it seems like you also took pains to treat it with a lot of respect.
Amurri: We wanted to make certain that we did that. When we were doing research for this film, [Macaulay Culkin] and I went with the director to a new-wave Christian rock concert at Anaheim Stadium, and when we were there, everyone around you is a born-again or just a really, really religious person. They're these kids who were so young and so excited and so into something that wasn't Britney Spears, and it wasn't some clothing trend. It was excitement for their religion, which is so interesting and so exciting. We all realized at that point that we wanted to stay true to who these people were and have respect for them because they exist, these people who we were trying to portray. We recognized that we are walking a fine line. We start off making this film thinking that we really want to poke fun at the zealots and not so much at religion itself. And Mandy [Moore] is fairly religious, and crew members — our hair and makeup people were born-again Christians and they read the script and loved it and loved the message of the film. I think there will always be people who object because we are dealing with really scary themes — unwed mothers and sexuality, questioning faith — and I think some people will be threatened by that. But I think people should keep their minds open; it's sort a Christian way of thinking.
Get all the info you need on the 2004 MTV Movie Awards over at MTV.com.
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Photo: United Artists/MGM
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