On September 27, I had the great opportunity to meet with R. Lee Ermey, Jordana Brewster, Diora Baird, and director Jonathan Liebesman of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning.

Q: How did you get involved with this movie?
Jordana Brewster: I auditioned. I had a meeting with Brad (Fuller) and Andrew (Form), and I really liked them. I saw the 2003 movie, and I really liked it. I heard about the sequel, and I really wanted to be a part of it, and there was no script, but I read for it and got the role. I knew the 2003 one was good, so we had a good precedence.

Q: How do you make this your own?
Brewster: I was really lucky in that, I totally put myself into the character; I totally put myself in the situation she was in. My boyfriend (Matt Bomer) was dying and I was there; I didn’t have to do much.

Q: How hard was filming? Was it pretty taxing?
Diora Baird: The filming was hard man; I so did not know what doing a horror movie would be like. It’s like an action movie on top of having to be emotional, because you have to be running and screaming, crying for mercy all the time. It’s difficult because you really have to go to a dark deep place, and you don’t really want to go there ever again. But it was a great learning experience, and I strengthened my muscles a lot by doing this movie.

Q: Will you do another horror movie?
Baird: No. I’ve said this on national television. I will NEVER do another horror movie… watch me like two years later in another one (laughs). I’ve already turned down 3 offers.

Q: Are you satisfied with the prequel compared to the other?
R. Lee Ermey: Actually I think it’s the best one. We clear up all these questions we might have had with the remake. Each day we’d come and, we’d come to the set, and we would sit down and the producers and the director and actors would get involved and bring something to the table. We had the luxury of tossing ideas around to make a scene better.

Q: How was it working with 2 different directors on these films? Was there a huge difference?
Ermey: Difference in personalities. Both, of course, were trying to do the best they could, and what I liked about both directors is the simple fact that they both accepted criticism. They would actually listen to their actors and in all cases, if the actors brought something to the table that would improve the scene, we would incorporate it and do it that way. Jonathan was a breathe of fresh air. I hope that this film does great things for his career.

Q: How did you get involved with this movie? Did it come to you or did you come to it?
Jonathan Liebesman: What happened was I met Michael Bay, and Brad and Andrew for The Amityville Horror. They were doing a remake of that, and I lost that to another director, and then these guys told me their next project, which was a prequel to Texas, which I thought was an even better idea. I pursued it, and fortunately I got it.

Q: Did you like the idea of it being a prequel?
Liebesman: I loved the idea of a prequel. I think to tell the beginning of one of the most iconic horror franchises is a massive opportunity, and is something I’d be interested in watching. That’s why I took the film.

Q: With some of the cast returning, did that make it a little easier to settle into?
Liebesman: Oh yeah, there was definitely a way everybody had worked on the first one. What I wanted to do was bridge the gap between the styles of the first one and sort of do this hybrid. It was definitely cool that there were people returning, especially from a character standpoint.

Q: There’s obviously a lot more gore in this. Was this something you intentionally set out to do?
Liebesman: No actually it was a mistake. Somebody just spilled blood (laughs). Yeah, it was definitely intentional, because I think what Marcus (Nispel) did was introduce this new kind of intense horror, and it was followed by movies like Saw, Wolf Creek and Hostel, and it’s sort of like I wanted to take what I liked about those films and put it into Chainsaw. I just thought it was very appropriate to have some gore, because when I think Texas Chainsaw Massacre, I see dismembered body parts everywhere and I just wanted to make it raw. I want people to go in being scared because they’ve heard it’s scary.

Q: Anything else?
Liebesman: Don’t write anything about the ending (laughs).