New Interview: Nikki Reed talks about "The Last Day Of Summer"

So, we hear DJ Qualls (your co-star) hand-picked you to play Stefanie?
DJ and I have been best friends for I don't even know how long now... since I was a kid! He was actually approached with the script before I was and they asked who he thought should play Stefanie and he said me.

What a great friend! The movie is so intense. Did you sign onto it right away?
There was a bit of resistance at first because I sort of carry around this weird false image that I can only play the hot or intimidatingly beautiful girl, which is just really strange because I'm not intimidatingly beautiful. I think just when you play those characters, people start to see you as that. And so I went in and met with them and they were like, "Oh, she's not that beautiful. We can give her this role."

Ok, Nikki. You're just being humble.
(Laughs). I thought that it was just gonna be an easy breezy situation because DJ and I were so close, but it was really interesting to see how heavy it became just due to the nature of the project and how little time we had [to film it].

But you are beautiful! You must get loads of dudes dropping pick-up lines to try to get with you!
I don't know, men don't try to generally pick me up. I don't know what it is! I think I must give off the "stay away from me" vibe. I'm also a very uncomfortable person and maybe it's because I play such confident, comfortable characters that everyone thinks I am that. But I'm really not. Men don't usually come up to me.

Ok, so what do you say if/when they do?
If they do, I'm really bad at continuing conversation. If someone says like "Hey, how are you?" I'm like, "fine." And then I walk away. It's not because I'm trying to be mean. It's because I'm really uncomfortable.

You've played a lot of dark, angsty characters in the past, especially in Thirteen.
Yeah. It's really important for me to always try to find something interesting about each character in terms of where they came from and what their family life was.

Speaking of family life, yours was pretty crazy when you were a teen, right?
I definitely went through a rough patch, but I wasn't nearly as destructive as the character that I played in Thirteen. I think for me, growing up fast and living on my own, which is certainly not something for everybody, forced me to grow up and be responsible. I didn't have the opportunity to go out and party like a lot of the young girls in Hollywood that all lived at home with Mommy and Daddy.

What do you mean you grew up fast?
I had to pay bills. I had to support myself. My family didn't have a lot of money, so I had to be the adult for them too.

Read Full Interview: Here
via @TwiGossipGirl