Cameron Monaghan: Just Jared Spotlight of the Week (Exclusive!)

Just Jared: What was your experience like at Sundance this year? Was it your first time?

Cameron Monaghan: Yeah, it was my first Sundance. It was really cool but exhausting. As soon as I landed, I started running from one place to the next and I never stopped. I basically got three hours of sleep for the three days I was there. BUT it was amazing. It’s cool because it’s a huge community of people who all love movies. I love movies, so I felt like I belonged there. I got to snowboard too!

(read the full interview below)

JJ: Did you get to see your own movie, Jamie Marks Is Dead? Was it the first time you saw it?

CM: I did see my own. That was actually my first time. I saw it the night before the big screening and at the premiere, so I saw it twice. The cast all got together and had a DVD of it, and we watched it on the couch. We giggled through it. It was really exciting and nerve-wracking to have a theater full of people watch your movie and not have any idea if people are going to like it. And then know that you’re going to have to stand in front of them and answer questions about it. But, the response was really positive so it wasn’t actually stressful at all.

JJ: Can you explain your character in the film?

CM: I play the main guy, Adam McCormick. He’s this star track runner, and he briefly interacts with another boy who’s incredibly shy and he’s bullied. Nobody really pays any attention to him. At the beginning of the movie, he dies. He comes back as a ghost and I’m the only person that can see him. We strike up a friendship, but it becomes a little bit twisted because, well, he’s a ghost. (smirks)

JJ: Describe your co-stars in one word. Judy Greer.

CM: Hilarious.

JJ: Liv Tyler.

CM: Sweet.

JJ: Morgan Saylor.

CM: Relaxed.

JJ: Madisen Beaty.

CM: Playful.

JJ: Noah Silver.

CM: Affable.

JJ: Moving on to Vampire Academy, what was your favorite scene to shoot?

CM: Zoey [Deutch] and I had a fun fight scene. I love getting to shoot fight scenes in general. She was awesome, she was really good and really strong, and probably could kick my butt actually. (laughs) We used stakes. Well, they were wooden imitation stakes, ’cause when you’re in school, you don’t get the full thing until after you graduate. We had training stakes that we were fighting each other with.

JJ: What was your favorite off screen moment during shooting?

CM: Zoey and I got stuck in the Tube, on one of the very first days we got to London. (laughs) We were stuck in the train and we didn’t know what to do. So we started hanging on the bars, swinging back and forth, hanging upside and stuff. That was fun. The train just stopped in the middle and we were stuck. We didn’t have cell service either! We didn’t really know each other that well yet, so that was a really cool way to get to know somebody.

JJ: What’s your favorite prop from set?

CM: I didn’t get to use them but the full stakes, they’re metal, modern and slick. They have these holsters that they keep ‘em in. They’re really cool. I was jealous.

JJ: Describe your Vampire Academy co-stars in one word. Sarah Hyland.

CM: Caring.

JJ: Olga Kurylenko.

CM: HOT! (laughs)

JJ: Joely Richardson.

CM: Legend.

JJ: Zoey Deutch.

CM: Mercurial. (laughs) She’ll get really pissed at me if I steal her word. It’s her favorite word. (Zoey used “mercurial” to describe Cameron in her JJ Spotlight interview, ha!)

JJ: Sami Gayle.

CM: Friendly.

JJ: Danila Kozlovsky.

CM: Cool.

JJ: Lucy Fry.

CM: Nurturing.

JJ: Claire Foy.

CM: I need more words for friendly… Congenial.

JJ: Dominic Sherwood.

CM: Laid back is a compound word right?

JJ: Ashley Charles.

CM: Bro.

JJ: Now onto Shameless! Where are you at in shooting, have you finished this season?

CM: We’ve wrapped in LA, then I go to Chicago for a week in a few days.

JJ: Can you tease us with any spoilers?

CM: Oh man, I can’t. But, I can tell you that I’ve seen people making predictions about what’s going to happen for these characters, and all of them are wrong. Every one of them are wrong. No one has any idea where this season is going. Thankfully, it’s really great. It’s a very dark season, we see these characters in places we really would not expect them to be in. Some of them are pretty desperate, but it’s amazing. I think it’s our best season yet.

JJ: Do you have a favorite prop from set?

CM: There’s a magic eight ball that’s always sitting on its head that we always end up messing around with. It’s in the Gallagher house, it’s in our living room. Actually, we have two of them, but one of them is broken. But yeah, we always ask it questions.

JJ: What’s your favorite scene that you’ve shot this season?

CM: I like working with Noel Fisher a lot, who plays Mickey. He’s really great, and we have some really cool interaction this season. I can’t say what the scene is ’cause it’s, it’s big. It’s big… It’s dramatic.

JJ: Describe your Shameless co-stars in one word. William H. Macy.

CM: Eternal.

JJ: Emmy Rossum.

CM: Boisterous.

JJ: Ethan Cutkosky.

CM: Pyromaniac.

JJ: Shanola Hampton.

CM: Incredible.

JJ: Steve Howey.

CM: Hysterical.

JJ: Emma Kenney.

CM: Directioner. (laughs) She’s going to kill me.

JJ: Jeremy Allen White.

CM: Loyal.

JJ: Justin Chatwin.

CM: Spiritual.

JJ: Joan Cusack.

CM: I’m trying to find a word to sum up Joan, ’cause she’s such an incredible person. She always lets us stay at her house in Chicago. Every time we go, we have a big dinner. That and we spend time with her kids. Welcoming, but it’s an understatement.

JJ: Laura Wiggins.

CM: Adorable.

JJ: Zach McGowan.

CM: Dude.

JJ: Noel Fisher.

CM: Talented.

JJ: And now onto The Giver.

CM: Okay… (laughs)

JJ: It’s your fault for being a working boy! Favorite scene to shoot on that film?

CM: The character that I’m playing, Asher, it was a part of the book to an extent. But the character’s been really made more important to the main narrative, and he comes back in very, very interesting ways towards the end of the film. There’s one scene towards the end that’s very heavy and very dramatic, and I definitely can’t say what it is ’cause no one has any idea. The film is very similar to the book in spirit, but the events have been shifted, in new, exciting ways. There’s a pretty amazing scene towards the end of the movie that involves me and Jonas, played by Brenton [Thwaites].

JJ: What’s your favorite off-screen moment?

CM: (laughs) Odeya Rush, who plays Fiona, and I went to a Rihanna concert together. We happened upon a couple of tickets and after working, I had the tickets and was like, “Hey, you want to go see Rihanna?” And she was like, “Yeah!” It was really amazing. It was an awesome night.

JJ: Do you have a favorite prop from set?

CM: I can tell you my least favorite prop from set. We had these bikes, these bicycles that basically everybody in this community has to get around. Nobody uses cars or anything like that, they’ve moved way past that. They’re much more environmentally conscious. They had these custom made bicycles and they were made out of heavy steel, and they weighed like ten times what a regular bike does. And they would be always falling apart while you were riding them. They were death traps! We spent so much time having to ride these bikes, and I fell into a bush, on camera. (laughs) It was really embarrassing. My shoelace got caught in the chain once, everybody fell at least once. It was crazy.

JJ: What was it like working with director Philip Noyce?

CM: Philip is a really interesting guy. He’s a great director and he’s been around for a long time, I really respect him. He’s such a specific personality, he’s like six foot six, or something like that. He’s huge. He’s got these broad shoulders, he’s Australian. He has this very distinctive voice but sometimes with Australians, you don’t quite always understand what they’re saying. At least for the first couple weeks of working, then I adjusted. But sometimes I get a direction, I’m like, “Yeah sure Phil, alright I’ll do it.” (laughs)

JJ: Describe your co-stars in one word. Meryl Streep.

CM: Awe-inspiring. I’ve got to use a compound word for her.

JJ: Alexander Skarsgard.

CM: Interesting.

JJ: Taylor Swift.

CM: Hardworking.

JJ: Katie Holmes.

CM: Approachable.

JJ: Jeff Bridges.

CM: Another guy that’s hard to put into words. Exceptional.

JJ: Brenton Thwaites.

CM: Easy going.

JJ: Odeya Rush.

CM: Lovely.

JJ: Now random… How did you break your hand this summer?

CM: I slipped on some grass while shooting Vampire Academy. (laughs) We were doing stunts and cool stuff like that, and of course, I slip on some grass. I broke it the day before Zoey and I had the big fight scene. We did the entire thing, and at the end of it, I was like, “Yeah, my hand still really hurts.” So I went to the emergency room and they said, “Yeah you broke it! You probably shouldn’t be doing that anymore.” There’s actually a scene where I have a couple of my fingers in a splint, in the movie, because I had to wear it.

JJ: Where do you want to travel most in the world?

CM: Well, I have to go to Ireland ’cause I have roots there. Besides that, I really want to go to Tokyo. It just looks so different.

JJ: Which actors do you search on YouTube and watch their interviews?

CM: Leonardo DiCaprio, Ryan Gosling. I watch a ton of Inside the Actors Studio, actually. So I’ve seen almost every episode.

JJ: How did you end up getting froyo in a onesie?

CM: Debby [Ryan]! (laughs) Yeah, I don’t know how that happened. I have no idea why I was wearing a onesie that day. But I hung out with her that day, and then we went out and got frozen yogurt.