Ryan Hardy discovers the cult house in THE FOLLOWING | (c) 2013 Sarah Shatz/FOX

Kevin Williamson famously created the big-screen SCREAM franchise and, as executive producer/writer brought L.J. Smith’s VAMPIRE DIARIES novels to television in the successful series still running on the CW, where Williamson had previously created DAWSON’S CREEK. Williamson’s new series creation, THE FOLLOWING, is both bloodier and more serious than his previous work.

THE FOLLOWING, which airs on Fox Mondays at 9 PM, deals with haunted FBI Special Agent Ryan Harding, played by Kevin Bacon. Ryan once before put away charming, brilliant serial killer Joe Carroll (James Purefoy), at great psychological and personal cost. In the first episode, Joe escaped from prison. Ryan recaptured him, but it turns out that putting Joe behind bars is no protection from his crimes – because Joe has developed a loyal following of anonymous acolytes who will do anything he says, from kidnapping to maintaining long-term false identities to murder.

At a party thrown by Fox for the Television Critics Association, Williamson leads us to more information about THE FOLLOWING.

AX: How did you wind up with erstwhile movie star Kevin Bacon as your leading man? Did Fox already have an arrangement with him to do a television series?

KEVIN WILLIAMSON: No. He’s represented by WME, like me. I had mentioned I’d love to get someone like Kevin Bacon for a role like this, because I wanted someone with that gravitas and that ability. I wanted a leading man who was also a character actor, and that’s what you have with someone like Kevin Bacon. And they go, “Well, why don’t we give it to Kevin Bacon?” I’m like, “Oh. I didn’t think he was doing TV.” And then he read it and he wanted to meet me.

AX: Kevin Bacon has played a few psychos himself – THE RIVER WILD, HOLLOW MAN and X-MEN: FIRST CLASS come to mind. Did any of those performances factor into your development and/or casting?

WILLIAMSON: It was really interesting, because when I heard he was interested, I’m like, “Well, what role does he want to play?” Because he could honestly play either role [Ryan Harding or Joe Carroll], that’s how good he is. And then one of the agents I was talking to was clueless and he hadn’t read the script, and he said, “Oh, he wants to play the hero, Joe Carroll.” I was like, “No, the hero’s Ryan Harding, what role …?” “No, he wants to play Joe Carroll.” “The hero?” “Yeah.” The funny thing is, all the way through the meeting [with Bacon], I didn’t know what role he wanted to play, because they got it all mixed up. And then I was, “He’s going to want to play Ryan Harding, I’m sure of it.” Because let’s put it this way – I want him to play Ryan Harding because I want to see him be a hero again. Because I feel like he has played these interesting, quirky, crazy people. I wanted to see him being a hero. I wanted to see him John Wayne his way in and take out the bad guy.

AX: Ryan Harding is the hero, but does he have any dark sides?

WILLIAMSON: He is the hero, but he’s a flawed hero. He does color outside the lines.

AX: Some of Joe Carroll’s followers seem to have a kind of fluid sexuality. We don’t know if they’re gay or straight – in fact, do they know if they’re gay or straight, or …?

WILLIAMSON: I don’t really get into the sexuality of those characters. I get into whether or not they are living in reality or not. I think a couple of those characters can’t quite withstand the psychosis, and it’s not about whether they’re gay or straight or bisexual, it’s really just about whether they’re in touch with reality or they have taken a break from reality and are about to snap and go crazy. Because I don’t think, for instance, the Paul character really knows. He posed as a gay man for two years, and he’s not really sure what’s reality and what’s not. So I think what’s really happening in that house of psychos [between Paul and his two Follower roommates] is that they really need to come together as human beings and figure out how to comfort each other, be friends with each other. It’s more about bonding, about a need and a want to fix each other and to help each other. It’s more about friendship. I think when you see the first four episodes, you sort of get that when they get in the shower, it’s not really about sex, it’s about them needing each other.

AX: Or cleanliness …

WILLIAMSON: Yeah, they were a little bloody [laughs]. They have to clean the blood off.

AX: Without getting too spoilery, is Season One building to some sort of climax?

WILLIAMSON: Yeah. There is definitely a plan in place. Joe Carroll has got a plan. There’s something that he wants very much. And as the show progresses, we’re trying to figure out what that is. And he has a motive, he has a plan – he may have a double motive, actually – and he’s building to something that he very, very much wants and needs, and whether or not Ryan can stop it or not remains to be seen. And it involves Ryan. And it also launches us into second season.

AX: Is this a master plan Joe Carroll has always had, or did he develop it just since he’s been in jail?

WILLIAMSON: As a result of what happened to him, is his master plan, and it’s the simplest plan in the book. It’s rooted in one idea.

AX: Does he want a world where everybody is a serial killer?

WILLIAMSON: No, that’s a little bigger than we’re going.

AX: You have said that characters can be killed. So will we be seeing new characters come in to repopulate the show as the season progresses?

WILLIAMSON: We will. You’ll see characters die – characters who [currently are regulars].

AX: Where do you shoot THE FOLLOWING?

WILLIAMSON:New York.

AX: What would you most like to say about THE FOLLOWING right now?

WILLIAMSON: It’s a thriller, of course, but [some people] to be very much focused on the violence, and I’d love for people to be able to see beyond that. I don’t write the show for the violence, so I hope that’s not the takeaway. I would be sad if that’s all people got from it. I think that it’s an emotional drama, and I hope people give it a chance.

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While promoting her new film OZ: THE GREAT AND POWERFUL, Michelle Williams was asked by the press whether she would consider doing a DAWSON’S CREEK reunion movie where she played Jen Lindley from 1998 to 2003. Her response is quite surprising.

“I would,” she admits. “I’d very happily do a reunion show, but I don’t know what it would be since my character died in the end. There are certain limitations – either I come back as a ghost or you film me through a gauzy lens in flashbacks as my 19-year old self. I would love to. Independently, we’ve all said that at some point. I hope it does happen and it’s a way to honor the past. It was a big deal for the four or five of us and it was a big deal for the people who watched it.”

Related: Comic-Con News: Sam Raimi talks about OZ: THE GREAT AND POWERFUL and reveals Bruce Campbell and Ted Raimi have small parts

Click on Link for all the BREAKING COMIC-CON 2012 NEWS, INTERVIEWS AND PHOTOS

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Article: Comic-Con News: Michelle Williams says she would consider doing a DAWSON’S CREEK movie

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James Van Der Beek, Dreama Walker and Krysten Ritter in DON'T TRUST THE B---- IN APT 23 - Season 1 - "The Wedding" | ©2012 ABC/Danny Feld

In ABC’s DON’T TRUST THE B—- IN APARTMENT 23, which was recently renewed for a second season, Krysten Ritter plays Chloe, the devious “B” in question. Chloe makes life very interesting for her new roommate June, portrayed by Dreama Walker. Within the story, Chloe’s BFF is former DAWSON’S CREEK star James Van Der Beek, who is played by … James Van Der Beek, in a case of a performer showing a remarkably good sense of the absurd about himself, his career and life in general.

At a party thrown by ABC for the Television Critics Association, Van Der Beek takes a few moments to talk about being in THE B – and series creator Nahnatchka Khan stops by to add a few thoughts.

ASSIGNMENT X: How did you become involved with DON’T TRUST THE B IN APARTMENT 23?

JAMES VAN DER BEEK: I got a call from my agent that there was this script called DON’T TRUST THE BITCH IN APARTMENT 23 and they wanted me to be a part of it. I said, “Sign me up.”

AX: Was the character always specifically James Van Der Beek, or was it “Real actor, name to be filled in by someone who will agree to do it”?

NAHNATCHKA KHAN: When it was just like a pipe dream in my pajamas in my bedroom? I never thought that James would even be close to being available, so I could never have even imagined that he would want to do it and it was such a thrill for our casting director, Lisa Miller-Katz, who’s amazing, had this list and James was on it and I heard he was into it and I saw his FUNNY OR DIE stuff and he’s just super funny.

AX: Was it always an actor who is the same age as Chloe and June?

KHAN: Yeah, yeah, that would be the idea. I always thought that would be cool.

AX: Were you heartened in doing this by things like Neil Patrick Harris playing a crazy version of himself in the HAROLD AND KUMAR movies?

VAN DER BEEK: Yeah. That was an example of this kind of comedy working really well. So it was great that it was out there just for people to have a good version of it in their heads.

AX: Would you be having as much fun doing this if your character’s name was Jeff Greek?

VAN DER BEEK: Probably not. I think it just seems funnier when you plug my name into it and you put a couple things on my resume into it.

AX: You’re still famous around the world for DAWSON’S CREEK, and you returned to your old location in Wilmington, North Carolina to do a guest arc on ONE TREE HILL …

VAN DER BEEK: I missed the crew [many of whom were working on ONE TREE HILL], I missed everybody down there and I was thinking to myself, “God, I really miss Wilmington,” and then that offer for the ONE TREE HILL thing came in. I said, “You know what? I’d love to go back down there.”

AX: What do you think it would be like shooting DAWSON’S CREEK there these days?

VAN DER BEEK: Oh, my gosh. Everybody has a camera phone now, so the town would be paparazzi. It was really a safe haven for us – the community, the crew. It’s the reason none of us are in jail right now. That raised us in the industry and it was really a foundation for us, that time, when everything else was just going crazy.

AX: DAWSON’S CREEK creator Kevin Williamson is now working on the fourth season of THE VAMPIRE DIARIES. Has he asked you to do a guest shot on that and vamp it up?

VAN DER BEEK: [laughs] No.

AX: Would you have an interest in doing a one-shot on VAMPIRE DIARIES?

VAN DER BEEK: I’d trust Kevin with anything. The man launched my career. I love him. I actually see him from time to time.

AX: You’ve been doing a wide variety of genres over the last few years – you were a series regular as a doctor on the medical drama MERCY and you were in the indie horror film THE PLAGUE, which had zombie children …

VAN DER BEEK: Right. I just thought that was an interesting idea. I like to shake it up every time I go out. I like to do something different. I try a little bit of everything, which I’ve gotten to do.

AX: What are the big differences between doing half-hour TV like DON’T TRUST THE B and hour-long like DAWSON’S CREEK? I know they say dying is easy, comedy is hard …

VAN DER BEEK: Well, I mean, this is comedy, so it’s completely different. The days are shorter [laughs], we don’t cry as much and you laugh a lot more. We’ve been very fortunate. The writing is so strong that it’s been easy. I would imagine if the writing is not good, then it probably is harder than dying.

I’ve got to say, it’s nice to explore the [humor]. I mean, in an hour drama with twenty-two episodes, it has to either become a procedural or a soap opera on some level, I came to learn. So with this, we only have thirteen [episodes in the first season], and there’s really purpose in the comedy. It just gets weirder and weirder every episode. [In one episode], there’s a sex tape that gets released accidentally and then I looked at it, and they’re about to release it, and I look at one part where I lick my lips too much and I want to reshoot it [laughs].

AX: Have you told any of your own stories to the writers?

VAN DER BEEK: Yeah, stuff here and there. And what’s great about Natch [Khan] is, she’ll listen to five ideas and only take the two good ones.

AX: Are these stories about things that you’ve actually done, or are these things where you thought, “Thank God I never really did this, but wouldn’t it be funny?”

VAN DER BEEK: Both. Or stuff I see other people do.

AX: And do you have any platonic female friends who have said, “Wait a minute, if you’re you, is Chloe supposed to be me?”

VAN DER BEEK: [laughs] I haven’t yet – we’ll see if anybody comes out of the woodwork.

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Candice Accola, Zach Roerig, Claire Holt, Daniel Gilles, Paul Wesley, Ian Somerhalder, Casper Zafer, Nina Dobrev, Susan Walters, Joseph Morgan, Nathaniel Buzolic in THE VAMPIRE DIARIES - Season 3 - "Dangerous Liasons" | ©2012 The CW/Quantrell D. Colbert

In the third season of the CW’s THE VAMPIRE DIARIES, Thursdays at 8 PM, events are unfolding at what is, for this show, typical and sometimes literally breakneck pace. Stefan (Paul Wesley) went bad, but may be good again. Stefan’s brother Damon (Ian Somerhalder) and the humanish (she’s also a doppelganger) love of Stefan’s life Elena (Nina Dobrev) kissed. The family of Original vampire/werewolf hybrid Klaus (Joseph Morgan) has returned from being dead for centuries. There are ghosts. There are witches. There’s a mysterious murderer running around, attacking people on the anti-vampire Council working inMystic Falls,VA, where the story is set. And did we mention it’s senior year of high school?

THE VAMPIRE DIARIES executive producer Kevin Williamson adapted the series for television from the novels by L.J. Smith. The North Carolina native also created DAWSON’S CREEK and the SCREAM film franchise. At a cocktail party at the Television Critics Association press tour, Williamson takes some time to talk about where the show is at right now and where it’s going.

ASSIGNMENT X: We’ve now met Klaus’ family, father Mikael played by Sebastian Roche – who got resurrected but is currently dead again – and mother Esther, played by Alice Evans …

KEVIN WILLIAMSON: We’ve also had some flashbacks where we’ve show the whole family and we’ve set up some of the mythology of the original family, how it came to be, what are their weaknesses, what are their strengths, and how vampires came to exist. We’ve already done that storyline and so that’s already aired, and now we’re going into the next wave.

Paul Wesley and Kat Graham in THE VAMPIRE DIARIES - Season 3 - "All My Children" | ©2012 The CW/Bob Mahoney

AX: There are a lot of parent/child issues this season, with witch Bonnie [Kat Graham] and her mom [Persia White] and of course vampire Caroline [Candice Accola] and her father Bill, played by Jack Coleman, who is so anti-vampire that he tries to de -vamp Caroline, using sunlight as aversion therapy. Bill’s attempts to make Caroline stop being a vampire seem analogous to some techniques used by anti-gay groups that claim to be able to “convert” gay people. However, Bill as a character is a gay man …

WILLIAMSON: Essentially, the father being gay is not really the story. He is a gay man, a gay character. What we’re doing is his point of view about vampires. It’s very specific. He’s part of the Council, he’s against all vampires, but he also has a daughter who’s a vampire. What do you do?  So it’s more of the father/daughter relationship, rather than any sort of other story.

AX: Jack Coleman is known to genre audiences from four years of playing Noah Bennet on HEROES. Are you planning on casting any other genre favorites in upcoming arcs?

WILLIAMSON: Yeah, that was fun. And he was great. I’m trying to think. No, not at the moment.

Joseph Morgan in THE VAMPIRE DIARIES - Season 3 - "The Ties That Bind" | ©2012 The CW/Quantrell D. Colbert

AX: Are there going to other metaphors for social injustice we may be seeing in the story, a la the aversion therapy?

WILLIAMSON: I think yes and no, actually. We do actually have another beat of that to play as we move forward, but it’s not so much aversion therapy as it is, is there a way to perhaps curb your instincts? If your instinct is for blood, or your instinct is to kill, whether it be a vampire or a werewolf, is there any way that you can learn to curb that? Which actually goes into mind control. One of the things we’ve started to play with is if you’re a hybrid, it’s not so much about only being mind-controlled by a vampire, but in a weird way, Tyler [played by Michael Trevino; the character was a werewolf, now turned vampire/werewolf hybrid by Klaus] is bound to Klaus, simply because [Klaus] sired him. And so there’s a connection there, and it’s a bond that’s really strong and there will be some aversion to, “How can I break that bond?”

AX: Are you still working on SECRET CIRCLE, the CW show about witchcraft that’s also based on an L.J. Smith book series? Or did you help launch SECRET CIRCLE and now you’ve stepped back a bit?

WILLIAMSON: Yes. Andrew Miller was always the executive producer. What happened was, they brought me in to help him get the series up and running and I worked on the pilot and the first six episodes, and then I stepped back. That’s all I was doing. I was like a helper. I’m at Warner Bros. and at CW – it’s like a family thing. I talk to them all the time.

AX: So VAMPIRE DIARIES is still your primary focus?

WILLIAMSON: VAMPIRE DIARIES and I’m working on a new pilot at Fox.

AX: What’s it about?

WILLIAMSON: Serial killers.

AX: Can you say anything about SCREAM 5?

WILLIAMSON: I don’t know. I’m not doing it.

AX: How do you feel about how VAMPIRE DIARIES Season Three has gone so far overall? Is it going pretty much as you imagined it would at the outset?

WILLIAMSON: Things always change when you start breaking the storylines, but I think from the day beginning when [fellow VAMPIRE DIARIES executive producer/show runner] Julie [Plec] and I sat down and laid out how are we going to get to the finish line of the very end of the entire show, we’re still on track. It’s going to end where we always said we were going to end. And we’re doing it all within the right time. We said, “This is going to happen in Season Two, and this will happen in Season Three.” And so we know where we’re headed at the end of the season to launch our fourth season.

I don’t want to give too much away, but we’re in addition to following the books to some degree, we keep going back to the books and saying, “What can we pillage? What have we not done yet? What have we not used? How can we take this storyline and manipulate it and change it and turn it around?” This year, we’re diving into the Original family, we’re still playing with the hybrids and so the whole thing with Klaus is going to lead us right up to the climax of the season.

AX: Anything else you can preview?

WILLIAMSON: The storyline that I was just talking about, that I was kind of excited about, believe or not, Alaric [Matthew Davis]. Alaric was one of the people sidelined for the first part of the season while we dealt with Jeremy [Steven R. McQueen] and his witch/ghost girlfriends, who are dead, and now that we’ve thrashed that storyline out, we’re moving into a really good storyline for Alaric and his positioning in the new Council and the town and how he’s going to get involved with the Original family. Alaric actually takes on a huge role as we bring in Meredith [Torrey DeVitto]. She’s one of the characters in the books that we sort of changed who she is, a little bit, but now we’ve got her and she’s a new love interest to take [Alaric’s] mind off Aunt Jenna, and she’s also involved with one of the Founding Family members, so their dynamic is really interesting and so they get into some interesting shenanigans.

AX: You said you know where this is all going. How many seasons do you think you need for VAMPIRE DIARIES to get to where it’s going?

WILLIAMSON: We could wrap this thing up in six.

AX: Do you have any plan to accelerate it if you have to?

WILLIAMSON: Yes. We have no problem pacing ourselves. We’ll pace it up if we have to.

AX: By the same token, could you extend it past what you currently have planned?

WILLIAMSON: We can extend it with no problems, but we know that if we needed an endgame by, say, Season Six, we could land. We could also extend.

AX: Anything else you’d like to say about VAMPIRE DIARIES right now?

WILLIAMSON: I love it. I’m loving this season. I think Julie Plec and her writers are doing an amazing job, and I’m glad they still let me be a part of it [laughs].

Related Link: Exclusive Interview with THE VAMPIRE DIARIES star Candice Accola

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Related Link: TV Review – THE VAMPIRE DIARIES – Season 3 – “Dangerous Liaisons”

Related Link: TV Review: The Vampire Diaries – Season 3 – “Bringing Out the Dead”

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Related Link: Review of THE SECRET CIRCLE – Season 1 – “Pilot”

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Related Link: Exclusive photos of THE SECRET CIRCLE stars at PaleyFest 2011 CW preview

Related Link AX’s interview with THOMAS DEKKER on THE SECRET CIRCLE

Related Link: photos from The CW’s THE SECRET CIRCLE

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Related Link:  More VAMPIRE DIARIES reviews and interviews

Related Link: For AX’s exclusive interview with CANDICE ACCOLA

Article Source: Assignment X 
Article: The Scoop on THE VAMPIRE DIARIES and its future from executive producer Kevin Williamson

[Editor's Correction: In the original text, the subtitle GENERATIONS was added to the Scream 5 question. In subsequent research, we discovered that subtitle refers to a SCREAM fan film. We've omitted the GENERATIONS part to avoid further confusion from other media reporting on the story. The omission of the subtitle does not change Williamson's answer to the question of whether he'll do a SCREAM 5]

Assignment X - The Pop Culture Entertainment Magazine for Movies, TV, DVD, Blu-ray, Video Games, Books, Comics and Technology

In the new ABC comedy DON’T TRUST THE B IN APT.23, James Van Der Beek plays a character named James Van Der Beek, although it’s a character that’s pretty far from himself.

“I auditioned against six other James Van Der Beeks for this role,” Van Der Beek says with a laugh, while speaking at today’s ABC TCA press conference. “I was lucky that four of them were not actors, and two of them didn’t speak English.”

While Van Der Beek still carries his first TV role DAWSON’S CREEK with him, he also enjoys getting the chance of making fun of himself as well.

“By default [the character] is me,” says Van Der Beek. “This has been the most fun i think I’ve ever had doing anything. By episode 3, there was less and less resemblance to me, which just made it even more fun.”

Van Der Beek also encouraged creator/executive producer Nahnatchka Khan and executive producer David Hemingson to go for broke when it came to writing “James Van Der Beek.”

“At the beginning, I said don’t ever be afraid of offending me,” says Van Der Beek. “Let’s just always go for what’s funniest, and we’ll see where it takes us.  Yes, I fully commit to being myself.”

(additional reporting by A.C. Ferrante)

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Article: James Van Der Beek likes playing James Van Der Beek on DON’T BE A B IN APT. 23

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On CW’s LIFE UNEXPECTED, now wrapping out its second and (most likely) final season on Tuesdays, former high school sweethearts Cate (Shiri Appleby) and Nate (Kristoffer Polaha) are brought back together when their now sixteen-year-old daughter Lux (Brittany Robertson) – given up for adoption by Cate at birth – comes back into their lives.

Cate’s now-husband Ryan, played by Kerr Smith, does his best to be the grown-up in the situation, since Lux is chronologically a teenager and Cate and Nate both still sometimes act like they are.

Smith spoke with ASSIGNMENT X about playing it relatively straight on the comedy/drama and his appearance in last year’s MY BLOODY VALENTINE remake.

ASSIGNMENT X: Were you looking to do a television series as opposed to film, or is LIFE UNEXPECTED just what came along at this time?

KERR SMITH: It’s just what came about.

AX: Do you have a preference for one over the other?

SMITH: You know, I’ve always wanted to make movies. I love making films, but TV’s been very, very good to me. I’ll never pass up a good TV script.

AX: Is it fun playing the most balanced person on the show, which Ryan arguably is, or do you sort of wish your character could be a little crazier?

SMITH: It’s more fun to play the screw-up. Just like in a movie, it’s more fun to play the villain than the hero.

AX: So are you looking for ways to make Ryan a little quirkier?

SMITH: We’ll get some of those skeletons in Ryan’s closet to walk out eventually.

AX: Do the show runners encourage you to come to them with thoughts about your character?

SMITH: Oh, yeah, yeah. [Creator] Liz [Tigelaar] is great. Any idea I have, I always bounce off of her, and more times than not, she says, “Yeah, let’s go with it, let’s do it.” She’s great that way. It’s great to work with her.

AX: How do you think you’d react in real life if your significant other said, “I have a child who is now sixteen and who’s coming to live with me”?

SMITH: You know, that’s a tough one. That’s a life-changing event. I can say I’d react one way, but I honestly cannot predict how I would react. I would hope that I’d be supportive and understanding and just give it a shot, but I don’t know. I really don’t know.

Kerr Smith in LIFE UNEXPECTED - Season 2 - "Ocean Uncharted" | © 2010 The CW/Jack Rowand

AX: You were a regular on DAWSON’S CREEK on the WB, which merged with UPN to become the CW. I don’t even know if this is something you would notice on the working level, but is working for the CW similar to the WB, or does it feel like working for a different network? Does it have a different vibe from, say, ABC, where you were a regular on ELI STONE?

SMITH: Yeah, it does. I mean, actually, even compared to the WB, the CW feels bigger, you know what I mean? The WB felt more like a baby network, it was just getting started and it was kind of an exciting time. They were looking for new shows to put it on the map, and ours [DAWSON’S CREEK], thank God, was one of them. The CW seems more established. But overall, generally, it feels kind of the same.

AX: Do people still recognize you and come up to you for DAWSON’S CREEK?

SMITH: Oh, yeah. All the time. It’s unbelievable. It’s re-running so many times, it’s like the generation that watched DAWSON’S when it was on the air has now moved on, but the younger generation below that is now watching the reruns like it’s their first time.

AX: What’s your favorite project that you’ve worked on so far?

SMITH: E-RING, absolutely. It had a hell of a cast and to date, it’s been my favorite role to play. I love the Army things. I love playing Special Ops guys and what not, and the creator of that show became a really good friend of mine. I don’t know what happened there. I really don’t, because it was a great show. Anyway, [its cancellation after sixteen episodes] was a bummer for me.

AX: It seems like a fair number of your feature films – MY BLOODY VALENTINE, THE FORSAKEN, FINAL DESTINATION – are in the horror/suspense genre. Do you have a preference for genre or non-genre, or are those just the projects that come along?

SMITH: I’ve been getting a lot of horror thrillers. Is it my first choice? No. I mean, I’d like to do every genre, but sometimes, you just do one and they keep seeing you in that kind of movie. But hey, I’ll take it.

AX: Do you have fun doing the horror movie running around, punching, stabbing …?

SMITH: Yeah, I don’t mind. I mean, Jensen [Ackles of SUPERNATURAL] and I did MY BLOODY VALENTINE last year – that was a lot of fun.

AX: Did you have to do anything special for the 3D aspect of that film?

SMITH: A little bit. When we knew that they were going to be doing some kind of crazy three-dimensional shot, there are specific things they ask you to do – you’ve got to have your hand in a certain place, you’ve got to be totally on your mark. It’s pretty technical.

AX: Did you have any musical numbers in ELI STONE?

SMITH: No, I didn’t. Thank God. They talked about it, and I’m like, “Guys. Please don’t make me do that.” I sing, but I sing to myself. Singing in public – I’m kind of terrified of it, actually.

AX: But now that you’re playing a deejay on LIFE UNEXPECTED, isn’t there a chance that you may have to sing?

SMITH: I guess there’s a possibility, and I guess I’m going to have to get over [the fear of public singing].

AX: Do you have any aspirations to write and/ or direct?

SMITH: Yeah. Actually, I’ve directed episodics before [on DAWSON’S CREEK] and I plan on, if they’ll let me, if they’ll have me, directing some of LIFE UNEXPECTED.

AX: Is it difficult to direct yourself?

SMITH: No. I prefer to minimize my acting in whatever episode I’m directing, just so I can focus on what I need to, but you can do both.

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