"American Pie" actress Tara Reid (search) talked to "FOX and Friends" Wednesday morning about her new movie "Alone in the Dark," (search) which comes out this weekend and also stars Christian Slater. The following is an edited transcript:
Brian Kilmeade: You're an archaeologist in this.
Reid: Yeah.
Brian: How [did] you prepare for this role?
Reid: Well, I went to a lot of anthropology museums.
Steve Doocy: What about rock concerts?
Reid: Not those of not those kind of rocks.
Steve: Gotcha.
Reid: Basically I did a lot of research on it and the words were so big compared to what I normally have to say, so [I] really had to study it to even understand what I was saying, to make it sound real.
Steve: People love movies that scare them. What is it about -- what sort of tricks do you have as a director and as an actress to make people who are at the movie afraid?
Reid: I think it's really the mystery that you put in it, the suspense, the fear of -- it's almost what you don't say that makes people scared. You know, it's almost like that look you kind of give them like "you better be sure about this" or "I don't know about this."
Steve: Better not open that door.
Reid: If you open the door, we're in trouble, that kind of thing.
Brian: I'm an audio guy. Here's what does it for me. The music -- the music sells me.
E.D. Hill: 100 percent.
Brian: But you're the actress, and I understand this because I understand the craft. As an actress, without the music, how do you know something scary is about to happen? Like what is happening on the set to make you --
Reid: You build it. When you read the script, you already know where those moments are going to be, so you want to built the tension as well. You really want to milk those jumping out from the door, screaming or -- run. You want to build to that. So in your own head, you're building it. Like you'll creep around the corner just a little bit slower and then -- then it's bigger and when you jump, people jump with you. It's hard to get the ultimate scare, but if you do it right, it's awesome.
Steve: Right. Here's my problem, Tara. There are so many things that have scared my children. Sometimes they are afraid to go to bed or stuff like that, and when they were littler I used to have to take a squirt gun downstairs to shoot the monsters under the bed. When you were little, what were you afraid of?
Reid: I was scared of that, too.
Steve: See.
Reid: Yeah, when I would watch a scary movie, I would think they were in my room. Your mind can definitely play some crazy tricks on you, so I would think the monsters were in my bed. Never let my feet hang over the bed.
Steve: A guy with an axe --
Reid: There's a lot of those guys with axes or like a scary, creepy ... like a witch, I would see green witches.
Brian: Do you have another series you're working on, too?
Reid: Yeah, actually doing a series for Fox. It's going to be a half-hour comedy. We're going to shoot the pilot in February. And it's about a character based on myself.
Brian: Based on reality?
Reid: No. Because I'm an actress, it's not reality. It's going to be well-written, but I come up with a lot of ideas on it.
Steve: About your life in Hollywood?
Reid: But it's not me. I'm a girl ... [it's about] who she dates, what she does.
Get all the stories you need-to-know from the most powerful name in news delivered first thing every morning to your inbox