Exclusive: Aimee Teegarden talks Rings and her fear of horror movies

Last Updated on July 21, 2021

This month, Paramount Pictures has unleashed a reboot of their RING franchise, F. Javier Gutierrez's RINGS, which once again unleashes Samara upon a group of people who were unfortunate to watch her cursed video tape. (Hey, the thing says "Watch me!" Not fair.) While it remains to be seen if RINGS does indeed bring new life to Samara's adventures, the film had an OK opening of $13 million this past weekend and is sure to find plenty of eyeballs during the Halloween season. (It has also already grossed $17 million overseas.)

In RINGS, Aimee Teegarden (perhaps best known for her role in Friday Night Lights) plays Skye, a student who becomes one of Samara's targets after she watches the blasted tape. As with most characters in RINGS, Skye has watched the tape voluntarily, with an intention of passing on the curse to someone else before Samara can kill her. You could say that things don't turn out well for Skye.

I spoke to Teegarden recently about her time on RINGS, what makes her scream in real life and more. Enjoy!

Have you seen the movie yet?

I actually went to the premiere, that was the first time I've seen the completed movie. And yeah, it's pretty terrifying.

Do you enjoy watching yourself on screen?

It's fascinating from the side of, you were there when they were shooting it, but as far as when the director goes in with the editors, and you add music and color timing, it turns into a different beast. But I feel like, if you don't find watching yourself painful, then there's something wrong with you. It's always like, "Why did I do that?" or "Do I sound like that?" This particular project was pretty fun, because it was such a different character to take on for me. To play in that genre and that world is really fun.

Tell me a little bit about the character you play and her connection to the evil Samara.

I play Skye, and she's a grad student at the college. She ends up getting connected to Johnny Galecki's character, and they end up finding this VCR at a garage sale, and that's the tipping point that starts this whole thing again. Throughout the movie, Samara is trying to reach out to someone new, and she gets involved with Skye that way. Skye has a moment where she pulls back and that's where Skye went wrong. [Laughs]

I think all Samara wants is a friend at the end of the day.

Yeah, I really think she just wants someone to talk to.

Is there an audition process for this where you have to scream your head off? Are you a good screamer?

There definitely is. Originally I went in and read some sides, and got a callback like six months later and there were new sides, and the director Javier was there. The character is very colorful, so I made some choices. I was like, "Either I'm never going to be allowed in that casting office, or I just got the job." It's such a fun thing to go do, so that was the process for this particular project.

Were you a big fan of the original THE RING?

As far as the original one, I remember it coming out and a bunch of my friends saw it and they were creeped out for like a couple months. I'm not a diehard horror fan, they freak me out too much, so it was a fun opportunity to dive into. I did the last installment of SCREAM, and that was such a fun thing to be a part of. It's fun to dabble in horror from time to time.

Teegarden in Scream 4

Your character in SCREAM 4 was a horror movie buff. I guess you weren't able to relate to that?

Like, heights don't scare me, nothing like that, but horror films, I don't know. It's something that gets into my nervous system and I just can't sleep.

So you don't have any deep fears?

Those things don't really tend to scare me much, I'm pretty cool and can handle my own for the most part, but there's something about horror films. Things like The Walking Dead I can't watch, I won't be able to sleep, I'll start screaming in my sleep and fighting. It's not a pretty picture.

Do you believe in ghosts?

I feel like there has to be something out there bigger than us, but to the extent of the Samara kind of thing? No, but I tend to say that some people are still with you and around you.

I know you guys shot this a year and a half ago. Where you wondering at one point, hey, where is RINGS?

Definitely. I think there was an announcement last year, last October it was supposed to come out, and I think there was a time before that. There was a bit of a worry about is it actually going to come out? But I'm just super excited to see fans' reactions and hear their take on it.