America Olivo – Friday the 13th

She started her career in the entertainment industry as a singer, but América Olivo is now realizing her love for acting is too strong to ignore.

A graduate of the Juilliard School in New York, Olivo, 31, has toured and performed around the world with everyone from Ricky Martin and Ozomatli to Enrique Iglesias and Marc Anthony. After signing a record deal with DreamWorks to produce a Spanish-English pop album with her band Soluna, Olivo found her way to acting when the group disbanded in 2004.

In the remake of “Friday the 13th,” her first major film release, Olivo plays Amanda, the “quintessential sexy teenage girl” who ends up meeting serial killer Jason Voorhees while hanging out at Camp Crystal Lake.

Olivo, who is part Chilean and Spanish, spoke to me about the role she says gave her nightmares for weeks.

How did you get involved in the remake of “Friday the 13th?”

I was on the set of another movie and I get a call that I needed to replace someone who had dropped out of [Friday the 13th]. The next day, I’m on a plane to Texas and they’re changing my hair color and putting fake fingernails on me and throwing me out in the middle of nowhere.

How do Amanda and Jason end up meeting?

Amanda is hooking up with her boyfriend in the woods. The thing is, Jason isn’t a fan of kids having sex. It really pisses him off. He never let’s the kids finish what they are doing. He always interrupts. During the interruption, I meet Jason and we don’t get along so well. (Laughs)

Is this film going to have an effect on you the next time you decide to go camping?

As long as there isn’t a man with a machete anywhere near me, I can handle it. If I do go camping, I definitely won’t sleep and I’m not going to be having any sex! I guess there would probably be a new fear.

Other than guys with machetes, what scares you?

I was scared of Jason for a while. I had the worst nightmares because of [my scene] and had to get over that. I’m scared of serial killers in real life. I have to play one in my next movie (“Neighbor”) so I’ve been studying them. After this experience and the next one, I think I’m putting a security system on my house. I think I might get a gun. There’s some scary stuff out there.

Who are you studying to get into character?

I’ve actually been modeling my character after Casey Anthony, the girl who didn’t report her daughter missing. (Subsequently, Anthony has been charge with her daughter Kaylee’s murder). She is the girl next door who you would never suspect to do such terrible things. It’s going to be the biggest challenge of my acting career because I have to be devoid of emotion.

Friday the 13th

Starring: Jared Padalecki, Danielle Panabaker, Amanda Righetti
Directed by: Marcus Nispel (“The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” 2003 remake)
Written by: Damien Shannon (“Freddy Vs. Jason”) and Mark Swift (“Freddy Vs. Jason”)

If you hadn’t gotten enough of Jason Voorhees in the last three decades (11 films since 1980), the masked serial killer with mommy issues returns to mince up more pretty teenagers again in “Friday the 13th,” a reimagining of the horror franchise.

The movie isn’t necessarily a remake of the original film since it borrows plot points from a few of the sequels, and none of the characters (other than Jason and his psycho mother) are revisited. On the other hand, how much significance does a secondary character have in a “Friday the 13th” movie anyway? Other than Kevin Bacon and maybe Crispin Glover, can you remember any of the other victims from any of the other films?

It’s no different in the 2009 version. The forgettable kids come by the dozen and Jason doesn’t waste time before slicing heads open with his machete and tossing an ax through someone’s spinal column. It’s gruesome, but still as cliché and unoriginal as they come.

In the updated “Friday the 13th,” which doesn’t do anything remotely modern to distinguish it from its predecessors (other than putting cell phones in the kids’ hands and having them declare there’s no reception when they get to their cabin), a group of kids go to Camp Crystal Lake in search of a secret stash of marijuana supposedly growing somewhere in the woods. Yes, screenwriters Damien Shannon and Mark Swift somehow find a way to incorporate drugs into a cocktail of sex, alcohol, murder and expletives, but the stoner story is just so preposterous from the start.

Jared Padalecki of the TV shows “Supernatural” and “The Gilmore Girls,” plays Clay Miller, the brother of one of Jason’s first victims, who goes searching for his sister after the police close the case. Clay ends up hook up with a diverse group of young partiers (among the troupe of tramps there’s a pot-smoking Asian and a black rapper, both of whom act as the stereotypical comic relief). Conflict arises when one of the girls (Danielle Panabaker) in the cabin takes a liking to Clay despite her boyfriend’s objection to her friendliness.

Soon enough, Jason finds his way to the sitting ducks and does what he does best. It’s difficult to see some of the action since director Marcus Nispel (“The Texas Chainsaw Massacre”) chooses to use a handheld camera in portions of the killing sequences. For you bloodlusters, there should be ample flesh flying apart.

Still, “Friday the 13th” comes off stiffer than one of Jason’s bloated corpses. Sure, the kids have to be bludgeoned in the film, but did they actually have to open their mouths and deliver such terrible dialogue? Producer Michael Bay is bound to make a quick buck at the box office, but he’s one of the many Hollywood heads out there turning the American horror genre into a stomping ground for the talentless.