Born in the spring break paradise of Daytona Beach, raised in the wilds of New York City, and landing her first major acting role at age 8, Danielle Harris has been working hard practically since birth.
After cutting her teeth as a child star on the TV circuit, Danielle beat out scores of young actresses auditioning for the part of Jamie Lloyd in Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers. Halloween 5 soon followed and since then she's been in a slew of successful flicks and series, including Growing Pains, Roseanne, ER, Urban Legend (1998), Poor White Trash (2000), and many more.
Danielle really found her calling in the horror industry as a fearless female lead, and shed her child star persona once and for all when she took a role in Rob Zombie’s horror revival Halloween (2007). A decidedly grown up role with her first- and only- nude scene, it blows her squeaky-clean image right out of the water.
Recently, Danielle starred in the final installment of the Hatchet trilogy and directed her first feature, Among Friends. She graciously took the time to talk to Mr. Skin about Hatchet III, the appeal of Jennifer Aniston, and the hottest movie scene she’s ever watched!
Skin Central: First off, you have this amazing resume, TV shows, voiceover, big budget, indie films. Do you have a favorite medium?
Danielle Harris: Honestly, voiceover is probably my favorite. I get to go to work in my pajamas, and get to work for like an hour once a week, and do all kinds of goofy things. I don’t have to take myself so seriously, or be covered in blood or crying and screaming and working 15-hour days. So voiceover is obviously my favorite, but anything that challenges me, that I can have fun at, that I can learn a little something from probably. I just like being on set in any way that I can.
SC: And what about a favorite horror movie?
DH: Wow, that’s a loaded question. What do I say is my favorite or what do people want to hear me say? You know I’m a bit biased to Halloween 4 of course, because if it wasn’t for that then I wouldn’t have a career. But one of my favorite movies that I’ve done, that I’ve been in, is Stake Land (2010). I love Stake Land, and I love the Hatchet series.
SC: I’m sure you have to talk about this in every interview, but we’re huge fans of Halloween here at Mr. Skin, and you where child star in the original series then came back as an adult in the remake. What was it like working on the Rob Zombie version vs. the original?
DH: It was super cool but at the same time felt very different. Michael’s bigger and badder, and the knives are bigger. It’s different than back in the ‘80s when we were making movies. Also I was a little kid and I was the star of the movie, so Michael never actually got me. Cut to 2007 Halloween, he hacked the shit out of me. So I definitely had a bit of a harder time shaking it off as I got older, and I’m half naked to boot. So it was a very different experience, and like I said I’m not the lead so I sort of passed the torch onto Scout [Taylor-Compton], so I was able to come in and kind of remember the good old days.
SC: So that was your first nude scene in that movie?
DH: My one and only.
SC: What was that like for you?
DH: It was a calculated decision on my part. You know it’s really hard for a child actor to be seen in any other way. What I loved about choosing to do a movie for Rob Zombie was that most of the women, if not all, that are naked in his films, are natural and look normal. And it just so happens to be that they are naked when something happens. He’s not using that to sell his movies, which I love. So for me it was innocent, my scene was innocent, I was playing high school, having sex with my boyfriend on the couch, it wasn’t gratuitous. If it had been gratuitous I wouldn’t have done it. And I trusted him. I’m pretty confident anyway, and I’m not really inhibited, so for me it didn’t bother me at all. It bothered me more that people kept wanting to talk about it after, you know like fans, that’s when it became weird, the realization that it’s not just Rob Zombie and the people on set that saw you naked, but it’s millions of people that saw you naked. That was a little bit like “Oh my god”, but I think it kind of broke me out of being little Jaime Lloyd in a lot of people’s eyes. So it was definitely needed, because from then on I’ve been able to play the characters that I wanted to play. So I didn’t know any other way to kind of get out of the child actor mold, except for go “Screw it, why not, I’ve got nothing to lose”. My boobs are small, they’re not going anywhere, they’re not flopping around too much, so it’s fine. I’ve got nice boobs. I’ll show ‘em off.
SC: For horror movies in general, do you think it’s important that they have nudity in them?
DH: You don’t have to if the sex is implied; I think that’s important. There’s definitely a formula to what makes a good and/or fun horror movie, and sex or boobs or whatever are kind of a part of that. I mean I rarely see a horror movie where there isn’t some hot chick and/or some sex scene or something that happens. So it’s part of the makeup of what horror is a little bit, but there are different ways to go about it. I mean the movie that I directed, Among Friends (2012), there’s a lot of that, there’s a threesome scene, there’s girl-on-girl, there’s all kinds of stuff, but there’s no nudity in my movie. I think it’s much more fun to use your imagination, because it’s going to look better in your mind than it would on film. You know? Once you take off the padded bra, you’re like “Oh, I thought you were hotter before you took it off”. So I think some things are better left to the imagination on film, and nudity is something that depends on the situation.
SC: So that was your directorial debut Among Friends, how did the experience compare to acting?
DH: It’s the first feature that I’ve directed; I’ve done a few short films before. One is a prequel on the DVD for the movie Stake Land, that I was talking about. The other one is a short part of an anthology that wasn’t completed, but will hopefully be available at some point, because it’s really good. But directing is totally different then acting, I mean there is zero comparison. I’m using both sides of my brain, where acting is just strictly creative. You have to wear many hats, and you have no time, and I’ve never worked so hard before in my entire life. So it’s definitely a really challenging yet awesome experience. At the same time it’s something that I can’t wait to do again, because it is so challenging. I feel like I learned more in one year from working on my movie than the entire 30 years I’ve been in the business. I learned parts of the business that I never knew existed. The good and the bad.
SC: How did you get involved in the Hatchet series?
DH: Adam [Green] and I have been friends for a long time, and he does these little short films called The Road to Frightfest in the UK and he’d asked me to do one with him. We’d kind of met throughout the convention circuit sort of, and we both like the same things, and I actually went and auditioned for him a couple of times for Hatchet 1, which I didn’t get, and which I always like to give him crap about. And for a couple other things, a comedy he had written that I auditioned for that I just fell in love with. We kind of bonded in the room there over that movie. Se we became friends and I kind of kept harassing him about working with him and what has he got going on, and we needed to do something together because I loved his style and I felt like there were very few people who were doing what he was doing. It was what I grew up loving, what I grew up being in. So he called me when I was shooting Stake Land and said there may be some issues with getting Tamara [Feldman], who was the original girl in Hatchet back to do the second one, and he wanted to know if I would be willing to do it. So I gave him crap about not casting me in the first place, and then I agreed to do it. So that’s how I got involved.
SC: Is there a possibility for a Hatchet 4?
DH: I don’t think so, I think it’s done. You never say never, but it’s such a finale. Adam always has a beginning, a middle, and an end to the story, and I think that this is the end of the story. I think that if what he wrote is the truth, then it has to be the end. It leaves it kind of open, there is one survivor, and we’ll see. I think it’s great the way that it is. It’s such a great trilogy, that I sort think that maybe it’s best to leave it alone.
SC: Sure. So since this is for MrSkin.com I have to ask: What’s the first movie and/or TV nude scene you remember seeing?
DH: Hmm, it might have been Fatal Attraction (1987) actually. Yeah, I think that was the first time that I saw... I’m trying to remember, as soon as you said that Glenn Close’s boobs popped into my head, but I don’t know if it was like full boobs, or I don’t remember if I just saw like a glimpse of something, or she was completely naked. With the exception of sneaking into my parent’s living room and catching something being flipped around on the TV, like some Debbie Does Dallas or something like that, that probably doesn’t count. I was probably way too young to be peeking around the corner for something like that, but I think Fatal Attraction might have been the first. It was definitely the first sex scene were I noticed like “Oh my god there’s her boobs.”
SC: Glenn Close was definitely topless in that one.
DH: Yeah, I had auditioned for that movie too as a kid, so that’s probably why I was checking it out. It’s funny because when I look back and I see their daughter, I can’t believe that I was working at that age, she’s so young to me. She’s like 8 which is what I was when I was working. So it’s such a trip to me that I remember really wanting to do that movie.
SC: Do you have a favorite Hollywood nude scene?
Oooh god, I’d have to think about it. You know there’s I’ve got it in my head they’re sitting in front of a refrigerator, feeding each other. 
9 1/2 Weeks? Kim Basinger and Mickey Rourke.
DH:9 1/2 Weeks! Yeah, that’s one of the hottest scenes. And maybe, maybe to be cheesy, I’d go with The Notebook, I mean anything that Ryan Gosling does. He seems to always pick up his girls and throw them against the wall to bang them, which is super hot. Even though it’s supposed to be romantic because they just got back from taking a canoe ride with all the white doves. I think it’s much hotter that he brings her inside and rips her clothes off and they’re soaking wet and he’s got her pinned against the wall. That’s definitely one of my favs.
SC: And who are the three sexiest actresses working in movies and/or TV today?
DH: Actresses? I wish I could have gotten these questions before so I could have thought about it. I just saw Cate Blanchett in the Woody Allen movie, and I don’t know if she’s “sexy”, but there’s something, she so sophisticated and so stunning, and she seems like she might be kind of closest freaky, which is kind of hot [laughs]. She’s just so ridiculous beautiful I can’t even stand it, stand to look at her. I’m trying to think of who I’d want to take home, I’m sure guys have a to easier time answering this. I usually like natural girls, I love Jennifer Aniston because she’s just cute and looks like your everyday girl. I don’t know if I would want to have sex with her [laughs]. She’s like the all American girl. I’d have to go down a list, I have very specific tastes and I kind of tend to find women with strong personalities super attractive. Kate Winslet, she seems like a real woman to me, I really like her. I’d have to think about it, there’s so many, I guess it just depends on what they are doing. I’m definitely not going to go with Megan Fox and those girls, because I don't really get it.
SC: Ok last question. What's next for you, any projects coming up?
DH: Next on the list for me is getting married in January, and ideally getting financing for the next film I’m going to direct, which will hopefully be in the spring. And there were so many movies this fall that were supposed to start right about now, and have all sort have been pushed to February or March. So I’m pretty sure, because I was going to shoot my movie over the summer, and then I pushed it to next spring so I could give myself some time to work as an actor, and then take a year off to direct. I have a feeling, which is not shocking in my career, that as soon as I am like “No more movies as an actor, I’m going to direct”, all these movies that were supposed to happen now are going to happen then. So if that happens then I’ll probably have five films to do as an actor before spring of next year then I’ll be on to directing. When it rains it pours, and when it doesn’t, there’s nothing. It’s one or the other.
SC: Thank you so much for taking the time to talk to us.
DH: Yeah no problem, thank you.
Hatchet III is out now in stores, and you can follow Danielle Harris on Twitter at @halloweengal
