Recently I had the pleasure of interviewing actress Amanda Grace Cooper who stars in the horror comedy All Cheerleaders Die which you can go see in theaters now! In this interview Amanda talks about her role Hanna in the movie, what it was like having to deal with all that icky fake blood, what inspired her to become an actor, and her personal passions like writing vegan cookbook for kids. She was very sweet and a lot of fun to chat with (and we also got to bond over knitting). Check out the interview to learn more about her!

What inspired you to become an actor?

Well both of my parents are set decorators. My dad worked on the set of the soap opera The Young and the Restless for years and my mom did as well. When I was younger I would literally just walk the sound stages and I’d watch the actors. When I was three or four I just thought the actors were playing around and having fun and that’s ultimately what I wanted to do! I got involved with dancing and just performing competitively and then when I was seven or eight years old I literally turned to my parents and said, “Look, I want to be an actor. This is what I want to do.” Then they enrolled me in acting class. It all started there.

Tell me about your role Hanna in All Cheerleaders Die.

It’s kind of interesting because I actually came in to read for the role of Leena which I was not right for and they envisioned me as Hanna. Hanna is an average teenager who is just trying to fit in and she’s constantly rejected and the only people who take her in are the cheerleaders on the cheerleading squad because her sister happens to be on of the head cheerleaders. They put Hanna in the mascot outfit as a form of acceptance, although the joke is on Hanna because nobody else would want to do that. She falls into this love triangle between her sister and her sister’s boyfriend because she is deeply in love with him.