Ashley Greene easily could have been typecast after getting her start in the Twilight series. But that doesn’t mean she’s going to take just any role now.
“Listen, never say never, but I think in general college film—playing the, like, hot cheerleader—you’re probably not going to see me do that,” she told NBC New York. “I think I’ve been really lucky being able to bypass typecasting. When I was cast as Alice [in Twilight], one of the really brilliant things about it is that she’s the girl next door. She’s everyone’s best friend. She’s sweet and charismatic, and so I think I got to bypass that whole kind of typecasting, saying, ‘This is what we see you as and what you’re going to play.’ So I don’t think I would backtrack in that sense.”
The 25-year-old went on to rule out “horror films and slasher films, 99 percent of the time I will probably shy away from [those.] Thrillers I enjoy—there’s a very fine line. Apart from that, right now I’m just looking for films that inspire me, because that’s what it’s about for me. I just enjoy doing my job and I enjoy doing different things and diving into different characters. I think playing a villain would be really interesting because psychologically there are so many different ways you can go with villains, and their reasoning for doing things kind of dives deep into the psyche. On the polar opposite side of the spectrum, doing a Victorian kind of film would be ideal. It’s very hard to get those made, but that would be very fun.”
Greene’s current role in the film Butter allowed her to try using her comedy chops. “I think the training was just, like, sink or swim,” she said. “I went in and watched and learned and just allowed myself to let go of it. I think for comedy that’s one of the more important things, to allow yourself to go outside the box. You go outside your comfort zone and you really just have to kind of let it all hang out and go for it—and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. But when it does, they capture it and that’s what goes onscreen.”
The movie is already drawing attention for a much buzzed about love scene with Olivia Wilde. Greene recalled the sexy scene, saying, “We didn’t really talk about it until we got to set, but luckily she and I were friendly, and we both had that personality where we just said, ‘You know what? Let’s just do it!’ We didn’t make a big deal out of it. Apart from her being a girl, it’s the same thing that I go through kissing any male onscreen, and it’s kind of a part of the job. There are so many crazy moments in the film that it just kind of fit, and so we got there.”
Butter is out in limited release and on VOD now.
