[Interview] Scout Taylor Compton on ‘Halloween’ Movies, Her New Podcast, and More

With this year marking the 15th anniversary of her feature film debut in Rob Zombie’s 2007 Halloween remake, we recently caught up with Scout Taylor Compton to look back on her memories from the set, the pressures she felt taking on the iconic role of Laurie Strode, and how the experience changed her life and forever tied her to Michael Myers and the horror fans she now calls family, while also looking ahead at an exciting year to come, including directing and more of her new podcast with Danielle Harris.

On the overwhelming pressure of stepping into such a massive franchise in the starring role, Scout tells HDN, “If I wasn’t 17 and was myself now, I’d have probably been freaking the fuck out. I’d be just thinking and analyzing, and putting more negative thought than I should be. But trust me, I get it. I am a big fan of this franchise, and I understand the importance of the fucking originals. Trust me. I get it. So I understand it was a lot for me to step into this role and take on Laurie Strode, because Jamie Lee Curtis is so amazing. I mean she’s epic. I’ve seen all the Halloween movies and I’ve seen the new ones, and I’m always rooting for her.

“When I watched the 2018 one, I was like, ‘Fuck yeah, man.’ If I was playing her, this is exactly how it’d be. Like that’s exactly how I imagine Laurie Strode being. Jamie, she’s such a badass.   I just think it’s such an honor that I was able to play Laurie Strode, and play it with Jamie Lee Curtis. I just think it’s so cool, no one is able to say that.”

Scout also talks about accidentally stabbing Tyler Mane (playing Michael Myers) for real on the first day of shooting Halloween, and reveals that her favorite memory from the set is when the cast and crew gathered to celebrate her 18th birthday.

Asked how the vibe on the set of Zombie’s 2009 sequel Halloween II was compared to the first film, Scout remembers, “It was the same, but then there was also some difference, especially when it came to the Weinsteins. The Weinsteins, I think, realized what big success the first one was, so they were very hands on with the second, because they wanted it to be equally as successful and all they were seeing was ka-ching, ka-ching, ka-ching and they weren’t seeing the love part of it, and all of us were there for that (the love).

“You could tell that Rob was way more stressed out. It was turning into like – he was being controlled a lot, which you know, part of the first movie, why it was so successful, was because Rob could do whatever he wanted. He did his vision. With the second one, there was just too much input. The Weinsteins were constantly on set, which had never been the case for the first one. When the Weinsteins were there, we knew it was going to be a rough day, because knew something was going to go wrong, there was going to be fighting. I think Rob almost quite a couple times.

“It was not as enjoyable when you have those people that don’t fit in the mold – you know, all they see is ka-ching and money, money, money – and they come in and they get involved with the creativity part of it, and it just like sucks everything out. So there was some ups and downs with the second one, but we managed to have also still a great time, because were being reunited and we all wanted to continue the story. So there was still obviously a lot of love and fun that happened during that time.”

On her new podcast Talk Scary To Me, co-hosted by fellow franchise icon Danielle Harris, and why now is the right time for it, Compton says, “Being younger it was just a little bit different, but now that we’ve gotten older, we just realized how much of a connection we do have and how similar we are as people, but also very different. So it just kind of clicked with us. We both are very open and honest, and we both like the fanbase, and we both like this genre. When we were spit-balling what it would be about, we were like, well it’s kind of interesting because you and I do talk about sex and love and all these crazy stories all the time. I’m like, why don’t we make it these two badass girls talk about this, because I used to love Dr. Drew and Loveline, and use the fanbase that we do have to help people.

“That’s what we like to do, so it was kind of like a learning curve. We were kind of like discovering it as we went. We just kind of knew that we like to talk about these certain topics, and are these certain topics something that we can help other people with? It all just fell into our lap, and we then we just tried it. And it was starting to work and we were having such a blast, then we discovered we both like true crime, so we were like, ‘Let’s add that in too.’ So we’re still discovering what this is, but it’s getting great feedback and people are engaging, and that’s what we wanted and honestly really hoped for. I think if the listeners are having as fun a time as we’re having, then we’ve doing a good job. And we love to talk.”

We also discussed growing up in a mortuary, appearing on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno as a child, getting cast as Lita Ford in The Runaways, stepping into another iconic horror franchise in the upcoming Texas Chain Saw Massacre video game, and of course celebrating Halloween itself.

You can watch our full exclusive video interview with Scout Taylor Compton below.

You can listen to Talk Scary To Me on Spotify here or on your podcast platform of choice.

For more Halloween news, follow @HalloweenDaily.