Big Interview | Chloë Grace Moretz

This is your second time playing Wednesday Addams. What is it about the role that appealed to you?

I grew up watching The Addams Family, especially Christina Ricci’s take on the role. The one thing I really wanted to do was not copy that. I really did not want to focus on what she did, I wanted to breathe life into her in my own way. In the first film, there are words Wednesday doesn’t know how to say correctly because she had never been in the real world. She doesn’t know what a cellphone is, so I really wanted to play with how she said things and really elongate the vowels and use my face, which was a fun way of getting to use my voice to take on this character.

What’s your favourite thing about the sequel?

I think we get to see so much more of the characters now that we know them. We really get to see them interact on a personal level. What I really love about this film is that it feels like a really full film with really intense storylines, and it deals with heavy subject matter within a family, and with growing up. They navigate it in a really wonderful way and I think people will enjoy going on this discovery and this road trip with them. We get to see some really fun things and a whole lot of Cousin It, who was a massive fan-favourite from the first film.

The Addams family head off on a road trip for this film. Did your family ever take road trips and were there any disasters?!

We loved going on road trips! Growing up in Georgia we were always driving to Florida, because that was the closest beach that was wonderful and sunny. We were always making family road trips to Key West and I always got car sick, so I think our horror stories always ended up in the world of vomit! As an adult, I love road trips even more. I do love the crazy things that occur when you are on them, and that little bit of cabin fever you get!

This film looks more at Wednesday’s relationship with her dad Gomez. What can you tell us about that?

Yes, instead of trying to torment Morticia like she did in the first film by wearing pink and deliberately targeting her mother, in this one she definitely targets her father more. In the first film Morticia kind of learns to hang back – the more she pushed Wednesday, the more she came home wearing pink or talking in the lingo of a middle school girl. In this one, it is Gomez’s turn to see her push against her boundaries and test the waters. I think he realises she isn’t his little girl any more and it’s time to give her some space. I think it is really important to see how she interacts with her father in this movie, and with her little brother Pugsley. She is obviously always trying to kill him, but by the end of it you really see that she does care about him in a bit of an odd way!

What is your favourite Wednesday and Pugsley moment in this movie?

I think my favourite is the Niagara Falls sequence with the voodoo dolls where she controls Pugsley, it is so funny. There is something about the voodoo doll gag that always really gets me! And the scene in the camper van where she is wrenching him and squeaking him! He’s calling for help but Morticia is completely ignoring him. I just think it is hilarious and I can’t say that if I had a voodoo doll of my brothers I wouldn’t do the same!

The Addams Family have been around since the 1930s and you also starred in the new Tom & Jerry film. What do you think it is it about these classic shows that still appeals to audiences now?

I think the thing with The Addams Family is that at the end of the day, people have really fallen in love with how protective they are of one another. Their family bond is so intense that nothing can really break them. They can be whoever they want to be: they can be kooky, they can be weird and their family supports them no matter what. Their family allows them to be their weird, odd selves. It allows people to be welcomed into that world without feeling scared, because it is so funny. I think that is really why it has stood the test of time. Everyone has felt a little odd at times and it’s a place you can go and feel a little odd and not feel ostracised for it!

Catch The Addams Family 2 in cinemas now!