Odette Yustman's used to playing a woman in peril but with You Again, co-starring Kristen Bell, Jamie Lee Curtis and Sigourney Weaver, the 25 year old actress gets to relax a little and have some fun. Yustman, best known for starring roles in the monster movie Cloverfield and the psychological thriller The Unborn, plays Joanna, the high school nemesis of Marni (Bell) in the Touchstone Pictures comedy.

Now graduated, Marni had hoped to never have to deal with Joanna again. But as fate would have it, Joanna is about to marry Marni's brother - and Marni's not going to let that happen without putting up a fight.
At the Los Angeles press day for You Again, Yustman told reporters she was extremely happy - but also a little terrified - to have been given the chance to flex her comedy muscles instead of being chased around by monsters or plagued by ghosts. "I was very nervous," explained Yustman. "I was really insecure coming into the role. I was working with Sigourney Weaver and Jamie Lee Curtis and Betty White and Kristen Bell and all these women that are really funny, naturally just funny, funny people. I was nervous, but I pulled it together and I really learned from all of them. I was able to make it through because none of them were catty. We actually all had a really great relationship. You’d think that they would be or with so many women there’s bound to be something that will happen, but no.

It was great."

On Her High School Experiences:

Odette Yustman: "Let me just preface this by saying I had a great time in high school. I really did. I went to a private Christian high school and I graduated in a class of 67 kids so it was pretty small and I knew everybody. I really knew everybody and I loved everybody. I was friends with all the little cliques in high school and I had my own, but I was still really friendly with everybody. Now, I did have a bully. She was horrible. I still think about her to this day. I feel like you’ll always carry that feeling with you. If you ever were bullied, you always remember that feeling and that’s why I think that this movie is going to be so great and people are going to relate to it so much because a lot of people have had a bad experience at some point or another in their life with a bully or a frenemy, if you will. So yes, I did have a frenemy and I did have a good time in high school, except for that little mean girl that I had to deal with."

"She was a source of inspiration. That’s one of the reasons why I really loved the script, because it reminded me right away. I was like, 'Oh my God, I get to play this girl. I get to draw inspiration from this and I actually get to be redeeming and that gives me a little bit of hope.' And that was really fun for me. You know, playing this character, it was really fun to be evil. I've got to be honest. It was fun. I had a great time with it and I’ll leave it there, but I had a great time."

On Working with Buddies Kristen Bell and Director Andy Fickman:

Odette Yustman: "They’ve got an interesting relationship, Kristen and Andy. They know each other very, very well. Coming into that was a little intimidating because they know how they work. They just know each other like the back of their hand and they work really well together. I thought, 'Wow, I’m not experienced in comedy. I’m a little intimidated.' But they’re both so warm and so welcoming, and Kristen really is a good friend of mine now. Being together on a set for hours and hours and hours, I didn’t have my girlfriends so I had Kristen. I just dished out all of my gossip. I was like, 'Here’s the deal. I need relationship advice. I need this. I know you don’t know me, but let’s get to know each other.' And she was very willing to do so and opened her arms wide. We had a great time."

On Breaking Out of the Thriller Box for a Comedy:

Odette Yustman: "I feel so lucky that I was able to do this comedy. I sort of stalked Andy. We had a meeting and he decided to meet with me. He was like, 'Okay, this girl has never done comedy. I’m clearly the comedy guy. Why am I meeting with her?' But I was pitching myself so hard. I was like, 'Please! I really, really love this movie. It hits home for me. I’ve got to do this, Andy.' He was like, 'Well, you know, I think you’re great but I don’t know what you can do' So we had to go through the whole auditioning process. I auditioned with Kristen in the room and that was crazy. That was to do a chemistry read. Ultimately I won the role. Hopefully it was because I was so eager and I pushed and pushed and pushed. But it ended up working out and I’m so thankful."

On Walking the Fine Line of Playing Evil Without Making the Audience Hate Her Character:

Odette Yustman: "It was an interesting balance and there was a fine line. I really, really needed to make the character redeemable at the end because if not, I don’t know if we would have had a movie. So I hope that I did that. But then I also needed to take the meanness to a level where people really didn’t like her and that’s hard for me. I was always like, 'Wow, am I taking it too far?' I didn’t want to push it too much, but at the end of the day you have to realize that you are playing a character and there are different levels. You have to hit them and you can’t feel sorry for it. You have to go for it and you have to let it go. You have to trust yourself and you have to know that the work you’re doing is what you’ve prepared for and that’s it."

"You can drive yourself crazy every single day thinking, 'Oh God, I didn’t nail it. I didn’t do this. I didn’t do that.' But I really do feel like I prepared for this role and I feel like hopefully it translates on film that I was sympathetic too. Hopefully the audience will feel sorry enough that they are excited for her to marry the brother."

On Her Upcoming Projects:

Odette Yustman: "There’s a couple of comedies in there. Group Sex was an independent comedy about a group of sex addicts and that was really fun. That was my first comedy, and then Operation: Endgame which I haven’t seen. I haven’t seen Group Sex. I have a hard time watching myself. It was a really funny script. It was a dark comedy more than anything. I got to work with Zach Galifianakis who’s huge right now, and that was fun."

"Rogue’s Gallery is Operation: Endgame. They changed the title. So that’s a dark comedy. And Soon the Darkness is a thriller."

What's The Double?

Odette Yustman: "I just wrapped that one. It’s a spy thriller with Richard Gere and Topher Grace. I play Topher Grace’s wife. So I get to play a mom in this movie. I had a little baby and a 5-year-old kid. We started young clearly [laughing] and that was great too."

And She's Providing a Voice in Beverly Hills Chihuahua 2:

Odette Yustman: "I’d always wanted to lend my voice to a character. I did a voice for this video game, Fallout 3. That was really fun. I had a great time, especially since I could show up in PJs and not have to worry about how I looked. And Beverly Hills Chihuahua was such a great kids movie. All of my little cousins are like, 'Wow! You get to be Chloe. That’s so cool!' I did it a lot for them, and it’s just a way to get in there."

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You Again is rated PG for brief mild language and rude behavior and hits theaters on September 24, 2010.