Maddie Hasson Explains ‘Impulse’ Character’s Extraordinary Abilities

Maddie Hasson stars as 16-year-old Henry in the new Youtube Red series premiering June 6th. The show follows a girl who escapes a traumatic event by using her extraordinary abilities. Hasson sits down with Cheddar to discuss how the show is relevant in the #Metoo era, and what it’s doing to showcase strong female characters.

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This morning, Maddie and Missi (Pyle) stopped by KTLA 5 Morning News in Los Angeles to talk about “Impulse“! You can watch the video below and i have added some screencaptures in our gallery:

WMAGAZINE.COM — The teen actress steps into the spotlight for her first adult role as Billie Jean Jones in “I Saw the Light.”

For Maddie Hasson, the biggest challenge in portraying the singer Billie Jean Jones in the Hank Williams biopic I Saw the Light (in theaters now) was not depicting a living person but, rather, acting opposite the young girl who plays her daughter. “I only had one scene with her,” says the Wilmington, North Carolina, native. “But around children, I’m like, Is she judging me?”

Doubtful. Hasson, 20, holds her own as the second wife of the country star (played by Tom Hiddleston), maintaining her poise as her husband’s drug and alcohol abuse leads to his demise, from heart failure, at 29. “She is a spitfire,” says the actress. “I love that in my women.”

It’s one of the first times that Hasson, who began acting professionally at 16 and was most recently a lead on the ABC Family series Twisted, has been cast as an adult. And, unlike many ingenues in her youth-obsessed industry, she’s looking forward to a time when she will have outgrown those fresh-faced parts. Meanwhile, she will appear as a high-school outcast in the dark indie Good After Bad and as a young nun in the 1960s-era drama Novitiate (both out next year). “I want to age. I want to get wrinkles. I want to get saggy,” Hasson insists. Amen to that, sister.

STARNEWSONLINE.COM — Spend any time with the actress Madelaine “Maddie” Hasson, and it doesn’t take long to get the impression that this is a young woman who’s going places.

Not only is the 20-year-old a stunning beauty who’s preternaturally poised, but Hasson, who went to Cape Fear Academy and grew up doing theater in Wilmington, recently completed filming a series of movies that could boost her from minor celebrity to full-blown star.

Hasson is in town for the Cucalorus Film Festival and was at Thalian Hall on Thursday night for a screening of “A Light Beneath Their Feet,” in which she plays a troubled teen with blue hair and a lip ring who does some truly mean and nasty things. The movie stars Taryn Manning (“Orange is the New Black”) as a woman with mental illness who’s essentially cared for by her daughter, played by Madison Davenport. Hasson plays Daschulla, and she has some steamy scenes with Carter Jenkins, who shot the TV series “Surface” in Wilmington as a young teenager 10 years ago.

Now based in Los Angeles, Hasson has been a series regular on TV shows “The Finder” and “Twisted.” In addition to “A Light Beneath Their Feet,” Hasson appears in the upcoming Hank Williams biopic “I Saw the Light” with Tom Hiddleston, scored her first leading role in the just-wrapped “Good After Bad” with Billy Burke and is off to start her next project in a matter of days.

I caught up with Hasson after the Cucalorus screening and we sat down in the seats at Thalian Hall for a quick interview.

What is it like to be sitting here, having done plays at Thalian Hall, and now you’ve just watched yourself on the big screen?

You know, I didn’t even really think about that until I was sitting and watching the movie. I was just looking around at all the crown molding and the ceiling and everything I used to look at. It’s just very surreal, because I don’t even think when I was doing plays here I had the thought in my mind that I would be watching myself in a movie from the crowd. It’s just very full-circle and it’s so cool. I didn’t even realize I would have that feeling until I got here. It just felt so special.

You’ve played “good girls” before, but in this movie you really were the bad girl. What was that like for you?

I love playing the bad girl so much. I think the biggest thing that Valerie (Weiss) — the director — and I wanted from Daschulla’s character is that we wanted to see that her way of controlling her life was through manipulation of other people’s lives. The manipulation aspect of her character was very important. We wanted that to come through heavily. But then also, playing bad characters, there’s a line where you have to kind of balance the vulnerability and the bad side of the character. And that’s really, really fun. You want them to be vulnerable and you want to see why they are the way they are.

Did you and Carter Jenkins, who shot the TV show “Surface” here when he was a kid, talk about Wilmington at all during the shoot?

We did talk about Wilmington when I first met him, and I laughed so hard because I didn’t realize that (he had worked here). Carter’s one of my good friends now.

Your look was so spooky, with the blue hair and pale makeup. How did you guys come up with that?

It was so fun. They had a totally idea for Daschulla when it was originally written. I originally went out for (the lead) but it turned out to be a better fit for Madison Davenport. Also, I would have towered over Taryn (Manning). She’s a tiny little thing, like a ballerina.

You grew up doing theater in Wilmington. I remember you mostly from being in “Whorehouse” and “Grey Gardens.”

Those are probably my two favorites that I’ve ever done. I did plays when I was younger with Opera House but I was never that serious about it. “Grey Gardens” was the first big role I had as a teenager.

Right, you played young Edie alongside Paul Teal.

He’s such a nice guy. Oh my god, I had such a big crush on him when I was 13 doing that play. He was just like, you need to chill, you’re, like, a child.

Do you still sing ?

I do still sing. I would love to come back here when I get a break and do theater. I want to so bad!

You’re working like crazy, it sounds like. You were doing all of that TV for a while, now you’re doing movie after movie.

Yeah, it’s picked up. I’m really excited. I just had my first starring role in a movie (“Good After Bad”), I’m so pumped.

SEVENTEEN — “I don’t like to wear a ton of foundation in the summer, since it tends to make me break out. Instead, I put Smashbox Artificial Light Luminizing Lotion all over my face right after I get out of the shower. Then, I brush my eyebrows and add a little bit of mascara and chapstick and that’s all I need!”

TVLINE — Twisted’s Maddie Hasson Teases ‘Messy’ Finale Cliffhanger and a ‘Possibility’ for Jo and Danny

Twisted‘s freshman season comes to a screeching halt on Tuesday (ABC Family, 9/8c) and star Maddie Hasson tells TVLine that the biggest revelations are still to come.
Below, Hasson previews what we can expect from the game-changing hour, including whether or not long-suffering Janny fans will finally get their reward.

TVLINE | We recently posted a clip of Charlie going bananas. Will we see him go crazier during the finale?
Oh, you’ll see Charlie at his craziest, for sure. Jack Falahee, the actor who plays Charlie, is very good. And he’s fairly new to film, so that’s incredible.

TVLINE | What else can we expect from Charlie? Will we learn anything new about him?
We find out some major things about Charlie and his past. Jo is becoming more and more creeped out by him, and she’s really starting to see through his lies as she discovers more about him throughout the episode. They also spend a lot of one-on-one time together, much to Jo’s dismay.

TVLINE | Any one-on-one moments for Jo and Danny?
Yes, there are a couple of really nice moments between Danny and Jo where they get to say their real feelings.

TVLINE | And those feelings are…?
[Laughs] I think the episode ends with a lot of possibility. They’re so busy with all the murder, lying and deceit, so it’s very hard to concentrate on their love lives. But it definitely ends with a moment of possibility.

TVLINE | I imagine fans have had quite a bit to say about Janny on Twitter.
Oh, absolutely. I guess there’s Dacey and Janny, and also Jico, which is Jo and Rico. And now there’s Lacey and Whitney. There are so many couples. Everybody’s dating each other, I can’t keep track.

TVLINE | The final also reveals a big secret about Whitney. What’s Jo’s reaction to that news, and what was yours?
I think Jo’s pretty indifferent to Whitney; they have, I think, one scene where they actually speak to each other. But I was very surprised about the reveal about Whitney and her father, Jack.

TVLINE | I know it’ll end on a cliffhanger, but how much resolution will there be?
There’s no resolution. Are you kidding me? What do you think you’re watching?

TVLINE | Of course, how silly of me. Can you say who’s involved in the cliffhanger?
Charlie, Jo’s parents, Danny, Danny’s family, Lacey … pretty much everyone. It’s a very mixed-up and messy cliffhanger. It’s nice to have everybody in one room, as actors, because we all get along so well. It’s a little harder to work sometimes, though, because we’re always laughing really hard. I remember when we shot the finale scene, they played a song that would be kind of the ambience to the end credits while we were rolling. I couldn’t take it seriously, even though it was so intense.