Richard Crouse

For the people of Cleveland, Ohio the shooting of the new comedy Fun Size was a surreal experience.

“It was really funny that we were filming this movie in the dead summer, hot and humid in Cleveland, when it was supposed to be October,” said the movie’s star Victoria Justice.  “People that lived in Cleveland, normal people who weren’t in the movie, got confused when they would drive by us and see all these Halloween decorations.”

But Halloween decorations in July weren’t the only tricky aspect of the shoot for Clevelanders.

“Captain Chicken, where all the mayhem starts to happen,” she says “is obviously a fake fast food chain but people in Cleveland were actually signing up to try and work there. So that was hilarious. They were sending in job applications and we were like, ‘Too bad this is going to be knocked down in two days!’”

The nineteen-year-old Justice has been performing since age ten, first making a name for herself on Nickelodeon shows like Zoey 101 before headlining her own comedy show Victorious. She’s the first to admit that Fun Size’s story of an out of control Halloween night is something a little different for her longtime fans.

“I have a feeling they’re really going to like it,” she says. “It is PG13 so I think teens and adults can enjoy it together. I think younger kids, if their parents let them see it, are really going to like it because it is a little naughty in parts.”

The script’s edge is what drew her to the project.

“I liked that it was a bit edgier than the scripts I had been reading and I loved that it was something different, that it was a unique concept.”

Fun Size represents a turning point in her career, moving away from the kid stuff that made her a star and transitioning to a young adult star, but she’s not stopping at movies and TV.  She says she wants to do more film, but is also concentrating on music career.

“I am also writing my own music,” she says. “I think I’m kind of creating my own sound, following my own path. I’m writing about things I relate to or that I’ve experienced. I’m not sure what it will sound like exactly. I think it will fall under the genre of pop music but I’m not doing death metal or anything.”