gScholastic Interview
When Jennifer was just 8 years old, she signed up with a Texas talent agency and started doing commercials. Her first big break was appearing along with Haley Joel Osment in the film Secondhand Lions. Jen caught the notice of the biggies at the Disney Channel and was tapped to join the cast of their series Wizards of Waverly Place in the role of Harper. This November, she will star in the original TV movie Dadnapped on the Disney Channel.
Check out our exclusive one-on-one with Jennifer where she reveals her thoughts on fashion, reading, the environment, and her interest in CSI: forensics!
Scholastic News Online: What's the best thing that's happened to you in the past year since you started Wizards of Waverly Place?
Jennifer Stone: I'd definitely have to say just getting the show in general, and just being able to work with everybody and getting to act all the time. It's what I love to do, obviously. I just feel so lucky to have the opportunity to act constantly and work with people that I just love as human beings. This is definitely the best thing that's happened to me in the past year.
SNO: You like Frank Sinatra, 1964 Mustangs, and designers like Chanel and Anna Sui. How did you develop these interests?
Jennifer: I don't know. I've always been told I've been very mature for my age. I know sometimes I'm not, but that just comes from me being a 15 year old girl. I mean I have my moments when I act like a 4 year old. But I think definitely I was constantly a big family person and I was constantly around my mother and my grandmother. And I've always had an interest in other eras. I always joke that I was born in the wrong era. But I definitely think it's spending a lot of time with adults. So that's probably where that comes from [laughs]. I know, I'm kind of a weird little person aren't I?
SNO: You said your favorite article of clothing was a vintage '40s coat. Where did you get that?
Jennifer: There was this really great vintage shop. I love the vintage shops—it's like going into your grandma's closet. And it's the coolest one ever. It was this tiny little shop and like I said it looked like your grandma's closet. I just found it in the back with a bunch of holes in it, and I bought it for like $40, it was like a 1940's coat from Neiman Marcus. I brought it home to my G-ma, she sewed it up. So, I love that coat.
SNO: How would you describe your style?
Jennifer: Yeah, well I usually go through phases, like last year I went through a big 70s, 60s, hippie phase, so I dressed in like long, airy skirts, you know the moccasins and all that. And lately I've been doing sort of the 1940s, 1950s. Right now I'm in a little pencil skirt with little Mary Janes on. You know, right now I'm in a little more refined, more prissy mode of dressing—I guess a little bit more ladylike than I was last year!
SNO: But isn't that fun about style—you can change it, you can mix it up?
Jennifer: Oh that's what I love about it. And I definitely do references a lot cause I'm dressing a lot like Carole Lombard and a lot of the Hitchcock movies. You know how sophisticated the style was, how refined. Like I love Grace Kelly in Rear Window. But, yeah and I definitely love how you can skip from whatever you're interested in at the time and express that through what you're wearing and still make it your own. That's what I love about clothes.
SNO: Do you like to watch old movies?
Jennifer: Oh yeah! My TV is constantly on TCM [Turner Classic Movies]. I got Casablanca on tape and I haven't had a chance to watch it yet. I'm so excited. I love Humphrey Bogart. One of my favorite movies is Breakfast at Tiffany's which every girl says, but I love Audrey Hepburn. She's by far my favorite old movie actress from the studio era. She's in a league of her own.
SNO: What about if you could just do anything you wanted to do for one day or two days, what would you do?
Jennifer: I think I'd really like to intern at a forensics lab.
SNO: Really?
Jennifer: That'd be so cool. Because, I mean, that's something that I definitely want in college. I definitely want to sort of lean my major towards something in that field. I think that'd be cool if I could just step back and observe how that entire thing is, to see if that's something I would like to do maybe instead of acting. Because I definitely want to do something that I really love and I love acting right now, but who's to know that I won't like something else when I get older. But yeah I think that'd be really cool if I could see what it would be like to do that profession, to just sort of mix it up a little bit.
SNO: We understand you like Jane Austen books? Do you have a favorite one of hers?
Jennifer: I have to say I think I'm like everybody else, I love Pride and Prejudice. But I read Jane Eyre recently and I have to say the Bronte sisters are giving Jane Austen a run for her money! It was really good. What I love about Jane Austen and the Bronte sisters is the fact that it's great for teenage girls because it's got that romance we all want to read about and all that, but it really is intellectually stimulating because of the way it's written and the jargon they use and all of that. It really makes you think.
SNO: What three books would you recommend to a middle school kid?
Jennifer: Well I would definitely recommend Pride and Prejudice, I mean that's a classic. You just have to read that book. I would definitely recommend [a book depending on] what their interests are, because I could recommend all day long in what I would be interested in reading when I was in middle school. But you definitely have to find something that they're interested in. Like you can find a classic, like I personally love like monster movies and stuff like that—so like for a kid that likes monster movies, go read Bram Stoker's Dracula or go read Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. I mean go read something like that. I know they have that little section at Barnes and Noble with all the classics. Try to find something like that, because you would be amazed, I don't think kids realize that a lot of the classics, they entail so much more modern topics than they think they do and so much more that they can relate to than they think is possible.
SNO: Do you have any suggestions for kids who are interested in improving the environment?
Jennifer: Yeah, I know there's a lot of fantastic Web sites, like one of my favorites is thedailygreen.com. It's all about the little things that you do. It's all about the little things and the little influences that we take the time to do. And I'm a firm believer in that and I definitely think that you need to just do the little things that you can, like take your own grocery bags to the grocery store or you know try to carpool as much as you can and turning off the lights in your house. I definitely recommend kids go on the Internet and just look up and find what works best for them. It's again your individual preference as well as books that you would want to read. You have to find something that's easy to do in your lifestyle and easy to maintain. So I definitely recommend kids go on the Internet and find what fits them best as in how they can help the environment.