Any plugged-in millennial likely remembers the Nickelodeon show Victorious starring Victoria Justice as Tori Vega. Lately, Justice has been starring in thrillers as well as putting out more music. I got the chance to talk to Justice ahead of her new film Depravity. She stars in it as Grace alongside Devon Ross, Taylor John Smith, and Dermot Mulroney. The film premiered last week, with Collider’s Steve Weintraub even hosting an early screening and Q&A with director Paul Tamasy.

COLLIDER:

I have been a fan since your Victorious days.

VICTORIA JUSTICE: Oh, no way! Long time, nice to meet you.

Yeah, it’s great to meet you. So we’ll go ahead and dive in. Depravity sort of gives the kind of like Only Murders in the Building meets, I Know What You Did Last Summer, kind of vibe. So what part of the project made you want to sign onto it?

JUSTICE: Yeah. I mean, well, it all starts with the script, right? So I read the script, and I loved it. I thought… the writing was so good. Paul Tamasy, who is our director and also wrote the script, wrote The Fighter with Mark Wahlberg and Christian Bale. I mean… he’s an incredible writer, really great storyteller. And the story, I just thought was unique. It was a unique thriller. I felt like it had a lot of twists and turns, things I didn’t see coming. I felt like… it was dark… The character of Grace was sexy. She’s this thrill seeker. And, you know… it takes place a little bit in the art world. I just felt like it had all the elements for a really good thriller. There’s greed, there’s blood, there’s murder, there’s sex, you know, all the things you need to make something really, you know, enticing, in my opinion.

Yeah, for sure. So I know that you guys had shot in Thailand for the film. So were you guys like, in that apartment building, at least for part of that? What was that like filming in an old kind of a building?

JUSTICE: We filmed on a soundstage, mostly, okay, yeah. So, it was all built on a soundstage in Thailand, and then we did, like, a couple exterior shots. And, like, the lobby shots were at an actual hotel, but, yeah, it was really cool. I mean, I loved filming in Thailand, and the people were amazing and so nice, and it was really incredible… the infrastructure they had there too, you know… the crew and everything… to really make this project come to life. It was, it was a lot of fun.

Victoria Justice “Felt Really Safe” Doing Her First Ever Sex Scene in ‘Depravity’
Image by Jefferson Chacon

That’s awesome. So I know that you’ve done thrillers before, but was there anything sort of specifically with Depravity that felt like grew you as an actor in like, a really positive way?

JUSTICE: Yeah. I mean, I think it was emotionally really challenging. You know, my character is thrust into a really extreme situation and is faced with something that a lot of us could never even imagine or would never even know how to deal with it. So I think emotionally getting there was… it was definitely… a challenge, but it was… really fun. I also, you know, had my first sex scene in this movie, and that’s something I’d never done before. I was very nervous about it, but I really felt like our director made me feel really safe. And I also felt like it wasn’t gratuitous. It was there to, you know, serve the story in a way. And I had a lot of faith in the fact that it would be done very tastefully and respectfully, and it was so, I think, overall, it was just a really challenging and exciting acting experience, but it definitely pushed, pushed my boundaries as an actor, for sure.

So you sort of dabbled across, you know, a few different genres. So kind of going off of the last question, like, what do you think? Like, which genre do you think has sort of grown you? Has it been thrillers, you know, as like an actor, grown you?

JUSTICE: That’s a good question. I mean, it’s tough to say, because I think different projects push you in different ways. But I think I will say, like comedy, I think… does come the most naturally to me. And so doing drama and doing a thriller where like, the scenarios are like so intense and the stakes are so high is definitely… it can be a bit draining… and it can be a bit taxing, because I have a few crying scenes in this movie, and it’s just… it’s really intense. So yeah, I mean, I think like I don’t know if people have really seen me do something quite like this before, and so, yeah, I think that’s really exciting.

You were great in it! I did get this ahead of time. So yeah, you were great. Kind of again, sort of branching off of different things that you’ve been in, what’s something that you haven’t done, like a type of project you haven’t done, that you’d like to see yourself do?

JUSTICE: That’s a great question… something I haven’t done, that I like to see myself do. I mean, I love to like… I’m an independent film girl. I love, just like a great indie movie that just tells a great human story. I love like, A24, I feel like they do such great projects. I would love to do something that’s just like, really stripped back, really, maybe playing against type for myself, but just like a really, real, gritty, human story. I think would be really, really fun.

That’s awesome. So if you can quickly sidebar, I’m living for all the music that you’ve been putting out there, anything you could potentially tease about what kind of stuff you’ve got going on in your music world?

JUSTICE: What can I tease? I mean, I’ve been doing some writing, and it’s… I’ve been loving it. It’s been really fun. I have, like, a handful of songs right now that I’m very excited about, that… I want to put out into the world. But you know, what can I say about them? I’ll say that like some of the songs coming up, they’re really fun, they’re very sexy, they’re empowering. And I feel like everything that I write has a personal element to it as well. So it’s, it’s been fun to kind of lean into, like, the empowering side of being a woman, and it’s also making music is always just very cathartic for me, so I’m just excited to keep sharing it. But thank you for saying that.

‘Victorious’ Was “An Exciting and Special Part of” Victoria Justice’s Life

Yeah, absolutely. So I do know that you’re on Tiktok, but like, have you seen that sometimes, like songs from Victorious will kind of go viral, like what’s like, reaction to that?

JUSTICE: It’s wild. It’s so fun. It’s so cool to see. I mean… I love that people still like [to] talk about the show. They still watch the show. They still love it. There’s like… a whole new generation of young people that are watching it now too, which is insane… I mean, it’s always so fun for me to see… That show was such an exciting and special part of my life. And like, I love all the music from the show. I wrote three of the songs from the show… to see people still like, having that nostalgia and that love for it, and to see it still bring people joy is like, so much fun. I love it.

That’s awesome. Well, like, on that vein where do you think Tori Vega would be now?

JUSTICE: Where would Tori Vega be? Now, that is a great question. Um, let’s see if she’s 31 like me, where would she be? I feel like… I don’t know. I feel like Tori is like living… in Los Feliz, like more of… a Bohemian lifestyle… I think [she’s] still singing, but I think she got more into, like, the songwriting aspect of it. I feel like she’s like a Julia Michaels type, you know, living her artsy little, little life with two dogs.

You catch Victoria and her cast mates in Depravity now available for rent on Prime Video.

Three residents, suspecting their neighbor of being a serial killer, break into his apartment and discover stolen art. Their investigation turns into a nightmare as they are ensnared in a deadly survival game, where they must outsmart the killer or risk becoming his next victims.Release Date October 11, 2024 Director Paul Tamasy Runtime 112 Minutes Writers Paul Tamasy Expand

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