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It’s always bittersweet losing our favorite young soap stars to greener pastures, but we love watching as their stars rise to bigger and better things. This is especially true in the case of Reign Edwards. In 2015, Edwards made her debut as The Bold and the Beautiful’s Nicole Avant, a spunky, driven young woman on the hunt for family and later love. Since vacating the role earlier this year, Reign Edwards has been the definition of blessed, booked and busy. With recurring roles on two primetime series under her belt — FX’s Snowfall and CBS’ MacGyver — the big screen was the obvious next step.
TV Source Magazine had the chance to catch up with the rising star on TV, music and why her new film Hell Fest is a throwback to classic horror. Starring Edwards, Amy Forsyth (Rise, Channel Zero), Bex Taylor-Klaus (Voltron, Scream: The TV Series), Hell Fest is about a masked serial killer turning a horror themed amusement park into his own personal playground, terrorizing a group of friends while the rest of the patrons believe that it is all part of the show.
We miss seeing Nicole Avant on The Bold and the Beautiful. Are you still on recurring, and can we ever expect to see Nicole pop in for a visit time to time?
You never know, but I am no longer on the show. The time came to decide whether I was going to renew or not, and I had other things that I was working on and I just felt that it was time to get into other projects. I think I had a great amount of time for that character and that story. I really enjoyed it.
We’ve heard that shooting soaps can be a bit fast-paced. Is there anything you learned while doing daytime that you find useful when filming primetime and movies?
In daytime you definitely pick up a lot of stuff in terms of your memory. You have to remember a lot of dialogue day-to-day. But also, you have to learn how to go in and out of emotion where it’s real. So I definitely learned how to do that on Bold.
Pictured: Rome Flynn & Reign Edwards; Photo Credit: © Sean Smith/JPI Studios
We love the friendships you have with Rome Flynn [ex-Zende] and also Ashlyn Pearce [ex-Aly.] How important is it to you to maintain the friendships you made from B&B?
Well you know, it’s always great when you come across great people. I just like to keep cool people around me. I’m just very blessed to have been able to meet some cool people along the way.
Earlier this week it was announced that Snowfall on FX was picked up for a third season. Will you be returning as Melody?
You never know. I’m recurring on that show so I never know exactly when I’ll get that call.
Also dropping on September 28 is the season 3 premiere of MacGyver. We love how you’re always playfully torturing your co-star Justin Hires [Wilt Bozer] on Instagram. How much of Leanna can we expect to see this season?
You will see her a little bit more. Leanna and Bozer are now officially a couple and everybody knows. So you’ll get to see her a little bit more, and more of them together on screen and also behind the scenes of me getting on Justin Hires’ nerves. (laughs)
We know you have a beautiful voice. Is music something you think you would pursue in the future?
Oh yeah, definitely! It’s just about finding the time to be able to do it. I’m always writing songs and everything like that. it’s definitely a passion of mine that I will pursue.
Photo credit: Courtesy of CBS Films
About Hell Fest, we are fans of the horror genre so we are excited to see this. Did you grow up with an appreciation of horror as well?
Nope! I was scared! (laughs) I did not get into even going to haunted attractions until last year. My best friend, Tristin Mays [Riley Davis] from MacGyver, she tricked me into it last year. We went to Netherworld and it was actually a month before I got the audition for Hell Fest. And I actually fell in love with it because it’s not as scary when you go with a big group of people. It’s actually more fun because you’re laughing at everybody getting scared. So that’s were my appreciation came for the haunted attraction. But in terms of the movies, I’m working on it. I can now see a thriller without jumping like a lunatic in my seat. We’re going to see how it goes with Hell Fest. I feel like hopefully I won’t look too crazy in the theater because I know what’s going to happen. But I still haven’t seen it all the way together, so I might be jumping around in my seat still.
We saw the CBS and Six Flags joined forces to do a Hell Fest attraction. We’re assuming you haven’t been to it yet.
No, I haven’t. I wasn’t able to go.
Tell us about your character Brooke. She seems to be the life of the party based on the trailer. We’ll admit, we will be highly upset if she dies in the movie, but we won’t ask you to spoil that.
(laughs) Yeah, she’s definitely the life of the party. She’s the balance of the craziness in Taylor and the sweetness of Amy. She just loves for everybody to have a good time and always laughing and being goofy or possibly inappropriate. She’s just always having a great time and wants to make sure that everyone with her is having a great time. Getting everyone together is her thing so I think people will really enjoy that about her.
You’ve mentioned that your director Greg Plotkin didn’t always warn you of what scares to expect while filming because he wanted the reactions to be natural. Was there anything he threw at you that scared you out of character even if just for a moment?
Well the nice thing is that my character is jumpy, so that helps. But there were two times where he got me really good. There was one, in one of the mazes, where I didn’t know who was going to jump out at me. I was toughing it out like I usually do when I go to haunted attractions and the guy scared me so bad, I fell! I went right to the ground causing Christian James [Quinn] to fall down with me. Hopefully we’ll get to see that scene in the movie because I thought it was hilarious. And then there was also a time where Greg made it seem like he was just making up a scare and they were going to put it into post or something. And so we went through it a couple times where he was the one jumping out at us and we had to react. But then one of the times, I didn’t know there were actual rigs so stuff actually started jumping out at me and I flew out my seat!
You said that you’re not a big fan of horror movies, but how in to Halloween are you generally? Will you be dressing up this year?
I used to dress up a lot more when I was younger, but then as I became a teenager, it wasn’t really a thing to dress up or go out. When I moved to LA, I still never went out. Now all my friends are trying to get me to go to horror night and I wasn’t about that life then. So I don’t really get dressed up unless there’s an actual Halloween party to go to. But I definitely do get the interest. Me and Tristin are already planning on going to Netherworld. Definitely excited for Netherworld, Knott’s Scary Farm and all of those things.
Photo credit: Courtesy of CBS Films
Lots of horror movies come out around this time. What would you say makes Hell Fest stand out from the rest?
It’s definitely an ode to the classics. You know, the masked killer. I think it’ll kind of be nostalgic for people while also having the modern spin on what it’s like to go through mazes today. I think Greg really did a great job. I call him Gucci Greg. (laughs) He did a great job on making it resemble what it’s like in horror parks today, but it’s also like the classics. So, I think people are really going to enjoy that. It’s going to be nostalgic but also very present.
What else can fans expect to see you in?
Season 3 of MacGuyver comes out on September 28, the same day as Hell Fest. Snowfall has been airing season 2. You can catch up on that on FX Now. And I have some things up my sleeve that I’m not at liberty to say quite yet, but I’m really excited. So definitely keep an eye out.
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Hell Fest is in theaters everywhere Friday, September 28, 2018. Visit https://www.hellfestmovie.com for tickets. MacGuyver premieres Friday, Sept. 28th at 8/7c on CBS. Season 1 and 2 of Snowfall are now streaming on FXNow.
Follow Reign Edwards on Twitter and Instagram.
Photography courtesy Carlos Eric Lopez Studios | Follow him on Instagram.
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