Disney Star Olivia Holt Gets in the Halloween Spirit for Girl Vs. Monster

Olivia Holt | Photo Credits: Sergei Bachlakov/Disney Channel

Disney Channel continues its Halloween tradition Friday with its latest original movie, Girl Vs. Monster (8/7c). Featuring Olivia Holt — star of Disney XD's comedy series Kickin' It — the film follows Skylar, a normal teenager whose life takes a terrifying turn when she discovers her family's secret — she was born into many generations of monster-hunters. Skylar's plans to sing alongside her crush at the big Halloween bash are crushed when she unexpectedly unleashes a monster that is out to get her family, leaving her and her friends to defeating the cruel creature and save the spooky soiree. TV Guide Magazine recently chatted with the 15-year-old star about her experience making a Monster movie.

TV Guide Magazine: How did you originally get involved with Girl Vs. Monster?
Olivia Holt:
Disney sent me the script. It was funny because it was the first script that I read and was balling my eyes out toward the end. I was like, 'This is awesome!' So I went in and I auditioned and I absolutely loved it so I was really thrilled that I got the role.

TV Guide Magazine: Tell us about your character, Skylar.
Holt:
She's such an incredible girl — so confident and powerful. She always has that positive attitude, which I think is great. She has great fashion sense, and she has some amazing wardrobe pieces in the film that I absolutely adore and I'm all about fashion so I was really excited that I got to go into wardrobe and pick out some of the outfits.

TV Guide Magazine: Besides your passion for fashion, how else do you relate to Skylar?
Holt:
I think we're pretty similar. I'd like to say that I always want to keep a positive attitude and keep my head up, and I think that's really cool that Skylar brings that around with her. She's also very athletic — she's done gymnastics for a very long time, just as I did growing up.

TV Guide Magazine: How did you bring your gymnastics skills to the set?
Holt:
I did get to bring a little bit of my gymnastics into the film and I did most of my stunts, which was really cool. Of course, there were some things that I was not able to do because of safety, so we did have a stunt double. The entire movie has a lot of running and huffing and puffing. There's a lot of action scenes, and I thought that was really cool that I got to do most of that in the film.

TV Guide Magazine: In addition to gymnastics, you also sing and of course, act, in the movie. What's your favorite?
Holt:
I don't know if I could pick just one. I have a passion for all of them because all of them fire me up very much. I want to be able to make people laugh and cry and feel happy or sad and feel all these different emotions through singing and acting. Hopefully throughout my career, I'll get to pursue them.

TV Guide Magazine: What were some of your other favorite moments on set?
Holt:
My overall experience was incredible. I literally cannot put into words how much fun I had on that set. The cast is so talented and amazing, and the crew was so hard working and just so nice. Every single night, the cast would do something different — we'd go out to dinner, we'd play games with all of our family. I definitely made some lifelong friends on that set.

TV Guide Magazine: Speaking of friends, you'll be hosting the Girl Vs. Monster "Monstober" encore event on Oct. 27 with some of your Disney costars. Can you tell me a little bit about that?
Holt:
That was so much fun because I do so much work on my show that I don't really get to visit my other Disney Channel friends, but I got to go to Shake It Up, Austin and Ally and Jessie. We did a different Halloween activity at each set I visited, and everyone was so interactive that we all had a great time.

TV Guide Magazine: What is your all-time favorite Disney Channel movie?
Holt:
I am actually a really big Halloweentown fan. The producer of Halloweentown produced Girl Vs. Monster so I got to talk to her about working on that set, and I was star struck by all of that. Growing up watching Halloweentown, and then working with the person who created it — I thought that was really neat.

TV Guide Magazine: What will you dress up as for Halloween?
Holt:
I'm not 100 percent sure, but I know I'm going to dress up. One year, I was a go-go girl for Halloween and I got all this glitter eye shadow, my hair was poofy with braids, I was wearing all these different colors and fake eyelashes that went all the way up to my eyebrows. I totally enjoy the whole Halloween feel.

TV Guide Magazine: Who are your favorite Disney stars?
Holt:
Of course I have a few because growing up because Disney was my favorite channel, but I was the biggest Lizzie McGuire fan so Hilary Duff has to be my all-time favorite Disney Channel star. I've looked up to her ever since I was little. I think she's so talented. She's just such a great actress and an amazing singer as well. I swear, I had every piece of merchandise from Lizzie McGuire.

Check out this exclusive clip from Girl Vs. Monster:

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