You first saw Tanedra Howard’s face as the lone Black cast member on VH1’s Scream Queens. She slayed all of her competition with her raw energy and now the Inglewood, Cali native is appearing in her first film, Saw VI, which is in theaters tomorrow. Howard plays Simone, who as you can see from the picture, has a lot on her pretty little head.

Well, we had to know more about Tanedra so we chatted it up with the bubbly horror chick days before the film’s release.

ON BEING A HORROR FAN: “I started reading horror before I actually watched it. Visually, I thought I would be scared even more so I would read books. I started off with my mom’s Stephen King’s books. Then, I slowly ventured into watching the movies. After that I just became a horror fan ever since.”

ON BEING THE ONLY AFRICAN-AMERICAN ON VH1’s SCREAM QUEENS: “I fell out when I found out! [Laughs] I didn’t think that I was going to win not because I was the only black girl, but because I didn’t have the credits or the training. I was working with nine other girls that had the credits or the training. Here I am with my little two plays, my little three music videos and my name, age, height and weight. So I just thought my stats didn’t add up. I just wanted to stay on there long enough hopefully to be seen by someone but I didn’t think in a million years I was going to win.”

ON THE DIVERSITY IN THE SAW SERIES: “Sometimes in a lot of horror films you don’t see other races, not just Black, but you don’t see Asian, Hispanic, or West African — sometimes it’s just a cast full of Caucasian people. For Saw, there is always different people so each race can connect. Like, ‘Oh, I see me on the screen — this is cool.’  Besides it being so well-written, it’s good to to see an image of yourself on the big screen because you don’t get to see it all the time. Even on regular television you don’t get to see it all the time. So when you find a movie such as Saw and see other races, it’s an awesome thing. That could be possibly why they’ve had the longevity they’ve had, besides the writing and how good they are with the script.”

ON CELEBRITY: “You know what — your face will be on TV, honey, your phone will be blowing up! People start knocking — let me tell you this, I’ve had people create MySpace and Facebook pages to get in contact with me. ‘Oh girl, remember when we used to hang out? Remember in Mr. Cunningham’s class?’  Oh yeah, you were the one that poured soda on my head — denied!  They are really try to bring up old memories.  ‘Will you take me to the premiere? Remember, you used to be in love with me?’  Yeah — in 1990, it’s 2009 — denied!”

CELEBRITY CRUSH: “It’s Gerard Butler — I saw him at the premiere for Law Abiding Citizen. It looks like someone drew him, touched him on the head and he just popped off the paper! [Laughs] I’m loving Mechad Brooks from True Blood… oh – amazing grace!”

FAVORITE HORROR FILM: “Child’s Play! Chucky — that’s still my favorite. After the second one I was kind of cool [Laughs], the first one I can watch over and over. Of course, Nightmare On Elm Street because Freddy likes to party with you before he kills you!”

ON HORROR FANS:  “Oh, honey — they don’t play! They know what they like, they are very particular, sometimes they don’t like change and if they don’t like someone they’ll say it. They are very honest. I’m glad they accepted me into this horror genre and they are excited to see what is going to happen. I’m excited to show them.”

Saw VI is in theaters tomorrow.

TAGS: Horror, Tanedra Howard

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