Chloe Grace Moretz tackles the lead role in the 2013 film adaptation of Stephen King's bestselling novel, Carrie. King's horror story was adapted for the screen once before with Brian De Palma directing Sissy Spacek as Carrie White and Piper Laurie as her crazy, religious fanatic mom. Released in 1976, that version of Carrie earned Oscar nominations for both Spacek and Laurie.

This 2013 Carrie is directed by Kimberly Peirce (Stop-Loss, Boys Don't Cry) and in addition to Moretz, the cast includes Julianne Moore, Judy Greer, and Gabriella Wilde.

And at the LA press day for the Screen Gems release, Moretz talked about her director, her co-stars, and what separates this Carrie from the 1976 film.

Did Kimberly Peirce articulate what this take of Carrie was going to be as opposed to maybe the Stephen King novel or the Brian De Palma film?

"We didn't go, 'Oh, well, we're going to do this. We're not going to do this. ' I think what it was on her side was not to copy camera angles, not to copy exact looks, not to copy exact blood stuff, not to copy that one picture in front. My big thing was, 'I'm never going to be doing this. I said, I'm never going to be do that iconic thing that she did because it's just too obvious. I'm going to keep my hands like above my waist at all times. I was like, if they are here, they're going to be like this or something. I'm not going to do that symbol because everyone knows, that's the iconic Sissy Spacek. And we both agreed on that. And we just wanted to kind of keep it  just her manner isms that she put into the role, try and keep it away from that.

We were able to put our own spin on it, just because I wanted it to be original. And I didn't want to watch the movie or anything. So what we really did was, we had the book there on set every day, and we compared page in the script to a page in the book and really, that was our big thing."

Did you have any connection to the original film before you got involved?

"Yeah, I saw it. It's a funny story actually because I saw the first film when I was filming Let Me In with Kodi Smit-McPhee. We watched it together for the first time. We were both like 12 or something. After it was done, my mom was like, 'I actually don't know if this is the most appropriate movie to be watching.' And I said, 'Yeah, whatever.'

But yeah, so I fell in love with the story. I think De Palma made such a brilliant movie and he really did adapt King's book very well. You know what I mean? I think it was definitely a lot less linear to the book as our movie was, but De Palma really took his own kind of instinct and ran with it and did such a beautiful piece of work."

This is this generation's Carrie. Do you think there should be a Carrie for every generation?

[Laughing] "A Carrie every ten years or every twenty years? Yeah, I think it's an interesting story because it's always relevant. The first one, it was made in a time period that was incredibly shocking and incredibly relevant for that time period. I mean, those movies weren't made at that time period. You were making these horror movies for like a million dollars, like not even, a couple thousand dollars practically. And then now it's such a genre, and it's such a breeding ground for young adults. It's all they watch nowadays. So it's such a different era for Carrie to be coming out in because now, instead of the shock factor that the first Carrie had, now they're going, 'Can you shock us like we were first shocked? And you're going, 'Well, I can't shock you because it's not the first.' It is technically a retelling of a Stephen King novel. So even before that movie, there was the book. So I think with each movie, the shock factor's going away. But you have to keep it relevant and nuanced to the time period."

Do you think kids will always be able to relate to Carrie?

"Yeah, I think so because everyone's dealt with things that Carrie's dealt with, and you will always have a heart for Carrie because she, at the end of the day, is just a naïve girl and everyone's had those moments where things just go right over their head. And you're going, 'I know you're all laughing at me, but I don't know why you're laughing me at.' It's an interesting kind of character to play."

What were the main things with Carrie that you related to?

"The naiveté, I think, was my main thing because I think what it is is that I have been home-schooled since I was nine years old. And in the scheme of what my friends are accustomed to in every day life, and what I'm accustomed to in every day life, I live a very - in a different way than them - I live [in] a very sheltered bubble. I'm always with my brother, my mom. I always have my little group around me, and I don't interact with tons of other kids my age all the time. And I kind of live in my little area. They interact with hundreds of kids every day, and they deal with way more drama and way more hate and way more love than I do in that sense of people that aren't your family. So I think what I really kind of attach to with Carrie was that she doesn't know that world of teenagers. It's the one place where I don't feel comfortable in because when I'm with a bunch of teenagers, I don't know what I'm doing. And I'm like, 'This is not my safe zone. I don't know what I'm talking about.' So yeah, I think that's where I really was able to connect with Carrie."

This film deals in mother-daughter relationships. How does it compare to your own?

[Laughing] My mom and I’s relationship – well, my mom doesn’t throw me in a closet, doesn’t hit me with Bibles. It would be a little bit interesting if she did. But my mom is...she’s honestly one of the most amazing moms.  I think what she and Margaret have in common is that they love their child very, very, very much. And I think that’s what was so cool about Julianne’s take on the character, because Julianne [Moore] brought such a sense of love and endearment to the character so no matter how hard she’s hitting Carrie – she hits her and then she goes to the closet and braids her hair and says, ‘I love you,’ and you can see in Margaret’s eyes that she wants nothing but a good and safe environment for her daughter because she knows what could happen. Because she knows she’s kept her daughter living under a rock and she knows that they’re going to laugh at her. At the end of the day she’s also twisted in the fact that she’s also thinking that, 'If they do laugh at her, at least she’ll come back to me and I can be her savior.’

She kind of wants that but doesn’t want that, because she always wants to be her God. So, that’s Margaret. My mom is the type of mom that she’ll give me enough [room] to mess up. She’s like, ‘But the minute you do, that’s when I’ll reel everything back in. But I’m going to give you enough space and enough time to make your own decisions, and to form your own ideas and solutions to problems that happen in everyday life.’"

What was your reaction when you first saw yourself covered in blood in a prom dress?

"I actually cracked up because it was really funny. I mean, honestly, the first time we did it it took two and a half hours to put all the blood on. So I kind of saw Carrie be made in front of my eyes, and we had this bust of my face that was a total cast of the ... because on Dark Shadows, I was a werewolf and we had a cast of my face from that movie. They bought the cast for Carrie and they just had my face like laying there all day. So the strategic blood drips that was a very strategic thing they mapped out in pre-production. So, it was all transfers. It was kind of like I wish it was a bit more shocking because I saw each transfer go on and I was like sticky and tired. But I think that's the moment when I knew I was doing Carrie. I think that was a real moment when I went, 'All right. I'm actually doing Carrie. I am Carrie, covered in blood.'"

Are you prepared to see a lot of Carrie's with your particular look on Halloween night?

"I hope so. I tell you what. Jordan the make-up artist was very like, 'People are going to love this. One side's like a dead demon and a monster, and the other's beautiful.' And I'm like, 'Okay, Jordan, chill out.' [Laughing] No, but hopefully people will really like this Carrie and they'll really be interested in her look. It's so different than the first one, I think. I think that she is such a different style of Carrie. I think also what it is that we have the modern facilities to be able to do that, to be able to keep the same consistent blood throughout the entire movie until she washes it off. Keep the exact same blood spatters and just kind of keep it so linear. Unlike with the first movie, they didn't have the [ability]. You see the blood drop and then cut. It's like a different splatter and everything. But, you know, it's that time period. In this time period, you sort of have people looking for, 'Oh, the blood went from her left cheek to her right cheek. Oh my God.' So we had to make it so strategic that I hope people really like that."

Did you have to remember not to touch your face, even though it was sticky and itchy?

"Yeah. There were huge problems with that because I would start peeling it off my skin. It was like little transfers, like tattoo transfers. You put them on your body with the water and everything, all over. So we'd do a base of that and then we'd go over it.  We would just get these bottles of blood, different colors of blood, and they'd drip them on my body and rub it in with fake smoke and mud, disgusting.

It was funny because my entire car, everything looked like I lived in Dexter: white, clear plastic everywhere with like blue tape. I was like, 'This is really disgusting looking. This is so creepy.' Blood everywhere. My trailer was covered in blood, but my car was the funniest because in between takes, it was so cold outside, I would run to my car and try and warm up, but then the blood would get hot and then it would cake onto my skin and get all tacky.  If I put my hand on there and left it for a minute and pulled it off, it would just rip my skin off because it was so sticky. So I had to like stop myself from wanting to just peel it off as it got warm and just covered you in a cakiness of sticky, maple syrup, I guess."

It's such an iconic scene. Was there pressure on the crew and on you to recreate it, but not completely?

"Well, I think they were more terrified than I was because at the end of the day, I was just the actor who had to stand there and get it dumped on me. But they did something like 50 or 60 or 70 blood tests with one girl dropping the blood like every day, five times a day to try and figure out, what height, what air pressure. Do they drop it from a real bucket or do they use the compressed thing. What gives you the best splatter? Different types of blood. So for them, yeah.

They had two takes. We had the first take one night and then a whole other night to do it, but one take. So that's all they had for that entire blood drop. So for them, they were going, 'If we don't get this right, we're done.' You know what I mean? And there were two setups each night. So if we don't get that first setup right, we can't do it again. So you're screwed.

It was being able to, for me, just being able to walk on set and be like super chill and like, 'Cool. Whatever happens, happens. I'm good, guys. Don't worry about me,' because they were all so stressed out, being like, 'Okay, well, the camera's here and the camera's here. And we have this drop in. And if it misses your head, then we don't know what we're going to do because it's like a four hour turn around.' I'm like, 'Okay, guys. Calm down.'

My only thing was like, 'I don't want to see anyone counting like, one, two, three. I don't want to hear anything happening. I just want to be completely in the moment, smiling, happy. I just won Prom Queen.' Just whatever happens, happens. And then for me what was hard was knowing that after the blood hits, they have to keep going on with the scene. So we didn't just go, 'Oh, blood hits. Cut. We're done.' It was like blood hits and then follow it through for like five minutes and do the entire scene until Tommy gets hit in the head, which is really long. I mean, that's a really long time period. There's a lot. But it was so funny because after that first blood drop, Ansel [Elgort] and I looked at each other and we just started cracking up. And we hugged each other and everyone goes, 'No!,' because our blood got all over each other. And then he just slipped and fell right on the ground. Then I was slipping and it was ridiculous, but it was cute."