When last we checked in on Spike Jonze’s issue-plagued film adaptation of Where the Wild Things Are, Warner Bros. had allegedly ordered a rewrite on the “uncommercial” screenplay after the studio’s other recent kids’ movie, Speed Racer, crashed and burned. On Tuesday, we caught up with Six Feet Under alumna Lauren Ambrose, who plays one of the titular Wild Things, after her debut as Ophelia in the Public Theater’s Hamlet. Initially, at least, she made it sound as though things have not yet settled down: “I’ve been having screaming matches with [co-star] James Gandolfini,” she told us. Luckily, though, “it’s part of the gig … I play one of the monsters,” she clarified. “And we throw Nerf footballs at each other. You know, they’re wild so they’re throwing stuff, and we’re throwing foam to get into the physicality of what the character is doing.”

Ambrose says her vocal work will be synced with the onscreen movements of an “an eight-foot-tall Neanderthal” in a furry suit. “It’s the one that looks just like me with the long red hair,” she said. “It’s uncanny.” As for the film’s purported behind-the-scenes troubles — a problematic lead actor, pants-shittings at test screenings — “I don’t know anything about that,” she said perkily. “It’s going to be super rad.” —Andrew Goldstein