Jennifer's Body - Casting

Casting

Megan Fox was in negotiations to star as Jennifer Check since the film was announced in 2007, and was officially cast in October 2007. Fox said the reason she agreed to the role was her love for the script. "I think what I loved about the movie is it's so unapologetic and how completely inappropriate it is at all times," she said. "That was my favorite part about the script and about the character. It's fun to be able to say the shit that she got to say and get away with it and how people find it charming." Asked how acting in a film like this is different from acting in Transformers, Fox said "there's distractions, like there's no robots to distract you from whatever performance I do give. So, if it's terrible, you're gonna fucking know that it's really terrible". She said despite this aspect of the business being intimidating, she enjoyed portraying the character. "I wasn't really sure what I was doing," said Fox. "I was just trying to have fun with it and I felt like I was able to make fun of my own image as to how some people might perceive Megan Fox to be. I was just sort of flying freely and I hope some of it works." To prepare for her role as a living-dead teenager, Fox dropped to a near frail 97 pounds and stayed out of the sun to keep her skin pale.

In balancing out the film's horror with humor, Fox said she relied heavily on Diablo Cody's script and Karyn Kusama's direction to pull it off. "I have a very specific sense of humor, things that I think are funny aren't going to fly with middle America," she stated. "It's going to eliminate some of the audience, so you need someone there to tell you you can't do that."

In February 2008, Amanda Seyfried was cast as Anita "Needy" Lesnicki, the "plain Jane" best friend to Fox's character with whom she shares a somewhat lesbian infatuation. Seyfried said it was a relief to play the nerdy character opposite Fox. "Being a lead (like Megan), you have that weird pressure of feeling like you have to look attractive," she stated. "In this movie, I didn't worry about any of that shit. I don't want to play the one that everybody is supposed to want to have sex with."

Chud.com reported that the filmmakers were looking at actual rock band members Pete Wentz of Fall Out Boy and Joel Madden of Good Charlotte to portray male lead Nikolai Wolf. Also considered was actor Chad Michael Murray. In March 2008, actor Johnny Simmons was reportedly cast as Nikolai. However, Adam Brody was officially cast in the role of Nikolai, while Simmons was then given the role of Chip Dove. Brody said he did not do his own vocals. "My singing voice is still going through puberty," he said. "They gave me a singing lesson or two, and it's not the worst thing in the world, but it's not anything anyone would choose to hear."

Additional cast members include J. K. Simmons as Mr. Wroblewski, Kyle Gallner as Colin Gray, Amy Sedaris as Toni Lesnicki, Cynthia Stevenson as Mrs. Dove, Carrie Genzel as Mrs. Check, Juan Riedinger as Dirk, Chris Pratt as Officer Roman Duda, Juno Ruddell as Officer Warzak, Valerie Tian as Chasity, Keegan Sigurnjak as Meek School Nerd, Aman Johal as Ahmet from India, Josh Emerson as Jonas Kozelle and Lance Henriksen as the driver near the end of film. A number of supporting and minor roles were filled by supporting and minor cast members from Jason Reitman's previous films Thank You for Smoking and Juno, including Simmons, Brody, Johal and Valerie Tian.