Before starring in blockbuster films like Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle and Annabelle Comes Home, Madison Iseman got her big break at age 19, playing the daughter of Billy Ray Cyrus’ character in Still the King. “I didn’t really know how to be on set,” she recalls. “That taught me all the fundamentals of being an actor and how to develop a character.” Since then, Iseman has been in a variety of films, including the post-apocalyptic Riot Girls, the holiday comedy Feast of the Seven Fishes, and, of course, Jumanji: The Next Level.

From a very young age, Iseman knew she wanted to work in film, whether that be in front of the camera or behind it. At 16, she moved to California; through some luck and a lot of hard work, she became involved with great projects and people that helped jump-start her career. Before she knew it, the script for Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle came across her desk. “I don’t even know if I was necessarily ready for it, or even knew the full potential of what Jumanji was going to be,” she says. “It was a very big, eye-opening experience.”

When it came time to work on the sequel, Iseman felt that she had very big shoes to fill. Luckily, she had new and exciting material and co-stars to work with. “They took the core of what we had in the first one and made it bigger and better. They expanded the world of Jumanji and did something totally different,” she explains.

As her 2019 was jam-packed with project after project, Iseman will be seen in the upcoming Blumhouse Television/Amazon Studios movie Nocturne, alongside Sydney Sweeney. The supernatural thriller follows the story of two sisters at a prestigious music school. “I’ve always wanted to work with Blumhouse, and Amazon, as well,” she says. “It was one of those scripts that you don’t really see often – it’s very original and dark.”

Although she is constantly working, it’s a dream come true for her: “The relationships I’ve made at work are some of the greatest relationships I have in my life. It’s really special,” affirms Iseman, who looks forward to getting more involved in the filmmaking process. As an avid reader, her life-long dream is to adapt one of her favorite novels to the screen. She’s still waiting on the perfect book, but when she does find it, she’s determined to bring it to life. “Even if I’m not even in it, I’ve just always wanted to be a part of [a project like] that – that’s always been a really special thing to me,” she shares.