How do you prepare for an acting role in a movie as intense and epic as ? Taking on the true story of one man's kidnapping into slavery is a daunting task, so when MTV News caught up with the cast, we had to find out how exactly they handled it.

They all started with the script, crafted by "Three Kings" and "Red Tails" scribe John Ridley. There's also the book on which the screenplay is based, Solomon Northup's 1853 account of the years of suffering he witnessed and endured on the plantations of Louisiana.

Beyond that, each actor had his own methods of research and preparation. Michael Fassbender, who played slave owner Edwin Epps, spent five weeks in New Orleans "working on trying to find his voice, how he moves, the usual criteria that goes into putting a character together, but with probably maybe that much more feeling of responsibility. Because it was a true story and an amazing story, and we had to do justice to Solomon and all of the slaves [who were] a part of that history."

Chiwetel Ejiofor portrayed Northup in the film, and his research was more global in scope. He was shooting a film in Nigeria before heading to the Louisiana set of "12 Years a Slave." While there he visited a slave museum in Calabar, where thousands of Igbo had been taken as slaves, many of them ending up in Louisiana. "When I got to Louisiana it was about getting onto different plantations and getting a real sense of, not just this story, but ...

Tiara Thomas may have accumulated a bit of debt in college, but the singer/songwriter (and sometimes rapper) made sure that her days at Ball State University paid off.

While Thomas didn't end up using her telecommunications degree, she packed her college experience into her debut EP Dear Sallie Mae — an off-handed ode to the student loan giant.

"I was in college when I wrote all these songs that were on my EP," Thomas told MTV News of the project, which was released on October 8. "I told my parents I wanted to do music full-time, [but] I had already taken out all these student loans, so I had to stay and graduate. So when I was in school I was really discovering who I was as an artist. I was creating this dope music, so I decided to name my EP Dear Sallie Mae."

The "dope" music that Thomas was creating would lead her straight to Top 40 radio after Wale found her acoustic track "Bad" on YouTube last year. Originally the tragic love song was Thomas' take on Trillville's 2004 rap single "Some Cut," but the MMG lyricist would soon turn it into his lead single for his latest album The Gifted. "That was just last year, I put 'Bad' on YouTube solo on Valentine's Day of 2012, and that very next time this year, it was already the single," she told us.

Many assumed that Thomas would sign with Wale, but she actually inked her deal with producer/singer/songwriter Rico Love. "I went and I played him ...

It's hard to keep any big secret from you school friends. But when the news you're trying to hold under wraps is that you're about to be an overnight Internet star
, well, that's way more difficult.

Luckily for Alison Gold, she didn't have to sneak around for long to hide the success of her YouTube smash "Chinese Food", because not long after it went up on Tuesday her friends were already singing the song to her and serenading her with the catchy "chow m-m-m-m-mein" chorus.

Gold said she got very excited when producer/songwriter/rapper Patrice Wilson
 brought her the tune and was flattered that he chose her to star in his latest viral sensation. Unlike Wilson, who knew he had something special in the can, Gold said she didn't expect the video to get so popular so fast (at press time it had nearly 7.5 million views).

On Wednesday night, MTV News sat down with Gold, 13, in her Southern California home and asked her to break down the "Food" video frame-by-frame.

"We couldn't book an actual Chinese restaurant, so we actually used a Mongolian restaurant," she said of the iconic opening scene where a chef is cooking noodles that transform into a rainbow. When we first see Gold, she informs us that she's been balling and clubbing and now she's so hungry that she's "getting, getting, getting, getting grumpy."

How grumpy? "That trash can that I pushed over?" she said of the green bin she takes her frustrations out on. "I actually broke it by kicking it too much." When Gold ...

Bruno Mars and director Cameron Duddy were determined to make more than a standard strip-club video ... so they decided to do an exhaustive amount of research in order to get things just right. Making videos is hard work, after all.

"Me and Bruno went to probably seven or eight strip clubs, you know, for research," Duddy laughed. "We'd be in there on, say, a Tuesday night, we'd walk in, and the few people that were actually in there were watching the dancers, but we'd be looking at the architecture of the place for inspiration. And then we'd have our one drink and leave."

Ultimately, their search for the perfect strip club proved fruitless, so Mars and Duddy decided to build one of their own: a joint that seemed like it was lifted straight out of Havana, dark and sweaty and seemingly untouched by time. They painted the walls themselves, and went back and forth on just what color neon they should use ... and, as someone who's worked with Mars plenty over the past few years — Duddy had directed several videos for Bruno, including and — none of that was even remotely surprising. Turns out, he's a stickler for details.

"I don't know when Bruno sleeps, if he does at all. He's the hardest-working person I've ever worked with or met," Duddy said. "He pays attention to everything; he's the one who came up with the basic idea for this video, when he was rehearsing for his tour in, like, Cleveland. We'd ...

SKATERS have a lot of surprises planned for their Artist To Watch Live event on October 21, one of which is pretty spooky. The guys told us they've recorded a Halloween-themed jam, "Let the Heads Roll," which they might play at the Studio at Webster Hall next week. The show will stream live on MTVHive.com.

"We've just recorded a Halloween song and it's about the zombie apocalypse," guitarist Josh Hubbard told MTV News. "Not to do with the Yeah Yeah Yeahs track," he added, referring to "Heads Will Roll," off 2009's It's Blitz! "It's more literal."

According to the guys, they chose to go the undead route when selecting their creepy fodder because, as bassist Dan Burke said, "Your average werewolf or vampire doesn't dance, usually." And we know — from Michael Jackson's "Thriller" — that zombies can get down.

Drummer Noah Rubin adds that, given our culture's obsession with the un- — or, rather the "Walking" — dead, the song will have staying power long past All Hallow's Eve. "You can listen to it year-round," he said.

SKATERS' musical oeuvre extends far past the bounds of flesh-eating half-people, however. The guys — who all settled in New York in 2011 to form the band — recently signed with Warner Bros., and plan to release their debut, NYC-themed LP, MANHATTAN, on February 25, 2014.

"If you listen to the record from start to finish, you actually see the subject of the character kind of changing from someone who's like shocked by the lights of the city and ending with someone who's transformed into ...

This year marks the 15th anniversary of Britney Spears' And while it put the former Mouseketeer on the map, the song wasn't written with Britney's vocals in mind. Turns out, the pop anthem was actually penned for 90s hit makers TLC.

While the trio was coming off of the success of their single "Baby-Baby-Baby," songwriters Max Martin and Rami Yacoub thought the lyrics of "...Baby One More Time" would be right on par with TLC's sound and style. But apparently they thought wrong.

When MTV News caught up with the group, while promoting the biopic Tionne "T-Boz" Watkins and Roxonda "Chilli" Thomas explained exactly why they passed on the pop princess' debut single.

"I was like, I like the song but do I think it's a hit? Do I think it's TLC? I'm not saying 'hit me baby.' No disrespect to Britney," T-Boz replied when asked what she originally thought of the song. "It's good for her. But was I going to say 'hit me baby one more time'? Hell no!"

TLC rose to fame spreading a message of female empowerment with singles like "Hat 2 Da Back" and "Unpretty." And while they knew the track would blowup — "Understand we're not just passing up hits," Chilli said — they didn't feel it represented the band appropriately.

"That's not even my subject of conversation, so you know, it worked for her, I'm happy for her, I like Britney," T-Boz explained. "Every song isn't good for each artist, and when you're a real artist you know what you believe in ...

On October 25, the world will get to re-meet Johnny Knoxville's Irving Zisman in the new, feature-length movie, "Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa." And though the premiere is still a week away, we've got an exclusive clip to tide you over.

In a departure from the Jackass bunch's usual M.O., the movie is a mix of scripted scenes and staged pranks with actual people. So viewers will be treated to the usual insane array of over-the-top, body-busting pranks. But in between, the plot follows Zisman as he travels cross-country with his grandson Billy, who has to live with his father once his mother is arrested.

In MTV News' exclusive scene, we get to see Zisman and Lil' Zisman stopping for snacks on the road — and things go very, very wrong. First, Zisman teaches Billy to stuff food in his pants, and then the duo proceed to walk out of the market — despite being chased by a real-life, really antagonized shopworker. Zisman, as you can imagine, doesn't respond very well.

Though this scene highlights Knoxville's Irving Zisman, fans should look forward to a scene-stealing turn from Jackson Nicoll as Billy. Nicoll may only be 9 years old, but Knoxville fell in love with the young actor on the set of 2012's "Fun-Size," where he kept pace with the famously dirty Knoxville, even out-grossing the Jackass King at points.

"Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa" hits theaters on October 25.