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Your new movie Blood Tulips - in a few words, what is it
about, and what can you tell us about your character in it?
Blood Tulips is about a priceless painting created by a Dutch Master in
1600, which was stolen by the Nazis during World War Two from a Jewish family. The painting ends up with a relative who needs money and has an
offer from a museum in Holland to purchase it. They want it personally delivered so he sends his niece Tess to Holland.
She and the painting disappear and the family gets worried. They report
her as a missing person and get Interpol involved. Her sister Starla is
angry and thinks it’s too slow and leaves for Holland to find her
sister against their uncle’s wishes. Many things happen and with the
help of a friend she meets in a café it’s found out that the painting
was stolen from Tess when she was kidnapped, drugged, and sold into the
sex trade in Amsterdam's red light district. Starla and her
friends devise a plan to rescue Tess, which comes very close to all of
them losing their lives. My character Starla is very close
to her sister and they communicate telepathically. In searching
for Tess she goes through many changes of character, including wearing a disguise, to
adapt to the dangers of dealing with murderers, an art theft ring who
will stop at nothing, and an sadistic brothel madam who enjoys
afflicting pain on her victims. She goes from being a beautiful artist
and writer to disguising herself as a prostitute to gain entrance to the
brothel. What
did you draw upon to bring your character to life, and how much Bouvier
can we actually find in Starla? To bring my character to life I drew upon my own experiences of being
concerned and worried about people in my life that I thought something
had happened to or I felt were in danger. The Bouvier that can actually
be found in Starla’s character is empathy, flirting, love for those
close to her, her wardrobe, and her methods of finding solutions to
difficult situations.
How did the project fall
together in the first place? The project fell together in the first place because I always wanted to
make a film in Holland with a good story and show some of the beautiful
scenery the canals, windmills, countryside, tulip fields, bicycles,
medieval streets and buildings, etc. You also co-wrote the story
for Blood Tulips - so what were your inspirations for writing it,
and have you written Starla with yourself in mind from the get-go?
My inspirations for writing it was because my husband’s family are
Dutch and lived in Holland through World War Two, so the events in the
film actually happened based on true events. There are rare
paintings and priceless art stolen all the time. It’s in the news very
often and also is white slavery. We wanted to do a film in Holland to
put these three elements together and wrote the story.
I had the part of Starla in mind from the beginning. Do
talk about Blood Tulips' approach to horror for a bit!
Blood Tulips approach to horror was that the characters in the theft
ring are evil and frightening, their looks and actions are scary.
Also the suspense builds and the music is eerie and creepy. The film
builds to where you think something is going to happen and then what
actually happens is not what you’d expect. As
you've also had your hands in the production of Blood Tulips - what
were the challenges of bringing the movie to the screen from a producer's
point of view?
The challenges of bringing the movie to the screen from a producers
point of view was coordinating everything including getting the right
actors, scheduling shoots with time frames that work for everyone,
making travel and hotel arrangements to go to Holland, finding locations and wardrobe in Holland, and making travel
arrangements within Holland to go from one location to another and
filming right in the red light district and tulip fields. It took a lot of advance planning and preparation including getting some
local crew, which was close to not working out.
With Blood Tulips having been
filmed in Amsterdam, the Netherlands - how does shooting there compare to
making a movie in the USA? Working mostly in the Los Angeles area is that the weather is almost
always predictable as far as temperature and rain. We did our best to
choose a time in May that seemed most unlikely to rain and we lucked out
because in Europe it can change quickly. We only had one day of light
rain during filming near the windmills in the countryside and luckily it
added to the mood of the scenes. The Dutch people were very friendly and
cooperative. Everybody was kind and helpful. One man selling antiques
in a flea market beside a canal in Delft was excited when asked to be in
a scene where Starla is showing a picture of her sister making inquiries
if anyone had seen her. What can you tell us about Blood
Tulips' directors Randy Kent and John Luksetich, and what was your
collaboration like?
Randy Kent and John Luksetich are both experienced filmmakers and have
done many films and commercials and many times worked together on the
same projects. They are both knowledgeable in all phases of filmmaking
everything from casting to postproduction. My collaboration with them worked very well. We would always discuss
everything together including casting, locations, music, mood of the
scenes, the suspense of the film, postproduction, etc. and come up
with an answer or solution.
Randy Kent, Bouvier, Darrel Maury, John
Luksetich, Anita Khalatbari |
What can you tell us about the shoot
as such, and the on-set atmosphere?
Sometimes it was difficult to find the right location to shoot in for
instance the right time of day like in the Delft town square,
which is usually very crowded with people, shops and outdoor cafes.
For some scenes that is what we wanted to show and others we would
go early when it was quieter. Sometimes it would just be setting up very
quickly like a stand for a vendor selling marijuana plants. And shooting
in the red light district had to be done rather undercover.
Luckily it was very crowded with tourists so nobody noticed. In the
beginning of the film during the World War Two, a Dutch friend
let us use his house for the scene between the Dutch husband and wife.
During the entire shoot everyone was cooperative and went out of their
way to help. Dutch people who we didn’t even know let us use their
restaurant for the cafe scene and an exclusive fashion boutique let us
use her shop for interior shots We actually arrived a few days before
the shoot to location scout and look for wardrobe that would be worn in
the 40’s during wartime. The $64-question of
course, when and where can your movie be seen?
It was chosen as Official Entry for
Horror-on-Sea Film Festival in Essex,
England, and will be screened on January 19th. Tickets are available from
the festival. Myself and Randy Kent and John Luksetich will be there in
person to introduce the film and for questions and answers. Any
future projects you'd like to talk about?
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Future projects include a horror/comedy and a horror film about a swamp
witch. Your/your
movie's website, Facebook, whatever else?
The movie’s website is
bloodtulips.com.
It is also on Facebook under Bouvier and on my website
www.bouvier1.com
Anything else
you're dying to mention and I have merely forgotten to ask? The most exciting experience during filming was being chased by Tulip,
the murderer, through Delft along a canal, then past a huge ancient
church and ducking into an archway to hide. I was also chased along a
busy crowded sidewalk and ran around a corner. A woman I nearly ran into
screamed thinking it was real. Thanks
for the interview!
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