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Your upcoming movie Bloom - in a few words, what is it about,
and what can you tell us about your character in it?
Bloom
is a horror/psychological film that follows the story of a young
woman named Lily who wakes up one evening in a bloody motel bathroom with
fuzzy memories of the previous night. My character, Lily, is in a very
unsettling situation where she has to piece together what happened to her
while understanding who she's becoming as a result of this traumatic event.
Now always assuming that you have never actually been turned into
a vampire in your real life - what did you even draw upon to bring a role
like this to life? And how much fun was it to play a vampire? You
know what happens when you assume... A lot of the inspiration came heavily
from Amy Acker's performance in Angel, per Travis's recommendation. She
had brilliant body language that was somehow stiff and fluid at the same
time. Basically she had the very essence of how you'd think a vampire
should move. Now if you were a vampire, how much fun do you think it would
be? Yeah, that's how much fun it was to play a vampire.
How did you get
hooked up with Bloom in the first place? With luck
and knowing Travis Legge. I read the script a while back and saw how truly
different of a project this was going to be since there was very little
dialogue in it AND it was a Travis Legge script [Travis
Legge interview - click here]. Once finished reading, I
had immediately jumped on expressing my excitement to Travis in hopes to
be a part of it. The rest is in the credits. What can
you tell us about working with your director Travis Legge [Travis
Legge interview - click here] on Bloom? And how did you
two meet up in the first place, and also do talk about previous
collaborations? Travis Legge is a hell of a dude that knows
how much direction to give and when the actors need the space to explore
their character. He's an open funny dude that creates some of the best
on-set atmospheres. We met up a while back when he first started casting
for Legacy of the Masque, a superhero webseries. Who the heck can stay
away from a superhero webseries? I offered to help at any capacity I could
and from there he kept contacting me about any crew or cast opportunities
he'd have available on his projects. This eventually led to helping out on
his feature film Dry Spell which was a hoot and a holler to work on.
To what extent can you identify
with Bloom's horror theme? The dark psychological
questions that Travis asks the audiences had me question a lot about my
own actions. It's an odd feeling to have when I instinctively know that
Lily is being a straight up blood-sucking jerk but I understand why. What can you tell us
about the shoot as such, and the on-set atmosphere? The
cast and crew were brilliant enough to make long weekend hours feel like a
breeze. With crew like Cherish Warden in particular being incredibly on
top of things, stuff moved pretty swiftly and smoothly. The atmosphere in
general was pretty fun for being, you know, a flick about a fucked up
chick.
Deann and Heather Dorff doing
Filming 'Round Midtown |
Any
future projects you'd like to share? The next project in
the barracks for acting is Ron Purtee's film Indoor Air. There's also
going to be an eventual spin-off webseries of Filming 'Round Midtown that's
currently being written [Filming
'Round Midtown interview - click here]. I just have to add a few more goat jokes for
Heather Dorff's sake [Heather
Dorff interview - click here]. What got you into
acting in the first place, and did you receive any formal training on the
subject? When I was a kid, I always wanted to be a "Moon
Ranger" (a cross between a Power Ranger and Sailor
Moon). Somehow I came to
terms with how impossible that was and decided the next best thing was to
pretend. In terms of training, I haven't been through as much as I'd like.
I took a few classes in high school and Acting Techniques for Camera at
Columbia College. I'm sure my lack of acting classes will help illuminate
a few things to the audience of Bloom.
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with Kyle Hoskins in Dry
Spell |
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with Myke Wilson in What Do I Say? -
photo by Curtis Clegg |
Can you still remember your first time in front
of a movie or TV camera, and what was that experience like? I
think I remember my first time in front of a camera. My father was
creating a television spot for a pledge drive and he decided to spoof Poltergeist. He sat a very young me in front of a static television and I
got to say "They're back" as creepy as I could toward camera. To
say the least, it was inspirational. What can you tell us about your filmwork prior
to Bloom? I'm pretty shy so my film work prior to Bloom
is a short list. It does however include a small role in Travis
Legge's Dry Spell. There's a variety of genres on my
IMDb page but I tend
to gravitate toward comedies. One of my personal favorites is a short
called What Do I Say?, directed by Willy Adkins [Willy
Adkins interview - click here] and stars Myke
Wilson that you can watch here
http://youtu.be/HHrSAXsnNFM. It was a
one-day shoot where Myke and I just got to goof off using the words from
Kevin Bui's script. Besides acting, you seem to have also
worked in numerous positions behind the camera - care to elaborate? Whenever
I act on a set I dig helping out off camera if time allows, this includes
gripping or standing around shouting what time of day it is. A majority of
the time though my week looks like this; During the day, I'm a
videographer and editor for Silk Road Rising. At night I'm a composer for
indie projects and on the weekends, I act. Editing I got into for
the sake of having a creative career while supporting myself. I've come to
love it more than I ever thought I would. Composing is my go-to
hobby. It actually came about when I started taking piano lessons a long
time ago. I hated the music my teacher would give me to practice so I'd
just go off melodically on my own for hours. Apparently piano wasn't
enough and around fourth grade I picked up the cello, fifth grade the
trombone, then the guitar, recorder, and now I'm trying out the clarinet.
I am truly the definition of 'master of none'.
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How would you describe yourself as an
actress, and some of your techniques to bring your characters to life? I
barely have the right to call myself an actress. I do try and build
characteristics based on the characters' past, explore what they've been
through up to the point where the script begins, and use this as the basis
for the character. I'm minimalistic in techniques. Whether that means I'm
lazy or truly minimalist, I'm not sure, but I like to primarily just
react. That was one of the things that made Bloom
so darn hard since
it was just silly me in front of the camera most of the time. Actresses
(or indeed actors) who inspire you? Gary Oldman. There
should be an acting award named after this dude. I'm also an incredibly
huge fan of Simon Pegg. As for actresses, the actresses I've worked with
have been the most inspiring, particularly Heather Dorff [Heather
Dorff interview - click here]. Her strength,
energy, and unbelievable talent constantly make me push myself further. Your favourite
movies?
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Feeling lucky?
Want to
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There's way too many for this so I'll try and
narrow it down. The 1990 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie,
Aliens,
The Dark Knight, and Tremors. ... and of course, films you really deplore? The
Last Airbender. Your
website, Facebook, whatever else?
http://pikadee47.wix.com/deannbaker
https://www.facebook.com/filmingroundmidtown
Anything else you are
dying to mention and I have merely forgotten to ask? I'm
dying to talk about how awesome (re)Search my Trash is for this
blast of an interview! Thank you so much! Thanks
for the interview!
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