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Your new movie The Night Monica Came Back
- in a few words,
what is it about?
The Night Monica Came Back
is a comedy horror film. It’s about
a group of teenagers who go camping with their minder Pops, who is played by
Laurence R. Harvey. The camping trip does not go quite to plan when one
of the teenagers and Pops relive Pops' horror story and end up dead. How did you get involved with the
project? I got involved with the project through Northern
Star Acting. The producer of The Night Monica Came Back, Eirian
Cohen [Eirian Cohen interview
- click here], arranged for a group of us to go on a horror camp, where we shot
the film and attended a workshop led by professional actor Laurence R. Harvey. Do talk about your
character for a
bit, and how did you prepare for her?
About a week before I got the role, Eirian Cohen messaged me and asked
if I could do a Spanish accent. I told her that I had never done one
before, but was happy to rise to the challenge. Seeing as I didn’t get
the script till a couple of days before we went to the camp, I started by
watching YouTube videos and researching into Spanish dialect and
pronunciation of sounds. I wanted the accent to sound realistic and as if
I was actually Spanish. Once I got the script I rewrote my beginning lines
out with the Spanish vowel sounds. I then practised the beginning lines in
the Spanish accent and by the time I had learnt it I was able to do the
Spanish accent without trying. Monica was a character unlike any I have
played before and I really enjoyed the challenge of learning a new skill.
Monica is one of the main characters in the film and is a Spanish
exchange student. She has a crush on Thurston, played by Lee Ashley
Preston[Lee
Ashley Preston interview - click here] , and the pair has cute little moments throughout the film.
However, you will have to watch the film to find out about their
relationship and any twists because I don’t want to give too many
spoilers away.
One of the on-set jokes was when someone asked me to do my Spanish
accent or asked how I learnt how to do the accent, I said I had watched a lot of Dora the Explorer and then proceeded to impersonate Dora and say
‘Hola mayamo Dora!’ haha.
The Night Monica Came Back
features horror icon Laurence R. Harvey from Human
Centipede 2 and 3 - so what was it like acting opposite him?
Working
with Laurence R. Harvey was amazing. He is such a talented and nice guy. It
was cool to watch him before scenes and in work because the way he
presents himself and the way he can snap into character in a second shows
how experienced he is and why he is such a huge horror icon. From
what I know (and I was there), you didn't only shoot a movie but this was
part of a "horror camp" - so do talk about some of the other
activities and workshops you did at the camp!
The horror camp was so much fun! I really enjoyed glamping in the pods
and getting to know the cast and crew, seeing as most of us hadn’t met
before.
After dropping our stuff off in our pods, we went to a field nearby
and played some games such as the name game, ninja warrior, splat etc.
This helped us all get to know one another and also worked as a bonding
experience.
We also did a zombie acting exercise led by Layla Randle-Conde [Layla
Randle-Conde interview - click here]. Layla
had us all lie down on the ground and close our eyes and she did a
visualisation technique with us. We then had to open our eyes and
gradually stand to form our character. We live streamed on Facebook as our
zombie characters and then had some food before Laurence R. Harvey arrived.
When Laurence arrived we talked to him for a while and then he did a
workshop with us. He did an energy exercise with us which involved us
walking around and as he said numbers we had to go from desperate to find
something to unable to stand anymore. He also taught us about the 5
states. This required us to: search, select, stare, succumb, switch. He
started off by making us do it in order and then just said them in any
order and we had to abide.
My favourite exercises he did with us were peep and creep where we went
in pairs and had to make a creepy scene. Laurence was amazing at this and
didn’t have to make any sound to creep us out. The other exercise I
really enjoyed was one were we had stand in front of the camera as a pair
and we had to try and intimidate each other. We ended up using this on set
when we were waiting around and was a fun game to see who would give up
first.
So talk
about the shoot as such for a bit, and the on-set atmosphere!
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with
Lee Ashley Preston |
The atmosphere on set was so much fun and everyone got on really well.
We started off filming in the morning and I did my scene in the pod with
Dylan Furness (Herbert) and Lee Ashley Preston (Thurston) [Lee
Ashley Preston interview - click here] and then I did
most of the river scene with Lee *Behind the scenes: when the camera is
facing us in the film for the river scene, there is actually no river in
front of us just a field haha*.
The last scene we filmed at the camp site was Pop’s telling us all
the horror story. It was absolutely freezing and we all had to huddle up
under sleeping bags between shoots.
We then packed up and moved location to an actual river. We had some
food and then me, Lee, Michael Haberfelner (writer [who's
actually me - the editor]) [Michael
Haberfelner interview - click here], Layla and Cameron Prudames (DoP) made a very steep and rocky trek down to the river. It was a beautiful
location and we got some spectacular photos taken. My favourite part about
the river scene was definitely filming the death scene and getting to spit
fake blood all over Lee.
After filming the death scene I had to run back to where we had left
all our bags and where the rest of the cast was waiting and redo my makeup
and make myself look as alive as possible for my last scene where Monica
returns after being stabbed.
We were a little worried because I had fake blood in my hair for the
last scene but it ended up being fine because it started raining and flung
it down so you couldn’t tell.
The overall shoot went really well and we got pretty much everything in
one take. The thing that took the longest was swapping over mics and
getting the scenes from every possible angle.
If
there was another horror camp or whatever-else camp again next year, would
you at all want to join again?
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Yes definitely!!! It was so
much fun and an overall great experience. I had a brilliant time and got
to know the cast and crew and we had a lot of banter on and off set. Anything else you're
dying to mention and I have merely forgotten to ask?
The cast have been really busy since we returned setting up Facebook
pages, Instagrams, Twitter, websites and other social media platforms to
promote ourselves. Please feel free to like, follow and share us on all
our social media and platforms to stay up to date with what we a currently
up to.
My Social media and platforms:
Facebook -
https://www.facebook.com/ElizabethMaeStarbuck1
Twitter - @EM_Starbuck
Instagram - @elizabethmaeofficial
Starnow -
http://www.starnow.co.uk/elizabethmaestarbuck1
And finally please follow the The Night Monica Came Back
on
Facebook -
https://www.facebook.com/thenightmonicacameback
- to stay up to
date with the film and also see other cast interviews.
Thanks for the
interview!
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