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Your new movie The
Great Charade - in a few words, what is it about, and what can you
tell us about your character?
In short, The
Great Charade is a psychological thriller involving two of the
World’s most famous actors being taken hostage by two extremely,
TERRIFYINGLY obsessed fans. I play Amara Giovanni: narcissistic,
infinitely ambitious, famous and determined to stay that way. Being an actress yourself,
how close to home did the plot of The
Great Charade actually hit? As
soon as I read the script, I knew I had to play Amara. It’s certainly an
extreme case of stalker/fame gone wrong, and I’m nowhere near the league
of Amara in terms of celebrity. But being in the industry in any way,
it’s all too easy to imagine & fear. It was actually Dixie, played
by Candice Palladino, whose part of the story really hit me hardest. I
won’t give away too much as I want people to watch and be as moved by
her as I was, but there was one scene in particular in which she reveals
just what she has suffered, and when Amara is supposed to be fairly
ambivalent to it, which was extremely challenging to portray; I
desperately wanted to comfort & hug Candice!! What did you draw
upon to bring your character to life, and how much Francesca Louise White
can we find in Amara? In
our first meeting about the project, Amara was described as being
“Kardashians meets Angelina Jolie”, so I furiously got to watching the
Kardashians (which I must admit is NOT my kind of watching as I’m fairly
anti-reality TV but needs must :P) and trying to evoke their
confidence, speech patterns, and to understand their way of thinking;
having that amount of money, freedom and attention on them constantly
would affect anyone! I am a very determined and ambitious woman, so I could
relate to that side of her, but I have always wanted to act for the love
of it & telling peoples’ stories rather than any desire to be
‘famous’ per se. The idea of having my pick of roles to portray would
definitely be an upside, but I don’t think I’d be happy with that
amount of people aware of my every move outside of my work; no judgement
to those who do want that side of it, it just wouldn’t be for me. So,
understanding this aspect and what drives Amara and real life Amaras in
that way was important for me.
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Most of the running time of the
film you're tied to a chair - so in what way has this influenced your
performance? It
was certainly a challenge, I didn’t realise just how much I use my hands
to emphasise my thoughts and speech until this shoot! It makes you feel
very vulnerable too, a few times crew members had to pick up and move the
chair with me still tied to it, which I hopefully managed to use to
enhance my performance: Amara would’ve felt vulnerable after all. I
literally couldn’t get out, and Amara couldn’t get away from being
confronted with the hard truths and consequences of her actions &
existence; it definitely influenced my performance. How did you get involved with the project
in the first place, and how did you also end up on the production side of
things? I
attended an audition for one of directors Rodeo & Dan’s projects [Rodeo and
Daniel Strange interview - click here] way back when
they were at SAE Institute in Oxford. I didn’t get that role but I was
extremely impressed with their approach and their script. We kept in touch
after, and they hired me on a couple of their commercial projects. They
then sent me The
Great Charade script and offered me Amara which I
was obviously thrilled about! Very different to the cushtie commercial
jobs involving drinking hot chocolate in front of a fire in squishy
socks!! I actually came on board the production side of things after the
shoot. I’ve had a fair bit of experience in independent film and film
festivals at this point, and Rodeo and Dan were interested in making the
most of this, so I’ve been furiously sending emails, researching
intriguing film festivals to which to submit and trying to set up
interviews with supportive souls like yourself! Thank you very much! What can you tell us about your directors Rodeo
and Daniel Strange [Rodeo and
Daniel Strange interview - click here], and what was your collaboration like? They’re
extremely talented, professional and have a clear vision. They trust their
cast & crew members to do their jobs & respect their opinions,
they prepare to the nth degree and are very efficient. And even though
they were exhausted on the last day they baked us all a chocolate cake to
celebrate wrapping on their first feature! Genuinely good people. I’d
work with them over and over again if I could, I know they’d keep
creating incredible roles to play and I’d always enjoy the experience
even when it’s challenging.
Do
talk about the shoot as such, and the on-set atmosphere!
It
was a very intense shoot: early mornings, late nights & some pretty
tough emotional scenes to tackle. That being said, the on-set atmosphere
was one of the best of which I’ve been a part. The wedding scene in
particular cracked me up ohhh so much, as it did many others on set. I’m
usually pretty good at not corpsing even when working with funny actors
and subject matter, but oh that scene got me good many times over. I’ve
acted with both Marcus [Marcus
Davis Orrom interview - click here]
and Ricardo [Ricardo Freitas
interview - click here] before, both lovely people, and I was
so grateful to finally work with Candice [Candice
Palladino interview - click here], who’s shot with Rodeo & Dan
a few times. From Katie the Queen of Blood MUA, to Richard Wakefield our
BTS photographer, to DoP’s Will & Sam, to Max our sound recordist,
Lacey our script supervisor & Philip who kept us very well fed. We
were all delirious by the end of the shoot, I can only imagine/fear how
the BTS video filmed by Sam is going to come out…
Any
future projects you'd like to share?
I
am currently working on a thriller feature which is being kept pretty hush
hush, so I sadly can’t say much yet. However, I will share as soon as I
possibly can! I recently wrapped on a short horror film called No
Strings directed by Pablo Raybould for Shooting Lodge Productions,
creators of The Snarling for which you should keep an eye open. I
also shot a very silly comedy film called Becoming Grim by Harry
Metcalfe which is in the vein of The Good Place with a touch of
30 Rock, so I hope people will enjoy that too. I am producing and
acting in a post-apocalyptic film called The Flock by Andrew Griffin
of Steamwork Film, too.
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Your/your
movie's website, Facebook, whatever else?
Official Rodeax LTD website:
https://rodeax.com/the-great-charade/
Rodeax
LTD Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rodeax/
Rodeax
LTD Twitter: https://twitter.com/RodeaxLTD
Rodeax
LTD Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rodeaxltd/
My
website: www.francescalwhite.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/francesca.l.white/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/FrancescaLWhite
Instagram: www.instagram.com/francescalwhite
Thanks
for the interview!
Thank
you very much for the interest, support and great review Mike. It’s
appreciated!
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