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Your upcoming movie Zombie Massacre - in a few words, what is
it about, and what can you tell us about your character in it?
Zombie Massacre
is about a group of mercenaries who are sent into a small town to
blow up the town's nuclear power plant in order to wipe out the infected
towns people. But they get stitched up and end up stuck there themselves.
The movie is about them getting out and the characters they meet along the
way.
My character's name is Sam - the daughter of the scientist who is at the
heart of the infection. She is the movie's closest representation of
normality. The other characters aren't necessarily people you would meet
in normal life - Tara is a red-headed ninja for a start (I like to call
her the Ginger Ninja) [Tara
Cardinal interview - click here]. Sam is a city girl, she gets into fights, is
fiercely independent, confident, loyal and vulnerable. Even though she's
not one of the "heroes", she has her own heroic moments like
they all do.
I'm
next to sure you have never actually experienced a real life zombie
apocalypse - so how do you prepare for a role like yours, what do you draw
from?
Well... I'm a bit of a zombie geek. There's this event that started in
the UK last year called 2.8 Hours Later, and you basically show up with
your friends, get given a map and then go from point to point, round the
oldest, scariest parts of London being chased by zombies for a few hours.
Its so geeky I know but it was absolutely terrifying. I may have used that
experience to draw from. But Carlo and David made such amazing zombies, it
wasn't difficult to put ourselves in that situation, as bizarre as the
siutation was.
How did you get involved in the project in the
first place?
A really wonderful and seemingly accidental chain of events.
with Daniel Vivian |
I worked on a movie at the beginning of this year and heard about Zombie Massacre
through meeting Daniel who was already cast as Illic. We spoke a little
about it and after I showed interest, he encouraged me to write to Marco
and Luca [Marco
Ristori and Luca Boni interview - click here]. So I did a bit of research, got their email and wrote to them. I
was expecting a cool but non-speaking part as a zombie and so was really
pushing my strengths as a physical actress in the email! I was surprised
when they replied quite quickly with details of an audition for Sam. And
this was such a testament to the way Marco and Luca work. They're so open
and generous, they would give a complete random an audition. I haven't had
that same direct feeling with directors in London, though I'm sure and hope
it does happen. What's it like shooting in Italy, and to
what extent does an Italian filmset differ from a British one? Italy
was amazing and unbelievably hot. It's so close to England and yet England
is incomparably shit in terms of weather. Great people, wonderful
hospitality, amazing food! I definitely could see myself living there.
As this is my first feature film, I don't think I'm really able to comment
on the differences of English/ Italian sets. I have a feeling this film
set was unique amongst all others. A lot of the crew had worked together
before or were already close friends, and so the set had a family
environment. Marco and Luca have known eachother for years and have a very
symbiotic way of working that never appears to clash in a way that is
negative to the set. The people who were there were 100% passionate about
what they do and lived and breathed this movie with total dedication the
whole way through. The set was incredibly diplomatic, open to discussion,
sociable and fair. Any kind of diva attitude from any actors would not go
down well on this set - though I know it's tolerated and even pandered to,
on others. We had dinner together almost all the time and I can truthfully
say a lot of them will remain friends for a very long time.
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A
few words about your directors Marco Ristori and Luca Boni [Marco
Ristori and Luca Boni interview - click here], and what was your
collaboration like?
Marco and Luca are supremo. Really talented, fun and passionate about
what they do. They have hearts of gold. With Zombie Massacre being a
zombie film - is that a genre you can at all relate to, and your genre
favourites? I used to watch all the old Night of the Living
Dead movies when I was a kid, and we had all the Evil Dead movies too. I
used to love being scared until I freaked myself out so bad watching Child's
Play that I thought Chucky was going to kill me every night. 28 Weeks
Later is possibly one of the scariest films I've seen.
Since zombie films are not at all un-prone
to sequels - would you be on board for Zombie Massacre II?
If Marco and Luca directed it, yes. (And if I got turned into a Zombie
at some point!)
Let's
go back to the beginnings of your career: What got you into acting in the
first place, and did you receive any formal training on the subject? I've
always wanted to be an actor. We were such a movie household when I was
young - I think that's where my love of film comes from. My brother was an
actor when we were young and was in West End musicals, but I was shy and
acting classes terrified me. My way into acting was through dance. I
trained in ballet for 13 years and then when I went to university I
auditioned for the musical Cabaret and got cast as Sally Bowles. I'm
lucky I could dance, and I had short hair. I'm pretty sure I didnt get cast
for my acting skills as I was still so shy they really had to work to get
me going.
I graduated from The Central School of Speech and Drama last year where I
trained professionally.
What
can you tell us about your filmwork/stagework prior to Zombie Massacre?
Not much, though I suppose some of the work I've done has necessarily
preceded Zombie Massacre, in the fact that it is an action movie.
Last year, I played the lead in a production of Lear by Edward
Bond, which has been described as the most violent play ever written. I
have this horrific death where I'm desperately trying to run away while
screaming and falling and being chased. We had fake blood bags made up
before each show that were of varying sizes. It was choreographed so that
certain 'soldiers' who I came into contact with during the fight would
pass me the blood bags so that when I next got hit, I could burst it at
the right point. It looked really realistic. Before we went on, on the
final night, my friend who was playing one of the soldiers said "I've
got a little surprise for you." There is a moment where after he's
passed me the blood bag, I run and trip then get kneeed in the face by
another soldier breaking my nose. The blood bag is supposed to be quite
small, but he passed me a huge blood bag, which I popped at the right
moment, exploding blood ALL OVER my face. There was an amazing gasp from
the audience and my teachers were horrified. Success! Any
future projects you'd like to talk about?
I am in talks regarding another feature at the moment, so we shall see. How would you
describe yourself as an actress? I have no idea - always
working on it. Actresses (or indeed
actors) who inspire you?
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Daniel Day Lewis, Tilda Swinton,
Maggie Gyllenhall, Gary Oldman, Samantha Morton. Your favourite movies? Fifth
Element, The Lost Boys, Io Sono l'Amore, La Vita
è Bella, On the Town with
Gene Kelly. ...
and of course, films you really deplore? Wolf Creek and the
Saw-movies. The violence is far too realistic for me. Not enough suspense
and too much violence. I dont have the balls to watch those kinds of
films. Your website,
Facebook, whatever else? Website is coming soon, so keep an
eye out. And yes, I'm on Facebook. Anything else you are dying to
mention and I have merely forgotten to ask?
Yes. I had the best cast members in the world! Thanks for
the interview!
Thank you!
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find Ivy Corbin at adultvideouniverse.com
