with Petr Malinkovic in The Night Monica Came Back |
Your upcoming movie The Night Monica Came Back
- in a few
words, what is it about, and what can you tell us about your character in
it?
The Night Monica Came Back
is an astonishing and delirant horror-comedy
short film. A few teens are going for a camp and some of them die in odd
circumstances. 20 years after, they receive a mysterious invitation to
meet again...
I play the adult Monica, she seems to be much different than when she
was a teen. She has an amazing twist in the story. What did you draw upon to bring Monica to life, and
how much of Sandra Valera can we find in her, actually? Well,
Monica is a sassy hahaha, and I consider myself a bit sassy too, so
regarding that it was easy. I started to think as Monica, that is what I need
to do to bring a character into life, also thinking of what kind of clothes
she would be wearing. She likes people paying attention to her too. Also
it was pretty easy as she is Spanish like me, so I put a bit of
myself into it too. I am very happy with the results. With The Night Monica Came Back
being a horror comedy, are these genres
that actually appeal to you, both as an actress and as a viewer? I
have always loved horror films, and I can easily play somebody mysterious,
I love to do that. I must to admit that I have never been much of a comedy
viewer as I prefer other genres, but this short film has been a nice and
amazing discovery for me, as a person but also as an actress. Comedy was
always something that I resisted.
Shooting The Night Monica Came Back
was actually part of an "actors'
bootcamp" - so do talk about the bootcamp for a bit, and how did you
get involved with it even? Well the bootcamp was an
intensive weekend. We did not have much time to play around, if you know
what a mean. We did some badass warriors workout, and oh God, it made me
realise
that I was not fit at all. Then we did mindset, and that was tough, we had
to open the deepest part of ourselves to the rest of the group, but it was
so worth it that I do not regret a bit. Meditation was involved too, and of
course the amazing a beloved Laurance R. Harvey, with whom we had the
pleasure to do a workshop with. We all became very close, and at the end
of the weekend, we felt like if we were family. Was absolutley amazing. I
remember having a live call with Eirian Cohen [Eirian Cohen interview - click
here] while I was on holiday in Spain,
she informed me about this amazing opportunitiy, and without thinking twice
I told her that I was in, it took me less than a minute to decide,
hahahaha. The Night Monica Came Back
also stars horror veteran Laurence R. Harvey from Human Centipede 2
- so what was working with him like?
Working with Laurence
was something from another world. Oh Dios mio, he is such a proffesional,
amazing, kind, caring person. You can learn so much from him. He even gave
me some good tips and also told me when he discoverd that he wanted to be
an actor. I will never forget the experience of working with him, and I am
looking forward to do it. What can you tell
us about the shoot as such, and the on-set atmosphere? Well
the shoot took more time than expected and we ended up filiming for about
13 hours nonstop, but the atmosphere was very good. Working with Cameron
Prudames is easy and quite funny, I worked with him before, when we
shoot A Mole Walks into a Bar and I knew it was going to be
as easy as it was the first time. Also the rest of the actors and crew
were very helpful so the day went by very quickly, thanks to all of them,
and also thanks to our Dr. Evil!! without him this would have not been
possible. Do you know him? He is an amazing, crazy person, hahahaha [and
who on closer inspection would be Michael Haberfelner, who on very close
inspection is actually, me ... Michael
Haberfelner interview - click here]. Well
everything was excellent on all levels.
Any
future projects you'd like to share? Well, I am preparing a
short film with other tribelets, but I cannot say much about it, as we will
present it in a competition on November 11th , so as you can see we
have a very tight schedule. I will only add that it is going to be hilarous What got you into
acting in the first place, and what can you tell us about your education
on the subject? I always wanted to act, but unfortunatley
all the shcools I searched when I was a teen were to expensive, and we
could not afford to pay them. Then I moved to England 5 years ago, and
just on February this year I found Northern Star
Acting, I joined them at the
begining for fun and going to the class, but everything started to move
very fast, and here I am 8 months after, and I have already filmed two
short films, and I love it, it is a dream come true!! But nothing comes
for free, so you need to work hard, and commit if you want
to be part of something amazing as acting. How would you describe yourself as an
actress? I believe I am very professional, I could play different roles in drama, horror, but there are certain types I would not
go for. I commit to my job as an actress, and I always try to learn,
in this life you never stop to learn, but you must want to do it, it is
pretty easy to be sitting at home waiting for things to happen. As an
actress and as a person I push myself every day, trying to escape the routine and easy life of being sitting at home :) Actresses (and indeed actors) who inspire you? Well
I really like Jennifer Lawrence, she is very young, but has that
availability to move you when she is playing any role. I loved her
character in the film Silver Linings Playbook. I do also admire Kate
Winslet, she is one of the actresses who said to those who never
believed in her "look at me, I am here", but I admire every
actress, their job. Peter Jackson, I adore him for binging Tolkien to life!! Your
favourite movies?
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I got one absolutley favourite movie, the
one since I was 14 years old, The Lord of The Rings. All about this movie,
its characters, its landscapes, the deep conversations, those amazing
scenes and the sript that we will never forget. I do also love Whiplash, that
was a masterpiece, and Lost in
Translation. Have you also watched Inception,
love Leonardo DiCaprio, he is a brilliant actor, can play so many
different roles, I do admire him!! Oh by the way, Deadpool, hahaha
hilarous! Any sci-fi movie too :) ... and of course, films you really
deplore? I am still trying to recover for the big deception
that Lights Out was!!! I love horror movies too, but boy that movie was
having one of the worst finales ever. I also cannot stand Ted - a teddy bear
that gets drunk, smokes weed and farts ... seriously??? Your website, Facebook, whatever else?
Twitter: @Sandra_Valera_
Facebook: Sandra Valera
I am still in process of creating my website :)
Anything
else you're dying to mention and I have merely forgotten to ask?
I would love to tell everyone, that they should be following their
dreams, I might have said this thousand times already, but do not let
anyone tell you what you can or you cannot do!!!!! Just the poeple who are
not happy with their lives will try to put you down, don't give them the
satisfaction!!!
And I would like to thank all the members of Northern Star
Acting, especially to Eirian Cohen [Eirian Cohen interview - click
here] and
Liam Rooke.
Thanks
for the interview!
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