Your new movie Triaphilia
- in a few words, what is it about, and what can you tell us about your
character in it?
It reminds me of Tales from the Crypt: horror with dark
humor... essentially there are three separate stories all revolving around possessed/cursed items found in an antique shop.
Different
characters buy an item from the store, take it home, and mayhem ensues. My character, Karen, becomes possessed by a mirror. She
and her boyfriend give this mirror to her parents, but what she doesn't know is that the cursed mirror will expose who you
really are on the inside. Karen is selfish, arrogant, and in some ways immature; so the transformation is very drastic
externally (hence me in black out sclera contacts, peeling skin, and devil horns!).
What did you draw upon to bring your
character to life, and how much Katie Raulerson can we find in Karen? I have
a dance background and I love to approach all my roles from the physical
side first; basically I work from the outside in. For this role in particular I watched tons of animal
videos
(particularly crocodiles and spiders) and tried to emulate their movement and sounds. I also watched copious
amounts of "behind the
scenes" moments from The Exorcist,
The
Ring, and a few others. AND I also watched a weird YouTube video every night
for 2 months to help me work on my backbends... Ha! I guess you can say my internet browser was very confused. Let's
hope there's zero ounce of actual Katie
in this... but you never know! How
did you get involved with the project in the first place?
Joshua
Nelson [Joshua
Nelson interview - click here] is my acting teacher and he provides opportunities for his
students that honestly no other teacher/school offers. I've never seen anyone else create work for their students and
then pitch that
project. It's truly pretty amazing and I am very grateful. To
what extent can you relate to Triaphilia's
approach to horror, and is that a genre you're at all fond of? I love
horror movies. I grew up watching them from a very young age (sorry mom)
and have always wanted to be in them. I really like how this movie in particular adds moments of humor and
includes different stories. Horror anthologies seem to be popular now; hence,
American Horror Stories. This is a
neat throwback to something that used to be more relevant and is now resurfacing. What
can you tell us about Triaphilia's
director Joshua Nelson [Joshua
Nelson interview - click here], and what was your collaboration
like? Joshua is amazing. He's a great teacher and
director, but also allows a lot of creativity and freedom. He was
upfront with what he wanted from me, but he also let me add input on how I wanted to come
across. Something I really admired is that he took into consideration how I was feeling the entire time.
I was in a makeup chair
for just under 3 hours wearing crazy contacts that drastically impaired my vision and he made sure
I was comfortable the entire time.
Most importantly, he was and is always
there to believe in me when I don't believe in myself.
Since Triaphilia
isn't the first time you've worked with Joshua Nelson, do talk about your
previous collaborations for a bit? We have worked together on many short films,
but this is the first feature. Josh writes great things for me because
he knows what I can do - which is relieving. One recent project of ours,
Faces of Dead Women, is currently making the film festival
circuit. It's about sexual assault victims joining together to take down a potential
predator. It was written beautifully, shot beautifully, and everyone involved had a wonderful time working on it. Beyond this film, other
projects of Josh's I've worked on have varied from comedy, to drama, to horror.
Back to Triaphilia
- what can you tell us about the shoot as such, and the on-set atmosphere? It was fun, but exhausting. As I said earlier,
I was in a makeup chair for about 3 hours... and that's not including
taking everything
off which was about another 1.5 hours. I adore everyone I was able to
work with, so it was very enjoyable. Overall, it was a very
relaxed set. We were all prepared and ready to work. The hardest part of
the whole thing was learning how to put in my contacts! Any
future projects you'd like to share? I am in a comedic short film called,
The Change coming out soon. And I am in Joshua's next horror
feature, Menopause. What got you into
acting in the first place, and did you receive any formal training on the
subject? When I was a little girl my dad showed me all sorts of black
and white movies, musicals, and all the classics. I saw Gone with the Wind and
Spartacus when I was
about 5 years old, and that's all it took; I knew I wanted to do this
forever. I started taking acting classes and performing in plays when I was
9 years old. With regards to formal training I have a BFA
in Musical Theatre from the University of Montevallo. What can you tell us about your filmwork prior
to Triaphilia?
Actually it's mostly been comedic work up to this point. I
would love to do more horror and feature films. So far I have done
mostly shorts and things like that. I come from a very strong theatre
background and have only been pursuing film within the
past 2/3 years, so I'm excited to see it continue. How
would you describe yourself as an actress, and some of your techniques to
bring your characters to life?
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I know exactly who I am and what I bring to the table, which
in a lot of ways is the hardest part. I try to ground every
character I play in truth and I am a painful perfectionist,
which has its pros and cons. With regards to technique, I use
various ones based on the character I'm playing. For this character it
was based in Alexander and animal work. Actresses (and indeed
actors) who inspire you? Woof.
There's a lot. I am an old soul so my all time idols are THE Carol
Burnett, Lucille Ball, and Marilyn Monroe. I steal
as much perfection from them as I can. Modern day actors: Rachel
Brosnahan, Catherine O'Hara, Glenn Close... I could go on. Your favourite movies?
I
have a very across-the-board taste. My
favorite movie of all time is, Some Like it Hot with Tony
Curtis, Jack Lemmon,
and Marilyn Monroe. Other favorites: Singing in the Rain, Clue,
Titanic, The Rocky Horror Picture
Show, Waiting for
Guffman, the remake of IT... like I said, it's very
across the board!
...
and of course, films you really deplore?
Sharknado. Fame. I am not a fan AT ALL of action or
superhero movies... my worst nightmare is being forced to watch
any of the Fast and the Furious franchise. Things that terrify me?? The
movie Signs. I can't handle anything alien-related.
There was time in my childhood where I made my parents take the ET VHS box out of our house because I couldn't look
at his creepy fingers. I am not making this up. Your website,
social media, whatever else?
Instagram: @katieraulerson
Website: katieraulerson.com
Thanks
for the interview!
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