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Your In
Fear of-episode Disposophobia - in a few words, what is it
about?
We're
all very obsessed with "Hoarder's Syndrome" in America - there's
even a reality TV show about it (amazingly, our DP has worked on it!). I'm
looking at Hoarder's Syndrome from the OTHER side of the looking glass
through this roller coaster of an episode - a darkly funny, tragic and
ultimately terrifying (I hope) mother/daughter relationship. As far as I know, Disposophobia was at
least partly inspired by the classic Twilight
Zone - would you care to elaborate, and other sources of
inspiration for Disposophobia? I
ADORE the Twilight
Zone! I have ever since I was a kid. I play a game with
myself sometimes when I find it on somewhere - I close my eyes and see how
fast I can guess which episode it is. Never takes more than the first few
words!
How can you
personally relate to disposophobia, the actual phobia that is - in other words, are you a hoarder?
And related to that, what are you afraid of, personally? I
think we're all collectors of things in one way or another. I'd like to
think I'm not, but just looking at my computer screen and seeing all the
files I have open... God, if I had 56,000 actual pieces of mail instead of
56,000 emails I'd have an entire room full of paper. Computers are
deceptive that way, aren't they? You
also appear in front of the camera in Disposophobia - so did you write your character
for yourself, what do you draw upon to bring the role to life, and how
much of Anne Bobby will be in your character? I
didn't actually initially write the character for myself - I know lots of
people say that, but it really is true - mostly because the character
faces not one, but two of my greatest terrors and I REALLY didn't want to
immerse myself in them. I still don't, frankly, and I dread one scene in
particular. But I've known (co-star) Barbara Rosenblat a long time and
have LONG been an admirer of her work - I've wanted to work with her
forever, and the day of the first reading of the script the director had
suggested a change in the story. I wanted to make the best case for what
I'd written, so I decided to play the character for just that one night.
Two things changed as a result - the ending - the director was right,
after all - and my decision to play Pamela. I got on board. Do talk
about the rest of your cast for a bit, and why exactly these people?
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Barbara Rosenblat |
I've
already mentioned Barbara Rosenblat, but she really is one of the most
awesome and interesting actresses I know. While most people know her as an
audio book narrator (she's one one the best and most prolific in the
business), I think that her role in Netflix's Orange Is The New
Black is featuring her in a whole new way to a whole new audience.
She's masterful, and I can't wait to play her daughter. She gets this
character completely, and her comic timing is going to serve the script SO
well... The other castmember is one of the sweetest, funniest and most
talented actors I know. Doug Shapiro is a godsend to this production, and
will make that one terrible, horrifying scene for me that much easier to
do. Your
director Jon Ecklund - what will he bring to the table? I
like when people reach across disciplines - I've done it myself most of my
life. Directors make great actors (hello, Dr Decker!), writers make great
directors, directors make great producers. In Jon's case we have a Yale
School of Drama grad (whom I've loved watching on stage) coming at this
with not only his vast directing experience but also as a co-producer -
AND editor (Jon cut the video on the IndieGoGo page - http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/disposophobia-short-film/x/4447046
-, and I couldn't have
been happier with the result!). He's proving to be an intuitive, smart,
sensitive and calm presence during the process - things I don't have
enough of in my life. His wife, Fiona Jones, and he have in a five short
years earned a reputation as a serious go-to production company for short
film and promotional projects. Their taste is impeccable, their experience
vast. I was lucky to get them, and thrilled when they said yes to Disposophobia.
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on the set of Agoraphobia |
You
have also been (in only an acting capability) in an earlier episode of In
Fear of, Agoraphobia: Fear of Leaving the House. So how
what can you tell us about that one, and how did you get involved with the
series to begin with?
Facebook
and timing! I was writing late at night (which is the only time I really
get to focus), adapting a long-forgotten and suddenly very pertinent
story into a script. When I write dialogue I like to clear my head
between lines, so of course I was faffing around online... I popped in
on my Facebook Public Page and there was this message from Scott W. Perry
[Scott W. Perry interview -
click here] asking if I'd consider looking at his series and considering a
role. Now I'd already shot a great film - Corey Norman's The
Hanover House - as a direct result of the same sort of
happenstance, and so wrote back and asked him to send the script. Turned
out he was online, so he sent it right away, we chatted that night, I
read the (truly wonderful) script and within 24 hours, I was on board.
It's
a great story in true Twilight
Zone-tradition - three characters, one
set, a journey that's a mystery that twists at the end in a way you
never see coming... How could I say no? I was glad they let me suggest
an actor for the other lead role - I've known and worked with Frank
Vlastnik for years and he is phenomenal in the part - and love that
Scott and Bob [Robert L.
Brodmerkel interview - click here] have embraced the tone of the story the same way I did. I
think we're even doing it in black and white!
Agoraphobia |
How did you ultimately end up
writing and producing an episode of In
Fear of? The
series SCREAMED Twilight
Zone to me, and if you check out my IndieGoGo campaign - http://www.indiegogo.com/
projects/disposophobia-short-film/x/
4447046 - you'll truly understand what that means to me. The premise was so
intriguing - I mean, come on... short films about phobias? Please! - I
started thinking about writing one almost as soon as I said yes to acting
in one. Then one very intense conversation with a fellow filmmaker on a
subway platform about what we were afraid of, and hypothetical scenarios
surrounding our phobias, pretty much terrified me and convinced me to
address my fears. God knows, this film will be very real for me. Any idea when and where your episode
will be released onto the general public yet? I
think Scott is talking about January, but I'll be releasing the film in
December - with an outtakes short and special introduction - to anyone who
donates fifteen dollars to the IndieGoGo campaign
http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/disposophobia-short-film/x/4447046.
I figure it's our movie for a night at the movies; if you like serious
psychological horror, you'll be up all night!
What
got you into acting to begin with, what can you tell us about your
training as an actress, and how would you describe yourself as an actress? I
think of myself as an 'Occupation: Actress'; I've been very fortunate in
that I've been a working actor since I was fourteen years old and while
I've also written books and plays I've never stopped acting. I've worked
with the best in the business on Broadway, Off-Broadway, TV, Film, Games,
Audio - Clive Barker, Tom Stoppard, Oliver Stone, Mike Nichols, Todd
Solandz, Tom Cruise, Jeremy Irons... Mad About You, Bioshock,
Beautiful Girls, Born On The Fourth of July - where do I start?!? I've worked
everywhere, in every medium, and have grown from every experience - even
now, I'm producing! You never stop growing... If you're VERY fortunate. I
think ALL of my readers would burn me on a stake if I didn't ask you about
your experiences on Nightbreed
- so please do talk about that one for a bit to keep me unburnt a little
longer!
Well,
we can't have that!
Nightbreed really changed my life - as an artist and as a person. As an artist -
one of the few 'Naturals' - I spent time on set, while so many other
actors were in makeup chairs. I hung out with the camera crew, the sound
crew, the editors... and of course with Clive. It was an education not
just in acting, but in filmmaking as a whole, that I was forever
grateful for - especially now as I'm making a film of my own. It all
comes back - amazing...
But
equally, and probably more invaluable to me as the years pass, are the
friendships I made during the filming - and the friendships that
developed FROM those relationships. Case in point: I'm writing to you
from my apartment in Brooklyn - a place I've lived in for eighteen
years. I LOVE Brooklyn, but had really never spent time here until I met
Chris Claremont and his wife Beth, who live nearby and whom I now
consider among my closest friends. I never would have met THEM had Neil
Gaiman not introduced us. I never would have met Neil - who I also
consider one of my dearest friends (and who's in my IndieGoGo campaign
video) -- had Clive not introduced US.
Friends
are everything. Longtime friends - and what they inspire us to become -
are what life, and art, are really about.
Hope
that spares you from the stake.
Other films of yours you'd like to talk about? I'm
so excited about The Hanover House!
Oh MAN, so am I - it's a GORGEOUS film, a true modern gothic. Very Turn
Of The Screw. Corey and Haley Norman have done something similar to what
Clive did when it comes to filmmaking; they have a sort of repertory
company in Maine, and they all get together and crank out amazing films
like The Hanover House. I always say that Nightbreed
was the closest film ever came to
feeling like theater for me; I think Corey has the makings of doing that
as well, and will be following his career very closely. He really is
someone to watch.
The Hanover House |
You've
also done your fair share of theatre - so what can you tell us about your
stage career, and how does performing on stage compare to acting in front
of a camera? If a theater actor says they prefer film to
stage, they're either lying or doing one or the other thing for a reason
other than making art. Which happens, and happens to us all. But trust me
- there is nothing as fulfilling or challenging for an actor as the
immediate contact, spontaneity, intensity, hilarity, heartbreak and
triumph that is telling a story, beginning to end, in front of people who
have assembled for that purpose. What got you into writing eventually, and
do talk about Anne Bobby, the writer, for a bit? I used to
think I didn't really write anything until I was nineteen, when I wrote a
script as a cathartic process after the unexpected and sudden death of my
father. But just a few days ago I was at my Mom's house in New Jersey and
she showed me this poem I wrote when I'm guessing now I was six. This
spare little four-line piece full of tristesse and real sophistication (If
I do say so myself!)... I think it was taking the time to finally go to
college - you know, I started acting professionally when I'd only just
turned fourteen. I spent almost eight years saying other people's words
really really well, and had no faith in my OWN words, my OWN thoughts.
Serious years at NYU changed that for me. One of the most empowering
things I ever did. The other was moving to Brooklyn. Writers,
actresses, filmmakers, whatever else who inspire you?
I am
absolutely obsessed at the moment with Naseeruddin Shah! He's India's
answer to Olivier, with a fair amount of Sean Connery thrown in. He's
really only known in the West as Nemo in
The League Of Extraordinary
Gentlemen, but if you really want to see a genius at work he's got this
rom-com streaming on Netflix called Today's Special, and he steals every
scene he's in. Extraordinary actor - he makes a lifetime of honing his
craft so sexily effortless I may have to watch it again. Soon as I'm done
here.
Any
future projects beyond Disposophobia you'd like to share?
When In
Fear of appeared I was nearly finished with episode six of a
seven-part miniseries I was writing, that now glares at me on my desktop - a resentful and impatient little icon, the bastard. It's based on
the first (unpublished) manuscript I ever wrote and which I recently
learned at least one publisher regrets not having acquired. It's oddly
an incredibly timely piece right now, and as soon as Disposophobia is
truly in the can, I want to make it all up to my little miniseries for
the four months I'll have been away.
Your
favourite movies?
Well
of course some movies land on the list for a bit and then wander, but
I'd say my current faves?
A
Wednesday (mostly because it's another Naseeruddin Shah vehicle, I admit
- I REALLY AM obsessed!)
The
Tenant (Polanski)
I
Claudius (TV series - can't help it, nor for that matter can I help:)
The Twilight
Zone
Dr.
Strangelove
The
Insider
The
Lion In Winter
The
Shawshank Redemption
Gosford
Park
Howard's
End
... and of course, films you really
deplore?
 |
Feeling lucky?
Want to
search
any of my partnershops yourself
for more, better results?
(commissions earned) |
The links below
will take you
just there!!!
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Gladiator
(as a Classics major, the historical revisionism makes me absolutely
ill)
Moulin
Rouge (ditto)
The
Vanishing (which is so fucking fucking brilliant it terrifies me to my
core just thinking about it!!!)
Zentropa
(ditto)
Your/your movie's website, Facebook, IndieGoGo,
whatever else?
Our Movie - For The Price Of A Movie Ticket...
Disposophobia is coming - Have You Seen Our IndieGoGo Campaign?
Watch it HERE:
https://vimeo.com/72875765
Donate HERE:
http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/disposophobia-short-film/x/4447046
Anything else you are dying to mention
and I have merely forgotten to ask?
Stop
drinking bottled water. Start eating locally sourced foods. Adopt an
animal - do something really awesome and adopt an OLD animal. This is a
rental - it all goes back to the shop. Treat the world and everything it
with honor.
(And
see my movie!)
Loved
this interview - thanks so much!
Thanks for the
interview!
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amazon.com
amazon.co.uk
amazon.de
eThaiCD.com
find Anne Bobby at adultvideouniverse.com
