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Your upcoming movie Inside Fear - in a few words,
what is it about?
Inside Fear is about a woman who develops severe agoraphobia as a result
of a brutal attack. After 6
years of suffering with panic attacks, nightmares and living in constant
fear she reaches her lowest point yet as she begins to have suicidal
thoughts. Rose, her
psychotherapist lets slip that her husband is working on a new ‘wonder
drug’ that is due to go into trial and Kristie begs her to get her the
drug. Rose and her husband, Nigel, eventually agree to take a huge risk by
giving Kristie these pills illegally, but there may be an ulterior motive
for them to do so…
What were your inspirations when writing Inside
Fear? And what can you tell us about the writing process as such? Honestly? I
don’t know where the hell it came from.
It wasn’t a quick process. Parts
came to me and I’d get started, then I’d leave it a while and dream of
some more, I was waking up at 3am having to write down what I’d dreamt
before I forgot. I’d never
written a screenplay before and it was a huge learning experience.
Luckily for me, John William Fletcher, a fantastic writer, agreed
to come on board to help me structure it.
He basically tore it apart and re-built it with me, changing it
from a good idea into a story into a screenplay to be proud of.
You
also play the lead role in Inside Fear - so have you written
your character with yourself in mind, what did you draw upon to bring her
to life, and how much of Eirian Cohen will we find in her?
No, I
didn’t write the story with myself in mind.
I knew I wanted to play the part but I had a lot of doubts about
whether I would be able to pull off such an in-depth character as well as
producing the film and right up until a few weeks before, I wasn’t 100%
sure I was going to play the role myself.
To bring
Kristie to life, I spoke to people who had been through similar
experiences to find out how they felt, how their experiences changed them,
how other people reacted around them and found this helped tremendously.
People were so open and honest with me and told me a lot of things
that were very personal and for that I can’t thank them enough.
For the few weeks before the shoot, I kept a video diary as Kristie
and went out and improvised as the character.
There were quite a few of my own past experiences that I could draw
upon to get into Kristie’s state of mind but I needed to regularly
change what I was using or they would stop having the same effect.
By the end of the shoot, I was emotionally drained!
How
much of me will you find in Kristie? That’s a really hard one to answer.
Although her experiences have changed her, deep down she is still a
fun loving, easy going person and I guess that side of her is similar to
me, although, without giving too much away, there are things that happen
in the film that I would not have responded to in the same way as Kristie. What can
you tell us about your director John William Fletcher, and what was your
collaboration like? And being the writer, lead and producer of the film,
how actively involved were you in some of his creative decisions?
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Sam Gannon directed by John William Fletcher |
John William Fletcher has been amazing and he has had a massive positive
influence on the film. It
wasn’t the first time I had worked with him; I had been in a few of his
films in the past which is how I know him, and it definitely won’t be
the last. In fact, I am going
to help him out on the promo for his film Kill, which I am really
looking forward to. I was
still involved in the creative decisions for Inside Fear.
Although I trusted him fully to know what was best for the film, he
still talked me through all of his ideas and asked my opinion on
everything, which was great. We
didn’t agree on everything but looking back now, I’m quite sure that
all the right decisions were made J
Do talk about your key cast for a bit, and why exactly these people?
The cast were all actors I had worked with
before who I knew would be perfect for their roles would be easy to work
with. We all had to live
together for most of the shoot and I wanted to make sure that there was a
good atmosphere and that everyone who was involved would be reliable and
would work hard. I’m happy
to say that they were all absolutely fantastic and I would love to work
with them all again soon. Sam
Gannon and Louise O’Leary are very talented, experienced and passionate
actors who I would work with time and time again if I could.
I have worked with Paul Sutton [Paul
Sutton interview - click here], Dean Sills [Dean
Sills interview - click here] and Tom Vardy many times
and love working with them, they are always so positive and enthusiastic -
they worked hard on their characters for Inside Fear and really delivered,
they were amazing. I work for
Eddie Bammeke’s production company as co-producer and was thrilled to
get him on board with this - he is an incredible actor.
The children, Nancy Orchis-Evans and Isabelle Hargreaves, were
just top class. So young but
so professional and talented. I
feel very lucky to have been able to pull together such a great team.
What can you tell us about the shoot as such, and the
on-set atmosphere? The cast and crew of Inside Fear are
all a bit crazy and we had a lot of laughs behind the scenes.
There was a lot of banter and fooling around but when it was
time to shoot, everyone focused and we got so much done in very little
time. Of course, no shoot ever runs smoothly but we didn’t let anything get us down and it was
relatively stress-free!
Any idea when and where the film will
be released onto the general public yet? It is difficult to say at this stage, but I will keep you updated
J Any
other upcoming films of yours you'd like to talk about/future projects you
want to share? The next project in line that I am producing is called
Innocent and
is a true story of a friend of mine, actress Dawn Hills [Dawn
Hills interview - click here], co-written by you, actually.
It’s a hard hitting drama intended to raise awareness of sexual
abuse with proceeds going to charity. Also in pre-production is Undercover, one of the projects I am working on for
ESG Media as
co-producer. This drama is
about Undercover Federal Agents who get deep into the world of drugs and
vice in the Essex and London underworld.
As mentioned earlier, the promo for Kill is being shot soon.
This is a noir revenge thriller set during one night of adrenaline
fuelled, blood soaked revenge. Think
Drive meets Dead Man's Shoes. It’s
produced and directed by John Fletcher and I am very happy to be involved,
the screenplay is outstanding. Your/your movie's website, Facebook,
whatever else?
Here you go…
https://www.facebook.com/insidefear
www.eiriancohen.co.uk
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Anything else you are dying to mention
and I have merely forgotten to ask? I just want to say a huge thank you to
everyone who has helped in any way, from giving us a like on the Facebook
page to giving up time to help on set and behind the scenes, helping out
financially and letting us take over their house to film in.
Our budget was minimal and it couldn’t have been done without
such amazing people around me. I
will never forget it! Thanks for the
interview!
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find Eirian Cohen at adultvideouniverse.com
