Hot Picks

- Ready for My Close Up 2019

- Talk of the Dead 2016

- Tower Rats 2020

- Script of the Dead 2024

- The Bell Affair 2023

- Easter Bloody Easter 2024

- Velma 2022

- Everwinter Night 2023

- Main Character Energy 2023

- Stupid Games 2024

- Bittertooth 2023

- 4 Minutes of Terror: Night Slasher 2024

- Apart 2024

- The Abandoned 2006

- Becky 2024

- The Evil Fairy Queen 2024

- The Black Guelph 2022

- Followers 2024

- Silence of the Prey 2024

- Battle for the Western Front 2024

- Beware the Boogeyman 2024

- Subject 101 2022

- Driftwood 2023

- The Legend of Lake Hollow 2024

- Black Mass 2023

- Skinwalkers: American Werewolves 2 2023

- The Manifestation 2024

- Spirit Riser 2024

- Garden of Souls 2019

- It's a Wonderful Slice 2024

- Caleb & Sarah 2024

- The Thousand Steps 2020

- The Desiring 2021

- When a Stranger Knocks 2024

- Quint-essentially Irish 2024

- Son of Gacy 2024

- Saltville 2024

- The True Story of the Christ's Return 2024

- Whenever I'm Alone with You 2023

- Jurassic Triangle 2024

- Midnight Peepshow 2022

- Offworld: Alien Planet 2024

- The Swiss Conspiracy 1976

- Sex-Positive 2024

- Here for Blood 2022

- All Over Again 2024

- The Color Yellow 2023

- Des Töchterleins Leid 2024

- I Am a Channel 2024

- The Hermits 2023

- Murdaritaville 2024

- Inheritance 2024

- The Devil's Partner 1960

- First Impressions Can Kill 2017

- A Killer Conversation 2014

- Star Crash 1979

- Strangler of the Swamp 1946

An Interview with Maura Stephens, Actress

by Mike Haberfelner

December 2017

Films starring Maura Stephens on (re)Search my Trash

 

Quick Links

Abbott & Costello

The Addams Family

Alice in Wonderland

Arsène Lupin

Batman

Bigfoot

Black Emanuelle

Bomba the Jungle Boy

Bowery Boys

Bulldog Drummond

Captain America

Charlie Chan

Cinderella

Deerslayer

Dick Tracy

Dr. Mabuse

Dr. Orloff

Doctor Who

Dracula

Edgar Wallace made in Germany

Elizabeth Bathory

Emmanuelle

Fantomas

Flash Gordon

Frankenstein

Frankie & Annette Beach Party movies

Freddy Krueger

Fu Manchu

Fuzzy

Gamera

Godzilla

Hercules

El Hombre Lobo

Incredible Hulk

Jack the Ripper

James Bond

Jekyll and Hyde

Jerry Cotton

Jungle Jim

Justine

Kekko Kamen

King Kong

Laurel and Hardy

Lemmy Caution

Lobo

Lone Wolf and Cub

Lupin III

Maciste

Marx Brothers

Miss Marple

Mr. Moto

Mister Wong

Mothra

The Munsters

Nick Carter

OSS 117

Phantom of the Opera

Philip Marlowe

Philo Vance

Quatermass

Robin Hood

The Saint

Santa Claus

El Santo

Schoolgirl Report

The Shadow

Sherlock Holmes

Spider-Man

Star Trek

Sukeban Deka

Superman

Tarzan

Three Mesquiteers

Three Musketeers

Three Stooges

Three Supermen

Winnetou

Wizard of Oz

Wolf Man

Wonder Woman

Yojimbo

Zatoichi

Zorro

First of all, why don't you introduce yourself to those of us who don't already know you?

 

Catherine Maura Aidan at your service. I’m a dorky Canadian feral beast who likes to play pretend. I grew up on Elm St – sans Freddy Krueger – where I was homeschooled with my four creative and hilarious sisters. I was one of those kids who wanted to be a detective who is also an actor who is also a rockstar who is also a clown at the circus. I was a shy kid but really relished the various forms of storytelling my sisters and I would partake in – those were the moments where I felt freedom from my shyness. That love for storytelling never waned.

 

Any current/future projects you'd like to share?

 

Most recently I’ve been in two horror shorts from Andrew J.D. Robinson [Andrew J.D. Robinson interview - click here] called Placebo and A Walk Home Alone, and have a new one with him on the horizon which is a really awesome, creepy concept where I play a 911 dispatcher to Erin Kiniry’s distressed caller. I recently saw her in Mitchell Slan’s award winning short Balloon and she’s a gem. I think people are going to really dig Dispatch.

 

What got you into acting in the first place, and did you receive any formal training on the subject?

 

There was always character playing in my house when I was growing up. My love for all of that eventually lead to me pursuing acting and it’s not too different from what I grew up doing… except now there’s usually a lot of mint flavoured stage blood involved and HD cameras. I did take a handful of classes in my early twenties, before that I was improvising different intense scenarios in front of the mirror. I remember in 1997 seeing Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo & Juliet and being obsessed with Claire Danes and was inspired by her emotional range. I would sit alone in a room and practice making myself cry on command. Feels so silly admitting that.

 

with Andrew J.D. Robinson on the set of Beauty Sleep

Can you still remember your first time in front of a movie camera, and what was that experience like?

 

Two of my sisters, Celia and Sarah, and I made a few films when we were younger. I think the first one was when I was 10 and I played this woman who was abused as a child by her parents. She grows up, marries a fella, has a baby, and ends up killing them both and then herself. Spoiler alert! It was mostly improvised, too. Clearly a delightful romp for the whole family! We were usually really goofy, so that was a dark neighbourhood we went into with that one. We were strange kids… and now we’re strange adults. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

 

Past movies and career highlights so far?

 

That’s a good question. Having the guts to go to my first ever audition at 20. When I mastered the surreal and emotional backwards beginning scene of Beauty Sleep. Having Beauty Sleep premiere at the Toronto Independent Film Festival, then later in the year having it show in Ottawa and having two of my sisters and my dad there. My first time acting in a film by my long time chum Michael Horrigan (2015’s Posthumous). Giggly bathroom SFX makeup sessions with my sister-in-law Ashley Robinson. Directing my favourite director Andrew (J.D. Robinson) when he acted in my 15 second short Ottoline. There are too many special memories to name.

 

How would you describe yourself as an actress, and some of your techniques to bring your characters to life?

 

How would I describe myself… a little weirdo? Haha. This is a great question. I don’t know how I would describe myself as an actress, but I would love to be Ruth Gordon when I grow up, haha. It all depends on the character with what kind of techniques and prep I feel will help. My work with 15 Second Horror Film Challenge is mainly diving into the shoot with pure instinct. With lengthier work, before the shoot date I’ll usually come up with my rough sketching out of who the character is, which can involve listening to certain music, or journaling as them to get into their head a bit more… whacky actor stuff like that.

 

Over the years, you've starred in quite a few movies by director Andrew J.D. Robinson [Andrew J.D. Robinson interview - click here] - so what are your collaborations usually like, and how did the two of you meet in the first place?

 

We met online many moons ago from having mutual connections in the film scene. He wrote to me about a potential project knowing that I’m an actor, and that lead to us chatting until ungodly hours in the morning about everything from the serious to the absurd. In my head I would think, ‘he’s the madman to my madwoman’. You always hope to find someone you can be batshit with one moment and then completely speak from the heart with the next. He’s my partner in crime. Working together is this lovely, focused thing where we often need few words between us because we’re really on the same wavelength. It’s groovy.

 

Going through your filmography, one can't help but notice that many of your movies are of the horror variety - coincidence, or is horror a favourite genre of yours, and why (not)?

 

I’ve always dug horror. I was that kid who idolized Lydia Deetz and watched Nosferatu and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari on a weekend afternoon while eating pancakes with my sisters. A lot of my fondest film memories involve bonding over fearful giggles. I was a semi-closeted morbid kid and was always drawn to the darker concepts – the bubonic plague, ghosts, whatever scary stories my sisters and I could get our hands on. That strange conflict of being both hideously intrigued and yet wanting to recoil is intoxicating.

 

Actresses (and indeed actors) who inspire you?

 

There are so many, but Ruth Gordon, Tilda Swinton, Conrad Veidt, and Jack Lemmon come to mind. What they bring to their performances is so rich and their own. I always feel particularly inspired after watching their work.

 

Your favourite movies?

 

My all time favourite film is Harold and Maude directed by Hal Ashby. No piece of art breaks my heart and puts it back together like that film does. I remember my mom introducing it to me in the days of yore. Seeing the character of Harold, I felt like whoever wrote it got people like me. He is fixated on death, but he falls in love with this 79-year-old woman who is completely eccentric and full of life and teaches him how to live. Bud Cort and Ruth Gordon give beautiful performances in it, the script is brilliant, and the entire soundtrack is Cat Stevens. Magic. Watch it if you haven’t yet.

 

... and of course, films you really deplore?

 

I don’t know if there is any film I deplore, but I suppose anything that reduces a human being into an object without it being satire or a specific kind of commentary. I tend to roll my eyes when I’m watching a film and suddenly the camera is panning down a female character’s body like a peeping tom and it’s not even necessary for the scene.

 

Your website, Facebook, whatever else?

 

Feeling lucky?
Want to
search
any of my partnershops yourself
for more, better results?
(commissions earned)

The links below
will take you
just there!!!

Find Maura Stephens
at the amazons ...

USA  amazon.com

Great Britain (a.k.a. the United Kingdom)  amazon.co.uk

Germany (East AND West)  amazon.de

Looking for imports?
Find Maura Stephens here ...

Thailand  eThaiCD.com
Your shop for all things Thai

I’m around the Facebook parts at facebook.com/maurastephensofficial, and Instagram at instagram.com/maurastephens.

 

Anything else you're dying to mention and I have merely forgotten to ask?

 

I could use this to plug something I’m sure, but what immediately comes to mind is that I would like to send love and light to whoever is currently reading this. Yeah. That’s a good ol’ fashioned hippie note to leave it on.

 

Thanks for the interview!

 

© by Mike Haberfelner


Legal note: (re)Search my Trash cannot
and shall not be held responsible for
content of sites from a third party.




Thanks for watching !!!



 

 

In times of uncertainty of a possible zombie outbreak, a woman has to decide between two men - only one of them's one of the undead.

 

There's No Such Thing as Zombies
starring
Luana Ribeira, Rudy Barrow and Rami Hilmi
special appearances by
Debra Lamb and Lynn Lowry

 

directed by
Eddie Bammeke

written by
Michael Haberfelner

produced by
Michael Haberfelner, Luana Ribeira and Eddie Bammeke

 

now streaming at

Amazon

Amazon UK

Vimeo

 

 

 

Robots and rats,
demons and potholes,
cuddly toys and
shopping mall Santas,
love and death and everything in between,
Tales to Chill
Your Bones to

is all of that.

 

Tales to Chill
Your Bones to
-
a collection of short stories and mini-plays
ranging from the horrific to the darkly humourous,
from the post-apocalyptic
to the weirdly romantic,
tales that will give you a chill and maybe a chuckle, all thought up by
the twisted mind of
screenwriter and film reviewer
Michael Haberfelner.

 

Tales to Chill
Your Bones to

the new anthology by
Michael Haberfelner

 

Out now from
Amazon!!!