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Your In
Fear of-episode Scotomaphobia:
Fear of Blindness - in a few words, what is it about, and what can
you tell us about your character in it?
Firstly,
thank you so much, Michael, for this opportunity to share with you, and
others, my life in film. It’s an honor.
In
the short film In Fear Of -
Scotomaphobia: Fear of Blindness, I
play the role of Emily, a woman whose entire life is crumbling, but not
just due to her loss of sight. Her problems stem from bad
decisions and fateful circumstances of her past and present. She
seeks comfort by escaping, but she does it in very risky and dangerous
ways. Her eyesight is failing and she becomes withdrawn into her own
head which is full of personal demons.
Fear
of Blindness trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WX0r5yNdngE
Fear
of Blindness: http://vimeo.com/ondemand/infearof/99307413
How easy or hard was it for you to play a blind person, and what
did you draw upon to bring your character to life?
Jeremiah
Kipp (the director) [Jeremiah
Kipp
interview - click here] asked me to practice walking around my home blind folded
with the guidance of someone. Haha! I decided do it on my own, by
myself. So there I was, with a blindfold on, feeling my way around
the perimeter of my apartment. I did not dare to venture to the
center of the room in fear of bumping into furniture or the wall on the
other side. All of my other senses were heightened. However, I felt
withdrawn and I felt that even if someone was in the room with me, that I
would not speak to them. It was as if I had lost my voice. So,
I took that feeling into the scenes with me...
The fear of blindness - is that
a fear you can at all relate to, and what are you afraid of in your
personal life?
I'm
definitely not afraid of blindness, only because I do not think about it.
I'm actually afraid of ticks and Lymes disease. Haha! … for
real… How did you get hooked up with the
project in the first place, and were you at all aware of the series prior
to your involvement? I
was fully aware of Scott Perry's [Scott
W. Perry interview - click here] amazing In Fear
of-series and
was delighted when Jeremiah sent me an outline of the screen story. I'm
not even sure if I read it yet when I immediately agreed to play Emily.
I worked with Jeremiah before on set of Alan Rowe Kelly's The
Blood Shed [Alan Rowe
Kelly interview - click here]. But I believe I met him when I organized a horror
filmmaker’s networking group called Mingle Mangle: Horror Filmmakers and
Fans. And coincidentally, I also met Scott Perry on the set of The
Blood Shed and he attended Mingle Mangle events too. The
Blood Shed Trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jp6QbtgRgBk
Do talk about your
director Jeremiah Kipp [Jeremiah
Kipp interview - click here] for a bit, and what was your
collaboration like?
If
I recall, Jeremiah scheduled at least 2 rehearsals. One rehearsal
was at a cafe in New York City where Jeremiah guided Bryant Pearson (who
plays Emily’s husband in the film) and me in our roles. He also had
us question each other about our characters and a background was
developed. Jeremiah is a wonderful director. He is also an
actors’ director. He knows how to bring out my best performance.
Even for the extras, he knows how to loosen them up and prepare them
for the rolling camera. I do take a lot of my own experience to the
set, but Jeremiah understands how an actor works and he also has the
patience to get what he needs on camera and also what the actor needs to
do their best.
What can you tell us
about the shoot as such, and the on-set atmosphere? I
felt that everything went smooth ... except when the cops told us to get
off an old overpass at an abandoned prison site. But that didn't
stop us for filming the scene somewhere else. I felt very
comfortable with Jeremiah, Scott, and Steven-Mark Glassner (DP) [Stephen
Mark Glassner interview - click here]. They
are all great to work with. You
also star in a segment of the upcoming anthology Blaze
of Gory - so
what can you tell us about that one and your character?
The
segment in Blaze
of Gory that I perform in is called Snow.
It's a modern day version of Snow
White. I play the evil step
mother ... like the evil queen. Blaze
of Gory is a collaboration of
shorts made by different filmmakers, but all written by a young pre-teen
girl, Blaize-Alix Szanto [Blaize-Alix
Szanto interview - click here]. It's produced by David V G Davies
[David V G Davies interview - click here]
who also
directed the Snow segment. Vikki Spit plays the Snow White
character. It also stars Lord Zion and Duff Eynon. I really
enjoyed working with each and every one of them.
Snow
trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXtHRFAR22c
As
far as I know, you play a villain in Blaze
of Gory - so how easy or
hard was it to get in touch with your dark side?
Oddly,
this Buddhist feels comfortable playing evil. I'm not sure why.
Maybe I'm just a ham! Or perhaps it’s just fun being someone
else for a change. I do, however, give these dark characters some
vulnerabilities with a background and reason for their behavior.
Another
not-so-nice character I play is the mother in another one of Jeremiah's
projects called Berenice. This character has strange
intentions for the sake of money… and uses her son as a pawn.
How did
you get involved with the project in the first place, and what can you
tell us about your collaboration with your director David V G Davies [David
V G Davies interview - click here]? I
met David in 2008 at a Dark Carnival Film Festival in Indiana. He
flew all the way there from England. We eventually became Facebook
friends and when I saw him post a casting notice about a film to be shot
in Norway, I simply commented that some people think I look Norwegian.
Before I knew it, he sent me the script and I said "YES!"
We shot in the snow and in a cabin in the woods of Norway for 2-3
days and then I toured the rest of the country by myself! What a
great time - shoot and all!
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Susan with David V.G. Davies |
As far as I
know, your segment of Blaze
of Gory was filmed in Norway - so do
talk about filming in the cold of Norway for a bit, and what were some of
the challenges?
...
perfect segway! ... but I will shorten our adventure for you: Our
car got stuck on the ice on a steep road in the middle of the night. We
had no electric or running water. We used snow to make tea. We had to tend
to the fire all night … and we had tons of fun! And everyone was
a trooper! With all that stress, not one altercation happened between cast
or crew. Everyone took the conditions in stride and genuinely respected
one another. I'd work with them again for sure ... even in those
conditions! Any future projects you'd like to share?
Besides
finishing Berenice (a short based on an Edgar Allan Poe story
for an anthology of Poe films), I was also in a film called Case
at Midnight. I played the role of Genie Stern, a female
Geraldo-type journalist who interviews the notorious Charles Rainer, who
heads a murdering and weapon dealing cult of crazed … 80’s chicks!
https://www.facebook.com/CASEATMIDNIGHT
What
got you into acting in the first place, and did you receive any formal
training on the subject? I
always loved to act. I took a drama class in elementary school and
eventually in high school, which led to the high school plays. I also
took classes in college and a few years after I graduated, I continued my
acting studies in New York City at schools like Herbert Berghof, Weist
Barron, and The Upright Citizen's Brigade. Most of my training was
the Stanislavski Method, but I only tap into it when I need to. Can you still remember your
first time in front of a movie camera, and what was that experience like?
I
think it may have been a Montclair State College comedy skit by Nate Kean
about Claus Von Bulow. I played the comatose wife who they carried
into the courtroom to testify. I was just sprawled out unconscious
on a table. I had a ball doing comedy in college!
Mavi Goz |
Besides
acting, you have also occasionally tried your hands on writing and
directing - so what can you tell us about those experiences of yours?
Thanks
for bringing that up. I’m actually a full time real estate agent, but I
still want to continue to make films. I made two short films,
Illusion of Reality and Mavi Goz. Illusion
of Reality was a film done on Super 8 in a college film class.
It's a bizarre little film that I made when I was inspired by Maya
Deren's Meshes of the Afternoon.
Mavi Goz
was my first film out of college. I wrote, produced, and directed
it. Oh, I was the lead as well. Who else could I trust not to
cut their hair, lose or gain weight, get a tan, or ... just be available
... for the many months I shot it. It's about a young woman who is
visited by a Turkish neighbor who gives her the glass Evil Eye pendant.
This soars the character back into her past remembering all her
psychic occurrences.
Under
the Raven's Wing was my first feature. I shot it documentary style
... as if shot by a cocky male filmmaker interviewing three young women
who committed a murder. They have a warped philosophy and feel that
they didn't kill... but they SAVED.
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Illusion
of Reality: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVxp0d3cPEE
Mavi
Goz trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXEGA2rntkA
Under
the Raven’s Wing trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLhgP7Tc1p0
Quite a few
of your movies are of the horror variety - coincidence, or is horror a
genre at all dear to you, and why (not)? I love acting no
matter what the genre. However, regardless of my training, I don't
pursue acting. I never really did. Honestly, I think my
headshot is from 2003! I got involved in one horror film and with
the help of my Mingle Mangle Horror Filmmakers and Fans (2004?) networking
group, I was cast in many more. Then friends and friends of
friends cast me and I've been busy since. How would you
describe yourself as an actress, and some techniques of yours to bring
your characters to life? As
I mentioned, I studied The Stanislavski Method at HB Studios with an old
Russian woman who screamed all the time. "No more pamsy mamsy!
No more pamsy mamsy!" But she whipped our asses into
shape. I don't usually use the Method though, unless it is an
extremely emotional scene. Another method I use is to allow
"the outer" to control "the inner". For instance,
wardrobe. When I dress the part, it helps. Even if my shoes
are not in the shot, I wear shoes the character would wear. It makes
me FEEL like that character. Another example is I clench my hand
tight and shake it hard before an emotional scene. Your website,
Facebook, whatever else?
www.facebook.com/susansuhanawilliams
(Susan Suhana Adriensen)
IMDb:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2148045/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1
Thanks for
the interview!
You’re
welcome! And thank you, Michael. I enjoyed the interview.
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