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Your upcoming film Solid State - in a few words, what is it
about, and what can you tell us about your character in it?
It's a sci
fi movie about an American rock band who are on their "comeback"
tour in Italy. They're trying
to resurrect the popularity of their band, until they inadvertently come
across a deadly meteor which unleashes murder and mayhem on the Italian
village. It's very
tongue in cheek in many aspects, and reminds me of a cross between the
vampire satire movie Suck and Spinal Tap.
With a little Dawn of the Dead sprinkled in. It also
stars genre icon Debbie Rochon [Debbie
Rochon interview - click here] as Emily, and beautiful LA based actress
Ava Brunini as Cynthia.
Solid State |
I play
"Sharon", who is the least cerebral and most air headed of the
band mates. Much like the
legendary band Steel Panther (aka Metal Shop), Sharon feels that image is
everything, and music is kinda secondary.
We're still not quite sure what instrument Sharon actually plays.
After the band broke up, she rode a wave of success by winning the
reality TV show, Tits Up.
This parlayed into her latest successful creation - a line of
edible bras. Flavors run
the gamut from green tea to poppy seed to black licorice. In
Solid State, you are in a rock band. Are you at all a
musical person in your private life, have you ever been in a rock band for
real, and how much fun was it to pretend to be in one? Yes, I play a mean recorder.
It's a sight to behold. I
would say I possess prodigy level recorder skills.
And I'm not a drummer, but I find it incredibly satisfying to bang
on a drum set. What
music do you listen to in your private life, and how does it relate to the
music in Solid State? I
like dark music. Any music
that praises satan and his minions.
Haha. Seriously, I love
rock'n'roll. I grew up on hard
rock and metal bands like Mötley Crüe, Guns N Roses, Alice Cooper,
Savatage, KISS, and Judas Priest.
I also love Brit pop/rock, such as Suede, Oasis, and Placebo. The music in
Solid State is pretty poppy.
In reading the script, I was expecting it to be more punk rock.
But I think the pop rock soundtrack fits the theme of the movie
really well. There is this hilarious scene in the movie where Debbie's
character is watching her newest music video for the song New Model. In
Steel Panther-like style, it is over the top 80s and totally ridiculous,
complete with Def Leppard styled "sword fights" and sneering.
Debbie's character wears this hilarious metal headdress, and a
chain metal outfit. She's on
the phone with her manager while watching this opus, and orders him to
simply "Burn it".
Suzi Lorraine with Debbie Rochon, Diego Casale,
Ava Brunini in Solid State |
From what I've seen in
photos (and my perception might deceive me here), you wear quite a number
of extravagant outfits in Solid State. Would you like to
elaborate on that?
That's
a great observation! The
costume designer is Agostino Porchietto, and he is a fashion stylist from
Milan. He's worked in
high fashion all his life, and he has a knack for clothing that is avant
garde and that really makes a statement.
The project lended itself perfectly to his style, since he was able
to outfit the whole band, each of whom had a completely different
personality and style. So
Debbie's character was styled really rock'n'roll and punk, mine was really
glittery/girly/Moulin Rouge-ish, and Ava's character was styled sexy
cowgirl meets hippy chick.
And our drummer Diego wore whatever he wanted - whether it was a
bright yellow bathrobe, or a bra and boxer shorts. Solid State was shot in Italy.
In what way does shooting in Italy differ from shooting in the USA, and
what are the best and worst aspects of shooting abroad? The
best aspects are the tasty eats. You can't beat Italian food.
And the Italian people are lovely.
As a whole, I've found them to be very friendly, passionate and
welcoming. They're happy to
share their culture and history with visitors.
The worst aspect is the long plane ride, and potential jet lag.
Other positives include the opportunity to travel to a foreign
country and immerse yourself in the culture and local sights.
I've only been to Italy for work, but usually there's opportunity
for sightseeing at some point, and Italy has become my favorite place to
visit in Europe. I've been
there about 5 or 6 times (for movies and also for film festivals).
The architecture is really breathtaking.
From shooting in castles to caves to arenas to downtown city
centers to the Po River to houses right on the sea, it has been a life
changing experience. And don't
forget the grappa! ;-)
You
have worked with Solid State's director Stefano Milla twice before,
on Claang: The Game and Kingdom of Gladiators. What can you
tell us about these two films and Stefano Milla, the man and director, and
how did you hook up with him in the first place?
I met Stefano through my friend Fabio Zanello, who is
a prolific writer and also a film festival director. I
believe Fabio contacted me after he had read some of my articles in Horror Mania
Magazine, which at the time was kind of like the US's
Fangoria Magazine. Fabio knew
that Stefano was looking for an American actor for his first feature film, Claang, so he put Stefano in touch with me.
Stefano brought me to Italy about 6 years ago to shoot Claang. It was
originally a short film. It piqued
the interest of a distribution company, and they requested that it be developed
into a feature. Stefano brought me
to Italy again for the feature length film, which was only about a year later.
He is one of my favorite directors. He
is a joy to work with and he has a great heart and is very kind.
He is so passionate about filmmaking and cinematography.
He's also really open to the actor's interpretation of the character, and
it is very freeing because he welcomes improvisation.
We also have lots of laughs on his set.
Much fodder for the blooper reel!
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Your
other upcoming film (one of them anyways) Pinup Dolls on Ice -
what's that one about, and a few words about your character? It's
the sequel to Geoff Klein's award winning Bikini Girls on Ice.
Serial killer Moe returns to wreak havoc on a touring
pinup/burlesque troupe. In the
film, you learn the back story of Moe, and even see his soft side.
He has a love scene and everything.
OK, well not exactly, but you do see a different side of
him! He continues his MO
of really enjoying killing, however, and the body count is about 3 times
as high as the first film. I'm
really proud of this movie, and happy I had the opportunity to work with
Geoff again.
According
to my information, in Pinup Dolls on Ice you are not one of the
Pinup Girls as such. Will we at all see you performing with them anyways
(please say yes)? In a
sense, yes. I'm not a member
of the pinup troupe, but since most of the main events take place during
the pinup themed party, I do don some festive retro-threads, and fancy
pinup hair to match. It
was a blast! Pinup Dolls on Ice was shot in
Canada. What can you tell us about shooting up there, and a few words
about the actual shoot?
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Pinup Dolls
on Ice |
We
filmed at a campground in Canada, about an hour away from Montreal. It
was located right on the St Lawrence River. It
was very rural, and I didn't have a car while there, so I didn't leave the
campgrounds for the entire 2 weeks I was filming. After
a while, I felt like I was living in M. Night Shyamalan's The
Village Every day
or two I would take nature walks to relax and clear my head
and mentally prepare for the shoot, and walk all the way to the edge of
the campground which meets a main road and some semblance of civilization.
Every time I approached that main road, my eyes would widen and I would
take in the new surroundings as if it were the first time I'd ever seen
them. Geoff and Melissa found
me walking down that main road one night, with cars whizzing by, and
they're like, "What are you doing???"
I'm certain they thought I was a few cards short of a full deck.
Pinup Dolls on Ice's
director Geoff Klein has also previously directed you in an all too short
scene in Bikini Girls
on Ice. A few words about him, and how did you two get in touch in
the first place?
Geoff
reached out to me via email while he was in pre-production on Bikini Girls
on Ice, and offered me the role of Kelly - the "opening kill".
This was probably about 5 years ago now.
Geoff's a real horror fan, and he totally understands the genre and what
fans love about the genre. This
time, Melissa Mira co-produced the film with him, and she added a fantastic
female perspective and some insight that really complemented Geoff's ideas and
sensibilities in terms of the characters and their interactions with each other.
Melissa even directed some of the scenes, and she did a really impressive
job. With
Solid State being a sci-fi movie with rock music and Pinup Dolls
on Ice being a slasher with pinup girls - which can you relate to
more, plotwise, and which was more fun to shoot? (... and I know that's an
unfair question.)
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Pinup Dolls
on Ice |
They were
both fun to shoot. I totally
related to both characters, and felt comfortable in their skin.
It's really difficult to compare the 2, since they are
totally different animals. The
role of "Joy" in Pinup Dolls on Ice was probably
more grueling than the role of Sharon in Solid State,
primarily because there were some real knock down drag out fight sequences
in the former. It required
quite a bit of rehearsals and stage combat.
I had to bust thru a (sugar) glass window with my face.
Not for the faint of heart, bitches! While
obviously not nearly as dangerous as real glass, the sugar glass can break
into really hard plastic shards.
While shooting Pinup Dolls on Ice, there was one scene where one of the
actors had to break into the campground office and frantically search
for a phone to call the police.
She thought the phone was disconnected, so she dialed 911 and was
connected with, well… 911. She
didn't want to ruin the take, so she continued on, hysterically informing
the 911 switchboard operator that a mad man had killed her friends and she
needed help. 15 minutes later,
the cops show up, and strangely they did not see the humor in the
situation! ;-) Any
idea when both movies will be out, tentatively? Solid
State will be distributed by Wonderphil Productions, and will have a
2012 release. It's likely that Pinup Dolls on Ice will be in post-production for the next 6
months or so. So I'm
guessing a late 2012 release or possibly early 2013. Any
future projects you'd like to talk about?
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I
filmed an episode for the Discovery Channel's show Oddities
this month, which will air on national TV in March.
Even more importantly, my wonder cat Monki is on the show too!
Oddities is about an antique/pawn store called Obscura which is
located in the East Village, NYC. They
have really freaky items for sale there, like human skulls and antique
medical instruments. The idea of the episode is that I was prop shopping
for Won Ton Baby 2, the sequel to Won Ton Baby.
I was looking for unique and/or bizarre items that would be
suitable for the set of the film, perhaps in the "baby's"
nursery. I have Monki with me,
along for the joyous shopping occasion.
I explain to the shop owner that he is a singing cat, and I bring
him out of his carrier for a special performance!
I nicknamed him "Baby Pavarotti". Your website,
Facebook, whatever else? Official
website is www.suzilorraine.com and I'm on Facebook under "Suzi
Lorraine". Anything else you are dying to
mention and I have merely forgotten to ask?
Be sure to
check out the latest issues of the horror magazines I write for.
Virus
Magazine at www.raptor.de (German
magazine)
Shock
Horror Magazine at www.shockhorrormagazine.com
(British
magazine)
BioGamer
Girl Magazine at www.biogamergirl.com (US
magazine)
Thanks for
the interview!
Thanks
so much Mike! It was a
pleasure!
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