Your new movie Chaos A.D.
- in a few words, what is it about, and what can you tell us about your
character in it?
Chaos A.D.
is a twisted movie of two psychotic women that kidnap different
people from various walks of life. The victims are eventually subjected to
perverse games, torture, rape, and some brutal killings with a few other
psychotic people that are behind on "Chaos A.D." as well.
My
character, Sarah Russo, comes from an abusive home with her brother
Vinnie. They live a mortifying life on the constant edge of fear from the
father they live with. And despite the abuse, Sarah and Vinnie are pretty
close knit, because of what they endure every day, and always find
something to do outside of the home. Sarah and Vinnie go to a Halloween
party after a huge fight with their father, and Vinnie ends up kidnapped
after a conversation with one of the villains at the party. Sarah tries to
find him and ends up at a warehouse. Without spoiling the whole movie,
there’s a lot of disgusting situations that happen in the warehouse. What did you draw upon to bring Sarah
to life, and how much of Lisa Marie Kart can we find in her, actually? Without
detailing too much of my past, I came from abuse as well and it was awful.
Surviving any type of abuse and comfortable enough to tell people takes a
lot of balls. To write it into a script and then relive a little or a lot
of situations, that can trigger a person’s memory, and still play the
role, takes even bigger balls. I can tell you for sure that reading the
script I knew right away that the role of Sarah was for me. She isn’t a
victim, she is a survivor. The perverse situations she encounters, she
keeps going, just to find her brother, because her only lifeline IS her
brother. She could have ten best friends, and the only thing in her life
that matters is Vinnie. They stick together, and go through everything. So
Sarah is a heroine in the fact she never gives up no matter what happens
to her; from the trauma in her home, or outside of it with these villains.
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In
Chaos A.D., Sarah isn't
exactly treated kindly throughout - in fact, she's stripped, raped and
humiliated - so was that at all a problem for you? I
read the script beforehand, had many discussions with the director Chris Woods
[Chris
Woods interview - click here]
prior to the movie
starting. I told him what I was comfortable with, what I would [and
wouldn’t] do, and if there was certain things we could possibly change
around that we’d both be happy with. Chris continued to make sure I was
only in situations I could withstand mentally and physically, closed sets
during certain scenes, making sure I was prepping into my character for
some parts (even if it was only a few minutes to an hour), suggestions we
could both change to make the scene better, etc… while both satisfied
with how it was turned out. How
did you get involved with the movie in the first place, actually? Originally
I was in Chris’s apartment with the rest of the Death-Scort Service
cast. We were all finished on signing the DVDs, posters, watching the
completed movie. Chris mentioned that he was going to start casting and
finishing the script on a new movie he was writing that he thought I’d
be perfect for, right down from the character, to the cat costume (crazy
cat lady here)! Fast forward and he sends me the script. I read it and he
wanted to make sure I’d be committed and OK to do the part of Sarah
Russo. I read it quite a few times, and we had several discussions on the
phone. After agreeing on a few things, and what I’d be comfortable with,
I decided to say yes to Chaos A.D.
What
can you tell us about your director Chris Woods [Chris
Woods interview - click here], and what was your collaboration
like? A
lot of what I said above, tons of positive words. He works with you,
patient, gives you a schedule to where everyone is happy, always paid on
time, there’s never an argument, if you have a suggestion on something,
he’ll listen and most times than so we’ll try it and sometimes it’ll
be good for the film. I work very well with Chris, and you become best
friends with him fast. He’s basically in summation, a very professional
and levelheaded person. Do talk about the shoot as such, and the on-set
atmosphere?
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The
shoot was pretty amazing. Chris had found this warehouse that was already
set up to look like it was from a horror movie. We also used Sean
Donohue’s house and his shed as well for certain scenes (he also makes a
small cameo in the film). So the atmosphere was like a permanent horror
story in real life all the time. Getting into character, staying in
character, and prepping was relatively easy with the on-set atmosphere and
how mentally draining it was for me (perfect for the character). When I
say mentally draining, not so much in a negative aspect, but the story
line, the fight scenes, the long hours, the torture scenes, etc…, was a
lot for my brain to comprehend, especially when I can get triggered from
my trauma. I’m able to move forward from my past experiences however,
for a professional and business side. But my character Sarah endured so
much, at the end of the movie and how I personally felt (you could see in
my face) was pure exhaustion.
I will mention the fight scene between Cayt (Bytch) and I was physically
exhausting. There is one scene we both still talk about. We had so much
adrenaline pumping through our system, that when we tried to avoid our
faces, we ended up punching and hitting instead, and didn’t even realize
we hurt each other until the day after we saw the bruises on our bodies
and how sore we were. The last day of shooting, no one was feeling well,
it was a full moon, everyone was up since dawn with little to no sleep,
high stress, and I had to do some crazy scene with Amanda (Vixen). Without
spilling too much of the movie, I personally did not feel comfortable
doing. I knew what I had to do in the script, but when it came down to it,
I actually started freaking out and saying “I can’t do this scene”.
Ashley (Janet) suggested that she would do it, and I told her she
couldn’t because she had acrylic nails on and I had unpainted natural
nails, so it wouldn’t have worked. I didn’t think I was going to be
able to do it, but I did, and afterwards went to the bathroom and just
stared at the wall. It mentally took something out of me at that moment.
Any future projects you'd like to share? Right
now, I’ve been currently working on Provenance
(https://www.facebook.com/provenancefilm).
That was originally a short film (NS-404) about the end of the world with
a very unique back story (also has Bob Glazier in it as well). Provenance
is the origin story. The cinematography is beautiful, the writing is
different, and it’s going to be submitted to a lot of major film
festivals. I’m very excited to finish the movie. Other than Provenance,
I took a little break from working on movies to hone my abilities studying
with the best acting instructor, Kathy Laughlin at the Performer’s
Studio Workshop. It’s been really great so far. However, I’m still
submitting myself for other projects whilst continuing to audition.
What
got you into acting in the first place, and did you receive any formal
training on the subject? I
watched a lot of horror movies as a kid, and always loved how deeply
enriched the subpersonalities came out of each character. The roles were
very real to me, as if the person was actually the role they were playing
on screen and TV. I acted a little bit as a kid in theatre, and took some
lousy acting classes in middle school. I stopped acting for a little
while, and focused on the music industry, went to college, and then got
back into acting around the age of 27... 28. I’m now studying with Kathy
Laughlin, however. What can you tell us about your
filmwork prior to Chaos A.D.? I’ve
done some music videos (Cosmic Punch, Cannibal Corpse, American
Authors, Catalyst/NS-404), commercial work (The Tampa Theatre commercial), feature
films (Skum Rocks!, Vamp Bikers [stopped production], The Hospital
2,
Death-Scort Service, Hot Summer Nights, Provenance, NS-404
short). You're
also a metal DJ and journalist, right? So do talk about that aspect of
your career for a bit, and how does it influence your acting (and vice
versa)? I’ve
been working in the music industry for eleven years or so now. I started
really young just promoting for the bands on their record label, working
on street teams and other musical promoters in the Tampa and Orlando area.
I networked at record labels and went on my first tour when I was 21. I
met a lot of people through that and it also opened more doors for me.
Within that, I was able to tour more. I took some breaks in a lot of those
years to finish my college degree. While working for Examiner as the Tampa
metal music journalist (before it went out of business just a couple
months ago), I was able to interview the biggest metal musicians, and I
had a lot of views on the videos (over 30 thousand sometimes) to also
being featured on Blabbermouth and a few other big music websites. Through
interviewing musicians I met Elder, my boss who runs Psycho Realms on
WMNF
88.5 FM. He asked me to come in one day and I continued to come back and
was a permanent member as Lady Lisa. I also work for WTF Magazine
interviewing big artists and AXS Entertainment where I will be continuing
the metal side since Examiner went down. I still ever so often tour, work
with radio, and music journalism. I’m focused more now on my acting
profession however.
How it influences my acting; it actually helps me to get out of my comfort
zone, network, meet new people, and thickened my skin so I was prepared
for show business. How would you describe yourself as an actress,
and some of your techniques to bring your characters to life?
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I
don’t know how to describe myself as an actress. Who can anyways? I’m
a free-spirited person with a loud and very goofy personality. In class
and in movies I use less of those energies, and use a lower/darker energy
to expel how I need it in my characters. I’ve been trying to use my
organic energies however that I am in real life into my roles for
character development and more “subpersonalities”.
I use the Eric Morris style of acting. Making sure your lines are
memorized are important of course, but the main focus is to take time on
the character development and researching what role you’ll be
performing. Otherwise you’ll have no idea what you are doing in front of
the camera and people can see if you are being organic or not knowing what
you are doing/insecure. Making sure you are prepping before camera, is
essential to any character development too. If you are given any time to
prep before a scene, take that time to get into your character and don’t
let anyone or anything disturb you or your zone will be all over the
place. I suggest for any actor/actress to read Eric Morris books. Some of
my favorites are Freeing the Actor, Irreverent Acting, No Acting
Please,
and Being and Doing: A Work Book For Actors. I also suggest Embracing
Our Selves. A book that has literally changed my life on embracing
yourself, your demons, your past, everything and not letting it use it,
but using it for your character development and the “subpersonalities”
within us. You don’t need to be an actor/actress to read it… it’s a
book everyone should read in my opinion. You’ll be empowered. And
another note in acting… it is difficult to be an actor/actress if you
have a lot of demons inside of you that control you and your brain.
Embrace what happened to you, it made you stronger and who you are now,
but don’t let it interfere with your abilities (I see it a lot and
it’s happened to me) - use it for your character development, but
don’t let it use you. Actresses
(and of course actors) who inspire you? I
always loved Drew Barrymore growing up, but my inspirations are Meryl
Streep, Michelle Pfeiffer, Cate Blanchett, Johnny Depp, Al Pacino, Robert
De Niro, and Eddie Redmayne. In fact I have more inspirations and
obsessions but I can tell you for sure these actors/actresses can get into
characters and make you believe they are what they are playing on screen.
There are some great actors/actresses that stay the same character in
every movie, not to say they are awful at acting, because they are
wonderful at it; but they just never change, no matter what character and
no matter what film they are working on; they just never build a
character.
Your favourite movies?
I
always loved Indiana Jones and Star
Wars. But outside of that I’m a big
horror and gore movie buff (I love Hellraiser,
Rosemary’s Baby, Wolf
Man, White Zombie,
Nightmare on Elm
Street, Friday The 13th,
Psycho, Suspiria,
Eraserhead, It, Pet Semetary, An American Werewolf in
London/Paris, Ginger Snaps, The Howling,
Se7en, Edward
Scissorhands). I
love classics as well (Valley of The
Dolls, The Graduate, etc).
... and of course, films you really deplore?
I’m
not really into CGI and visual effects to be honest. I think everything
should be done with robotics and special FX. Call it old fashioned but it
looks way better and it’s real when it’s on camera. I’m also over
with superhero/DC/Marvel
movies. It’s been overdone, and I don’t
think anyone can beat originals anyways. Remakes are usually awful, so
don’t even get me started on that. There are a few that blew me away in
certain degrees, but other than that no remakes…
Your website, Facebook, whatever else?
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The links below will take you just there!!!
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Website: lisakart.com, Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/lisamariekart,
Facebook fanpage:
https://www.facebook.com/Lady-Lisa-224499137616453/,
IMDb: imdb.me/lisamariekart,
Twitter: @lisakart
Anything else you're dying to mention and I have merely forgotten to
ask?
Always
study and practice your craft. Everyone has something they can do better
on…Don’t forget to drop that ego at the door. I would also mention,
don’t work with anyone who wants you to do scenes that make you feel
uncomfortable. Don’t be arrogant or make enemies everywhere you go.
Don’t spill your entire history to someone in the industry, because
people talk. And, as always, be humble and grateful for any opportunity no
matter how big or small.
Thanks for the interview!
You’re
welcome!
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