Your movie Beware - in a
few words, what is it about, and what can you tell us about your character in
it?
Beware is a good scary
movie you invite your friends over for, make popcorn and hide behind a
blanket. It’s bloody, it has action, romance, boobs, has a great killer with
a background story, characters you’ll love and characters you’ll love to
hate. The story starts with 5 friends going on a road trip to the Florida West
coast for a Latino Music Festival. When they reach a town called
Shady Grove their car breaks down and they are forced to stay for the night. Thankfully
a good samaritan, Maria, offers them to stay at her house instead of the dirty
motel in town. They have a good time, barbequing, sitting around
the bonfire, just hanging out and then… people start dying...
How did you approach your character, acting-wise, and how much of yourself
do we find in Nella?
When
I first read the script I kept thinking she’s really strong and that was
basically where I started. Building her background story and
the reasons why she is the way she is. That is actually one
of the things I really like about acting, scripts don’t give you
personality and detailed history about each character, it is up to us as
actors to create that.
It’s
inevitable to have a little of you in every character you play and then in
turn take a little from the character with you. Nella and I
are similar in a lot of ways. I consider myself a strong
person, but I don’t think I’m as strong as she is, both physically and
emotionally. Nella is very close to her brother, and my
brothers mean the world to me and we’re close but I can’t say we’re
as close as Nella and Marco are. I think in the end I walked
away with more Nella in me than Lorena was left with her… if that makes
any sense.
Playing roles like that in Beware
will probably quickly earn you the label scream queen - something you can
at all live with? Absolutely!
I actually did my first scream queen panel last year during our festival
run. Funny thing about that is that Nella doesn’t actually
scream. Horror fans have this incredible loyalty that it’s
really an honor. I met a lot of people in festivals last year
and it was so exciting to hear them talk about how much they loved our
film. Your role in Beware
seems to have been rather physically demanding. How did you deal with the
action aspects of your role?
I love to
work out and run, so when I was getting ready for Beware
I just sort of
kicked it up a notch. I was going to the gym twice a day and
doing lots of cardio and weight training. Also keeping up
with a good diet. Exercise and diet are a great way for me to
have energy. I had protein bars all over set, just in case I
needed a snack. I loved all the action, running around,
climbing, hiding, falling… everything was so much fun.
How did you get involved in the movie in the first place?
I went to a casting. I
found out about it the night before and the person I was working with at the
time said it’s a horror film and you’ll be going for a role that needs to
speak Spanish, have a monologue. Well I didn’t have a monologue
ready at the time and I was just not going to go, but in the end I decided to
go. I ended up reading my monologue. I didn’t hear
from them for months, so I figured I didn’t get it.
A few words about your director Jason Daly [Jason
Daly interview - click here], and what was your
collaboration like? And what can you tell us about the on-set atmosphere?
Jason
is the man! Hahaha, he is awesome. From the beginning we had
a great working relationship. He really wanted to involve me
in creating Nella. Everything from the wardrobe, shoes, we
worked together on. He allowed me to be Nella, he would say I
know the script says this, but you know Nella better than I do and you
know how she would say it. I can’t even begin to tell you
how much that meant to me, because he created Nella, but to give me that
freedom and really allow me to take control of who Nella is was just
incredible.
The
on-set atmosphere was great. We all actually stayed at the
house where most of the filming took place, so we really got to spend time
together. Everyone in the cast and crew got along great, we
were like a little dysfunctional family.
Obviously
it was stressful at times, it is an indie film, which means we had a very
small crew, and a lot to get done in a short period of time. Not
sure if you know this but Beware
was shot in English and Spanish. So
basically we shot two films in the timeframe to shoot one. Shawn
who produced the film and Jason who directed were also playing craft
service also and were working a full time job. Shawn had a
newborn at home and Jason had a pregnant wife at home. I
don’t know if they got any sleep during the filming. Now
thinking back I can’t believe we did it without any issues, or if there
were issues we didn’t know about it. All I remember is all the fun we
had, filming Beware was the best experience!
With Beware essentially
being a slasher movie - is this a genre you can at all relate to?
I can relate to the genere
because I can easily remember watching slashers growing up. I
absolutely hated them, cause they sared me (well, still scare me), but I couldn’t stop watching. I did a drive from California to middle
of nowhere in Texas and one of my best friends actually came with me all the
way to El Paso then flew back to California so I had to drive across Texas by
myself… let me tell you, all I could think about was Texas Chainsaw
Masacre!
I was driving on small 2-lane state routes that would cross tiny towns.
Every time I saw a gas station, even if my tank was ¾ of the way full,
I would stop and top off just in case. I kept thinking, I am not
going to run out of gas in the middle of nowhere!
Let's go back to the begginings of your career: What got you into
acting in the first place, and did you receive any formal training on the
subject?
I
remember being a little girl playing with my cousin, just playing
different characters and honestly I can’t remember wanting to be
anything else. I just wanted to be an actress. One time, my
cousin and I were playing and we were both really into these characters
and were just crying our eyes out. Then we stopped and we
were like, that was awesome. That is when I realized I want
to do this.
I’ve
taken a lot of different classes and workshops, actually still do. I
currently attend the Miami Acting Studio. You never stop
learning so I plan to continue taking classes.
What can you tell us about your filmwork prior
to Beware and can you
actually still remember the first time you acted in front of a camera? Beware
was actually my first film. I did radio for about 4 years
before Beware and did some TV hosting and reporting. But
actually acting in a film, Beware
was my first. When I was a
teenager I took an acting class and we had to lip lynch a song and act
during the lip-synching, and that was filmed by our teacher. I
did Christina Aguilera’s I Turn to You, and I
remember watching it thinking that is cool cause it actually looked like
it was me singing. Any
future projects you'd like to talk about? There’s
a couple things in the works, but nothing concrete yet. Actresses (or
indeed actors) who inspire you? Oh
God, so many… Meryl Streep is just brilliant and I really
admire Will Smith, I think he just gets better and better, but honestly
there are so many actors that inspire me. Jeremy Renner is fantastic, when
he was doing press for Ghost Protocol someone asked him what was the best
part of working on a film with a huge budget, and he said something that
inspired me, he said you know the release date before you even begin
filming. That is a luxury that most indie projects do not
have. Your favourite movies?
First
of all, Beware J
… but I like so many and just about every genre… Grease, Silence of the
Lambs, Million Dollar Baby, The Pursuit of Happiness, Face
Off, Seven,
American History X, 8mm, The Hangover, The Notebook,
Castaway, Anchorman,
The Lion King, PS I Love You, Butterfly Effect, Old
School, Inception… I
don’t think I could pick and I could probably go on forever, the more I
think about it the more I want to add. ...
and of course, films you really deplore?
|
Feeling lucky? Want to search any of my partnershops yourself for more, better results? (commissions earned) |
The links below will take you just there!!!
|
|
|
See,
I’ve NEVER walked out of a theater. I like movies, I love
movies and there is something in most movies that I like. Your website,
Facebook, whatever else? You
can find me on Facebook www.facebook.com/king.lorena
- if you write to me I will answer you, maybe not right away, but I
will answer eventually. Also follow me on Twitter - @Lorena_King Anything else you are dying to
mention and I have merely forgotten to ask?
Beware just premiered on Showtime last week and will be on again 3/18 and 3/22,
and of course you can purchase the DVD, go to www.bewarethemovie.com
for
all the places where you can find Beware
J
I
hope everyone has a chance to watch Beware
and enjoy it. It
was made by a lot of people who love movies and love making movies.
Thanks for
the interview!
Thank you!
|