We got to sit down with Samara Weaving, one of the freshest and fastest actresses working in the genre today!
For years Samara Weaving has been one of the most interesting actors in the horror genre. Every time she shows up, there’s an infectious energy that makes her come across the screen. And she has a knack for picking up cool projects. I love it when a movie has a gimmick that carries it through its entire running time. Weaving’s latest venture, Azraelfollows a post-Rapture society, where speaking is considered a sin. So the film is almost completely devoid of dialogue and really depends on its performance from the lead, Samara Weaving. I loved the movie and you can check my review. The story is a bit clichéd but it’s the execution that really impresses. The world building is amazing and it’s a great playground for Weaving’s Azrael to be there.
I was lucky enough to talk to Samara about her role as Azrael, and what it was like to play a completely mute character:
“It was weird, man. It was true [weird]. That’s why I did it. You know, I read the script and I said, “Oh, this is a challenge that’s not going to come around again. I want to push myself because I’m psycho. Yes, I will go to Estonia in the cold, in the rain, in the snow, and I will do five weeks of night shoots. Great… But yeah, it was a trip, I think. It takes the stun out of your voice and you just have to put pressure on the physicality and the facial expressions and listening and watching other actors and getting curious about it. It was cool. It was great.”
And as someone who interviews a lot of actors, two things they tend to avoid are Night Shoots and Outdoor Filming. With Azrael taking place almost entirely outside and most taking place at night, this was a nightmare for some actors. But Samara took it like the champ she is, welcoming the challenge.
“I don’t know what’s wrong with me, but that seems to be all [I’m doing] recently. It’s just “Oh, is it nice? And it’s all on the site. Sign me up. That’s great.” I don’t know. Yes. It’s like brutal and it’s uncomfortable and people’s emotions are very high because people are tired, but there’s something… there’s a sense of camaraderie. And you actually get what you plan for. You are all there, because you love him and you care about him. You can’t be too humble and too willing. And you know, because you’re going to be upside down on a tree for three days. Great. Let’s go, you know.”
With no dialogue, Samara’s pre-work was unlike any other film she’s done because she didn’t have to memorize anything. But that doesn’t mean there wasn’t a lot more to prepare for, as the role was physically demanding. But without dialogue, it meant that the character’s background would not be handled in a typical way:
“A lot of the story was in the script, but there was a lot of back story like that that I wanted to have, for myself. Because the challenge for me was: how do we keep an audience invested in this character? We need to find these emotional beats and make them really important. He is very impressed. Or else you’re watching someone fight people for a long time, which is great. Also, if that’s what you’re into. But to try to make the audience curious about what’s going on and having the ambiguity all seems like a “service to the story” and it’s not a bad thing. So that was what I was worried about. And the prep really for me … it was like stunt training and learning the fight sequences, but also sitting with: OK, what is the character arc and journey? Because I want any kind of script and just get weird and pretentious with it. But then it was kind of scary.”
Finally, I had to make sure to ask her about her new movie Caroline Caroline by Kyle Gallner who ended filming.
“Oh it will be magical. It will be… it’s great. I’ve been wanting to work with him for a long time and I’m so glad we got this and it’s going to be where we both came from. You know the horror, but this is the complete change from that, but me.”
And if you’ve been around the site you’ll know we’re big fans What a strange treasure (I may or may not have seen it 5x), so I had to ask Samara about her experience with the film, and she replied, “Isn’t it good?” Oddly enough, I was supposed to interview Kyle on the day of the premiere, but he had to pull out for undisclosed reasons (turns out, he was filming this movie). Thankfully, Samara was able to shed some light on that with a fun story about Kyle missing the premiere:
“Well, we were working in Kentucky [on Carolina Caroline] and he was unable to make his debut. And so we got the whole crew to go see it at a local Kentucky theater. And then we rented it out as a little dive bar and we all had a mini show there for him. It was a lot of fun.”
I had a lot of fun talking to Samara and I want you to see the video for yourself because she is so energetic and fun. And make sure to check out Azrael when it hits theaters this Friday. And for those of you who avoid the theater, it will be released on Shudder later this year.
AZRAEL IS PLAYING exclusively in AR Theatres SEPTEMBER 27, 2024.
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