Interviews
Interview: Director Sean Lahiff on new environmental horror film Carnifex; “I wanted to create a myth around these tree hollows and create a dread for the forest.”
As the Australian survivalist thriller Carnifex continues to terrify audiences across the country (you can read our review here), director Sean Lahiff is already hard at work in the editing room of another feature. Taking some time out with our Peter Gray to talk all things Carnifex – an original new environmental horror/thriller set deep…
Interview: Elizabeth Banks on directing Cocaine Bear; “I felt like this film was almost the opportunity to make a revenge movie for the bear.”
Inspired by the 1985 true story of a drug runner’s plane crash, missing cocaine, and the black bear that ate it, Cocaine Bear is a wild dark comedy that finds an oddball group of cops, criminals, tourists and teens converging in a Georgia forest where a 500-pound apex predator has ingested a staggering amount of…
Interview: John Leguizamo on playing Violent Night‘s villain; “The most fun you can have as an actor is chewing the scenery and having tantrums.”
As Violent Night looks to spread some seasonal beatings this year, Peter Gray spoke with the upcoming shock comedy’s own Grinch – John Leguizamo. From 87North, the bare-knuckle producers of Nobody, John Wick, Atomic Blonde, Deadpool 2, Bullet Train and Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw, Violent Night is a coal-dark holiday action-comedy that…
Interview: Tommy Wirkola on Violent Night, balancing comedy and tension, and how Home Alone informed much of the film’s brutality
When Peter Gray last spoke to Tommy Wirkola, the director had just released the trailer for his anticipated seasonal action/comedy Violent Night. Now with the film – centred around a team of mercenaries who break into a wealthy family compound on Christmas Eve and find themselves unprepared for a surprise combatant in Santa Claus (David…
Interview: Krew Boylan on “becoming” Dolly Parton in Seriously Red; “(She’s) a real critical part of my creativity.”
A festival darling for 2022, Seriously Red, a Dolly Parton-centric comedy from the mind of writer/actress Krew Boylan, is finally taking centre stage in Australian cinemas this week. In this rowdy and rambunctious musical dramedy, Red (Boylan) is a vivacious, clumsy and occasionally misguided redhead who is at a crossroads in her life. After misreading…
Interview: Luca Guadagnino on new romantic horror film Bones and All; “We wanted to underline the idea of the love story.”
Bones and All is a story of first love between Maren (Taylor Russell), a young woman learning how to survive on the margins of society, and Lee (Timothée Chalamet), an intense and disenfranchised drifter… as they meet and join together for a thousand-mile odyssey which takes them through the back roads, hidden passages and trap…
Interview: Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor on breaking the silence of abuse with She Said
Not only were they voices that spoke loud enough to break a cycle of abuse within the Hollywood system, they are now the faces of a ceiling-breaking movement that has forever changed the entertainment industry. Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey were the New York Times journalists who investigated the abuse allegations against mogul Harvey Weinstein. …
Interview: Patricia Clarkson, Andre Braugher and Jennifer Ehle on She Said; “It’s very hard to meet heroes and play them.”
In our continued coverage for She Said, the new drama from Universal Pictures detailing New York Times reporters Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor and their breaking of one of the most important stories of a generation, one that helped launch the #MeToo movement and shattered decades of silence around the subject of sexual assault in…
Interview: Carey Mulligan, Zoe Kazan and director Maria Schrader on She Said; “I think it changed our own awareness of what’s going on around us and our own behaviour.”
New York Times reporters Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor broke one of the most important stories in a generation – a story that helped launch the #MeToo movement and shattered decades of silence around the subject of sexual assault in Hollywood. This story that altered American culture forever is being detailed in the new film…
Interview: Claudia Doumit on labour of love, Dylan & Zoey; “This film feels like a safe space for trauma.”
Australian-born Claudia Doumit may best be known for her deceptively sinister turn as Victoria Neuman in the television series The Boys, but it’s roles in films such as Dylan & Zoey that should truly keep her on the map. As the indie drama releases in US theatres and On Demand, Claudia spoke with our Peter…
Interview: Deirdre Mullins on female-centric horror film Mandrake and equal representation within the industry
Premiering exclusively on Shudder from November 10th, Mandrake is a Northern Irish folk horror tale that marks the directorial feature debut of Lynne Davison. Premiering earlier this year at FrightFest Glasgow the film follows probation officer Cathy Madden (played by Scottish BAFTA-winner Deirdre Mullins), who is given the task of rehabilitating notorious killer ‘Bloody’ Mary…
Interview: Jennifer Blanc-Biehn on career highlights, global foreshadowing and what she’s surprisingly recognised from
Though she was born in New York, was on the Broadway stage by age 13, and working in Hollywood only years later, securing roles opposite such talent as Matthew Fox (1994’s Party of Five), Jared Leto (Cool and the Crazy in 1994) Shannen Doherty (1997’s Friends ‘Til The End), and Jessica Alba (in James Cameron’s…
Interview: Delikado documentary filmmaker Karl Malakunus on battling climate change and defending the Philippines’ last ecological frontier
Director Karl Malakunus is a filmmaker and journalist who has been based in Asia, covering environmental issues, conflict, natural disasters and political upheavals, for two decades. Karl is the Asia-Pacific Deputy-Editor-In-Chief for Agence France-Presse based in Hong Kong. He is a Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program Fellow and a recipient of the SFFILM Vulcan Productions…
Interview: Todd Lasance on crossing over from television to film, dream projects and attempting comedy
From the beaches of Home and Away to starring opposite Michael B. Jordan in Without Remorse, by way of the acclaimed sword-and-sandals epic series Spartacus, Australian actor Todd Lasance is another homegrown success story carving his own international career. In the lead up to the Brisbane and Adelaide legs of the Supanova Comic Con &…
Interview: Lincoln Lewis on auditioning, career aspirations and surviving Hollywood
Whether it was his tenure as sensible teen Geoff Campbell for 567 episodes on long-running Australian soap series Home and Away, his turn in the acclaimed Tomorrow When the War Began, or his recurring role as the love interest to one of the country’s most notorious underworld figures in Underbelly: Razor, the fourth season of…
Interview: Hannah Barlow and Kane Senes on creating horror film Sissy from a deeply personal space
After earning a swarm of likes from SXSW audiences earlier in the year and from the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA), where it earned nominations for Best Film, Best Direction, and Best Lead Actress (for Aisha Dee’s committed performance), the social media slasher Sissy is ready for local audiences to like and…
Interview: Krew Boylan and Daniel Webber on opening the Brisbane International Film Festival with Seriously Red
After wowing audiences at South By Southwest earlier in the year, before spreading some serious joy in her homeland, writer/actress Krew Boylan got all dolled up for her, appropriately enough, Dolly Parton-inspired comedy Seriously Red, a film about taking chances, following your dreams, and channelling your inner Dolly. As Krew and her co-star Daniel Webber…
Interview: Director Gina Prince-Bythewood and the cast of The Woman King
As The Woman King continues to dazzle Australian audiences, Peter Gray spoke with director Gina Prince-Bythewood and cast members Lashana Lynch, Sheila Atin and John Boyega ahead of its premiere at this year’s Toronto Film Festival. Following on from his chat with Viola Davis and Thuso Mbedu, Peter discussed working together on location, the importance…
Interview: Viola Davis and Thuso Mbedu on the importance and brutality of The Woman King
The Woman King is the remarkable story of the Agojie, the all-female unit of warriors who protected the African Kingdom of Dahomey in the 1800s with skills and a fierceness unlike anything the world has ever seen. Inspired by true events, the film follows the emotionally epic journey of General Nanisca (Viola Davis) as she…
Interview: Keith Thompson on writing Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris; “I looked at the story as a way to honour that generation of women”
An “exercise in kindness and couture”, Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris (read our review here) is the cinematic warm embrace we need in this age of blockbusters. The enchanting tale of a seemingly ordinary British housekeeper whose dream to own a couture Christian Dior gown takes her on an extraordinary adventure to Paris, the film…
Interview: Jessica Chastain and Eddie Redmayne on The Good Nurse; “He’s America’s most prolific serial killer, and you’ve never heard of him”
Based on an incredible true story centred in the world of hospitals and health care, about how one woman’s growing suspicion of her co-worker led to America’s most prolific serial killer being brought to justice after 16 years of quietly killing patients across the US, The Good Nurse is a chilling true crime story that…
Interview: Billy Eichner and Luke Macfarlane on Bros and embracing the “conventions” of a happy ending; “Are we not allowed to be happy?”
Taking his confronting, wise-cracking comedy from the street to the screen, Billy Eichner (Billy on the Street) is shattering the glass ceiling on queer comedy with the first major studio production to champion an all LGBTQ cast in Bros. As the romantic comedy sets its local release (Universal Pictures will release the film on October…
Interview: Nick Stoller on directing Bros, crafting a vehicle for Billy Eichner, and respecting the queer community
The first major studio production to feature an all LGBTQIA+ cast, Bros is a smart, swoony and heartfelt comedy about how hard it is to find another tolerable human being to go through life with. A collaboration between the ferocious comic mind of writer/star Billy Eichner and director Nicholas Stoller (Forgetting Sarah Marshall, the Bad…
Interview: Black Adam producers Beau Flynn and Hiram Garcia on bringing the anti-hero to life on the big screen; “This is just the beginning”
“Power born from rage” may be the tagline selling Black Adam, but the film’s vision was born from the creative and collaborative minds of producers Beau Flynn and Hiram Garcia. Long-time partners with Black Adam himself, Dwayne Johnson, Flynn and Garcia spoke at the global press conference for the anticipated action film – which our…
Interview: Dwayne Johnson and the cast of Black Adam; “We wanted to usher in a new era in the DC universe”
The world needed a hero… It got Black Adam! A passion project for Dwayne Johnson over a decade in the making, Black Adam is the first-ever feature film to explore the DC Universe anti-hero – an ancient God freed from his tomb of 5,000 years ready to unleash his power on an unsuspecting modern world….
Interview: Director Tearepa Kahi and legendary Māori activist Tāme Iti on acclaimed new film Muru
Selected as New Zealand’s official submission for the 2023 Academy Awards in the category of ‘Best International Feature Film’, Muru is a searing response to real-life events of 2007, which saw police invoke new anti-terrorism powers by launching an armed raid on the Tūhoe people in New Zealand’s Ruatoki region. Directed by Tearepa Kahi and…
Interview: Andi Matichak on Halloween Ends: “This is the final conclusion. Let’s not be precious about it.”
After skewering the narrative of the Halloween films with the direct name-same sequel in 2018, David Gordon Green took a massive kitchen knife to all that had come before and created a brand new series within the horror franchise. After reviving the iconic Michael Myers for Halloween and Halloween Kills, the epic conclusion to his…
Interview: Director Tommy Wirkola on mixing humour and gore for Violent Night and casting David Harbour as a killer Santa Claus
Santa Claus: Action hero? The jolly man in red is getting a violent, twisted makeover in Violent Night, and whilst it may seem like an odd premise, when you realise it comes from the brains behind Nobody, Bullet Train, and Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters it makes perfect sense! As the trailer for the film…
Interview: Melanie Zanetti on Raven’s Hollow, exploring psychological horror and the increased prominence of strong female roles
There’s always a certain joy in seeing someone you know personally excel in their chosen field of expertise. And for Peter Gray it was chatting with Queensland actress (and long-historied friend) Melanie Zanetti in conjunction with the release of Raven’s Hollow. After catching up and filling more than a few interview minutes on celebrating each…
Interview: Raven’s Hollow director Christopher Hatton on navigating gothic horror and upsetting genre purists
As the Edgar Allan Poe-inspired Raven’s Hollow begins to haunt horror streaming service Shudder just in time for the spooky season (you can read our review here), Peter Gray spoke with writer/director Christopher Hatton about navigating gothic horror, what he hopes Poe purists will take away from the film, and their own personal connection to each…