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 Banner by Wes Vance |
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Raine Brown had no intention of being a scream queen. It just worked out that way, and she hasn't looked back. The popular independent actress got her break by a starring role in Dante Tomaselli's HORROR and over the course of the past three years has accumulated 11 roles, all independent features that arguably make her one of the busiest and most prolific actresses in the horror scene today, from Tomaselli's recent SATAN'S PLAYGROUND to Savage Roses' AUNT ROSE and PINK EYE to her latest releases PLASTERHEAD and 100 TEARS, as well as the controversial BARRICADE. Recently, Raine took time from her busy schedule to discuss her life, career, current releases, being a scream queen, and lots more in this Colonel's Crypt exlcusive.
COLONEL’S CRYPT: What prompted your interest in acting? RAINE BROWN: That’s a good question. It wasn’t a big event that happened that was like “OK, I’m going to be an actor.” I used to always love to dress up and pretend, especially in creating a character. Having a fun, emotional life, it was natural to delve into acting. I used to always say that it’s helped me because if I wasn’t acting, then I’d have a really crazy, insane life, and hopefully I get to be crazy in pretend and live my regular life as normal as possible. CC: Is that why you stick to the horror genre, a chance to play these crazy roles? RB: It’s funny because I don’t necessarily say that I want to play these whacked out characters. It winds up where that’s what I get cast for. Something comes across as an extreme or a big something and I get put into the character that’s a little off, but it works. You tend to have more fun with them because you get to explore a lot more and have a little more freedom whereas the straight man can get a little boring. CC: You were trained in the Meisner technique of acting. As an actress, explain what you go through and what you are taught? RB: The whole point of Meisner is to be engrossed in what you’re doing and what the other person is doing. Instead of Method where you are sitting there and thinking about what happened to you then, what happened to you five years ago, Meisner is more of moment to moment, spontaneous reaction. It’s honing your skills of observation, your skills of looking at the person and seeing what effect you’re having on them and in turn what affects that’s having on you. Bottom line, Meisner is about reaction. You do have to do background work and character history, but it’s not to sit there and think about the time of when your dog died and you were really sad. It’s more about when start off a scene, a lot of times you’re starting in an activity, you’re engrossed in something. It’s really about that other person that you’re with or if you’re involved in doing something, how it’s making you feel while you’re doing it instead of “I’m so sad from four years ago, it’s just like the time my boyfriend broke up with me.” It’s more immediate and I respond to that because you never know what can happen and if you’re sitting there thinking about a time of something that happened in the past, then you can’t be in the moment. I think that’s so important because if you’re not in that moment and you are not reacting to that person, you miss so much. That technique has really worked with me but I also think the best technique is just spontaneity and inspiration where you’re not worried about the acting. You understand the scene, the character, the situation, where you don’t have to worry about technique. They’re tools to pull out of your pocket when inspiration doesn’t hit because you can’t be inspired a hundred percent of the time. When you’re there and the scene isn’t working for me, what do you have, the other actor, and that’s what I like with Meisner. CC: We have something in common in that we both have a love for Shakespeare. RB: Yes! I didn’t know you did too. CC: Yes I do. RB: Oh, you do your research, I love it (Laughs). Well, Shakespeare is the man. He’s the classics. One of the things I did with the Governor’s School For The Arts and for that we had to work on monologues and I chose to do a Shakespearean monologue. That was really my first introduction to Shakespeare. The way the words flow off your tongue, Shakespeare’s writing is so amazing that as an actor, you don’t really have to do anything. You just have to say the words and pay attention to what you’re saying. They’re so expressive and the melodies in the words will get you where you need to be in my mind. I would love to do more Shakespeare and hopefully I’ll have the opportunity someday. CC: Your introduction to horror began with a movie called HORROR by Dante Tomaselli. How did you come across Dante and being cast in this film? RB: It’s definitely not your typical, everyday movie which is so great about it. I was just starting out in terms of submissions and getting myself more familiar with auditioning for films. It actually was one of my first auditions in New York City. It’s a weird thing that you can’t always know but there’s sometimes where you go into a situation where you meet this person and you do what you have to do and you get this feeling that they liked what you did. I kind of felt that as soon when we met. The audition was to do a monologue of someone who was scared. I sat there and being the good theater student I was, I went through all of my monologue books looking for something that was scary, but none of them are scary. They were all from plays and something that they’d tell you something scary that happened or something that they were afraid of, but nothing in the moment of fear. Right there I realized that it had to be present because that’s what a horror film is, it’s in the moment of fear. It’s not talking about fear that happened ten years ago, it’s more theatrical. I had done this movie called NIGHTMARE AT SHALLOW POINT probably a few months earlier. We were shooting at this run down mental institution, but they had all these underground tunnels where all of these buildings were connected so in the winter time, they wouldn’t have to take the patients outside. We had been walking around and I thought to myself “How cool would that be if I’m in these tunnels looking for someone that I can’t find and all freaked out.” I’m assuming that nobody else came in and did anything like that. I came in and did that and Dante was blown away, which was great. He called me back and I did the same kind of thing on tape, where he worked with it and changed it. Do you remember the scene in the film where I’m up in the attic and I’m looking around for somebody? CC: Yeah. RB: The reason that is there was he adapted what I did in the audition and had put that scene in. It’s funny because the character was originally supposed to be Luck’s girlfriend and she gets killed but after he saw what I did he expanded the character for me which is really cool and put in based upon what I did this whole scene, and without that scene, most people probably wouldn’t have noticed I was in the movie. It was the right time, right place, and sometimes you just meet people that you connect with and it works. CC: Looking at your body of work, you have worked with many directors more than once. RB: Yes, Joco Films, Savage Roses, and Dante Tomaselli to name a few. I’m doing another film from the people who did 100 TEARS. It’s great, I guess there’s no better compliment. People like what you do and people don’t like what you do, you can’t control that, but from almost everyone that I’ve worked with to be like “We wanna work with you again, we wanna bring you back,” obviously they liked what you did and you had a good time doing it so there’s no better compliment than being asked to do something else with them. CC: 100 TEARS looks like an interesting film. Who do you play in the film and what interested you in the project? RB: It’s hard to talk about it without ruining the movie. I play a character named Christine Greaston, and when the movie starts off she’s this kind of confused, very lonely on her own kind of girl. We see her cutting herself, she’s hooking up with the wrong guys and you think “What’s her problem?” You slowly start to realize that her family life is not that good and they’re not getting better. Without giving too much away, she has a very big connection with this killer clown. There are two reporters that are tracking this serial killer, and that’s the basis of the movie. You see this killer clown killing people and you figure they’re going about the story, then my character gets interspersed where you go “What does she have to do with all of that” and without giving too much away, there’s a definite relationship between her and what’s going on. The reason I wanted to do this movie was first of all Marcus Koch and Joe Davison contacted me about it and they just seemed like really good guys who had their stuff together. They were working with a friend of mine, Ted Geoghegan, who writes and produces movies. It was a connection through a connection. The character was also different from every type of character I’ve played. She’s very big, very broad, and emotional. I don’t get to play “Oh my god, I’m screaming, oh my god I’m running away, and now I’m dead victim girl.” I get to play another side and it’s great. CC: One film I have seen recently is BARRICADE. RB: Ah, BARRICADE. CC: What a fucked up movie and I mean that in a good way. RB: (Laughs) CC: What attracted you to BARRICADE and you shot it in Germany? RB: Yes, that was the first thing that attracted me to the project. Timo Rose has a great reputation and Ted Geoghegan wrote the script, he brought me aboard. I was friends with Joe Zaso, I had worked with him on another film. They were like “We’re doing this in Germany, do you have any interest?” I told them I would have an interest, let me read it. The idea with this movie, some people don’t like it, some people go “You know what, there’s these stupid characters, nobody cares about them and why are they talking, just give me more blood!” There’s a lot of blood but if you watch the movie, I barely interact with blood, at least not until the very end. There’s these scenes I could barely watch. I didn’t even know what they were going to look like. The first time I saw them, I nearly threw up. The special effects are amazing, they are so real looking. CC: Not much gets me queasy in films. That did. RB: They went overboard a little bit. That was the goal of that movie in terms of the goal with that. However they also put in a story and my part was the story of this young mother in this custody battle who needs to get away and has this friendship, kind of a love relationship with the Joe Zaso character. They’re back and forth working out their demons and some weird stuff that they encounter while they go on this trip. That was great for me. I had a character, a storyline, a back story, and at the end, I get to kick butt which was amazing too. But there was a lot to work on before that. I wasn’t bloody until the end, so all that blood and gore I was so shocked when I actually saw it on the screen, I was like “Oh my god.” But it has a little bit of everything. For those who like gore, they’ll enjoy it. The people who want a little bit of a story in their movie will enjoy it too. CC: One of the films that you’re working on is based on a Michael Laimo book. RB: DEEP IN THE DARKNESS. CC: Who do you play in the film? RB: That’s actually really funny. I believe it’s Christine which is the main female role, the wife. However, the director and I have become good friends, he’s in California. He mentions that he wants me involved. I had met Michael Laimo at some of the conventions, we e-mail back and forth. I found it on IMDB one day on my page and I was like “OK, they’re going ahead with it.” I don’t know much about it because the production company has three other films in development that I’m involved with before this gets done. We’re supposed to be shooting one at the beginning of next year at some point called DANCE OF THE MARIONETTES. I’ve yet to see a script for that one. They’re finishing up the last details. DEEP IN THE DARKNESS, I read the book and love it. I read the script, which is different but it’s a very good script, but they haven’t discussed with me which part I’ll be playing (laughs). So the credit on IMDB I’m not gonna complain, and they have it listed as 2009, so if it’s made, I’ll be there. The book is excellent though. CC: Two years ago you hosted a Halloween parade for FANGORIA? RB: Yeah, it was for FANGORIA TV. That was literally one of the most exciting days of my life. It was Halloween 2005 and it was a beautiful night, sixty degrees, it was right in the Village. Everyone out there were having a really good time. Everyone was dressed up and celebrating, and just having a really great time and it was something I’d never forget and glad to be a part of. CC: Technically, we worked together on that. RB: Oh? CC: The parade was broadcast on Monsters HD which was where I worked. I was in the studio broadcasting it. I wish I was at the Village. RB: I did a lot of the show laying down on the middle of the street in New York. Who gets a chance to lay down in the middle of Sixth Avenue in New York City, how cool is that? At one point there was a two to three minute gap and I laid down again. Then these big puppet things came over me and walked over me just dancing, it was wonderful. CC: Do you enjoy the convention atmosphere? RB: Yes and no. I definitely like the crowd and meeting everybody and that it’s very cool to get your work out to so many people because some are really excited to see it. But by the end of the convention I am beat. I’m exhausted, I have a huge headache, I don’t even wanna talk to anyone. It’s a lot of work for the three days, networking, smiling, meeting new people, it’s great. But there’s so much going on, so many people, so many things you can look at and see, it’s like sensory overload for three days and I feel like I need to go into detox. CC: Being you’ve been involved with a lot of independent horror, where do you see the genre headed within the next five years? RB: I’m hoping and it seems to be that the ultra gore films with no story are not doing as well right now. A lot of the big stars are getting into horror movies. I’m hoping the ones that have a really good story, that there’s a twist, really something unexpected, are the ones that sell. People want to be thrilled, they want to be scared, but they also want to see something that they never saw. I don’t mean special effects wise even though there are some movies that are just special effects and that’s cool. I don’t think that’s the only thing that will make the horror genre within the next few years. I really think it’s going to be just the creativity that I think will be what will be pulling it within the next few years because it’s getting so much money and so much attention. I’m hoping the quality doesn’t go down because you get more at stake with the bigger budget movie and they get people in there that can really write and create cool stuff. CC: What is next for Raine Brown? RB: What is in the future? CC: Gaze into the Crystal Ball. RB: In the Crystal Ball, I don’t know. If I had it my way, I would continue to work in film and continue to do really cool indie scripts, horror and not horror. I would like to branch out too. Unfortunately the horror genre gets this stigma where it’s considered less than, which I think is ridiculous because horror can be put into anything: it can be a comedy, a drama, a thriller, then you add some blood. But I think if you take it and limit it to “horror is less than this,” I think that’s horrible. But I would like to do many different styles and if I had my way, I’d be doing more movies. Just keep working, that’s my main goal. CC: What are some of the projects you have coming up? RB: I’m doing a film PSYCHO HOLOCAUST that I’m shooting in October, in addition to another secret project this fall from the guys who did 100 TEARS. That should be fun. Then I have DANCE OF THE MARIONETTES coming up with Burning Ground Productions in California, and I’m in talks with Joco Falls for this movie EMERALDS OF DARKNESS supposedly for next year. It’s great because I know a bunch of people who keep doing films so I’m sure within a couple of months there might be a few more projects on the table. There are some in works but I don’t like to say that anything’s set until you start filming because these things can easily fall apart. On October 2nd a film I did PLASTERHEAD comes out on DVD, and in November DARKNESS SURROUNDS ROBERTA comes out. 100 TEARS should be getting a release but we don’t know when yet. CC: I’ll leave the last word to you. RB: Kisses.
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