WAMG Exclusive Interview With KATEE SACKHOFF : OCULUS

OCULUS, the new horror film co-written and directed by Mike Flanagan, introduces audiences to a new kind of terror: the eerily inscrutable Lasser Glass. This beautiful antique mirror is no ordinary villain. Its seemingly harmless reflections hold a malevolent supernatural force that infects the mind of the viewer, leading to paranoia, distorted visions, and eventually, possession. Recently, I sat down with the lovely Katee Sackhoff, who plays Marie Russell, a mother who tragically lost her life shortly after the Lasser Glass was brought into their new home, to talk about her first role as a mother, the possibility of ghosts, and “road sodas”. Check it out below. 

Ten years ago, tragedy struck the Russell family, leaving the lives of teenage siblings Tim and Kaylie forever changed when Tim was convicted of the brutal murder of their parents.  Now in his 20s, Tim is newly released from protective custody and only wants to move on with his life; but Kaylie, still haunted by that fateful night, is convinced her parents’ deaths were caused by something else altogether:  a malevolent supernatural force¬¬ unleashed through the Lasser Glass, an antique mirror in their childhood home.  Determined to prove Tim’s innocence, Kaylie tracks down the mirror, only to learn similar deaths have befallen previous owners over the past century.  With the mysterious entity now back in their hands, Tim and Kaylie soon find their hold on reality shattered by terrifying hallucinations, and realize, too late, that their childhood nightmare is beginning again…

You’re no stranger to horror films, doing HALLOWEEN : RESURRECTION, WHITE NOISE 2 : THE LIGHT, THE HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT 2 : GHOSTS OF GEORGIA… What was it about this film that made you want to sign on? 

KATEE SACKHOFF : The script, first and foremost. Mike Flanagan is a phenomenal writer. I had read a script that he had written prior to this one as well – ABSENTIA. He’s really, really talented in taking something that is so simple, and that everybody can relate to, kind of flipping it on its head, and making you ten times more afraid than you’ve ever that you’ve thought of. In the case of ABSENTIA – a tunnel. We don’t think about it. Now you’re terrified of a tunnel. A mirror, you know… Everybody walks by, like, 50 mirrors a day. Now you’re terrified of a mirror. There are little things that he’s able to flip on their head. That’s the main reason that I wanted to do this movie. I thought that it’s an interesting take on the, kind of, perfect little American family. I think that women, especially woman as we get older, can identify with aging, and societies expectations of us, and out body image. We all look in the mirror on a daily basis and go “I wish this”. Now, what if that mirror was possessed and made you, not only question this about yourself, but truly believe that you are completely imperfect. It’s an interesting thought, you know?

Absolutely. You mention the concept of family. How did you prepare for your first role as a mother?

KATEE SACKHOFF : I didn’t want to make myself look older. I think that was one possibility, but I thought that the interesting thing would be if you take an educated woman who probably finished college… If those were my children I would have gotten pregnant at 19 and 20. I wanted to show her that age in a positive light. My sister had her son at 19, and she’s an incredible role model. She finished college. She does a great job. She works her ass off. So, I didn’t want to show a stereotypical, negative view of what it’s like to have a child young. In that sense I just, kind of, modeled her off of my sister who was a young parent, and who questioned her self as she got older. She felt almost that she got older faster because she had a child young. She’s in her early 40’s and she has a child that has graduated college, and is 25 years old. I mean, it’s very interesting. She feels older than most 45 year olds because she’s been a mom since she was 19. So, her insecurities may be heightened in that sense. I don’t know. I was really looking for that dynamic, and portraying it in a more positive light… until it obviously goes awry. [Laughs]

Speaking of insecurities, I’m curious how long your make-up process was for this, because they really transformed you and put you through the ringer!

KATEE SACKHOFF : She’s pretty nasty, right? [Laughs] That was another thing that we had talked about. I just kept saying “More. I want more. I want her to look worse.” Rory [Cochrane – who plays Alan in the film] made a great example of it earlier and said “Everything in this movie from the children’s perspective, and is two completely different realities.” One child believes that all of this bad stuff happened, and the other child believes that their parents were violent, and things went badly. So, I wanted it to always have an explanation for her going crazy. We added the alcohol into one scene… maybe that was it. Maybe Alan really did just go crazy, and maybe he was having an affair. Maybe all of these things… Now I completely lost my train of thought because I’m thinking about all of the scenes with Alan, and all of the examples of it. It’s a very interesting thing how it went so negative so quickly. [Laughs]

As a horror fan, I really enjoyed the different perspectives, and the different takes on things… I think that it’s really hard to get horror right in this decade. 

KATEE SACKHOFF : Audiences are smarter. They’re expecting more. They’ve seen everything before. So, how are you going to make it different? How are you going to make a horror film different?

What is your reaction to seeing yourself on-screen, or in the make-up chair with all of the prosthetics on? I imagine it’s pretty wild! 

KATEE SACKHOFF : On bad days, it took about two hours… two or three hours, and then it took a couple of hours to get off. Getting it off was hard. That was actually worse. I just wanted her… she’s sitting here, beating up her children. If this is one of her realities – that maybe their mother did beat them – it affects one of their realities. I wanted her to be ugly. We just kept adding more and more prosthetics. I wanted her to be hunched over, almost like an animal with a crazed look. It is weird to see that on-screen, but I think it’s probably easier to see myself on camera that way than it is to see myself looking normal. Looking normal is harder, because I’m more critical of myself in less of a character, I guess.

You have such a diverse fan base in sci-fi and horror. Have you every had a fan come up to you and talk about their experiences with the supernatural? 

KATEE SACKHOFF : Some, yeah! A little bit… I’ve done a few movies that  have possessions and ghosts, and things involved around them. I think it also make, as an actor, more susceptible to believing in these things as well. People do talk to me about crazy things. [Laughs] You can’t help but talk about it on set. That’s the favorite topic of discussion. Yeah, and I believe in that sort of stuff. I think you have to. There is no scientific proof in either direction, so that’s the question. It kind of just leaves everything up in the air. I think that’s why supernatural movies and television shows are so scary.You’re talking about something that you can’t prove or disprove.

Plus, it’s a little more fun to believe… 

KATEE SACKHOFF : I think so too. I think it’d be much more interesting to believe that my Grandfather is sitting right there [looks beside her on the couch] just watching, you know.

I feel the same way about my Grandmother. 

KATEE SACKHOFF : Yeah! It’s just fun!

You’ve played all sorts of different characters… Sci-fi, action, horror, voice-over… Is there any type of role, or genre that you would really like to play, that maybe you haven’t? 

KATEE SACKHOFF : I’m just about doing things that I haven’t done before, and if I have done them I try to do them in a different way, you know? I’m a huge fan of romantic comedies, so for me, I would love to do that. I would love to go do stage, and to do musical theater. I started in musical theater. I just want to work as much as possible for the rest of my career, and have fun doing these things. I think that’s why I’m drawn to genre, because it’s more fun than going to do a drama where you’re crying all of the time. [Laugh]

Plus, it’s a little easier to unwind at the end of the day.

KATEE SACKHOFF : It is. Yeah. I mean, this was a bit harder because I was in prosthetics. For me, unwinding at the end of the night was washing my face off and going back to the hotel. It was on days where I was in full prosthetics and sit through a two-hour process to take off, I would get back to the hotel and everyone would already be in bed. [Laughs] So, then I would start drinking by myself [laughs]… like, “I’ve gotta unwind”. I think I had a $700, almost $800 wireless bill for downloading movies on iTunes [laughs] because there was no Wi-Fi. I was using my G4 on my iPad to turn my computer into a… yeah. So, I was downloading movies on iTunes. It was bad. [Laughs] It was so expensive.

You get caught in that trap… 

KATEE SACKHOFF : You have to! I do it now. It’s so bad.

Well, what are some of your favorite movies? 

KATEE SACKHOFF : Right now… I just watched BLUE JASMINE. I thought that Cate Blanchett was amazing ing that movie. As far as movies I’ve seen this year. I just saw DIVERGENT. I’ve read the books. I took two of the guys from the cast LONGMIRE with me, and they were like “What am I, a twelve-year-old girl?” [Laughs]… and I was like “We’re seeing DIVERGENT. Zip it! Put some Jack Daniels in your Coke and let’s go!”

Just a little “road soda” or, as I like to call it, “talent juice”…

KATEE SACKHOFF : Exactly! We like to call them “roadies” in Louisiana. [Laughs]

FOR MORE INFO:

WEBSITE : http://www.oculus2014.com

FACEBOOK : https://www.facebook.com/oculusmovie

OCULUS is in theaters now