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The lovely Miss Pollyanna Posing as Elizabeth Taylor (in Christopher Kane) for Scottsman Magazine.
As you may might remember, I interviewed Pollyanna McIntosh once before, not long after this very site had launched. I am a huge fan of her work (especially in the movie The Woman) and I just wanted to tap the brain of the actress who helped bring that unforgettable character to life. Since then, Pollyanna’s career has only climbed higher and burnt brighter. She was in one of the best movies of the year so far (Filth) and is about to be in two horror films coming out. White Settlers, as well as the one I got a chance to talk to her about here, Let Us Prey, co-starring Game of Thrones Liam Cunningham. The movie looks brutal, which of course, has my attention. This talented woman was kind enough to humor another batch of my silly questions about everything from what it is like to play the “final girl” so often, to what she thinks of woman’s roles in modern cinema (and what she hopes to do to change that in the future).
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Pollyanna McIntosh at Burke and Hare premier in 2010.
Hi Pollyanna! Thank you so much for humoring me and fielding a bunch of my questions again. How have you been since we last spoke?
Pollyanna: Highly alive and mostly freshly scented, thank you.
MMMM, dryer sheets! I wanted to mention, you are in my favorite movie of the year so far, Filth. I know it was released in 2013, but it has had wider distribution this year. A “small” but very memorable role in a very unforgettable and original film. I say “small” because that is sort of the theme of the scene you’re in.
Pollyanna: Thanks! I love Filth, too, so very proud to be a “small” part of it. Never thought I would have the pleasure of saying “horse’s cock” and “mouse’s cock” in the same film. I got lucky. My character, um, not so much.
Touche’. As much as I could talk about cock for hours with you (I should rethink that sentence), I wanna get right in to Let Us Prey. I am really looking forward to this movie. If they gave awards for horror movies based on title alone, I already feel like Let Us Prey should be winning things. The movie looks blood-soaked and quite unlike anything else out there. Tell me in your own words what Let Us Prey is about.
Pollyanna McIntosh: It’s about a rookie cop named Rachel, and her first night on the job. She has a past that she hides, as does the enigmatic stranger (played by Liam Cunningham) who arrives in town when she does and takes an interest in her. Both are far more dangerous than they first appear. Of course, if you asked Liam, he would say it is about an enigmatic stranger named Six who comes to town to raise hell. Oh, and there is some chick named Rachel in it.
Ah, Liam Cunningham. Best known right now for playing Davos Seaworth on Game of Thrones, but with quite an impressive body of work. Looks like he plays the source of evil in Let Us Prey. Is he as intimidating in real-life as he seems on-screen?
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Oh man, I have that same shawl!
Pollyanna: Terrifying! He eats gravel for breakfast and has a handshake like a prisoner. Liam is actually half man-of-the-world, half wee lad, discovering wonders for the first time. He is a delight to work with and had me laughing from day one. He was also a great advocate for cast and crew.
Yeah, I imagine few would stand in opposition to him. Smart choice for bad guy casting right there. He plays a character named Six. That, in itself, is intriguing. Anything you can tell us about the character?
Pollyanna: Well, we would call him Sixy. That is all I am gonna say about that.
Well then, enough about Sixy. Tell me a bit more about Rachel, your character in the film. I notice it looks like you may be the only thing standing in the way of whatever Six has in mind (though I am expecting some twists and turns, too). Maybe you will reach “Final Girl” status again? (Final Girl referring to the underestimated female who ends up being the savior and last survivor in a horror film). I touched on this subject with you before, but wanted to ask again. Is that something you set out to conscientiously do? Choose to play strong females who overcome all adversity when it seems there is little hope. Or do those roles sort of find you?
Pollyanna McIntosh: It is a bit of both, really. People don’t really see me as the weakling type. I’m a tall brunette and have shoulders like a linebacker (I take after my mother), but I also lean towards movies where there are strong female characters I can portray. As an actress and a movie-loving-woman, I am naturally drawn to more developed roles like Rachel.
Was there any special training that you had to undergo to play a cop? Did you get to do any sweet ride-a-longs, or get any classes on how to shoot a gun or anything?!
Pollyanna: On a low-budget, indie film like this one, there is not a lot of budget for “special training” and I didn’t even have any shooting of guns to do. But luckily on every film set if you are shooting on location, there are police officers around to hold back traffic etc. I was lucky enough to find a couple cops who were willing to show me hand cuffing procedures and answer a few questions about how stuff would go down on the job. I usually get into my own research independently for each role, but I focused so much on Rachel’s past and didn’t realize until the day I was there that I didn’t know how to cuff someone. Now I do. Just saying.
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Pollyanna as the Size Queen in the amazing Filth (with actor Jamie Bell in the background).
Is it weird that last part kind of got me excited? I am sorry, I have issues. So was it difficult not to wear the police officer’s outfit home one day and just randomly fight crime? I mean, I know that is a Federal offense, but the urge must have been there, right? You can totally ignore that question if you want.
Pollyanna McIntosh: First thing I wanted to do was go try to arrest someone, trust me. But yeah, I would have held up the shoot a bit if I was in real cells instead of the fake cells the fantastic art department built for us to play in.
Shout out to art department on Let Us Prey! Holla! I do think you made the right choice not being arrested for impersonating a police officer. So the film looks really brutal, with lots of blood and screaming and various deaths by various methods. I know I touched on this before with you, but for those just joining us, is it hard to detach from that at the end of a fourteen hour shoot?
Pollyanna: It’s hard to get that shit out of your hair! Blood and guts don’t bother me much (uh oh, veering into poetry again, Remy (Editor’s Note: Polly is referring to the first interview where I begged her to write me a poem and she obliged, and it was awesome). But there were elements to Rachel’s history that were a little hard for me to live with, emotionally. The violence was actually a release (as it is for the character). The only hard thing about the splatter and kill effects when shooting horror is you want to get it just right, so it convinces the audience and keep them in the story, as opposed to them just watching the “effect”. This means it can sometimes take a while to shoot. But we had a great head of makeup effects named Steph Smith. She was astonishingly fast under pressure. Very skilled in her craft, very inventive. And a great Scottish laugh to boot.
I love Scottish laughter. It is always so genuine that is warms the soul. I remember you posting a trailer or interview for White Settlers on your Facebook and someone on there referred to you as an “up and coming scream queen”. What are your thoughts on that? Is that a positive or negative connotation to you?
Pollyanna: I think that was a response to a White Settlers (British horror thriller coming next year) clip, and because of how much screaming I do in that movie, they were being punny (funny with puns!). I’ve had one interview where the people wanted to use the term Scream Queen in the title of the piece on me. But they were also the kind of paper where if they talked about a female comedian or female lawyer they would have to mention her bra size and age, so ya know, they are kind of idiots to begin with.
(Scratches out questions about her age and bra size)
The only scream queens for me are the old, glamorous, horror movie stars who would do those (now wonderfully nostalgic) screams right into the camera as some bewigged wolfman or slick haired vampire slowly closed in on them. I am a fan of that era, but would like to think the genre has come for since those times. I feel like people using the term “scream queen” now, except jokingly, are out of date.
I think the term scream queen is often used to trivialize women’s role in horror, and in some cases, the genre itself. (There is still an odd snobbery about horror, as if there aren’t crappy movies made in other genres). Yes, there are shitty, boring, misogynistic horrors full of psycho-sexualized violence towards screaming women who are treated as anything but queens. But there are also progressive, brilliant horrors which play on the genre’s themes, make statements, show diverse and interesting female AND male characters, or take us on a great ride.
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Pollyanna McIntosh as Rachel in Let Us Prey. This woman is a powerhouse.
I’m an actress who is known by some for my horror roles, and though in the industry (the media, and even the audience) can be prone to pigeon holing actors as one type, I feel my roles continue to be diverse, whether in horror, comedy, or drama. If I was overtly concerned about strategy in my career, I would have missed out on a lot of fun collaborations and lot of learning. I want to do roles that excite me. A person could go mad, whether an actor or not, trying to avoid being labeled this or that. It is really none of my business how others see me.
That was an extremely powerful and epic answer, and it only works to remind me I see you as awesome. But will be quick to remind you, that’s none of your business. Playing on themes and gender, let’s say you could go back and play one role in any horror movie. What role would you pick?
Pollyanna: I would like to play Dracula some day.
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I think she would nail the part, but I am slightly biased because she is nice to me.
Well, he was based as much off of Elizabeth Bathory as Vlad the Impaler, so I think there is a big possibility for that and wish you luck with it. Okay, so “hypothetical questions based on reality” time. You end up writing a movie that ends up having what goes on to be considered the best female character of all time in it. Tell me about her.
Pollyanna McIntosh: Hopefully I am writing a pretty great female character in the screen play I am writing right now. She is flawed and brave and funny, and I hope you will be seeing her on your movie screens next year.
Well, that both intrigues and excites me. I would demand you tell me more, but I understand that these things happen in their own time. You know I will be cheering you on, regardless. In our 2013 chat you ended up recommending an Austrian movie to me named The Wall. I ended up loving the film (very different than anything I had ever seen). Any chance you have something else up your sleeve you could recommend to me this year?
Pollyanna: Gabrielle. It is a Canadian film about a woman with a regressive disease who is falling in love and trying to find her independence. It’s funny, warm, brilliantly shot, brilliantly acted, and utterly joyful. It is also full of music. Oh God, I love it!
I am already looking forward to finding it. I need some joy in my life. Thank you so much for taking the time to humor me and join me for another cup of proverbial tea. I wish you all the continued success in the world, and I cannot wait to see you in Let Us Prey.
Pollyanna McIntosh: Thanks very much.
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You can follow Pollyanna McIntosh on Twitter right here, and make sure to see Let Us Prey (and anything else this awesome woman is in).
The post My Interview With Pollyanna McIntosh About Her New Film, Let Us Prey appeared first on Remy Carreiro.