Victoria Thaine The Loved Ones Interview

Victoria Thaine The Loved Ones Interview

Question: Can you talk about your character, Holly?

Victoria Thaine: Sure, Holly is an all-round nice girl. I play Xavier Samuel (Brent's) girlfriend and Holly is one of those people that wouldn't even hurt a fly. Holly is very sweet but at the same time she has a lot of strengths, she has a lot of courage and she is not afraid to stand up to the psychotic Lola Stone (laughing).


Question: Are you able to relate to the character of Holly?

Victoria Thaine: Yes, absolutely! I think I am a nice person (laughing). I hope that I have an inner-strength that is symbolised with the character of Holly and I think she has a lightness that I probably have as well. I always tend to play similar sort of characters to Holly.


Question: How did you prepare for the role of Holly?

Victoria Thaine: The biggest challenge was that Holly, in terms of the film, has to play the archetype of the nice, sweet, good character opposed to Lola's evil character. The challenge was to make sure it wasn't just a one-note performance and to make sure that, in the scenes that I had, that I could give Holly some depth and complexities. It was important to make sure I built a whole world for her and gave Holly's character thought.


Question: How old are you?

Victoria Thaine: I'm 32.


Question: Holly is 18, in The Loved Ones; can you talk about how you go about playing a younger character?

Victoria Thaine: As you get older you don't feel much different to how you were when you were 18 or 19. Obviously a lot of things happen in your life and you become a little bit older and wiser, I looked back at that time, in my life at what I was doing and used that. It's always a mistake, if you're playing a character that's much younger than you are, to try really hard to play younger. You have to trust that you're going to look that age, on camera and that people will believe you are that age because of the words you are saying, what you are doing and how you are doing them. I hoped it worked!


Question: Can you talk about the experience of filming in the horror genre?

Victoria Thaine: It was really interesting, I have never done a genre film before and to be honest it's not really a genre that I watch a lot of, I don't really know a lot about the whole history of horror films. It was challenging, in some ways, because a genre film has to fulfill certain criteria and you have to adhere to the form, in some ways. Obviously it's not necessarily realistic and as an actor, I found, in this film, sometimes you are fighting against what you would instinctively do.

Spoiler Alert: For example at the end of the film, Brent has holes in his feet and his head but he still managers to drive the car and on the way to the hospital he stops off at Mum's and we all have a big hug!

I am a logical and very realistic person, I was thinking 'why are we here?' and 'why are we having a big hug, we should be going to the hospital?'! When you watch the film, you realise that it has to happen, in that way.


Question: Would you normally choose to watch horror movies and how did you go about watching some of the gory scenes in The Loved Ones?

Victoria Thaine: Not too badly because I was in the film, I think it is a little bit easier to watch, you realise it isn't real and you know the people aren't getting hurt. Spoiler Alert: I've seen it three or four times, now and every time it gets to the part where the hole is drilled in Brent's head I have to block my ears. It's not so much the visuals but the sound.

For some reason, every time I see it, I sort of forget about how grouse that part is. I've had friends come to see it and I say to them, 'No, no it's fine! There's not much in it at all, to be scared of' and every single time it gets to that part I always go 'oh, that's right, this is really awful!'

The movie has some funny parts too, which I didn't expect, it needs that bit of comic relief.


Question: Can you talk about the scene towards the end were Lola Stone (Robin McLeavy) is chasing you with a knife? How did you go about filming this?

Victoria Thaine: That was definitely the most fun scene that I got to film. It was great working with Robin McLeavy, we have worked with each other before and we get along really well. We had a stunt choreographer work with us to choreograph and make it look realistic and to make sure we didn't hurt ourselves. We learnt how to fall out of a car and those kind of things.

We had a good few hours of rehearsal actually to choreograph the fight scene and that was really fun, because I'd never gotten to do anything like that before and it was great that us girls where able to get to do something a little bit blokey.

On the actual day I think it took us about four or five hours to shoot. It was really surprising that by the end of it, I was so wired, the adrenalin was really going from all the physical work, it was quite intense having Robin McLeavy scream at me and lunge at me, with a knife, about twenty times in a row! Although it was quite full on, I loved it. It is really fun to do those scenes, as an actor, when you do not have to be in your head so much because it is primal and spontaneous.


Question: How did you go about working alongside a dog, in the film?

Victoria Thaine: That dog is famous, I'd say it has more work than every Australian actor combined; it was in Australia and has been in everything! I can't remember if the dog is a he or a she but it was amazing, it was trained so well. I don't think you see as much, in the final cut, as we actually shot on the day, but it is amazing how the dog crawls up the footpath, to Brent's house; the dog just did it, there was only a couple of times where the dog got up and walked away, before we had finished shooting.

As the dog was so trained, it made my job so easy because I had a real dog there who actually looked injured.


Question: How was the experience of working with Sean Byrne?

Victoria Thaine: Fantastic! Sean Byrne is really enthusiastic! The Loved Ones is a project that he had been working on for a really long time and he had done an incredible amount of research, he had twelve pages of back story for Lola Stone and how she had become the way she had become. Sean Byrne is really interested in different real life serial killers and he had researched them. It meant that when we were filming he knew exactly what he wanted, which would seem like an obvious thing for a director but there are some directors out there that get on set and they're a bit lost. Sean Bryne is really decisive and also fun! It is great to see a new up-and-coming director make a great film and have a really great first experience.


Question: Where was The Loved Ones filmed?

Victoria Thaine: It was filmed in Melbourne, most of The Loved Ones was filmed no more than an hour outside of Melbourne. All the scenes that happen at Lola Stone's house took place in a studio; they actually built the room and the basement that The Loved Ones are in. The rest of the filming took place at different locations around Melbourne.


Question: Do you have any projects setup in the future in regards to acting?

Victoria Thaine: I have filmed a small role in an ABC show series that Richard Roxburgh is in called Rake, I have a little part in that. I have also filmed a web series earlier this year called MasterChef Reject; myself and my boyfriend, Neil Morrison, filmed, directed and stared in the show. We have had a really great response to MasterChef Reject. MasterChef Reject is about a girl called Janie Spanner who had auditioned for MasterChef and didn't get on the show so her and her husband Derek decided to create their own show, anyways. It is all filmed out of Janie and Derek's house and Janie has to do similar cooking challenges that they do on the real MasterChef show. We are hoping to turn that into a television show so we have been working on getting a proposal for a television show.

The Loved Ones

Cast: Xavier Samuel, Robin McLeavy, Jessica McNamee, Victoria Thaine
Director: Sean Byrne
Genre: Horror
Rated: MA
Running Time: 80 minutes

Synopsis: The storyline follows 17-year-old student Brent (played by Xavier Samuel) who is traumatised after the death of his father in a car accident for which he feels responsible. Wracked with guilt, Brent goes on a bender of pot smoking and loud heavy metal music in his attempt to block out the pain.

Six months later, Brent is asked out to the school prom by Lola Stone (chillingly portrayed by Robin McLeavy), the quietest girl in school. When he turns her down, the rejection enrages her and with the help of her Daddy, she kidnaps Brent and gives him a prom night he will never forget.

Release Date: November 4th, 2010
Website: www.thelovedonesmovie.com