Quarantine - Jennifer Carpenter

From Screen Gems: Television reporter Angela Vidal and her cameraman are assigned to spend the night shift with a Los Angeles Fire Station. After a routine 911 call takes them to a small apartment building, they find police officers already on the scene in response to blood curdling screams coming from one of the apartment units. They soon learn that a woman living in the building has been infected by something unknown. After a few of the residents are viciously attacked, they try to escape with the news crew in tow, only to find that the CDC has quarantined the building. Phones, internet, televisions and cell phone access have been cut-off, and officials are not relaying information to those locked inside. When the quarantine is finally lifted, the only evidence of what took place is the news crew’s videotape.

For our special set visit report, recounting what our reporter, Staci Layne Wilson, observed, please click here. For individual Q&A interviews with the director, makeup effects expert, and cast, please read on:

Staci Layne Wilson / Horror.com: Judging from your happy reaction at playback, I take it things are going well?

Jennifer Carpenter: Things are going hard.

Q: Is this your hardest shoot?

Jennifer Carpenter: This is my hardest shoot.

Q: Ever?

Jennifer Carpenter: Ever. This is the hardest thing that I have ever done.

Q: Just in terms of emotionally taxing, or physically taxing?

Jennifer Carpenter: I think that there are certainly psychological and emotional acrobatics going on, but it's sort of a blessing and a curse to shoot in order. Because everything sort of bottlenecks at the end, and we are at the end, so I feel like when I go to sleep at night. It's as though I have shut my eyes for a millisecond and then opened them. And I find myself driving back to Culver City again. It is taxing, but I think there is going to be a pretty remarkable payoff. I've watched more playback on this film than I have anything else. At first I get scared quite easily and at first I was holding my hand up in front of the screen. And I don't know if I've acclimated to it all but now I'm cheering it on and I'm laughing. I hope that is the reaction of the audience gets.

Q: Speaking of laughing… you always play such heavy characters. Any interesting in doing, say, a romantic comedy someday?

Jennifer Carpenter: You know, I would like to do a comedy. Especially after having done this for the last two weeks, it sounds really nice. To go and have a conversation and just blush over some guy but this is shot in a really unique way. I have never seen anything quite like it. It's sort of an experiment and that was enticing to me. I heard about the Dowdle Brothers and thought I should probably watch their previous movie because everyone that was talking about this film was raving about it. And then I was too terrified to watch it. So I thought that that was a credit to them. And I've worked with Clint Culpepper before, who produced Emily Rose and I'll do anything he says. I think most people do.

Q: You mentioned the acrobatics; horror.com we did the set visit for Emily Rose, years ago. They didn't let us talk to you though, because you were cloaked in secrecy, I guess, but they said that one of the reasons that they hired you was because of your extreme flexibility. Does that come into play here?

Jennifer Carpenter: I feel like for the record, that was discovered by all of us when we were up in Vancouver shooting Emily Rose, I didn't know that I could bend that way so I doubt that they did.

Q: So, it was was not when you auditioned?

Jennifer Carpenter: No, I mean, I don't think so. Maybe I'm wrong but who knows why, you get a job.

Q: It could be one of many reasons.

Jennifer Carpenter: No, that's not that's not really… This is a very physical, but not in the same way at all. I'm not the protagonist at this time, which is nice, and also a change.

Q: So you're not like in a little crawlspaces or anything like that for this movie?

Jennifer Carpenter: Not really. I guess that one of our biggest enemies is the building itself. So, whatever the building, whatever kind of hurdles it puts in front of us. We fight those it certainly physical, but it's very different.

Q: You obviously have a camera crew hot on your heels, kind of style. Have there ever been any close calls?

Jennifer Carpenter: We dropped it. Yeah that was great. It kept running. So we were asking if they could possibly use that. And they said they would put those cameras are ridiculously expensive. So that was kind of fun to watch. There was a broken eyepiece that was something like 15 grand to fix. But that happened probably 12 days into the shoot. I am surprised it didn't happen earlier. There've been a lot of freaky things. The first day of shooting, the stage caught on fire did they tell you that? We all kept smelling smoke we were about to shoot and I finally set you know what I'm going to leave, I'm going to walk out, because I was pretty certain that the building was on fire, and it was. Someone threw a cigarette butt and it caught on fire onstage. Apparently Joe who's been doing most of the shooting he's like a 5 foot eight or I mean 5 foot 10 probably and that camera I put it on my shoulder and 20 seconds later, I don't know how he can get it off. It's ridiculously heavy I don't know how, talk about acrobats. He is the one who's working hard.

Q: Obviously, it takes a great amount of staging to do this stuff like this; has that been another level of… not frustration but of challenge?

Jennifer Carpenter: Frustration say it… yeah, sure. TV, I think it moves so quickly and I think I was used to that pace before coming to this and it took me quite a while for me to submit to that this is how it is going to go here that this is going to take an hour or more to light it can't look like you lit it's because everything has to happen in one take. You are doing everything for the master and close-ups and everything has to be taken care of in one shot. It's not a very forgiving process. I think that the payoff is fantastic. I can only remember a couple times where people have messed up lines, and that is purely based on adrenaline. So that it's easier to forgive, but everybody comes preprepared.

Q: How do you balance that, because you are trying to be in character and scared of all this, but also, there is choreography you must adhere to.

Jennifer Carpenter: I was really confused about how to do that. I think I do a lot of research probably too much so that I can just forget one day and show up and see what happens that thing about the first version when I thought it. I really loved it I thought it was thrilling, but I thought it kind of ramped up to 100 miles an hour and it stayed at a hundred. I felt like as an audience member, I acclimated to that pace and things became less shocking, I was a little numb to it. It was a little harder to scare me after a certain point. So we wanted to make sure that we found certain places where it could ramp up enough. Now that we are at the end it's really hard to find those places where you can really get into character. It's more like, what can I do to wake up my body every part in my body. At sometimes it's like "one two three go" or, you know like playing the loudest song that I can think of in my head "go", but I think character stuff happened earlier on, and it was simple. It was like someone who is used to being looked at, and she smiled a little more than I do. Not that I am an unhappy person at all, but I think she is more giggly and giddy.

Q: What about all the screaming? I don't know if I could do that.

Jennifer Carpenter: You know what, in all of Emily Rose, I never went hoarse, not once. I mean, I did my fair share of warming up and all of that good stuff. But this time, like yesterday when you all saw that scene where Jay smashes his head into the steps. Like when he was bolting at me I was genuinely scared. I screamed without sort of protecting myself and I'm finding that I am having a hard time on this one. I don't think that I am alone either, but it's fun. It's really fun to scream, but especially when you know like you said, you find everything frustrating by waiting around.

Q: Is there anything in particular that the director is doing to get you guys really amped up now that you've said you had to go 100 miles an hour?

Jennifer Carpenter: I think that the things that he does that keeps us all happy and excited that when he likes something, he really lets you know. There is cheering, clapping, there is some cussing sometimes in a good way. And he has always maintained his approachableness you can bring him anything or offer him any ideas. And so in that way, he has been consistent and I appreciate that. You never see him sweat.

Q: What type of reporter are you playing in this? Hard news? TV show host?

Jennifer Carpenter: I was watching MTV and I was watching the food network, because you can do both while looking right at the camera and the camera is my primary scene partner. And then always remembering that Scott the cameraman was right behind me and that Steve Harris has been great following the camera so I have been just talking to him. I hope I'm not picking up bad habits like the office and a look at the camera like in that show and say, a.

Q: Do you have any scenes with the animals in this movie?

Jennifer Carpenter: Yes, a couple with Bullet the dog. It was great, although I didn't get to spend a lot of time with him… and there is a rat, but I wasn't there for that part. One time on Dexter one of the rats got lost, and the owners were crying looking all over this nasty building and I thought. How are we going to know if it's your rat? It was probably in heaven there.

Q: Does the theater come in handy when you're dealing with such long takes, and such physical long takes?

Jennifer Carpenter: Yes, like I was saying before you find one of these tricks that you can get yourself amped up for. I feel like I have this nifty tool box, where if I am lost I can reach in there and find the appropriate tool and pull it out somehow absolutely and also I'm thinking especially in this. Even Clint was saying that this was going to be a lot like theater. We are constantly aware that there is an audience out there. We are taping this whole movie so people know what happened inside this building. So in that way it's all live.

Q: Just a little bit about Steve's role in this is he there for every shoot is that his actual voice work that he is doing throughout this or is he going to go back into a studio?

Jennifer Carpenter: I think, I don't know what he thought when he took the picture. I don't know, he thought that's where most of it was going to be done in post, but he or if that was his suggestion to be there. But he is their everyday I see him every single day, and he follows the camera and he is there for every rehearsal. He is putting his input in, he says that if he was like a cameraman. I would not do that. I would pick it up here. She is really taking care of his role, and it has been really beneficial to me to have him there. And also before we met the rest of the cast and started doing rehearsals and stuff, I met Steve. We sat down and I don't know if I can really tell you this or not, but I said, you know we're supposed to have some sort of connection a real connection and a history together. So why don't I tell you my destructive secret and you tell me your deepest darkest secret. And then I'll be the only one that will know that and we traded. And I am not trading it now.

Q: What about the gore factor? A lot?

Jennifer Carpenter: Yes. I don't feel comfortable saying this, I think I'm just happy to play the part, because they bring out these dummies and stuff just to work with the special effects. And I can't look at some of them.

Q: Did you end up making it through the original film when you watched it?

Jennifer Carpenter: No, not the first time. I watched five minutes of the original and called Clint and said I am in tell me where to find, I am ready to go. And then he organized a screening for the whole cast. So we can all watch it together. He could tell us how high the bar had been set. And that was the first time I actually saw it from start to finish. And by the time they got to the end. I told Scott. I don't want to know what that set looks like. I don't want to meet anybody that is going to be in that scene. I want to save it all for when I am there, because I was pretty terrified. I think I am genuinely scared. I mean, our days are long, and no one wants to make them any longer. But when something does not ring true, we stop, we fix it, and we try to set it straight. It would be unfair, I think to be at the end in the beginning.

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Staci Layne Wilson reporting