Monica Potter - Interview
Monica Potter - Interview
On The Last House on the Left and being a real mom vs. a vigilante mom onscreen
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Staci Layne Wilson reporting
Q: Did you see the first movie?
Monica Potter: I didn't see the first movie, know I haven't watched it.
Q: Will you?
Potter: Yeah. I'm going to go watch it I think when it opens with a regular audience. Because I have waited this long, so I figure why not just wait until it actually comes out.
Q: If you're saying Saturday night let's go to the movies. Let's look at what's showing in the paper. If you saw this and read the description, would it be your choice for entertainment?
Potter: Honestly, probably I wouldn't go see this first. I know that it's a great movie, because I've heard it's a good movie, but I like comedies more, and just having done this film I know I'm probably going to get in trouble for saying that.
Q: This movie is really violent. So what do you think of this type of violence that is also realistic.
Potter: When I read the script I liked it because this could really happen, those movies where it's like a Friday the 13th, where the guy keeps coming back. There is something very human about each character, even a Krug and Sadie and all the bad guys too, which to me was very interesting is at certain points in reading the script. I actually felt bad for Krug it's hard to imagine that. But I think the way that the writers did it, he grabbed you from every angle from the bad angle and the good angle and everything else.
Q: In the first movie there was a kind of testament that people were so disturbed filming it. They were walking off the set… did anything happen while you guys were filming? Did you feel like you wanted to get out?
Potter: No, never the only time I ever wanted to get off the set was at five in the morning when there was a rain spider that was like this big. And I'm deathly afraid of spiders insects and whatever and when I saw that I wanted to run. We saw a lot of snakes and things and I wasn't a fan. It was like a big family. I know everybody says that, but being over there in South Africa away from your family, you sort of hold onto each other and try to do the best job possible and get home safely.
Q: Did you have revenge feelings to yourself?
Potter: Revenge feelings in real life?
Q: Yeah, just like the type of revenge when you're driving a car and someone...
Potter: Oh hell yeah. Yes! Flipping them off. I do that a lot and I have to watch it. Yet, I guess so, everybody goes through little bouts of anger here and there but never to the point of like my character did in the film. Unless that really happened in real life than that's a different story
SPOILER ALERT
Q: On that subject Emma's motivation is to protect her family to prevent further harm from being done. But in crossing the line to vengeance, especially in Tony's character John, but he does at the very end. I don't know if that's the cherry on the cake, if it or if that makes the cake tastes completely different.
Potter: I wasn't sure if they were going to keep that or not I wasn't sure and we were all kind of wondering that. Yet, I kind of think that's a good move to keep it because it is like the cherry on top. It's like you did all of this and you put us through all of that. There you go we get the last final say.
Q: And locking him up and throwing away the key wouldn't have been enough.
Potter: I don't know. I don't think so.
Q: There's a big moral issue there because if you fight violence with violence than the batterer would have been battered. So basically, nobody wins.
Potter: I don't know but I think, if you're a parent and you go through that with a child. I don't think any type of revenge is enough. I would've gone to lengths to make sure I would've plucked out each hair, one by one and done things much worse maybe to him. And that was a big part of the reason why I wanted to do this film, because I was like while this is really this is a lot. This is something that people might actually think what would you do if somebody did something to one of your loved ones, which I got out a lot of aggression.
END SPOILER
Q: How do you balance your private life and your work?
Potter: I have help. My mom comes out to visit sometimes from Ohio I have a girl that helps me from three to six in the afternoon. I do work on a TV show that just wrapped so that's done and I pick things carefully I don't try to overdo it.
Q: Your husband is an actor?
Potter: No. He's a doctor. It is totally different, but his job is pretty taxing. So I have to make sure that I am running the house the right way and making sure the kids are all taken care of.
Q: What was your main criteria of choosing the character for this role?
Potter: Usually it's humor. I couldn't find any humor in this at all.
Q: Is there a particular attraction with going back to a character. It the case of the film for all practical purposes. When the credits roll, the life of your character for all who was concerned it could be over. But with Sara you have the opportunity to incrementally build her is that attractive to you?
Potter: It's very attractive, and it's a lot of fun, because you get to find different things. Each week with the new scripts and whether it's written or not, you can sort of test the waters and you build a good relationship with the writers we have writer producers on the show that sometimes you get still stuck with words If you're an actor, and you're not allowed to deviate from that. So the first thing I did was ask permission. Can I make this my own? I don't want to take away from the writer's craft. And that has been the best part for me to be able to do that with her. I can make up things or ad lib. with Tony and Garret. You have no choice but to do that, especially Tony.
Q: They go off the page a little bit.
Potter: Yeah, a little bit.
Q: About the improvisation on this movie were there any improvisations or are they strict by the good director?
Potter: As far as the dialogue. There is some improv but... in the violent scenes where there are a lot of stunts involved or props involved you can't really deviate, because it has to be so precise. It's like a really close to dance with the other actors, because if you miss a step or a beat or a mark. Then you can hurt someone, even if it's a rubber knife.
Q: How was that choreographed I'm thinking this struggle by the sink, where there are three of you in a very confined area.
Potter: That scene took a long time to shoot. It felt like a week, but you have to listen at six in the morning when you have been there for a while. You're trying to stay focused, and that's when the vengeful comes out.
Q: So what was the biggest challenge in this type of scene?
Potter: Probably listening and waiting for your queue, because you don't want it to look sloppy, but you also don't want it to look like it's really rehearsed. So there is a fine line between making it look natural. However natural that can be, but basically listening to the other actors, and just anticipating what they are going to do next.
Q: Was there lots of rehearsal?
Potter: For that there was yeah, because I think that scene followed the scene with Aaron and I fighting with a knife and that was a long one.
Q: Can a movie like this incite violence in real life?
Potter: No, I don't think that unless somebody is really disturbed. Regardless, I don't think it's going to instigate somebody to go out and rape someone they would have to have some screws loose or have some violent tendencies already. It's just like blaming videogames for our kids behavior. It's our fault that our kids are bad you know, the way we raise them.
Q: What about your interaction with the director and Wes Craven. He's the father of the genre, so d he give you some advice?
Potter: Actually, I didn't meet Wes until after we wrapped back here. I never met him before that.
Q: He wasn't present on the set?
Potter: No. Jonathan Craven was, his son. Wes was not. I think he was shooting something at the same time, simultaneously. But Dennis basically didn't leave our side. We were together, we ate together, we did everything together. The weekends we didn't work, we were all inseparable. So that he was our leader. He herded us through the tough spots I just pretty much put all my faith in him and Tony also coming from the directing role too. But Tony didn't wear that hat at all he sort of let Dennis do his thing and trusted him fully. He never questioned him what was so great about Dennis was that if he wasn't sure about something he would ask our opinion and get our input, and he listened if we felt like something wasn't working, or something wasn't right. It was really nice to have that, because there was a trust both ways.
Q: How about the experience of shooting in South Africa. I don't know what kind of perk going to locations like that is because this actually isn't depicting South Africa. So right outside the sets, you would be in a different environment.
Potter: It was work every single day was like you show up, you work hard I don't really think any of us saw too much daylight at home on the weekends or on Sundays we would just sleep during the days and then go to work. So then we were very close off a little bit. We did some fun things towards the end, but you don't really see anything about South Africa in the movie.
Q: What was your sense of the South African people and the crews?
Potter: They are the hardest working people, just tireless fearless, funny, warm, abrasive everything. They are like Australians they reminded me a lot of Australians. South African people, they were just a great group and I miss them a lot. That whole crew was stellar. Nobody slacked off, nobody let somebody else do their work. It was really fantastic.
Q: And next, what are you doing - a comedy?
Potter: Maybe that would be fun. I just wrapped my TV show called "Trust Me". And I was working for about five months. I'm going to try to sleep for about a week.It's an hour-long comedy for TNT, and it is set in an advertising agency in Chicago, modern day and I think it's pretty cute. It's a cute show. Its witty, it's quick, a lot of good banter.
Q: Does it give you a new perspective on people in the advertising business, because sometimes they are not viewed as the most ethical.
Potter: I sort of grew up in it, my uncle Bill was an advertising executive. He owns his own agency in Cleveland calls Brokaw Advertising and so I grew up seeing him pulling his hair out and him trying to come up with these ads at a deadline. And I didn't realize that it was like one of the top two professions with the highest suicide rate. What was the other one?
Q: Dentists.
Potter: I thought you guys were going to say journalism. No, it is dentists! Why is that, do you think?
Q: There has also been the interesting storyline about Sara’s sexuality on "Trust Me" and the fact that you have been having fun with that. Is that a fine line to walk, because some people might say that the newest insult is to be called a lesbian?
Potter: No, because when we were shooting it, Sara the character, if you know, the character a little bit, there is no edit button on her. So I think it would have been an insult if she were to have made fun of it. But it's more about her insecurities than what you see transpire in the episode. Sara's a mess I don't think she was making a dig at lesbians, but more at herself and what a loser she is the fact that people think that she can't find a man
Q: What were some of your favorite movies, growing up?
Potter: I loved a movie called Radio Flyer. I don't know if you guys have seen that movie. Dick Donner did it in the 80s, and I loved that movie when I was growing up. I didn't go to the movies too much. I watched a lot of TV.
Q: Who gave you the acting bug?
Potter: My dad. He told me when I was three that that is what I was going to do. And I thought it meant that I was going to wear a star and just wave to people.
Q: Are you going to say the same to your daughter?
Potter: No, because if she wants to do it, it will find her. I didn't really start getting into this until I was much older, and I was living here. If she wants to find it, it will find her. So I don't want to ever push her into that direction, because I would be a terrible stage mom. I would be like oh honey, just let the other kid get it. It's fine, and I don't want people making comments on her weight. Or, you know…
Q: How is it to be cast as a mom though, because knowing that you're the mother of a teenager I guess it was probably easier to play the mother of a teenager. But that's probably a whole actresses career to say okay, now they think of me as the mother.
Potter: You're right. Nobody's asked me that question that's a really good question. It was a little weird, I have to say. It was a little weird because I know Sarah's real age. And I do have a teenager but I also had him when I was just 18 so if I thought of it in that sense. Like okay, I had her when I was 18 or 16 or 15 or whatever. But yeah, it was a little scary I have to say, because then it puts you in a whole different category. But I think it worked because we look a lot alike. And in real life we have the same personality. [But]I don't want to go through my teens or my 20s. Again, I like my 30s, I'll stay right here.
[End]
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| 'The Last House on the Left' | |
| The original version of "The Last House on the Left" -- the 1972 feature debut of horror master Wes Craven and a primal tour of rape, mayhem, murder and madness -- was one of those movies that was spoken about even decades later with an uncertain mix of fear and reverence. Now given the Hollywood remake treatment, with Craven as producer, Greek-born Dennis Iliadis directing and a script credited to Adam Alleca and Carl Ellsworth, the remodeled "House" is a shockingly mundane disappointment taken on its own and a deeply misguided refraction of the original. Where the original, which was loosely based on Ingmar Bergman's "The Virgin Spring," made quick work of setting its story in motion, the remake includes plenty of patently unnecessary back story. Dad (Tony Goldwyn) is an emergency room doctor, Mom ([URL="http://www.monica-potter.com"]Monica Potter[/URL]) is a ball of nerves, and their delicate daughter (Sara Paxton) is a champion swimmer. Her fast friend (Martha MacIsaac, the drunken good girl in "Superbad") unwittingly lands them in the clutches of the crazed baddies. As leader of the gang, Garret Dillahunt exudes a controlled sleazebag intelligence that is in marked contrast to the indelible frenzy created by the original's David Hess. The centerpiece of both films, for better or worse, is the rape scene, marking the fulcrum point where the diffuse malevolence of the gang takes shape as unfiltered evil. The original scene derived no small part of its integrity from the documentary-like matter-of-factness with which it was shot, a purposeful artlessness that captured the grim intensity of what unfolded in a crummy patch of woods awaiting development. In the remake, Iliadis does restrain himself from overdoing the stylization, but the new setting of a verdant, scenic forest gives the proceedings an art-directed falseness, draining the audience-implicating authenticity and replacing it with the easy distance of knowing entertainment. The original film was marked by a post-Manson paranoia, as the bacchanalian decadence of the hippie dream was taken to its illogical end of nihilistic violence. There, the young girl squabbled with her parents about whether to leave the house without a bra, and the trinket that would later give away her attackers is a peace symbol soaked in irony. In the new version, the girl lingers over a keepsake from her recently deceased brother, transforming the film into a strange reaffirmation of family, while the added emphasis on survival and vengeance turns Goldwyn and Potter's characters into heroic action parents. In this light it feels like the family is defending their entitlement to a rustic second home and vintage motorboat, not their right to exist. The promotional line for the original "Last House" asked viewers to remind themselves that it was, for all its visceral pangs of reality, still "only a movie." The greatest flaw with this remake is that it is too much only a movie, a tawdry, pointless whirligig that wants to spin amusement from genuine pain and misery without forcing its audience into an uncomfortable position of questioning themselves and their own enjoyment of it. It takes a certain kind of person to want to pay good money to watch simulated rape and violence, and a certain kind of movie to make it worth the price. This wrongheaded remake of "The Last House on the Left" is demeaning to both the audience and the freaky legacy of the film it doesn't dare to truly touch. | |
| 03-18-2009 by joni2 | discuss |