INTERVIEW: Laura Donnelly – INSATIABLE
You may recall that I posted an early review of a really rather good Irish indie movie called Insatiable, last week. You can check out that review by clicking here. I get the distinct impression that a fair few of you are a bit reticent about taking my word on this flick because I have some sort of extraneous connection to it via the guy that ‘thunked’ up the story (our own Mr ‘NotorietyH’) but you should really take my word for it… Insatiable is very good and well worth your time.
I was lucky enough to get some sit down time with one of the stars of the film, Laura Donnelly, who blew me away with her performance in Insatiable. This is the first ever Stale Popcorn interview and the first interview I’ve ever conducted so apologies in advance if its not as “professional” as you’re maybe accustomed to. Laura certainly masked any frustrations in my interviewing ability and I can only thank her for it.
It’s a long read but a very entertaining one and Miss Donnelly was great company to be in. We cover a lot of ground – from Insatiable, sex-scenes, Shane Meadows, loving or hating Death Proof and a whole heap of stuff in between. She was having a few technical problems at her end and I was having a few PC problems at mine, so after a quick discussion about that and advanced apologies to one another in case either disappeared, we jumped straight in.
I really hope you enjoy it and… without further ado… here’s my conversation with Laura Donnelly, the star of Insatiable:
So, how did you come about the script for INSATIABLE? Was it something you were offered or did you go chasing it?
It was the standard way really – my agent gave me the script and had an audition lined up. I don’t know whether the casting director had requested me to come in or if my agent put me forward, it can work either way. But it was pretty straightforward, I met Jessie for a reading and was offered it a little while later.
Did you have to audition with, or do some tests with Nora-Jane (Noone) to see if there was a chemistry between the two of you?
No, I didn’t actually meet Nora-Jane until we started filming. I guess Jessie didn’t feel the need to test that stuff, she knew who she wanted and that was that. She had faith in both of us as actresses because she felt that both of us understood the core of our characters pretty instinctively.
That was an amazing judgement on Jessie’s part because the two of you work so well off one another. Am I correct in thinking this was the first film you’d done?
No I had done another feature the year before which has taken some time to complete in post-production and so has only just recently been declared ready for release.
And what’s that and when can we expect it?
It’s called RIGHT HAND DRIVE and it’s made by an American production company but based in England. To be honest though I haven’t really been in much contact with the company since it was wrapped two years ago and so I have no idea about it’s release date – I think it’s looking for distribution. I have however, just completed another film, DREAD, based on the Clive Barker short story from his Books of Blood. That should be out about this time next year and from what I’ve seen of it so far – which admittedly isnt much – it looks really good.
So, you’re flying pretty high then. And you’ll become a fan boy’s favourite for definite if you have a Clive Barker adaptation on your CV. But I imagine you’ve got your cult fan base pretty much established already because you were in HEX too of course, which I am utterly unfamiliar with I have to admit, but I have a friend who knows it well and was very excited that I was talking to someone today who was in that. He refers to it, and I’ll quote him exactly, as “A British Buffy – except it didn’t get the chance to go on and get wank like Buffy!” Is that what people tend to remember you most from?
Yeah HEX and SUGAR RUSH - both made by the same production company, Shine – tend to be the things that have introduced me to people the most. I guess SUGAR RUSH was more mainstream with its audience but they both have somewhat of a cult status. I really enjoyed working on both of them actually – they were both done pretty near the beginning of my TV experience, in fact SUGAR RUSH was my first TV job so a nice introduction to that world for me.
I have a bit of an advantage over you, because I’ve seen INSATIABLE and you haven’t so the following might not be easy for you to answer but with the love scene between you and Nora Jane’s character, was it always written on the page to be cross-cut between the act itself and a post-act argument or was that something that Jessie has come to decide on during editing?
Well the love scene was in fact filmed about a year after the initial shoot! The original scene that was in there may have been cross cut, I’m not sure, but on viewing the first cut of the film Jessie decided the relationship between Rachel and Ellie wasn’t developed enough and decided to reshoot. By that point she had decided that it would be cross-cut and it was written that way.
It’s interesting that it came as a reshoot so long after because, I’m all for a bit of lesbian-led titalation but that love scene felt so real that I was actually uncomfortable, I felt like I was looking in on something I shouldn’t have been. Which I suppose is the highest compliment you can pay really. That you’s were both able to dig back down so far after the initial shoot for that scene is pretty impressive. How did you prepare for that scene?
It was a challenge, I have to admit. I was in the middle of performing ROMEO & JULIET in London and was so busy it’s unreal and then I get a call saying they want to fly me to Ireland for a day to revisit a character and do a love scene! Basically I flew first thing in the morning on my only day off, shot the scenes and flew back that night. So I didn’t really have time to think, which is probably a good thing, because it made me just have to rely on my instincts and trust that Jessie knew what she was doing because she had been with the film everyday for the last year. Trying to get that kind of emotion going again from nothing is quite tricky but it all came flooding back when we got on set and I guess exhaustion helped haha!
Ha Ha. I was just about to say… Maybe that was Jessie’s nefarious plan – catch you at your most tired, get you flying from one place to another, and then when you’re so tired you can’t think she just says “Okay Laura, take your top off!” That is GREAT direction! Ha Ha.
Ha Ha, well not quite. We had discussed at length the purposes of the scene and exactly what was required and I had agreed to what I thought needed to be done. It’s very different to being taken advantage of!
So the scene itself was quite heavily choreographed was it? Because it certainly doesn’t play that way. In fact I guess you could say that of the film itself and the performances. For what it is about, and the budget you guys are working with, it feels very natural and unforced.
Well thank you. Yes, generally, love scenes are choreographed. It isn’t easy or very comfortable for everyone involved so in order to make it a slightly less agonizing experience for all concerned a scene like that is usually completely planned and rehearses. It’s then just up to the actors to make it not look that way.
I will move off discussing that particular scene now because, right now, I think I’m dividing our readership between cries of “Keep going, you smutty bastard!” to “Ewww, you’re such a pervert!” I assure you though, I come from a place of being thoroughly impressed with that scene on a purely technical and performance level! Ha Ha.
Well as you say, you have the advantage of having seen it, ha ha!
Trust me, I think you’re going to be blown away with what Miss Kirby has done for you and Nora-Jane. What is interesting the most about the film is that we’re placed in the hands of Nora-Jane’s character from the start, but by the third act we’re very much in the hands of your character. That’s quite cleverly done. Especially considering we’re kind of led to believe you’re just the “eye-candy”. I think you’ll like it quite a bit, both you and Nora-Jane’s talent has been served very well.
Thank you
Maybe I should have got this in at the start but… What attracted you to the character of Rachel in INSATIABLE?
I just thought she was very interesting because of her back story and her reasons for finding herself in the situation she is in. She has already been through so much before we even meet her as an audience. We’re kind of thrown in half way through a story – the same can be said I think of the film in general. So it’s great to be given a character where there is so much more going on under the surface. The audience just see the tip of the iceberg.
I can hear the groans from our readers when I say this now, but are you familiar with the movie MIDNIGHT RUN?
Erm… I know of it but haven’t seen it.
In that movie, because of the way the script was written and re-written, what the film started out as and what it ended up as changes completely and Robert De Niro’s character gets this entire, really interesting history that is spoken of but you come in on the movie in the aftermath of it, with him trying to pick up the pieces. And you sit there thinking “Man, an entire great movie could be made just from the backstory they have on this guy!” And there’s very much an element to that with INSATIABLE, where – by the time everything is finally revealed and pieced together and you find out how she’s come to be how she is – you think “There’s a whole bloody prequel right there!” There’s a texture there that you certainly would never expect from a low budget horror thriller. Like in MIDNIGHT RUN, you think that the likes of your character, and definitely Nora Jane’s, were living lives before the movie and will probably be continuing to do so after the credits rolled. And I just realised there was no question whatsoever in that heap of babble, at all. Sorry.
Haha. Well yeah, that was always the intention. The horror element and what’s going on is intended as a backdrop to a love story. It provides the circumstances that throw these two people together but what we were interested in exploring was the human element and reaction to such extreme circumstances.
I think that’s the most surprising element of it actually. I was speaking to Jessie recently, just briefly, and she mentioned she doesn’t like romantic movies by and large and I was thinking “What? You just made one?” Ha Ha. What sort of budget were you guys working with on the film and how long was the initial shoot?
I have no idea what the budget was because, thankfully, it’s not my job to worry about that stuff. It was low, but at no point do you think ‘ok we’re shooting a low budget film here so….’, it just doesn’t and shouldn’t enter your mind as an actor. I think we shot for 4 weeks if I remember correctly.
So it wasn’t so low that you had an umbrella and a deck-chair masquerading as your trailer then? Ha Ha. It was quite a short shoot then? What’s been your shooting period on the film before and after INSATIABLE?
All about the same I think. It’s pretty standard these days to be shooting for about that time – anywhere between 3 to 6 weeks, because thats about as long as it takes to get two hours of straightforward footage. It’s just the big Hollywood stuff takes 8-12 weeks because when you include stunts, green screens and all that it takes longer. When money isn’t an issue you can take your time.
I can imagine, yeah. Even though you haven’t actually seen the film yet, do you know what the state of affairs with it is… how the distribution deals are going, where people can get a look at it if they’d want to?
Well I know at the moment the production team are doing the festival rounds and getting a good amount of attention for it particularly in Europe. So momentum is building. I don’t know anything about the distribution deals yet but as it seems to fit easier into the category of European cinema I think there is more positive progression being made there than in Britain and Ireland. I think Europe is a little more responsive to this kind of film.
I think the reason there’s most definitely an audience for this film, and it astounds me that it hasn’t been snapped up already, is that its a genre movie – whichever way you take it, horror or romance – with two strong female characters. When the shit hits the fan you don’t resort to having to depend on any of the male characters to suddenly come to your rescue. I think cinema could do with seeing ‘real’ strong female characters as opposed to caricatures like in Neil Marshall’s DOOMSDAY or Tarantino’s DEATH PROOF. France eats shit like that up daily.
Oh but I LOVE DEATH PROOF!
REALLY? And you were winning my heart so superbly up until this point. I was doing my own “I LOVE LAURA DONNELLY” tattoo with ink and a needle. Now, it just feels wrong. Ha Ha. DEATH PROOF is okay. I mean Kurt Russell is awesome in it and the car chase is brilliantly done, but it is so up its own backside and over-inflated.
Sorry but I do love it! There’s definitely room for the archetypal female – I love Russ Meyer films! But yeah, it makes a refreshing change to find a well rounded female character to play. Often the problem is that those characters are few and far between and when they do come up they go to the same actresses all the time!
Now… I have to ask: Jon Kenny? Please tell me he didn’t “stay” in character through the whole shoot? Ha Ha.
Ha Ha. No he didn’t. He was a pleasure to work with and a great laugh. Which is odd when he suddenly switches to ‘scary bastard mode’!
He was brilliant. I got the same vibe from him that I did the first time I saw Brendan Gleeson in I WENT DOWN. And I hope he has a career to match Gleeson. He was very impressive.
Im sure he’ll be happy with that!
By all means pass it on to him, since finding out you “love” DEATH PROOF I’m now looking for
a new INSATIABLE cast member to worship. And I hear Nora Jane has already pre-emptively got a restraining order out on me, so I have to discount her. Ha Ha.
Well if you must judge people entirely on their taste in one film you are going to get stuck for people to worship, ha ha.
Yes, finding that special someone who thinks MIDNIGHT RUN is the greatest movie ever made is difficult I will admit! Ha Ha. But you can always work ahead for me and get a hold of Nora and Jon and just pre-warn them “Pssst – don’t say you “love” DEATH PROOF!” Anyway… I want to conclude with a bit of a rip-off of Mike Figgis’ Projections interview technique because I think it can often reveal a fair bit without you having to do much graft.
Fair enough…
Now, without thinking and as fast as you can, give me from-the-heart answers to the following: Three favourite directors?
Tim Burton, Martin Scorsese, Shane Meadows.
Meadows!!! Fantastic choice! DEAD MAN’S SHOES – best British film of the last twenty years if you ask me. Right… next: Three favourite actresses?
Judi Dench, Cate Banchett, ermm…
… Say Nora-Jane!
Ha Ha, and Nora-Jane Noone of course!
It can only work in your favour when you see her on the press circuits, ha ha! And, here’s a two word tip for your next answer… “Jon” and “Kenny”. Ready?
Ha Ha.
Three favourite actors?
Johnny Depp, Paddy Considine, Matt Damon… Aagh! Too many! Al Pacino! Sorry I cant stop…
Sorry, I have to cut you off at Matt Damon! But you got Mr Considine in there, that’s good enough for me! Finally… Three favourite movies?
Oh God… Don’t do that!
Off the top of your head, and on the spot…
LES ENFANTS DU PARADIS, (wanky I know but I am in love with it now), EDWARD SCISSORHANDS, WHAT ABOUT BOB? Ha Ha. So not cool!
A Bill Murray film in your top three? I think I want to marry you! Ha Ha!
I just love that film so much!
Shane Meadows, Paddy Considine and a Bill Murray flick. VERY impressive!
I met Shane and Paddy on my first ever audition out of drama school.
REALLY? Oh, give us one showbiz anecdote then. Especially if it involves them two.
Yeah he said he was really keen to cast me and was just looking for people to play my family and I did an evenings improv and workshopping with the two of them, but the film never got made! Both the loveliest, most respectful men! No dirt I’m afaid…
I wouldn’t imagine there was to be honest. Considine, especially, seems to really respect his craft and come across as quite the intelligent, respectful fella. And Meadows? I have complete hetrosexual man-love for that guy. Every interview he does, every film he makes… he’s just fantastic. He’s the actual talent that everyone keeps telling us Edgar Wright is. Don’t get me wrong, I rate Wright’s movies but each one comes with such hype and we’re constantly told they’re masterpieces and what not. Meanwhile, Meadows just busies himself a way making a GENUINE masterpiece after masterpiece!
He is inconceivably talented!
He most definitely is. I watched DEAD MAN’S SHOES and I thought “Fuck, he’s peaked!” and then he goes and gives us THIS IS ENGLAND. He is such a talent, we don’t appreciate him nearly as much as we should! Anyway… It has been an absolute pleasure talking to you. Thanks for taking the time to speak to us. It’s very much appreciated.
No problem!
_ _ _ _ _
… And that’s it! My first interview and Laura’s first experience of being stalked and interrogated in an online interview. I want to thank her once again for taking the time to talk to me for the site and keep an eye out in the near future because I’m hoping to sit down with Jessie Kirby, the director, and Laura’s co-star, Nora Jane Noone.
Hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I did conducting it. The Talkbacks are now open…
7 Responses to “INTERVIEW: Laura Donnelly – INSATIABLE”
Nicely done, especially for a first interview. Helps when you’ve got someone as cool and as down to earth as Laura too! The entire cast were amazingly down to earth tho. Nicest bunch of people you could possibly spend an insanely intensive 4 weeks with! The crew were okay too
Well, it wasn’t technically my “first”. I did one with that Sean Coughlan guy.
Jeez, THAT was rough!
ME: So Sean, where did the idea for INSATIABLE come from?
HIM: Thank you for that beautiful citation and the trouble you have taken to make it and all the warm generosities in it. Mr. President and governors of the Academy, committee members, fellows, my very noble and approved good masters, my colleagues, my friends, my fellow students: In the great wealth, the great firmament of your nation’s generosities this particular choice may perhaps be found by future generations as a trifle eccentric, but the mere fact of it — the prodigal, pure, human kindness of it — must be seen as a beautiful star in that firmament which shines upon me at this moment dazzling me a little, but filling me with the warmth of the extraordinary elation, the euphoria that happens to so many of us at the first breath of the majestic glow of a new tomorrow. From the top of this moment, in the solace, in the kindly emotion that is charging my soul and my heart at this moment, I thank you for this great gift which lends me such a very splendid part in this, your glorious occasion.
ME: Erm…
Thank god Laura went a little easier on me!
LOL
I speak from the heart, so sue me!
Is your heart near your anus?
She definitely was the best part of Dread. I hope she gets some uber-leading film roles in the near future. Interview was ok, questions could have been shorter and more open-ended. Frankly I’m more interested in Laura’s philosophy of acting/life, advice for the biz, what she eats for breakfast, etc than plot-recitations of her movies.
when i can i buy this movie ?
…i mean where
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