We’ve given the awesome horror film YOU’RE NEXT a lot of coverage on the pages of THN over the past couple of months, purely because the film is just that. Awesome. Recently, we caught up with the star of the movie, Australian actress Sharni Vinson, whos spoke about the film, her role of Erin in it, and much, much more.
Well, we’ve seen the film. I actually saw it in the States at Comic Con with an amazing audience and it was such an experience. Congratulations.
Sharni Vinson: Oh good. Thank you.
It’s very much an audience movie, and one to be enjoyed in that way with fans of the genre. Tell me about shooting YOU’RE NEXT. Was it as intense and fun to make it as it is watching it?
Yeah. I think that mainly the fun that you feel from watching the movie, which is not the word you’d usually use for a horror movie, especially for one, after watching the trailer, which comes across as more horrific; I mean we definitely have that element of horror in there, but what is making the movie so unique, is that entertaining journey we take the audience on, and the fun we’re providing. I think its been a while since a horror movie has come out where the audience leaves the theatre uplifted, as opposed to morbidly depressed, and that’s something that we were looking to do and give the audience that experience [and prove] that horror movies can be fun too.
And tell us about your character Erin in the film. She’s not your usual horror chick is she?
We tried to create a character that is just as likeable and normal and relate-able as she is strong and powerful, and kick-arse basically, and it was finding that blend of the two so that she’s not considered a super-human character with powers that aren’t realistic. It’s just that she’s come from a situation where she’s sort of learned these skills that she’s potentially never even had a reason to call upon before, and in the situations that unfold in this movie, I felt like it was potentially even her first time in utilising these skills, so along with the ride and the journey that we’re taking the audience on, I felt like I’d tried to take her on a similar journey too; in that she’s shocking herself as she’s doing it, and naturally responding. I think the audience are liking the blend of normal girl turns tough and is tough.. There’s nothing to not believe about it. The background of the story and keeping the character Australian was a great move and in the explanation she simply comes from a survivalist upbringing, and stands up for herself. So that’s good too.
The film is scoring really well the female audience too. Why do you think that is?
The same reason. I think we’re used to watching lead females in a horror movie being portrayed in an overly-sexualised way in order to get the message across when its not necessary, and potentially showing unnecessary skin. Whatever it is that takes you out of the realness of the character, so we tried to put all of the real elements back in and the relate-able elements, and definitely starting the film one way and ending another way, in the sense that you’re being taken on this journey with her and to know that she’s a normal girl. She craves normality, and she’s come from normality, an interesting upbringing, but in the sense of just trying to fit in with a family that she’s trying to impress for the first time. We’ve all been there, so people can relate to her in the beginning, and then when these crazy killers start coming in, and when she starts to figh back, and is the last one you’d expect to do so, it’s unpredictable. In doing so that’s what gets the audience on their feet and cheering because its like ‘wait a minute, this little girl has just stood up and fought back and just like killed this guy! How did that happen?’ But we’re always on the journey with her, and that’s what encourages them to literally cheer for her and its pretty remarkable the female base that we’ve found through this film. It’s everything that we’ve hoped for.
Was there much room for improvisation?
Yes, the script was brilliantly written by Simon Barratt. It was then brilliantly cast and then with the cast came even more dimensions of the script, and we were putting in our own individual personality, traits and quirks and things like that. It really worked to create characters that the audience cared for, so before they actually die you care one way or another, so you’re either like I wanna see him die, or I don’t. It’s not just like, ‘I don’t really care.’ So, that was one of the big things that the collaborative team on this movie was what makes it work, and we have an amazing director in Adam, and brilliant writer in Simon, but then the fact that they were both so open to interpretation from us is what led to the elements of surprise that even we didn’t see coming when shooting it. There was a lot of improvisation that happened, and that’s thanks to these brilliant actors that even I felt out of my element with at some points like Joe Swanberg and AJ Bowen and Ti West. We’re working with horror directors as well, so they’ve got a broader knowledge of what it takes, particularly what it takes to make it look good, to make it look different, so it was definitely a collaborative effort.
You must be in every scene. How hard was that on you?
Close. Yes. It wasn’t hard. It would have been hard if I wasn’t, for me.
Did you train for it? I mean for starters, you handle a lot of weapons in the film.
It was more that stuff. As far as the physicality of the character went, I think that’s why I booked it. I already had that. It was more the mentality of her coming from a survivalist compound. A lot of the training that I worked on with the stunt coordinator was agility and reaction time. Her reactions are fast. She hears the noise, she’s responded. That’s what she’s been taught. I think that a lot of that was the fun for me. Standing up against a wall in a gym and having my stunt co-ordinator just throw objects as fast as he can at every part of my body, I just had to get out of the way. It was really fun. I’ve never picked up a knife and learnt how to twirl it, or a fire poker, or baton twirling skills and I loved really doing all that stuff.
The film was made and completed over two years ago. It’s had quite a big critical and hopefully commercial success. The critic love it. Was that a huge surprise?
In a sense it is because I feel like the entertainment industry is like Vegas; it’s like a gambling industry – you never know why something works, or why something doesn’t work and when people are going to respond. Even in shooting it, I had a really solid feeling that we were making something very special and I had huge hopes for that, but no expectations as you don’t ever know how its going to go down, so to see the critics really get behind it and support it, hopeful that will just translate into the commercial world and we can see this movie do what from the beginning, I had anticipated.
I’m going to ask the predictable question, and not to spoil as to whether Erin, your character lives or not, any chance of sequels, assuming its successful?
I hope so. I really do. I feel like it’s a film that people will want more of. I think after you walk out of this movie, you’re kind of craving more. Whether it be Erin or the same similar situation type vibe, and whether it’s YOU’RE NEXT 2 or its a whole other separate film that this movie has been, sort of the, ground-breaking, new movie for the genre. I consider it a ground-breaking kind-of film of the genre as we haven’t seen this element of fun done for such a long time, so if we don;t get to do a sequel, definitely somebody else could come along and take what we’ve started and run with this fact that horror can be fun now. It doesn’t have to just be morbidly depressing at the end of it; you can feel like you’ve had this amazing journey. As long as the audience walk out with that feeling and people see our movie, you can never say never to a sequel. As long as the character lives (laughs).
Well, congratulations and good luck. It’s an excellent film.
Thanks so much.
YOU’RE NEXT opens in the UK on 28th August 2013, and is now playing in US cinemas. Read our review here.
