Karen Cliche on Feasting on Eli Roth Horror Opportunity

Posted in: Exclusive, Horror, Interview, Movies, Sony | Tagged: eli roth, exclusive, interview, Karen Cliche, Patrick Dempsey, sony pictures, Spyglass Media, thanksgiving, tristar pictures

Karen Cliche (Abducted on Prom Night) spoke to Bleeding Cool about her latest holiday horror thriller in Eli Roth’s Thanksgiving from Sony.

Karen Cliche carved herself quite a career, being active for nearly a quarter century since her debut in 1999’s The Collectors. She’d built a diverse filmography from action, thrillers, supernatural, and science fiction with memorable roles in Fox’s Mutant X, loosely based on the Marvel Comic at the time when they were just figuring out how to try to translate their success to television, Syfy’s Flash Gordon: A Modern Space Opera, and Lionsgate’s Saw VI (2009). The actress spoke to Bleeding Cool about her latest holiday-themed horror film, Eli Roth’s Thanksgiving. The idea, originally conceived as a faux trailer for the Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez double feature Grindhouse, finally became a reality with Jeff Rendell co-writing the screenplay about a Pilgrim-dressed slasher who terrorizes Plymouth, Massachusetts, after a Black Friday riot.

How Karen Cliche Played Against Type in ‘Thanksgiving’

Bleeding Cool: How did you get involved with ‘Thanksgiving’?
Cliche: It’s auditioning for actors, right? I got the side back in January, put myself on tape, and sent it in. A month later, I got the part. It’s like that, stupidly easy [laughs].

What was it like working with Eli Roth?
Oh, my God! He’s the perfect director because of his acting experience. He understands how actors think and how to talk to them. He is an actor himself, and he’s so much fun. He’s open-minded and into collaboration. He’s got crazy ideas that we all were like, “Whatever you say, whatever you want to put me in, I will follow. It was such a pleasure from start to finish. He’s the best.

When you heard about the project, did you watch the original ‘Grindhouse’ trailer that he put up?
I did. When you audition, sometimes you have five a day. You’re taping yourself, and I knew when I got the part. I learned a little more about it, so I watched the original trailer. I said, “Oh, this is what this is, okay.” Whatever you feel about the trailer, you’ll be blown away by the actual feature-length film. It’s insane, amazingly insane.

How do you compare ‘Thanksgiving’ to your other work?
So the only other horror I’ve done was ‘Saw VI,’ which was crazy. I was part of the carousel team [laughs], where I went into bits around me, but I survived. I was saved, but that was crazy to shoot. I remember I was also a few months pregnant while shooting that scene. I was like, “My baby would come out like the Devil! Something would go wrong here because I don’t want it to come out.” [‘Thanksgiving’] was incredible in so many ways. It is 15 years later, and I am used to doing thrillers. I often play the villain, so it’s a genre that I’m familiar with. I have been a killer before, so this one was all-around amazing. The cast was incredible, the camaraderie and fun on set. The crew was the best. Honestly, it was one of the best experiences of my life. I loved it.

How do you compare the stunt work for this to your other projects?
I’m used to a lot of stunt work with action roles. I did a lot of series that were action-based, and I love that. I have a real draw to that stuff. When we were filming certain scenes of mine, I got to relive that stuff again. I got to do some action, and that came alive, so I love that stuff. I’m like, “If you need to push me against a wall, need to fall, get muddy, I’ll do it. Sign me up, and I love that. I’m strangely comfortable with that [laughs].

Can you talk about your costars and what it was like to work with them?
Patrick Dempsey was like, “Wow!” I knew he was in it because I was a huge ‘Gray’s Anatomy’ fan, and I was dreamy for him. That was a bit like, “What will it be like?” He was incredible and funny, something I never expected from him. Rick Hoffman, who played my husband, was amazing. We had all our scenes together. I adore him, and the rest of the cast was so sweet and great. We still talk all the time to this day.

Did you have a particular favorite ‘Thanksgiving’ scene, a sequence first that stood out to you that was challenging?
You’ve seen the trailer enough to know I was in a precarious situation.

Right.
It gets a little hot for me [laughs]. That was crazy to shoot because we spent all day shooting at different angles. I was like, “Thank God I am not claustrophobic! Thank God, because there were times when I was like, “I was in it. It was all closed, and I was in it, and I had to pretend it was getting hot in here.” That was crazy. I was black and blue and had bruises all over me. It was my fault because I got too far into it. But, you know, I was tied up. I was banging against stuff in the back of my head. I was against a grate for 10 hours. The back of my neck got black and blue, but listen, I’m crazy like that. I love it, so that was challenging but amazing.

How have the fan interactions been when you look back at your earlier sci-fi, action, and superhero genre work? Are you interested in revisiting it, given the opportunity?
Absolutely. What I enjoyed most about that genre of work that I used to do is I love the fans. When I do conventions, interacted when I had a website, and we would speak, some of the fans became long-time friends of mine now, some for 20-plus years. I love this sci-fi community, to be honest, along with this superhero fandom community. I find it touches people in many ways, and many people connect because it’s a heartfelt situation. It always comes from a deeper place, so I love discussing that with people and why these characters relate to them. I love it and would revisit it in a second, especially if I can beat up some bad guys and take my share of punishment. Let’s do it!

Sony Tristar Pictures & Spyglass Media’s Thanksgiving, which also stars Addison Rae, Milo Manheim, and Gina Gerson, comes to theaters on November 17th.

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