Recently, I sat down with acclaimed indie horror actress Zoë Daelman Chlanda and we talked about acting, her process, her place in the independent horror genre, and her latest film – the horror short Contact directed by Jeremiah Kipp.
Check out my interview with Chlanda at House Next Door.
Chlanda as Koreen in “Contact”
Well, now I have to see if I can find Contact somewhere.
I looked through her IMDb page to see if there was anything I would have seen her in and she was in Vulgar. Not sure I’m willing to sit through that movie again to try and pick her out though.
Your interview was wonderful. Not being an actor, it’s sometimes easy to overlook how complicated the process can be. This kind of detail helps put that all into perspective, and I love her take on everything. She seems very level-headed about the process. Not something that comes across from a lot of actors.
Cullen – thanks so much! Yes, I could sense a really sensitive work ethic there, and I wanted to talk about it – Most of the press she gets is, naturally, focused on the horror of the films – the interviews are strictly for that fan base. But, you know, I wanted the dirt on rehearsals and stuff like that.
If you go to the interview again – in the first paragraph there’s a link to the film, which is online. Go check it out!
Oh, and one of the things I also wanted to talk about was that regardless of the length of the film – the kind of detailed thought she puts into her character is what really separates the men from the boys. The women from the girls. The professionals from the amateurs.
Yet she keeps it simple, too – it’s all there in her performance.
Thank you! I missed the link. I’ll check it out tonight.
Definitely not safe for work! :)
You can really see the detail she puts into the performance. The film is a small gem. Great team of people.
That was neat. I was quite struck by the sound. There were moments where it was purposefully B-horror sounding, but it goes right into a very contemporary sound. The sounds during the trip were great also. It’s something I always key into in a film and I liked it a lot.
Zoe’s (can never remember how to do that flipping umlaut) performance is very good.
I agree that the sound is very special. The part where they are running to the warehouse has a very 70s feel to it, almost cinema verite – but the opening, with the parents and the silverware, feels totally noir to me. And the sound reflects both styles.
Oh, and when i sent the copy to the editor, I was like, “Please make sure you include all umlauts!!” Bless him, he got them all.
And just have to add Cullen: All good actors are this level-headed and specific about their craft. They may not be level-headed in life, although for the most part they usually are. You find very little FLAKES in the acting profession. You may find egomaniacs or ruthless people, but that’s true of any cutthroat profession which requires devotion. But FLAKES is one thing that pretty much doesn’t exist after a certain level of success in acting. An actor may be “flakey” in, say, managing his or her money – or “flakey” in terms of time management, or discipline – but “flakey” in general? No. Especially not when it comes to working, and acting, and how to work. Acting is a tough career, and you have to really want to do it, which creates a certain resolve in actors, a certain tenacity.
Most of the people I know are actors or artists – and all the good ones are this specific about their craft. It takes different forms (some people work “outside in”, others work “inside out”, some like improvisation, some don’t, some hate rehearsal, some love it) – but it’s all very specific.
And the most level-headed people I know are my actor friends who are good at it and successful. You really have to be. It’s a job requirement. You would never ever survive without it.
There is a stereotype of the flighty flakey artist that is completely incorrect. They may be more VULNERABLE than other people, more prone to emotional problems – but that’s not the same thing.
Tennessee Williams was “sensitive”, yes, he had trouble with his nerves, he got hurt easily – but when it came to his writing and the pursuit of it, he was relentless. Relentless. Balls of steel. He just kept trying, and trying and trying – in the face of rejection, nothing but rejection, for years. That takes guts, tenacity, and a practicality which I don’t think enough people give credit to artists for.
The “civilians” who think we’re all just a little bit “silly”, mocking us for doing this play-acting thing, this “artsy” thing, thinking it’s serious business.
And so one of the reasons I wanted to interview Zoe was, indeed, my curiosity about her craft (which I just assumed existed – because it exists in ALL good actors, in one way or another) – and how it operated in the horror genre, something I hadn’t seen addressed in the other interviews with her.
I was lucky enough that she wanted to “go” there with me. It’s my experience that all good actors will, if they don’t think they are being mocked for taking their craft seriously.
Oh, I totally got that in the interview. That’s kind of what I meant by my initial comment. It’s so easy to forget that something’s hard or serious or where you have to be level headed, when it’s not what you do — unless you’re talking about professions that always carry that stigma. I’ve got a buddy who’s an engineer and, yeah, that’s serious level-headed work, but so’s acting, writing, painting, etc. It’s definitely my own shortcoming that I would think otherwise.
I think it’s sloppy media that helps propagate the “flighty artist” stereotype. I mean they seem to want to draw out the eccentricities of the famous as though to say that that is what makes them the good artists they are rather than their work ethic, method, or approach. Certainly their eccentricity plays a role, casts a unique quality to their ability, but, yeah, I’m totally on board with you about having to take your chosen vocation seriously.
All that to say, I didn’t mean to imply in my original comment that I have problems taking your work or passion seriously. It was refreshing to read an interview about the craft where the artist and interviewer speak so seriously and honestly about it. Most of what consumers get isn’t that.
Oh – I originally came to readress sound. I too thought the running to the warehouse sequence was great. Particularly because the boyfriend has this real Lenny Kravitz thing going on there. It was perfect.
Well, a stereotype like that needs to be addressed, so I addressed it. I think a lot of consumers have a love/hate thing with artists and actually SNEER at artists when they take things seriously like their craft.
I don’t care about those people who sneer, they’re not “my kind”, never have been – so the film blogs, where I spend most of my time, create a deeper space where acting can be discussed, parsed, analyzed, with freedom – it’s fun.
It’s interesting that Zoe mentioned her years training to be a ballerina. Unlike other more normal pursuits, even hard ones, ones that require years of schooling, with ballet you have to put in YEARS of work to MAYBE have a career – MAYBE – but to be a star? Or someone who is successful? The odds are a million to one. it’s like someone who wants to be an Olympian. Or something equally as elitist. It’s an insane pursuit, really, and it takes nerves of steel, and that’s really what separates those who DO it and those who TRY to do it.
Acting isn’t nearly as insanely rigorous as ballet – because if you’re pimply and club-footed and ugly you can STILL have a career as an actor – you can be the crazy old next-door lady neighbor for decades and make a good living at it. (If you’re good, that is.)
Yes, the actor who plays the boyfriend also has an energy that I think is KEY to Contact’s success: You don’t feel like he’s too hip, or “over” it – you don’t feel like he’s some scumbag who’s leading this girl down the wrong path.
Things went bad for HIM too – you can see him trying to comfort her, bring her back, during the drug trip – but then he’s too far gone as well.
It would have been (in my opinion) a cliche if he had been like “bad dude” and she had been “pure girl”.
I liked him a lot!! Thought it was a nice performance!
Yeah, Iâm not sure what the root cause is, but thereâs definitely a derision toward what some folks donât think of as real work.
I did a lot of community theater in my post-high school/pre-Army years. I always loved the hell out of it, but I also realized that I just didnât have the passion for it that the folks who NEEDED to be there did. I liked doing it, but I would have been just as happy playing with my band or hanging out. I realized early on that being good enough, even for community theater, to lead a show was something I wasnât ready to work hard enough for. As it turned out, neither was music, which I was and am far more passionate about and wanted to have a career in. I didnât have the maturity to do the work necessary for it either.
I respect anyone who was able to, from an early age, demonstrate the drive to follow their passion. Iâve been lucky enough to stumble into a career that allows me to exercise my creativity while providing me the security I need.
Yes, music is another one of those really hard careers where the odds are just stacked against you!