Scream Queen

Hi all,

So I finished filming my part for The Rite, actually the official title is The Rite of Exorcism: Myths, Mystery, and Hope, on Thursday.  I played a lady named Donna.  We filmed at an old church in Maricopa, Arizona on the Ak-Chin Indian Reservation.  I got there an hour early, which is good I guess.  I couldn’t sleep the night before because I was scared of being late for my call time.  That made me pretty exhausted for my very physical role.  And it was literally freezing!  But everyone was really nice and they had coffee and pastries and pretzels.  I got into costume, which was a skirt I brought and a strawberry-colored sweater, and they did my make-up, which was pretty much like Linda Blair from the Exorcist make-up.  I looked pretty scary.  I had major dark under-eye circles and they made me pretty pale and wetted down my hair to make it look like I’d been sweating.

I had a film husband and mom in the scene too.  It was my film husband’s role to restrain me in the chair that I was sitting in.  We rehearsed the scene once in the chilly, old kitchen and then went into the church.  They filled it with stage smoke and put some very bright lights outside the church windows.  And then we started filming.  I had to writhe and kick about as if I was determined to escape and my film husband had to clamp down really hard to prevent my escape.  He said I was one strong cookie.  The only scripted line I had was a demonic No! and a muted screech at the end.  This was the hardest thing I have ever done.  I had to find strength I didn’t think I had to do the job.  It was just that physically challenging.

Veritas Pictures is just awesome.  From casting to filming, the experience was professional and positive.  They even ordered lunch for us from a local cafe on film day.  It was a really great experience and I am really happy to be paid for acting.  I really thought I’d never get into anything but here it is: an actual film credit.

In other news, I didn’t get into Judy: the Musical and I auditioned for Rockin’ Cabaret, which I have yet to hear about.  It’s an ongoing cabaret series.  And I plan to attend the open audition for Romeo and Juliet for Story First Productions tonight.