Kristen Connolly may be a relatively new face to a lot of us, mostly because THE CABIN IN THE WOODS is her first starring role in a major motion picture. However, if you look closely, you may have spotted her before on your television. She's guest starred on episodes of THE GOOD WIFE, LAW AND ORDER: CRIMINAL INTENT, LIFE ON MARS, NURSE JACKIE and MERCY.
For soap opera fans, she's had recurring roles on both GUIDING LIGHT and AS THE WORLD TURNS, and when it comes to films, she's had supporting roles in REVOLUTIONARY ROAD, THE HAPPENING and CONFESSIONS OF A SHOPAHOLIC.
However, for something like THE CABIN IN THE WOODS, star power among the cast isn't needed. Fresh, new faces place the focus more on the story being told and how the characters fit into it rather than on big names dominating the film. For Drew Goddard's new spin on horror, Connolly's innocent demeanor is an excellent choice to head it up. As the virginesque Dana, Connolly is at the center of the action, lending a new twist to the horror heroine we've come to known in the past.
While on tour to promote THE CABIN IN THE WOODS, I was able to get on the phone with Kristen Connolly to try to discuss the film. I think we did a pretty solid job in avoiding spoilers and getting down to the uniqueness of the script, the delay in the film's release and the reaction the movie's been getting so far. Enjoy...
Kristen Connolly: Hello.
The Infamous Billy The Kidd: Hey, Kristen.
Kristen Connolly: Hi, how are you?
The Kidd: How are you?
Kristen Connolly: Good. Good, thank you.
The Kidd: So let’s just jump right into it. CABIN IN THE WOODS is a really hard film to talk about.
Kristen Connolly: I know. I’m so sorry, I don’t envy your job at all.
The Kidd: (Laughs) Even in trying to prep for this interview it’s really hard to get into the film, because anything you say is kind of too much.
Kristen Connolly: Exactly. Yeah, it’s the kind of movie that I think the best way to see it is to know absolutely nothing about it, but it’s a hard thing to do, to promote a movie without saying anything about it. I feel like even the poster gives some stuff away, so it is hard to talk about it, but I think the thing that’s been the most exciting for me is going on the tour and seeing the movie and to hear from people who are not normally horror fans how much they love the movie. I think it seems to have a really broad appeal and that’s really exciting.
The Kidd: I know a bunch of people, writers from Ain’t It Cool had seen it at SXSW and basically the way it was described to me was “The less you know, the better.” So after I think that first initial trailer, which even I think gives away a little bit more than you would like…
Kristen Connolly: Yeah.
The Kidd: Especially concerning the wall aspect, I guess to kind of vaguely describe it. It is a very surprising film and for me it actually played a lot more as a comedy with horror elements than a horror film per se.
Kristen Connolly: I think it’s a movie that’s a lot funnier than people are probably anticipating and there are some really great performances and I think that the writing is very funny. I have a lot of family members that are very afraid of horror movies and didn’t want to go see it, but they were laughing their heads off with this movie and I think the comedy is really something you don’t see in a lot of horror movies.
The Kidd: At its basic, you just have this group of kids who are going out to this remote location on the surface, but it’s such a layered film. It’s so much deeper than that as you get further and further along as to what exactly is happening. When you first read the script were you kind of surprised at where it goes?
Kristen Connolly: Oh my God, yeah. I couldn’t believe what I was reading. I was like “Are you kidding me?” I think I was actually saying things out load in my apartment by myself reading the script. I was like “No! Oh my god…” I was just stunned by it and I really couldn’t put it down, which was a great thing, because actors read a lot of scripts and this one was really a page turner and I loved the role and I loved the writing. By act three I was stunned by what was happening. I couldn’t believe.
The Kidd: The thing that really strikes me, because Drew [Goddard] and Joss [Whedon] have this really fresh take on horror and these characters, they are not stupid characters by any means.
Kristen Connolly: No, they’re not.
The Kidd: I mean they are very smartly written and in some ways it embraces different horror conventions, but once again there’s a fresh take on a lot of what happens in terms of even in them gathering through the house and searching the house. They refuse to split up knowing full well that that would be the worst possible case, so then when it happens it makes sense for them to play upon this horror convention, but in a totally different way. Can you talk about the vision for the film from Drew and Joss and how they approach the actors and the cast into doing something completely different?
Kristen Connolly: Well I know that they wrote the movie in three days together and they sort of said like “Let’s write the movie that we would love to do, but that no one will ever let us do” and so they wrote this script and I think that Drew, the director, really encouraged us to play the scenes as honestly and truthfully as we could. We weren’t trying to wink at the camera at all. We weren’t trying to comment on what we were doing while we were doing it. I think he really wanted the performances to be believable and that it’s fun when it’s really fun and that we are a group of friends that love each other and when the scary stuff happens to really invest in it and to really go there emotionally and so I think that’s one of the things you see in the movie. The other stuff, the other sort of storyline isn’t really our responsibility and they really stressed that from the beginning. I think that they wanted to have very believable performances.
The Kidd: It’s very for a lead actress in a film like this to kind of fall into a pattern or a formula for this “Scream Queen” type of performance. How much attention was paid to really making Dana not your typical type of horror heroine?
Kristen Connolly: I think we just treated her like a real person, like any other character. I wasn’t too concerned about not playing to a stereotype, it was more just to play the situation honestly and I think that there’s a lot to the character that is not that, not a scream queen, not the stereotype and so it was really just moment to moment doing that kind of stuff and finding the reality of the relationships and of the moments.
The Kidd: What’s been the reaction to the film? I know you’ve been around screening it with different audiences and SXSW. What’s been the feel… I mean I loved it and everybody I know who has seen it has loved it, but how has it been watching it with crowds who going in don’t really know a lot?
Kristen Connolly: So much fun. That part is awesome. SXSW was like a rock concert. It was crazy. I mean people were just going nuts and laughing so much and screaming and gasping and it was so cool to watch the movie with a group of people like that and it’s been really fun to see how people react and to hear different audiences react to different things. So that’s been the part of fun of it for me on this tour.
The Kidd: With all of the issues that MGM was going through financially and the film was kind of shelved for a while, the fan community really knew about it and was kind of waiting for it and there was this “When are we ever going to see it?” Was there this fear or concern or worry that the film may not ever see the light of day?
Kristen Connolly: No, I wasn’t worried about that. You know yes it was frustrating of course to have to wait for such a long time for the movie to come out, but it was not something where I was worried that the movie was going to get shelved forever. I mean it wasn’t about the content, it was about a situation that was far bigger than our movie and when your company is THE HOBBIT and JAMES BOND you know that it’s not about you. (Laughs) I think we all really believed in the movie and knew that it was good, it was just a matter of it shaking down the way that it was going to and it actually ended up being at the perfect home at Lionsgate and it was a long wait, but it was absolutely well worth it.
The Kidd: I can only imagine how frustrating it is, because you have this film that you’re like “We know how good it is. We know how people are going to respond to it. We know how badly people want to see it. Let’s get it out there as fast as we can!”
Kristen Connolly: Oh absolutely. I wanted my family to see it, my friends… I would see things online and it was like “Oh my god, people really want to see this movie. I want to see it.” I hadn’t seen it until recently and so it was a long wait, but I think that people will be very satisfied when they see the movie.
The Kidd: Going in, were you a horror fan?
Kristen Connolly: Yeah, I was. I mean I like horror movies. I like scary movies. I had sort of stopped watching, to be honest, for a bit, because I’m not really a fan of watching somebody’s toenail get ripped off stuff. That’s just gross to me, so I like to be scared, but I’m not crazy about the torture stuff, so I was really excited about this movie, because it’s so much more than that.
The Kidd: I think the film is fantastic.
Kristen Connolly: Thanks.
The Kidd: I’m dying to watch it with an audience.
Kristen Connolly: Oh yeah. How did you see it?
The Kidd: They showed it to us.
Kristen Connolly: By yourself?
The Kidd: Yeah, it was literally me and one other person in the theater watching it, but even still we were laughing our asses off watching this film, so I’m really waiting for a chance to be able to see it with an audience, because I think it’s the kind of film that just plays well to a crowd.
Kristen Connolly: Absolutely and I know that that was in their minds, too, like when they were writing it and when we were making it.
The Kidd: If you are a horror fan…
Kristen Connolly: It’s like a dream... a dream come true.
The Kidd: What do you have coming up next? This is probably your biggest role.
Kristen Connolly: It is, yeah. I have a movie coming out this summer called THE BAY that Barry Levinson directed that’s another scary movie, but it’s very different from this one. It’s a lot more like found footage, but again it’s another one that’s top secret, so I’ll be doing a lot of these interviews with seeing how little I can say about the movie. So there’s that coming out I think in July or August and then I’m starting production on a series called HOUSE OF CARDS that David Fincher is directing with Kevin Spacey and Robin Wright and we have a table read this week.
The Kidd: Okay. Thank you very much.
Kristen Connolly: Thank you.
The Kidd: I’m actually looking forward to seeing the film again.
Kristen Connolly: Oh good, that makes me so happy.
The Kidd: But yeah, thank you very much and good luck with the film opening.
Kristen Connolly: Absolutely. Thank you, Billy. It’s nice to talk to you.
The Kidd: You, too.
Kristen Connolly: Okay, bye.
The Kidd: Bye.
Stay tuned for my next CABIN IN THE WOODS interview with Fran Kranz.
CABIN IN THE WOODS opens this Friday, April 13.
-Billy Donnelly
"The Infamous Billy The Kidd"
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