Nemesis: It’s a pleasure to meet both of you. I always like to ask if it is okay if I call you Kristen and Eric.
Kristen and Eric: Yeah, definitely.
Nemesis: Okay, great. Thank you and my name in David. In case I didn’t introduce myself my name is David Howard. I write for Comic Crusaders and Undercover Capes and this is for our byline called Cinema Crusaders so that is who I’m representing.
Kristen and Eric: Great!
Nemesis: Cool, thank you. Well, first of all I just want to say that I very much enjoyed the film. I thought it was very entertaining and it had a great twist. I guess I’ll just get right into it. I like to go ladies first so…first for Kristen. With your character arc, how did you approach that? How did you, I guess, keep the secret to yourself since you’ve already read the script and how did you see your character progress and what do you think of her?
Kristen: Well, you know I really love that question because the arc of Joan..Joan of Arc…arc of Joan
Nemesis: <laughter>
Kristen: As an actor the part was difficult..it was complex and difficult. It was very difficult to pull off because she a lot going on. Yeah, she had that loyalty to her family but she also had a lot of secrets. So, the way I was able to manage that as an actor is I made sure that I spoke to the director every single scene that Joan was in…and we agreed on the decisions I was making…of what my purpose and my actions were in each scene. So that was the first check off for me, to make sure the director and I were on the same page. Then, in order to keep track of that arc I actually used flash cards. <laughter> As I was filming each scene I wrote my intention down so I made sure I was really nailing my craft. It was important to me as an actor and ,secondarily, as a producer, that I was able to really really show what Joan’s purpose was throughout the course of the film.
Nemesis: Absolutely. I found that really fascinating and credit to you and everyone involved because I did not see that twist coming. I always loved that when a movie surprises me like that.
Kristen: Oh good, we’re glad to hear that. We like that part too.
Nemesis: All right. Right. So over to Eric…What I think is fascinating is that you were not only an actor in the film but you also wrote the film…so I was kind of curious what that experience was like? Also, since you played Mike, did you always intend to play Mike? Did you write that part for yourself or how did that come about?
Eric: Well, you know, I’m not sure that I always intended to write it for myself but shortly after the script started taking form I started to act out the role as I was writing. It soon became apparent to me that I was Mike. You know, Mike is a part of me. So, I think early on that was it. For most of the roles, I picked someone to emulate as to who would be that person who would be cast or would be the character for that role. Joan of Arc is really….the reason Joan is named that is because Joan of Arc is the character I wanted to model her after. A historical character and I saw Kristen in that role pretty early on. There are others who have names that really have some symbolism to them. But I will tell you that the actors that we did <sic> added an incredible new dimension to the whole film. They really helped support me in my role as Mike.
Kristen: I have to add on…as producer and wife here…Eric was really perfect for that part.
Eric: As my wife thanks very much.
All: <Laughter>
Kristen: The few friends that have seen the film have told me at the end…they’ve pulled me aside and said…we’re fairly,rightly concerned for you…which I thought was funny.
All: <Laughter>
Nemesis: I think it’s very interesting about the name. So am I correct in assuming like Mike Renfield definitely has a tie to Renfield? I was wondering about that.
Eric: Yeah, yeah. So, he has two ties. The first is..I wanted to take a new twist on Michael Myers. You know, make him more than a faceless person. The “Mike” is kind of a tribute to that part of the genre…and Renfield is absolutely from Bram Stroker’s Dracula. As a matter of fact, there’s very small subtleties here. You know, Renfield was in an insane asylum and..and…you’ll always see when Mike is on that there are flies buzzing around. That is also kind of a little Easter egg or tip off that Renfield is, as a character with that name, has some significance to it.
Nemesis: Absolutely, that’s great. Well, that that leads me to a question I was going to save for a little bit later but I think this leads right into it…which was the ending of the film. I don’t know if you would want to give this away…or if maybe I missed the mark on this…it but to me the ending was very ambiguous. I thought it was very clever because with the ending in the asylum, I’m not sure if this was all a delusion or if they’re in hell or what. As we can you talk a little bit about the ending and if it’s supposed to be ambiguous or what you think.
Eric: Sure! It was purposely ambiguous. It was meant to throw everybody off. Just when they thought they’d figured anything out right? What I will tell you is that I can maybe rule some things out. I will tell you that all questions will be answered in “A Deadly Legend” sequel.
Nemesis, Kristen: <laughter>
Eric: So that was kind of the hook for, okay I got to see what else is going on because they gave me this ambiguous ending. <chuckles> But Mike Renfield is alive, he is not in hell.
Nemesis: Okay
Eric: Mike Renfield is alive as a matter of fact in A Deadly Legend Two, cross your fingers, and it’s going to start off with where we left Mike in the asylum. So..uhh..and we’re going to take it from there. Now, there are other aspects of that that I’d really love to keep hanging. But the real question is, are the people he’s seeing…are they alive or dead? I think I’d like to hold that off there, maybe, and let people think about that for a little bit.
Nemesis: Definitely.
Eric: But I will give you one tip off and that is…there are other folks that see dead people in “A Deadly Legend”…so he wouldn’t be the first person in the movie who has seen what he is seeing.
Nemesis: Absolutely. I want to get back to Kristen for a second, I don’t want to leave you out. One of the scenes that I thought was very powerful was the scene you had…and I’m sorry I’m skipping on the character’s name right now…but she was pulled into the water when you’re out on the lake and you were pulled in with her.
Kristen: Yeah, Eva.
Nemesis: I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about filming that scene and a little bit about the specific because it was so powerful when you got pulled into the water like that. Was that you? I’m assuming you did your own stunts.
Kristen: Well, I did all of my own stunts in the entire film, except the pull in the water.
Nemesis: Okay
Kristen: Our safety managers were concerned about that part because she gets pulled in very quickly and we did have a stunt double, with a wig, who just did the pull in the water. I did the knife fight. I did all of the crawling and screaming and throwing myself on the dock and all of that.
Nemesis: Okay
Kristen: I did have to have a stunt double, for safety reasons, for that pull. I will tell you…I have talked about this scene quite a bit with folks because it was techically our most challenging scene. Typically those scenes are filmed in a pool in combination with green screen. We filmed that on an actual lake on an actual raft, in 95 degree weather. <chuckles> In filmmaking you have to do a lot of different angles and we were trying to make that scene work with the chain and it took all day. But, it’s a scene that I’m really proud of because I think it adds a nice pop in the film.
Nemesis: Absolutely and I appreciated it. It was very genuine.
Kristen: Oh, thank you.
Eric: I just wanted to add that, for the folks who have seen the film, it seems to be one of the most visceral scenes when she’s dragging her fingers across the raft.
Kristen: Yeah
Eric: When you actually see the fingernails dig in and separate. It just seems that with everything else going on with the film, that scene seems to hit home with a lot of people, more than anything else, and that’s funny.
Nemesis: Definitely, and I think that kind of gets into my my next question I’d like to ask. For either one of you…either from an acting standpoint and definitely from a writing standpoint for Eric… What influenced you in the writing and in your performances? I’ll say as a viewer and as a reviewer watching the film; I saw a number of different horror movie influences. For instance I saw with the the council meeting that it seemed to hearken back to that scene in Jaws with Brody (Nemesis note: I should have said Quindt).
Kristen: Yup, that’s right <chuckles>
Nemesis: Judd Hirsch is obviously the Brody (Quindt) character there. I saw a lot…obviously you’ve got that Friday the 13th influence there. So, in that vein, I was kinda wanted to know what kind of influences did you bring into this?
Eric: Yeah, well, right off the bat I wanted to make the film, while set in the modern day, a tribute to all the great horror films. Right. So, you’ll see a bit of “Friday the 13th”. To your point, I love to see those little Easter eggs. “Jaws”….when you look through it you’ll see, particularly in the climax, kind of a tribute to “Alien” in the end. With a strong female character battling people with construction equipment. There is a “Sixth Sense” in there. I think part of it is…we really tried to make it a great tribute. Even “The Shining”…you’ll see some tribute to that. We wanted to make sure we embedded all of that. At the same time, we wanted to do two other things. First, we wanted to step away from the shock horror and really focus on the complexities of plot. You know, make it a movie about plot with very deep characters. Really develop the characters as much as we could. So, throughout the story we wanted the characters and the actors to really carry the movie. The second thing is we wanted to take a run at some of the stereotypes. So while we were still doing this we wanted to take a run at those stereotypes related to the strong female presence.
Kristen: Uh huh
Eric: The use of a female director in horror…which is really very rare. We didn’t want to have a whole bunch of ‘scream queens’ that were getting killed off. We had a theme…we wanted the female characters to be at center of the entire film.
Nemesis: Absolutely. That’s great.
Kristen: I think that really inspired me in the role of Joan. Being able to show a strong female character that has many complex influences going on. She has to overcome her own grief and anxiety and stay focused on the end goal of trying to kick ass and save lives.
Nemesis: Definitely. I thought it was very interesting, what you were talking about there, that perhaps Joan’s Arc..you know Joan of Arc…
Kristen: Exactly <laughs>
Nemesis: …is so interesting because, even though we find out that her motivations are different than what we thought they were. We can’t fault her for that. Is that what you were thinking there?
Kristen: Correct. It was definitely a fine line to balance that as an actor.
Nemesis: So, I’m curious about your interactions with the different actors in different scenes. Was there anything especially memorable? Any memorable adlib moments? One of the things I was curious about while watching were…many of the scenes with Eric and Lori Petty’s character seemed to be ripe for ad-libbing. So I was wondering if anything like that happened during production at all.
Eric: Oh yeah, absolutely. First of all, the cast always had feedback and were encouraged to..if not adlib..have input into the script and be able to say “My character would say this instead of that.” They had free reign as long as it didn’t interrupt the plot line or they actually changed their character’s arc. Lori Petty was the greatest though. I mean, she came in there and she read the script and loved it. But when she came on she really brought a different dimension to the character and really improvised as she was going along. It was so funny and sometimes I would watch the outtakes, which we haven’t published, and I was watching her and so amused by what she’s doing that I don’t hit my cue.
Nemesis: <Laughter>
Eric: So we had to do that take a couple of times but she was absolutely a hoot. Very professional and a great person to work with.
Nemesis: I guess, if you don’t mind me asking, what was it like to have a Lori Petty, a Judd Hirsch, a Corbin Benson on the set as far as a resource into the craft and and how to do different things? Was that part of the production as well.?
Kristen: Yeah, yeah. Well it was an absolute gift that they accepted our offers to join because they all did like the script. They all were an absolute joy and absolute professionals to work with. Every day with them was wonderful. I worked with Corbin the most and I loved every minute of it. It was just easy. It was just easy. Very humble, down to earth guy. All three of them told us that it was one of the best experiences and one most professional independent film sets that they had worked on in their careers. They hadn’t talked together about it beforehand but it was just such a wonderful compliment. They were very happy with how everything went.
Eric: I will tell you…They were very professional. There were no egos there whatsoever. I will tell you that what they brought to the set was a maturity and it really helped everyone up their game. I think we were much much better, cast and crew, having them on the set.
Nemesis: Outstanding. I have one final question but I wanted to give you a chance to talk a bit about where people can go to see this film if they don’t have a local film festival in their area. Will it be released for wider distribution?
Eric: We are going to go video on demand. Originally we wanted to do a theatrical release and because of the current situation we’re not going to be able to do that. We’re going to go video on demand and it will be a wide release. We have North American distribution all set up. At this point it’s just a question of finalizing the release date and we’ll let everyone know.
(Note: A Deadly Legend is available on July 24th, 2020 and you can find more information on ADeadlyLegend.com)
Eric: We were going to release the film on the festival circuit but because of all that’s happened a lot of the festivals have gone down. Because of that we’ve made a conscious decision not to participate and to bring the film to a wider audience using video on demand.
Nemesis: Okay, so I guess my final question is just about where do you go next? For each of you, what are you going to do next professionally? Where does the story go next? I know you hinted at maybe a sequel so can we plan on that?
Eric: So yeah, I continue to act and not necessarily just in my own creations. We do have a couple projects in the works and Kristen can tell you about that. We’re hoping “A Deadly Legend” is as successful as we hope it will be and then we can have a sequel. I will tell you that part of the sequel will be that our heroes were not necessarily as successful as they thought they were at vanquishing the ghosts in the first movie. So Mike will continue to drive the plot line, just deeper and deeper into the town of Silverlake.
Kristen: We’re just in the exploratory phase of a historical documentary, just to switch genres a bit. It’s a subject that we think will be of great interest to folks. We are also working on a pilot. We can’t say much more about that right now though.
Nemesis: Great, great. Well good luck with that. I think that’s all the questions I had. Thank you very much, it was a pleasure to talk with you.
Kristen: Thank you so much for taking the time to watch the film and to speak with us. It was really nice to meet you.
Eric: Yeah and thank you…I’m so happy that you enjoyed the film.
Nemesis: Thank you very much for giving me the opportunity to you, it’s always a pleasure.
Director:Â Pamela Moriarty
Writer:Â Eric Wolf
Stars: Lori Petty, Corbin Bernsen, Judd Hirsch
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Author Profile
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Nemesis is a poet, writer and author of the upcoming novel The Long Game. He is a writer of science fiction and supernatural thrillers. Besides novels and short stories he writes for UK based ASAP Comics developing new stories for Level 8 and OPSEC. Nem is a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point and tries to bring those experiences into his writing.
He lives and works out of his home in Riverside, California with his wife and three children. When not writing he enjoys reviewing comic books and graphic novels for ComicCrusaders.com and living the Southern California life with his family.
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