Interview with ‘The Amityville Murders’ Actress Chelsea Ricketts

The Amityville Murders is easily one of my favorite movies of 2019, so far (read my review of the film here). When it comes to sequels, or a movie that is part of an ever-growing series, it’s sometimes hard to get a believable plot, solid acting, or even just an overall good film. Fortunately, The Amityville Murders has all of it. In the film, Chelsea Ricketts (Jackals 2017 – read our review of the film here) plays the DeFeo daughter, Dawn, who was shot to death at 18-years-old by her brother, Butch DeFeo (John Robinson – read my interview with him here), in their home at 112 Ocean Avenue. I had the pleasure of speaking with Chelsea about making a film based off a true story, her inspirations, and of course, horror movies.

PopHorror: I really enjoyed The Amityville Murders. I was very impressed with it. What I wanted to know is, were you familiar with the tragedies at the home on 112 Ocean Avenue when you took the role of Dawn DeFeo?

Chelsea Ricketts: Thank you so much! I’m glad to hear that. Yes, I was. I had seen a couple of documentaries on it, one of them being our director, Dan’s, documentary when I was younger. So I was very familiar with the story, but I didn’t know as many details as I do now. But I was very, very aware of the events, yes.

PopHorror: How did you prepare for the role?

Chelsea Ricketts: I just did as much research as I possibly could. There’s not a ton about Dawn and who she was outside of the terrible events that happened to her. So, I did as much research as I could. I watched many documentaries and interviews with people that knew her, and then I definitely leaned heavily on Dan. I’m not sure there’s anyone out there that has done as much research about this family than him. So, it was kind of nice having him to lean on and rely on to make sure he would tell me if I was doing something off, or I wasn’t staying true to Dawn, because it was very important to me to show as true of a version of her as I possibly could.

I know with Dan, he cared so much about the family and what happened to them. I know it was important to him for this film to be true versions of what could have happened, because at the end of the day, there’s so many opinions: was it the haunting, was it the drugs, was it the abuse that this family endured? What was it that led him to do what he did? So I feel that this film definitely leaves it up for the audience to form their own opinion, and we were just trying to be as truthful as we could.

PopHorror: You mentioned about the house being haunted. Do you believe in ghosts?

Chelsea Ricketts: It’s funny. A few people have asked me that. I haven’t had any experiences, so I can’t say that I’ve seen a ghost or that I believe in ghosts. I don’t not believe in them, because I’ve heard people’s stories, and I believe people when they say they have experienced something, but I personally haven’t. There were some weird things that happened during the filming like a crazy flood happened when we were filming in the red room. So I know there were a few somewhat sketchy things that happened that the crew was like, “This is haunted! It’s a ghost doing this!” and the other half was like, “No, a pipe burst.” You never really know, but yeah, I don’t know. I haven’t personally experienced anything.

PopHorror: That was going to be my next question, if there was anything creepy that happened filming?

Chelsea Ricketts: I would definitely say that the flood was eerie. You’ve seen the film, so you know that the red room scenes were definitely scarier, and the red room was actually creepy to film in. It was very tiny, so it only fit me and John and the cinematographer, so it was very tight in there and creepy and dark. So the whole bottom floor, we were filming in the basement of a house around here in LA, and it flooded. So that was definitely creepy. Don’t know what it means, but it was creepy.

PopHorror: Who inspires you?

Chelsea Ricketts: I love that question. I can’t sing enough of Diane Franklin’s praises. She is everything. So, I think her and I also had the privilege of working with Jamie Lee Curtis, and I don’t think it gets any cooler than that. She is like everything to me. I worked with her on a show called Scream Queens, and she is just everything that you’d want her to be. Obviously, I’ve been a fan of hers forever, especially in this genre of horror. She’s the king of the Queens. She is the warmest, kindest, most encouraging woman I’ve had the pleasure of working with. And so is Diane.

PopHorror: What would you be doing if you weren’t acting?

Chelsea Ricketts: That’s such a good question. Travel, travel, travel. I just flew back to LA from New York City. It’s my passion. My absolute favorite thing to do is to see the world. I go with my sisters and we’ve seen Iceland and Tokyo. So I have to say travel. That’s my next thing.

PopHorror: And what do you have coming up next?

Chelsea Ricketts: Next, I have a movie premiering on Lifetime on the 28th. It’s – I’m sticking with the genre here – a murder thriller mystery type of show.

PopHorror: What is your favorite scary movie?

Chelsea Ricketts: Oooh, gosh! There are so many. I bought this… oh, this is going to sound so nerdy. I bought this DVD boxed set of the greatest black and white horror films from Target. I think it came with like 50 DVDs possibly. It was so cool and so fun. I love The Birds. I know that’s probably horribly cliche, but it still haunts me. And I know it’s not typically horror, but Jaws is my favorite movie of all time. I had posters up all over my walls growing up, and then for my 16th birthday, I watched Jaws on the beach with my toes in the water.

We want to send a great big thank you to Chelsea Ricketts for taking the time to talk with us. We’ll let you know as soon as we find out more about this mysterious TV show that she’s going to be in next. As always, stay tuned to PopHorror for all of your pop culture and horror news, reviews and interviews!