PopHorror Let's Get Scared
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Lauren Ashley Carter is one of the top actresses in the current horror genre. Starring in films such as Darling, Jug Face, and the upcoming sci-fi drama, Imitation Girl, Lauren has proven herself to be a versatile and extremely talented actress. I had the opportunity to talk with Lauren about some of her upcoming films, as well as touching on some of her older films.
PopHorror: Hi, Lauren! Thanks so much for doing this. I really appreciate you taking the time to speak with us!
Lauren Ashley Carter: Of course, thanks for having me.
PopHorror: First off, I wanted to talk about your upcoming film, Imitation Girl. Could you tell us what the film is about?
Lauren Ashley Carter: Yeah, so, Imitation Girl is a sci-fi drama and there are two sets that we filmed. One is location is in New Mexico, in Albuquerque, and that is where the imitation lands; this alien imitation. She takes on the form of the first person that she grabs onto, which happens to be this real person, Julianna Fox, who lives in New York City. So, throughout the movie, we go between this alien imitation of a real girl and the actual woman who lives in New York City. The imitation happens to be taken in by this Iranian family, so that part of the film is a very different tone than our New York set, where Julianna Fox lives as an amateur, up and coming porn star. Eventually, the imitation discovers that she is made to look like this woman and goes on a quest to find the real woman.
PopHorror: That sounds really interesting! You said it’s a sci-fi drama. I’ve been seeing more and more that you’re a very versatile actress. What’s it like going from doing mainly horror movies to sci-fi or drama? Is there any difficulty with that?
Lauren Ashley Carter: Well, it’s been something that I’ve been ready to do. I also do a lot of theater; I’ve been in a lot of plays. I’ve also created my own short films and web series and things like that. In all of those things, I’ve played very different characters. It’s a change, I think, more for the audiences that watch me in horror movies than it is for me, since I’m used to playing many different characters. In theater, I tend to only end up in comedies. It’s nice to go back and forth between them. I also think that in the horror movies I’ve done, you know, there’s been a lot of drama in them. As far as something like Jug Face, especially, I think it’s a much more slower paced film, rather than something like The Mind’s Eye.
PopHorror: Yeah, definitely. The characters you play in all of these films are very different. You know, Lyla from Pod and Darling from Darling. I know Lyla’s not a villain, but she’s got a pretty terrible attitude.
Lauren Ashley Carter: Oh yeah, she’ s a horrible person (laughs).
PopHorror: But then you have characters like Ada from Jug Face, Peggy from The Woman and Rachel from The Mind’s Eye. Do you prefer to be the villain in the films, or the good guy?
Lauren Ashley Carter: I think it’s always more fun to be the bad guy, of course. You usually have a lot more fun. I think the keyword there is ‘fun.’ There’s enjoyment when you’re the villain. They love causing terror or fear or manipulating the situation. You know, when you’re the good guy in a horror film, you’re usually suffering a lot throughout the entire thing. That’s always something that I’ve tried to find in all these films. I try to find just one moment of happiness, even if it’s something so small, for my characters that are suffering. It’s exhausting to watch as an audience member, I think as well. When I’m just watching someone get tortured for two hours or go through hell, there’s only so much you can take. Also, as you get older, watching these movies because your life isn’t that great, it’s like, “Great, now I get to watch someone else’s fucking rotten day.” I like to show a bit of joy or comedy or some kind of release or relief. Some films are meant to not do that at all, to not let up on the audience at all, to really challenge them. If I have my druthers, I like to find those moments.
PopHorror: I agree with what you said about challenging. Darling was the first film of yours that I saw, and that was a really challenging film. It was way heavier than I expected. I do want to touch on some of the web series that you’ve done. I’ve been telling everyone that you’re very funny, and I show people the Tea Time with Lauren Ashley Carter videos often. The Special Without Brett Davis episode, where you play a senator, is another one.
Lauren Ashley Carter: Yeah! I actually have a couple roles on the Brett Davis show. I’ve got the senator and then I have another, Fran Thumbskin. She was an interviewer I played before that. Those guys are amazing. I’ve just been honored that they actually asked me to come back, because they’re all very skilled improv actors. It’s what they do all the time; they fucking eat that shit up and live it. I’m just really lucky and fortunate that they invited me into their world, because it’s a very tiny community and they’re all really kickass.
PopHorror: I was laughing so hard at the Cobra Commander part in the senator episode of The Special Without Brett Davis. Do you think you’ll do more comedy roles in the future?
Lauren Ashley Carter: I love doing comedy. I think it’s another challenge to do that as well. In theater, one of the biggest problems when you’re rehearsing comedy over and over again is that you stop laughing at each other. Especially the director, nothing is funny anymore (laughs). Or you start seeing other things that are funny, that no one else does because you’ve been going through it so many times. The challenge in that is trusting that if it was good the first time, it’ll be good again and not to nitpick it too much. You still need to think about the story and the truth of everything. Just constantly thinking of what’s servicing the story more than what’s servicing me. In theater, it can be different because you’ve got the audience there and you have the laughs. Every night is going to be different. You just never know what is going to work and what you need to change.
I really just like doing different roles. I like telling different stories and that’s my biggest priority. I want to keep myself entertained, as well. After a stretch of doing a lot of dramatic things or horror, I’ll say, “Okay, I really need to do something fun now.” Even if that’s doing a Tea Time video or Mentors, the other series that I did. I’ll look for something; I’ll create something so I can have a release. I’ll make the work for myself and put it out there. I also did a fan audiobook of Jackie Chan’s memoir online.
PopHorror: What was that about? (laughs)
Lauren Ashley Carter: Yeah, it’s on Soundcloud. I just read Jackie Chan’s autobiography, and I never read it before. So I just read it and I didn’t realize how many Chinese words were in it. It’s in this weird transliteration that didn’t make any sense. It was just because I was feeling sad and going through the audition hell and I wanted to get out of New York. It was like my 10th year walking dogs. I just tried to do things to lift up my own spirits. Sometimes things are very much intended for people to watch and for people to enjoy, but that was just for me because I thought it was really funny.
PopHorror: That sounds great. Another thing that I wanted to touch on was what goes into picking a role for you? It always seems like you’re picking really smart roles.
Lauren Ashley Carter: Yeah, I definitely don’t take everything. Which is why I can’t complain about being fucking broke, because I do it to myself (laughs). The thing is that I can’t do the work unless I really believe in what we’re doing. There are things that my agents will send me to go out on, and I’ll be like, “No, this is terrible for me. Why are you sending me out on this? I’m gonna be awful at this.” It’d be like a singer having a mezzo-soprano going for a baritone part. It’s a terrible idea. I just need to know that I can bring something to the project and that the project will be something different for me. First comes the script, and do I like that? Then it’s the character that I’m supposed to be reading for. Once all of that comes together, then comes scheduling. That’s really all it takes for me.
There are some scripts I’ve read where I’ve felt like the character is a bit like something I’ve already played, and I don’t know if there’s anything more I can bring to that character. I’m not at the point where I want to reprise a role. I want to keep playing different parts. It’s fun for me. It’s always a job, everything you do, even creatively, it all ends up being work. But the point of our work is that it’s fun, and that’s why we suffer so much and go through it because we really do love it and enjoy it.
PopHorror: You’ve already kind of answered this, but are there any roles you just refuse to do? I know there was a blog article about a role you turned down in Germany.
Lauren Ashley Carter: Yeah, there was this anal sex scene or something in it. The casting directors were from Short Bus, which notoriously has real sex scenes in it. The whole thing was pretty sketchy. I’ve done nudity in films before and I’ve had sex scenes in, I think, three films now. So sex and nudity really doesn’t bother me. It all makes sense to me when I’m reading the script. I know if it’s exploitative or if it’s not. I read a script recently and there was a choking scene in it. The woman wanted to be choked with a belt around her own neck. There’s not much that’s commented on it besides that she likes to do some BDSM stuff, but since I had just done this podcast about choking and sex, I had been doing some reading up on it. My thoughts are very concrete on how I feel about it and I thought it’d be very irresponsible for me to portray something like this, when I don’t believe in it and I do feel that we share some form of responsibility, especially as a woman and when it comes to sex. I don’t have much power to make many films, but I do have the power in what roles I choose.
I really try to weigh these things. Like, with The Woman, that was a really difficult film for people, but it’s very empowering. It shows what happens when people, especially women, are silenced in in abusive situations.
PopHorror: Overall, like you said, it’s being socially responsible. Even with not having much power, you still have more power than others.
Lauren Ashley Carter: Yeah, right. It’s the masses. Thinking is contagious.
PopHorror: So you’ve worked with a lot of the same people in your films, whether it’s Sean Young or Sean Bridgers. What was it like working with those same people, but in different capacities? For example, in Jug Face, Sean Bridgers was basically your equivalent, but in The Woman he was your abusive father.
Lauren Ashley Carter: Well, we actually shot The Woman first and I actually didn’t see much of Sean when we were filming. He was working like a dog (laughs). We were all over the place with the script for that movie. I don’t know how he did it. He’s amazing. When we worked on The Woman, I didn’t get many scenes with him, which I think probably helped. It let me have this feeling towards him, like I revered him. He was very intimidating, too, not in his persona but he’s very intense. He had a lot to do, and the character for him was unbearable. That’s why I think he adds a lot of comedy to the piece, because he’s just this evil guy. So when we did have our scenes together and he’s around, it was very tense. He made that very easy for me (laughs).
So when I had the opportunity to be in Jug Face, and I was told that Sean Bridgers was going to be in it, I was so excited that he was going to play Dawai, because I knew that we would actually get to act together. Then when I got there, I got really freaked out about being the lead of this film. It was my first lead. I did ask Sean if he could read the scene with me, and we talked and talked, and he said, “Any time you want to go over anything, even if it’s not a scene with me, I’d be happy to talk with you about it.” Most days, whether it was before the day started or after we were done shooting, I would grab him and have him go over the script with me. He was incredibly helpful.
Sean Young is such a sweetheart, and just absolutely lovely. From day one, she was just very easy to be around. She’s definitely a “mom” and very much a girl’s girl. She likes talking about make up and the business and just being a woman. Larry Fessenden is really good pals with her, so he was able to get her in Darling. She was only working a day, she flew in from LA after shooting for a week, so I didn’t get much time with her. Doing these indie films, it’s like you just become a family. It just makes everything easier.
PopHorror: I know you’ve done some producing. Will we see you do anymore of that? Perhaps a directorial debut in the future?
Lauren Ashley Carter: Yeah! I would absolutely love to. I directed my first short film, and I had a great time with that. It’s always about the money, though. Where do we find the money? I absolutely love producing and directing. One of the best things that’s happened to me since I started putting my hands in other places is that I’m just as happy behind a camera as I am in front of it. Acting is my forte, but once I get some more experience in everything else, I’d like to really get working in that way. With that said, I haven’t directed a feature yet. So I think it’s going to take me doing a couple to figure out whether if I truly love it and if I’m any good at it.
PopHorror: We’ll definitely be keep our eyes out for when you do finally get to direct something big! Was there anything you’re working on that you’d like to let us know about?
Lauren Ashley Carter: Let’s see. I just finished Gags, another horror movie. It’s a found footage film, but it’s done in a really clever, interesting way. I just finished a short called Hail Maria over in the UK, about a sex worker who has a really terrifying venereal disease. Just yesterday, I finished shooting a short film called Once Bitten, and that is a horror comedy. That’s what I’ve been working on. I’ll be leaving for Los Angeles in a couple of weeks to work on a fun indie thriller with Trevor Hollen, who was the first director to ever put me in anything, a short film, while I was still in college. So we are going to make a feature together. It’ll be black and white, one location, many characters. It’ll be unlike anything I’ve done before.
PopHorror: Sounds like you’ve been very busy! Thank you so much for your time, Lauren!
Lauren Ashley Carter: You’re welcome!
So there you have it… Lauren Ashley Carter is a tour de force in the acting world. She’s continuously providing some of the best performances on screen, as well as dabbling in the behind the scenes work. Her upcoming film, Imitation Girl, is still making the festival rounds, but could be out by the end of the year or into the beginning of next year. Make sure to stay tuned to PopHorror for any updates we have on that, and for any other news with Lauren.
