FEARnet Talks to Mary

FEARnet: Was it hard to keep that dark atmosphere once the cameras started rolling? It sounds like you were all one big happy family. 

Katharine Isabelle: We were. We only had 15 days to shoot. Everyone was there for little to no money, everyone was busting their asses to do what they could for the girls. The moment you meet them, you just fall head-over-heels in love with them and you want to do everything you can to help them. But I don’t think the movie is that dark, or depressing or upsetting. I think it is charming and hilarious! If people don’t laugh, we get upset! 

F: Oh, I agree with you. I just think that the subject matter is something that people are so uncomfortable with. 

KI: Yeah. I remember at the beginning, in a production meeting, Sylvia stood up and, in a very commanding voice said that not a single person, whether it be the dancers or the body modders, they were generous enough to work on our film and allow us into their subculture, not a single derogatory statement was to be made or even thought about them. No matter what the person’s position was, they would be off the fucking set sooner than you could snap your fingers. There was absolute, zero-tolerance for that. If you read the script and had any kind of asshole-ish thing to say, you probably wouldn’t have done the movie. No one was disrespectful. 

We were rehearsing the dance sequence stuff in an old strip club in Vancouver. Tristan strips down to a thong and nothing on top, and the poor crew guys are trying so hard not to look! “Oh yeah, look at this nail in the corner, we really have to jam it back in!” Tristan is fabulous and she wouldn’t have been offended, but everyone was trying so hard to be respectful. 

F: Creative, entertainment-types - especially in horror - are much more relaxed about that kind of thing. 

KI: They are definitely not a repressed group of people. The girls and I... we don’t know where our offensive limits are. We don’t know what anyone could do to offend us. They treat everyone with so much respect that no one ever felt anything but completely loved and accepted.

READ THE WHOLE RAD INTERVIEW HERE.

-Sylv