Melissa George Interview - 30 Days of Night Premiere
Melissa George, one of the busiest actresses in Hollywood, faces off against blood-thirsty vampires in the horror film 30 Days of Night starring Josh Hartnett, directed by David Slade, and produced by Sam Raimi.
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Transcript: Melissa George Interview - 30 Days of Night Premiere
Rebecca Murray from About.com Hollywood Movies at the Hollywood premiere of 30 Days of Night.
Melissa George ('Stella Oleson')
How tough is it to get into the mindset of working with vampires on a movie like this?
Melissa George: "It's not tough at all. I wish I could say it was tough. But I don't know what happens, when you love acting, you just get into the character immediately. There's no question about it. You get off on it and you love it. And when I turned around and saw these vampires in their clothing, I couldn't believe the movie we were making. It was so visually stunning, visually stunning."
And working at night, that's kind of creepy.
Melissa George: "I love it. I mean, you get stupid after 1 a.m. That's like that time where everyone goes, 'Melissa, oh it's 1 a.m. We're not going to get anything out of you now.' I'm like, 'I'm sorry. I'm meant to be sleeping. What can I say? You want to shoot something good, you should shoot it in regular hours.'"
And getting to be a tough girl – she's got the guns, she's strong, she doesn't back down. How did you feel about playing a character like that?
Melissa George: "I really think that women in films shouldn't be weak and pathetic. I really want to choose roles that are just strong, dynamic, and have fun with it too."
Did you have fun because this also had the love story thing going on?
Melissa George: "I loved doing the love story. It was so beautiful. That's why I choose the movie. In every good film, there should be a good love story. I mean, that's what makes the world go around."
We find out a little bit why your character separated from her husband (played by Josh Hartnett) but not much. Did you figure out more of the backstory yourself in order to get into character?
Melissa George: "I love the backstory and I love the fact that we don't discuss it because we have to fight for the people of Barrow. We're going to talk about ourselves later, you know? But it says it all in the looks to each other; it says it all in the finale. There's no need to talk about who did what wrong or whatever. It's just there. They loved that. It added an extra level."
The appeal of playing in a movie that is vampires… When you first got the script, were you initially leery about playing in a horror movie like this or no?
Melissa George: "I was a bit leery because I've been making a lot of genre films… No, no, one genre film with Amityville Horror. But everything's either horror or thriller, comedy or drama. I mean, you can't escape genre. Everyone's going to pigeonhole it into whatever you want. Hard Candy was called a horror film. I mean, it was the last thing on my mind to call it a horror. You know, they can say, 'Why did you do another film like this?' But it's so different. Stella's the opposite of the character in Amityville Horror and my series on HBO coming out is completely different. Music Within coming out next weekend is completely different. And the next four movies that are coming out… That's why my agent said, 'Who cares?' This is a cool film with Josh Hartnett and Sam Raimi. What are you going to do, say no? It would be stupid, you know?"
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