January 26, 2010

In continuing with our five part series on “Indie Scream Queens”, our second interview is with actress-producer Brooke Lewis. The Philly born Lewis began her acting career in New York and primarily appeared in comedies and mobster movies before landing a four year gig on Tony and Tina’s Wedding.

Having worked in television as well as a handful of other independent films, she eventually segued into horror films and helped generate her own attractive roles by producing Kinky Killers, iMurders and the upcoming Slime City Massacre. Having garnered a bevy of credits and experience both as a producer and actress in film, television and on the web, Lewis talked with Shock candidly about laying her stake in the horror genre.

Robg.: How does horror play into your childhood and upbringing? Did your parents let you see scary movies growing up?

Brooke Lewis: I think I started out liking musicals and somehow it jumped to horror. And although I’m about to date myself here, I grew up watching the Friday The 13th marathons on TV. My parents were divorced when I was 2, so they were both pretty liberal as most divorced parents tend to be. I remember my dad was one of the first in town to get a VCR and I would have all of my girlfriends come over and we’d have horror parties because there was a video store right by his house and we would rent everything. I loved it, I loved being scared. When I was really little, I know I must’ve seen the original Dracula because I had fantasies of Dracula at five. That must be where the vampire fetish started! [laughs] I’m very sensitive and intuitive to energy and my surroundings and I always have been even as a child, so I think I always was very attracted to a sixth sense or a different energy in the universe which leads to horror as well.

Robg.: How does acting or working in the entertainment industry play into your upbringing? Were either of your parent’s creative people involved in music, art or anything like that?

Brooke: I have a sister from my dad’s second marriage so we have different mom’s, so we did not grow up together. I was raised pretty much in the beginning as an only child. When you don’t have siblings in your house and you spend a lot of time alone, you find ways to get creative. My mom was a school teacher and my dad was a stock broker, so no one close to me was creative in a career sense. My mom is creative in a fun sense in that when I was little, we loved to always play. We would do dress up and put records on and sing and dance and I’ve loved to do that. I think I always wanted to try to escape, that was a big thing in my childhood, and even now in my adulthood. [laughs] They really say that your career chooses you, but I think especially with acting, you chose it. I don’t know if that’s a blessing or a curse but I just wanted to be able to be different people, different characters and feel different things and emotions. When I was really young, I did take drama acting lessons and was always trying to be creative. My mom was very encouraging of that.

Robg.: You didn’t start out in the genre, you were a character actor back on the East Coast. So what was your first horror movie and what do you remember standing out about it compared to the other things you’d worked on?

Brooke: I started out in musical comedy and from that went to comedy, and then to Tony and Tina’s Wedding. I think the first horror experience I had was with writer/director Derek Maki for a film called Carnage & Deception: A Killer’s Perfect Murder, which was this crazy low budget piece. I was intrigued, got an audition for it and I ended up doing the movie. It was really surreal, because it was one of the lowest budget projects I’d worked on and it was a whole different group of people that I had not known from the comedy world, but it was a lot of fun. What I loved about it was that everyone was so cohesive and willing to do anything that needed to be done to get it done. It was very different from studio projects or bigger budget stuff that I had worked on. Everybody had treated it like this collaborative effort and I thought that was super cool and inspiring. But the first real deal horror inspiration for me was when I was at Sundance 04 and the first Saw came out. At Sundance, you couldn’t get in to see that movie. Saw solidified it for me.

I was so amped after seeing that, I called my producing partner in New York, Ken Del Vecchio and I said I will produce a feature with you if we do a horror film and if you write me one of the female leads. And next thing you know, we were rockin’ and rolling. It took three years to develop, raise the money and to shoot. The first title for that project was Polycarp, which eventually became Kinky Killers. I got to act in that with Charles Durning, Michael Pare, Beverly Lynne and Brandon Slagle. It was an amazing opportunity. We made Kinky Killers and it was a relatively low budget movie, with decent name actors. We got a decent distribution deal through Uni. So after that we were doing stuff in the horror/thriller avenue. It was surreal. The fact that I had done around probably 30 film and TV projects prior to that, and all of a sudden I got a lot of attention in the horror world, and got horror themed scripts sent to me via my production company Philly Chick Pictures. I had gone to a horror convention and everyone there was just so complimentary and welcoming and friendly. That’s the best thing about the horror community is how open and supportive they are.

Robg.: Making independent horror movies is never easy. What’s the most difficult thing you’ve been asked to do for the sake of low budget filmmaking?

Brooke: Even when you’re producing something, you’re always one of many producers so you don’t always have total control. Even when I partner with larger production companies, I don’t always have the control and say in everything for the project. I don’t want this to sound like I’m a Hollywood diva, but at this point in my life and my career, I do have a difficult time doing crazy low budget things that to me may come off as a little less professional compared to the opportunities I’ve had working on a network sitcom or a studio film. In those instances, you have your own trailer, people are catering to you. On low budget films, you obviously don’t have those things, you’re in the trenches with everyone and I’m totally OK with that. But there’s a few things I have to stand up for since it’s me that’s putting myself out there.

For example – I just worked on Slime City Massacre, and I love the writer/director Greg Lamberson and it was a great opportunity. I had associate produced it so I developed a relationship with Greg long before the film was ever shot, but part of my job as an associate producer, I actually brought myself in to be a local hire, which means I flew myself out, put myself up in a hotel, things like that. When you’re going to do it that way, you’d better love that project so much because essentially you’re going to be losing money, it’s becomes an investment. So in situations like that, you have to ask yourself things like – ‘can I financially afford to do this?.. or can I emotionally afford to do this?’ Greg and I now laugh about this, but I was insistent on having hair and make-up. Because my character Nicole was a young prostitute and we were shooting on Hi-Def. As a producer, I know what that’s going to look like. I’ve seen girls come in and audition on High-Def. If you’re over 25 and going to be shot in High-Def, you’d better have the proper make-up done! [laughs] It’s true! You better have extra preparation to have that make-up done for High-Def or you’re going to look like crap. I don’t want to look like crap! It’s my name, my face, my reputation, so for that film, I had to have hair and make-up. I ended up hiring the make-up artist and paying out of pocket and that went into my investment on the film. It was a situation where that was something that I thought was very important whereas some low budget filmmakers might not think so. What I’ve come to learn as I get older is that we teach people how to treat us and we demand a certain amount of respect. You’ve got to set the bar whether you’re an actor, writer, producer, journalist – it doesn’t matter, you have to set the bar and move forward. Some people might look at me and think I’m new on the scene? I’m not new on the scene, I’ve been doing this since college. I did NYU student films for free, I did theater in New York. Even in LA, I’ve done little indie films, and now I’m so fortunate to have set the bar at a certain place after working my ass off, especially through producing. I’m not willing to go backwards, I have to move forward.

Robg.: I know that you’re one of the indie scream queens that hasn’t nor will do nudity. How do you feel about nudity in the horror genre in general? Has it ever been something that’s ever come up in the low budget world for you?

Brooke: As far as nudity in film, I don’t judge. I have a ton of gorgeous beautiful scream queen friends that have done nudity in movies, and good for them. They’re making a lot more money then I am! And I totally respect that. For me? It has been a choice for many reasons. Firstly, because I started out outside of horror, so I was never really asked to do nudity. I’m a comedy girl. I was probably asked to do it for a mobster movie back in the day in New York, but I said no, because it’s just a personal choice. I’m not comfortable with it. That’s not to say I’d never do it, never say never. It’d have to be for the right reason. Really, it’s more a humble thing then anything… I don’t feel that anyone would want to see my boobs! [laughs] I’m not 21 anymore, I’m not always playing the leading lady. I’m more of a character actor. I have no issue with sex scenes, I’ve been in many. For me, I think sometimes it’s sexier to not be totally naked. Sex appeal is an innate quality and sometimes the sexiest scenes in film are when you’re not showing everything and you’re leaving a little bit to the imagination.

Robg.: What kind of day jobs or gigs have you had to do to sustain this profession?

Brooke: I’ve done it all! I took this spiritual course years ago and I was saying there how it so sucks to have to do another career to support your passion and love, but I remember one of the coaches at the seminar said to me, “you have to look at it as your side job is a responsibility to help create your art and your passion.” When you turn it around and look at it that way, it makes it so much nicer and so much better to look at it as being responsible to your art and passion.

I used to promote night clubs in New York and that was a crazy ride. I got really lucky right after college and booked Tony and Tina’s Wedding and did that for four years as a working actress before I moved to Los Angeles. I was at one point was one of the top reps for an Italian hair product company. I worked many years to do that to help fund productions. One of the best jobs was years ago I started a personal assistant company called ‘Lil Helper. [laughs] I had clients from every walk of life, mostly in the entertainment business. I worked for an agent from one of the biggest agencies and I worked for his whole family. The wife had four kids and couldn’t handle it, so I had to help with everything to get her through the day. The things people would ask me to do were bizarre! Everything from, alphabetizing their porn collection to taking their elderly parents out to lunch. You would not believe this stuff! I had a huge entertainment attorney and he was 80 years old and a brilliant, brilliant man and he had the much younger hot wife and she was very busy. He couldn’t do nearly as much as he used to, so they would hire me to come spend a day with him and take him to lunch and work with him in his office. It was surreal. I had a famous television writer who was in his 70’s and his kids whom were also famous hired me to be his assistant one day a week. It was fascinating just to hear him share stories about old Hollywood and old television. That was the most interesting thing was hearing about all the things we do in life to support our dreams. If you can just be present and open and learn from them and listen to them, especially elderly people. They’re so fascinating. You listen and learn about what they went through to climb the ranks, it’s fascinating. Job wise, I think I’ve seen it all, done it all.

Robg.: It seems that one of the things a lot of the indie scream queens have in common is they strive to create their own projects, they get in a position to generate their own work. In your case, it was co-producing a few of your features. Is that something you want to continue doing? Producing and creating your own material?

Brooke: I started Philly Chick Pictures back in 2002 and now that was 8 years ago. I’m in a different place then I was in my 20’s. Back then I was bright eyed, bushy tailed, willing to do anything, willing to sleep 2 hours a night and work nonstop but I’m no longer there. I’ve been involved in, whether it be executive producing or associate producing seven feature films, as well as 5 short films and web series work and I’ve learned a tremendous amount. It’s an invaluable amount of experience at this point and I want to be very clear as to what projects I attach myself to as an actress and as a producer. I am so, so fortunate that I have put myself in a position to have a lot of opportunities as an actress and I want to focus on that. But I will always have producing experience in my pocket and I will produce only projects I really believe in. I’m involved in producing three projects right now and that’ll probably take me through the next year or two and they are projects that I have lead roles in them, ownership in them and complete control over all of them. And that’s something I earned.

The one I’m most excited about is my Ms. Vampy character. That web series and pilot that I shot with Todd Tucker from Drac Studios last year created a lot of attention and it’s a character that’s a big part of me, my essence, that it feels perfect to me. So we’re furthering it by developing our Halloween family film with Ms. Vampy. That’s a project that we’re developing right now over at Drac and that’s my first priority right now.

Visit the official Philly Chick Pictures website right here.