From the director of Saw II and Spiral, Twisted finds a con artist's real estate scam unravels into a nightmare when she's captured by a surgeon with a terrifying plan. Starring Lauren LaVera (Terrifier 2, 3, 4) and Djimon Hounsou (A Quiet Place Day One), the movie is intense and terrifying in equal measure.
In a cast that also includes Mia Healey, Neal McDonough, and Alicia Witt, LaVera shines after establishing herself as one of horror's most iconic "Final Girls," Sienna, in the Terrifier franchise.
Earlier this week, we sat down with LaVera to discuss her role as Paloma in Twisted. The actress starts by telling us what drew her to the movie, amid the high expectations Terrifier fans have for her.
LaVera also opens up on working with Hounsou, how she approached playing a character who is being victimised but isn't a victim, and the fun of using some very different accents during Twisted's opening scenes.
You can check out our full interview with LaVera below.
You've obviously become such a hugely popular horror icon thanks to the Terrifier movies. Knowing that horror fans have so much love for you and maybe such big expectations, what was it that made Twisted the right fit for you?
Well, first of all, thank you. Those are incredibly generous words. But for Paloma in Twisted, she was just so vastly different from anything I've ever done. I've found this beautiful niche and home in horror, and I've been so incredibly lucky to meet friends and fans and connect with them because they feel so connected to Sienna and the Terrifier franchise. But I really wanted to play someone a little bit more deliciously mischievous. Sienna has this heart of gold and loves her family, and Paloma has that as well, but she's coming from this scrappy nature that I just really love about her. Aside from the horror aspect—which I of course love, and knowing Darren and Djimon would be part of it—I was like, "All right, I need to do this." But Paloma was just so deliciously mischievous and playful. It was really a no-brainer for me. Everything else was secondary; she was my main attraction to the script.
You mentioned Djimon there. Obviously, you have some really pivotal, quite violent and quite intense scenes together. What was it like to work with him to explore that power dynamic and how you could really bring the script and the story to life together?
Djimon has this presence. I often describe him as regal because, if you believe in that, he had to have been a royal or part of a royal family or a king in a previous life. He walks into a room and brings this undeniable presence with him. He already has this towering, intimidating presence, and I respect him immensely as an actor and as an artist in general. So it wasn't hard to have that power dynamic in the scene. I could really feel the real emotions I was feeling and layer in what Paloma was going through. But he is such a generous scene partner. He listens, he tries to affect you as an artist when we're in a scene together, which makes my job so much easier because it is our job to affect each other. It made every scene with him incredibly dynamic and new. He's such a pro, and he's so generous—that's really the main takeaway. He was an angel, and I hope I get the opportunity to work with him again.
Paloma is obviously being victimised by his character, but she's not a victim, and she is very proactive in what she does in the situation. Was that very important to you to have a character like that who doesn't fall apart and really takes an active role in how she fights back?
Yeah, there was certainly this sense of humour that jumped out of the script for me when I read it—maybe I just read it that way. I also loved Unsane by the same writers and found a lot of humour in that film, too. I was immediately attracted to her sense of humour, and then I thought to myself, if I were in this situation like Paloma, I would be angry most of the time, especially because she comes from a place where she gets away with everything. So she's angry at herself that she's in this situation—like, how the hell did I get here?—and also, who the hell are you to think you can get away with this? She fully believes she is going to escape the entire time. Whether or not she does is up to the viewer to watch and see. But she will not accept the fact that she is a victim here. I'm happy that came across—thank you for mentioning it.
You're welcome. And of course, she is very much a chameleon, and that means you get to play around with some accents. Was that a lot of fun for you as well—a little aside to all the horror that's going on?
I loved it. The only downside is I only had three weeks to work on them, which is not nearly enough time—you should get six months minimum. But I had two really wonderful accent coaches that helped me out, and we got to decide which regions to use. We knew it would be an English accent and an Irish accent, but we decided based on the characters Molly Bloom and Emma Woodhouse, which made sense. For the English, we thought something more posh worked better. Only having three weeks was definitely a challenge, but with incredible coache,s we came to something that worked well for Paloma and her characters.
Twisted arrives on Digital on February 6.