A: I was really lucky to have amazing acting teachers in the school system I grew up in. They motivated me and trained me once I got on stage. I had never felt anything like that before and knew I had to continue acting. I studied in college and programs in NYC and just started auditioning my butt off. Once I got cast in a film and people started to see it, I was able to have my foot in the door and network and meet others who where working on films. It is true the more you work, the more work you get.

          A: I play the lead, Ashley Steele. She is an artist who comes from a very abusive home. She has left years ago to get away from the torture but returns home at the beginning of the film for her father’s funeral. She only does this to be with her brother because she feels bad about leaving him. She gets talked into staying in town to helping her brother out at the gym her father owned, and also because she gets the opportunity to have a show of her art at a local gallery. As she returns to her childhood environment, she starts to have flashbacks of her past and begins to mentally unravel. This deterioration of her mental state leads her to create the “perfect man” and the lines between what is ethical and what is artistic are completely blurred in her mania.

          A: Well to be honest, the reviews have been pretty good. The first set were a bit mixed but when the final edit of the film was sent out with about an half an hour cut out of the film, the reviews since then have been very positive. What I would like people to know about the film is that it is a crazy fun but heartfelt story. I mean there are some parts that can get a bit insane but the film has a very strong story grounded in real emotions and psychology. When I have seen an audience at a screening for the film, they have really enjoyed it very much and seem both entertained and very invested. I think it has a good combination of a strong story and strong female character combined with many of the horror elements that entertain. I am very proud of my work in this film and am excited for people to see it. It will have a wide release this October so def. check it out.

          A: Wow. Good question. I did my own costuming for my character so I was very comfortable with them. I love to do that as another way to express my character and learn about her. Especially when I have underwear costumes, I like to pick that out myself!! And to be honest we worked so hard and filmed the entire movie in less then 2 weeks- some days doing as many 4 Fx scenes a day and always we worked on one scene right after another. I am in pretty much every scene so I never got a break, but instead of that being difficult it really made the production flow for me. I really got into a zone and acting became kind of like a Zen thing where I was able to be so focus and relaxed that the scenes just flowed. It was an experience that I would imagine all actors crave when they don’t have to “work to pull it out”, all the motivation is just available- it is like a creative flow. I think the hardest part was probably the heat. It was very hot in the studio and we could not have the air conditioning on because the mics would pick it up. Also, I found the Fx sometimes very difficult because they are so technical and often to make them work they can be quite uncomfortable with a tube up around you or you have to stay still in some weird position you have to twist your body in to sell it for camera. But it really was a great shoot and that is just part of the deal. I enjoyed it very much and have no big complaints.

          A: As I said, the filming was pretty smooth, at least from an actor’s stand point, I don’t know if the production people were going crazy and I am sure there were difficulties that I didn’t even know about, but I was enjoying my work. I think I really knew things would come together when we filmed the final scenes. Things get very intense in the end and there is a huge confrontation between my character Ashley and her brother. It just felt perfect all the way up from that point until the end where Ashley’s final art work is reveled at the art gallery. As we were filming it really felt right and powerful. I have gotten a lot of good comments on that end that it really stands out and I think the effect we were going for comes across.

          A: This one of my earlier films and it was one of my first lead roles. I remember having a great experience on set because the cast and crew were so positive and talented. I don’t think it was the biggest acting challenge I have ever faced, but I think it is a fun film and I learned a lot on that set.

          A: I had a cameo in this one but I got to open up the movie. I remember filming, this was my second film with Dante Tomesselli, and the location was in the pine barrens by the shore in Jersey. It was winter time and it was about 0 degrees with wind. They had little heat pack in my shoes and in my pockets and since I was only wearing a tank to under my jacket they kept bundling me up after each take. It is a fun scene where I get to play a totally trashy Jersey Girl with a potty mouth and totally wild hair. It was very cool shooting because they used this big crane for the final shot where the camera came zooming down to about less then a foot from my mouth. Very awesome shot and great shoot.

          A: I had another cameo in this one. This film is very stylized and creepy. I play a young innocent- well at least only slightly used- prostitute and I am coming over to meet with a really dirty old man. It is a scene filled with subtext and tension and shot in black and white as if you were watching it over surveillance camera.

          A: You seem to pick all the films that I only have a cameo in!! This was the second time I worked with Joshua Nelson, I had done the film Aunt Rose with him earlier. In this one have one scene that seems to give some comic relief to the tension. It is a couple in a car that are basically breaking up but the guy is so stupid, it just is funny. I had fun doing this scene because it is really a straight acting scene and I didn’t even get bloody in the film.

          A: Oh of course! There are so many. The one that always stand out to me is Tom Tykwer. His visual style is so powerful and colorful. I have loved every thing he has done. Maybe one day! :)

          A: Good script with interesting story and characters. Talented and positive people to work with and an excitement about the project.

          A: Yes, I have started my own production company RaineY DaZe Creations. Basically it is a way to work on different projects that I have more of the creative control over and to become more intricately involved with film on a broader sepectrum then just acting. I have been am executive/associate producer and costume designer on many of the films that I have acted in. However in the past year and ½ there are two films that I worked on as co- producer and also of course starred in, with my company RaineY DaZe Creations. The first one that I am co-creator, I <3 U (I Heart U), is a dark comedy that we have described as Mr. and Mrs. Smith meets Silence of the Lambs. It is about a married couple that lives the “perfect” suburban life with me playing a very high-strung type-A personality caterer who is married to a shlupmy nerdy real estate inspector. They are completely board with each other and live in the façade of happiness. However they each have their secret life where they are obsessed serial killers but neither one knows it of the other. It is very funny, very messed up and very dark. I think it really hits on so many themes of modern life and marriage and is also on a more entertaining level very fun. The other film is called “Psycho Street” and is a collection of anthologies and I star in most of them and co-produced. The first Hypochondriac is an off the wall Comedy that I play this over the top hick southern nurse and it is a comedy of character and situation where all these crazy patients come to the office and wackiness ensues. The 2nd short is an intense thriller drama which I not only starred in but directed and produced. At this time I don’t know what the anthology version will look like because someone else is editing it, but my directors cut is an tension filled story about a single mother who is trapped in her life choices and when her rocker ex-b-friend comes back into her life and wants her to make some changes, she is forced to make some deadly choices. Psycho Street was an amazing opportunity for me to do comedy and drama in one piece and really show my range and I think because it has so many different types of stories there will be something for everyone and people are going to like it very much.

          A: The last film I watched that I really love was called “Hard Candy”. It is a great indie horror film set in basically 1 location and 2 characters but really captivates and keeps your interest. As for and obscure horror film that most people haven’t seen, I will have to say “Braincell”. It is one that I star in, shameless plug, but it is really well done. Again it is very dialogue and character driven, has great Fx, and also stays true to the style the director was emulating. I play a young woman who moves to England to be with her evil uncle, her own living relative, after she finds her entire family dead. There she is trying to rebuild her life and begins to have a relationship with her therapist. Her uncle runs a research clinic for people with sleep disorders, but things are not as they seem and there is something not right about what is happening at the facility. It is a thriller, horror, drama that unravels the evil that is going on.

          A: Thank you! And please check my sites for updates on these and other projects and become my friend too!