ED- The Eerie Digest is very excited to introduce actress Ellen Dubin to our readers. Ellen, You are presently starring in the show ‘The Resolve’, but before we get into this, I’d like to ask you about your role in ‘Napoleon Dynamite’. Please tell us about it.

Ellen- Ah the fabulous ‘Napoleon Dynamite’! I have to say that how I got the role is a fascinating process. You never know where people will end up! I have quite a following in the sci fi genre. One of the producers of Napoleon Dynamite was a big fan of my work and had seen this wacky off beat show, LEXX that I did on the Sci fi channel. Before ‘Napoleon Dynamite’, he was a reporter for a major science fiction magazine and had interviewed me about my various roles on that show. He loved my portrayal of the wild characters on ‘Lexx’ so much that when he ended up being one of the producers on  ‘Napoleon’, he phoned  and offered me the part of Ilene. I thought what the hell why not- how thoughtful of him to remember me and so off I went to shoot this little indie film and the rest is movie history. How rewarding to be part of a film that speaks to a generation and a movie that is one of the biggest comedy films of all times. Ilene was so much fun – a Tupperware obsessed gal who just wanted her daughter to hook up with Napoleon. Laughed my head off the whole time making this movie with the fabulous cast and crew.

I love the fact that there were no huge A list stars in the movie- that this underdog film influenced so many kids and became a huge box office smash!  I am proud to be a part of movie history! (more…)

ED- We are very pleased to have another cast member, Kristina Hughes, of the popular web series ‘The Resolve’ to share her time with us. Kristina, we understand that you became first known to us as ‘Miss Connecticut USA’ in the 1998 Miss USA Pageant. That must of been exciting. Can you tell us all about this experience?

KH- Sure thing! After several years of competing in the Miss Teen USA & Miss USA pageants, I walked away with the Miss Connecticut USA title. While back home in Connecticut during my reign, highlights included sharing my passion for reading out loud, helping families in need with meals for the holidays, spending time at the Naval Submarine Base in New London and enjoying a lot of live performances. Connecticut has some really talented performers!

While competing in the Miss USA Pageant, I received a lot of interest from production companies and agents in Los Angeles, so that helped me make the jump from the east coast to the west. Initially I came to LA with the focus of hosting Entertainment Tonight but I soon realized I wanted to be on the red carpet being interviewed not conducting the Q&A.

ED- What inspired you towards an acting career?

KH-I love the thrill of creating a character. The writer gives me descriptions and dialogue and then I can make her my own. I love being able to dig deep into a character and push her to one extreme or another. I also love the variety of the projects, people and the locations.

ED- What were some of the first roles that you played?

KH-(Laughing) lots of bikini babes. In college I was a working international swimsuit model and I was Miss Hawaiian Tropic, Coors Light spokesmodel and a calendar girl. So, running around on Thunder in Paradise or Baywatch was a natural fit. But to be honest, I yearned for stronger characters and more compelling dialogue. (more…)

ED- We are truly thankful for being able to introduce Les Brandt to our readers and fans, and know that our female readership will be especially thrilled to learn about him. Les, you are definitely a well rounded person. You been on film, television, and you own your own clothing line. We are truly happy to have you on board with us at The Eerie Digest!

LB- Ha.  I am happy to able to tell a little bit about myself and my journey between New York City and Los Angeles that started out from Dallas, Texas so many years ago.

ED- Tell us about some of your films such as ‘Hollywood Reigns’ and ‘Smoke’.

LB- Smoke was an indie project that I had the lead in opposite Maria Conchita Alonso.

Marie was an amazing talent to work with.  Clips of Smoke were later made into the music video  for world famous Mexican group Bronco, who now also goes by El Gigante de America for their song “Mi Peor Enemigo” that was nominated for a Grammy Award.  Smoke is a story about a minor league baseball player accussed of killing his wife and her lover.  Maria Conchita Alonso’s character was the detective peicing the case togehter.

Hollywood Reigns is a story of power, greed, loyalty and betrayel.  This story follows the day of Hollywood Reigns, superagent to the stars played by Gina Jackson.  While Hollywood is taking a meeting with an actor who could be the industry’s next big thing, Jason Wick (Kristian Steel) Rutger Leonard (Les Brandt) crashes the negotiations, causing a major headache for Hollywood. (more…)

ED- We now have the pleasure to interview a movie production company that is at the heart of The Eerie Digest and its readers. I am please to present Fright Teck Pictures to all our readers and fans. Please tell us a little about your company and how you started.

FTP- I started making horror films back in the early 80’s. We used to shoot on the old 8mm without sound, and we would take Pink Floyds music and put it over some of the scenes in the movie (lol). It was a lot of fun. I always loved the horror genre. Growing up in the 80’s we were always making haunted houses around Halloween and the last one we did we actually charged people (and they paid). I think we made around 300 bucks! Not bad for a couple of 14 yr old kids. Horror has always been a passion of mine, and I always wanted to make my own film but didn’t think it could be done in Cleveland. One night I was talking to my boss, who ran a strip club down in Cleveland, and we came up with this idea called Halloween Torment (which later became HELLLWEEK)! It was kind of funny how it all worked out with my boss. He was suppose to have been the money guy, and the main actor as well. As fate would have it at the last minute he couldn’t come up with the money and tempers flew.  He and I parted ways as business partners, and that’s when Halloween Torment became ‘Hellweek’. I remember after he and I parted company,  I was left without an investor and a lead actor. I was thinking man “I’m screwed”. So I called a guy that was helping out as a boom operator and I knew he could act. I said “Hey wanna make a Hundred bucks?”, and from that point on Mike Reddy became Rake, the ring leader of the family that lives in the abandoned warehouse. So I now that I had one problem tackled( finding my lead) so there was another, money. Where was I going to get the money to make this movie. So I called up my mom and before  I even could ask her she said ‘how much do you need?’. So from that point on I was in business with mom and still paying off the debt 4 yrs later.LOL!

ED- Where does Fright Teck pictures hail from?

FTP-Fright Teck Pictures originated from Fright Majick cinema to Fright teck pictures, right here in Cleveland Ohio. (more…)

ED- We are very pleased to have with us Devi Snively, an award winning Horror specialist. Devi, you’ve recently been awarded two amazing awards from the 2009 Shriekfest Horror/ Sci-fi Festival for your work. Tell us about your short film and the role that you played in its creation.

DV- Thanks.  I’m honored to be included in ED.  I am a writer/director and sometimes academic who specializes in horror and dark comedy cinema.  Death in Charge is our latest short film, a dark comedy/horror film heavily inspired by the EC Horror Comics tradition.  I wrote and directed the film with much help from a fabulous team and I was fortunate to be selected as one of 8 chosen to participate in AFI’s Directing Workshop for Women through which the production was made possible.

ED- Tell us the storyline behind ‘Death in Charge’.

DV- The Grim Reaper is mistaken for a babysitter and learns a thing or two about life when left to care for a precocious 9-year old girl.

ED- What inspired you to create this film?

DV- The script was originally inspired by the Colombine shootings.  I have to admit that and other similar incidents really rattled me.    The experts all had their tidy little explanations for why such things occur – media violence, poor gun control laws, broken families, etc. I didn’t buy that there could be just one simple answer, so I wanted to explore this world in which children turn to gun violence.  Death in Charge is the result. (more…)

ED- We are very pleased to present one of films finest, Alex Ballar, to our readers in this issue of The Eerie Digest. Alex, please tell our readers about your start in acting.

AB- I was in college to be a physical therapist and needed a humanities credit and I thought acting would be an easy A. Instead, I quickly found out how much work went into preparing a role. My college teacher was a working Broadway actor. He took acting very serious. I knew if I didn’t put the required 10 hours per monologue 20 hours per scene he demanded, he would know and I would screw up my GPA, so I did. I was then informed of an open call for Bronx Tale by my teacher, who forced me to go. Expecting to be rejected immediately I went, but to my surprise, received multiple callbacks and consideration. I was hooked and wanted more opportunities.

ED- You’ve been in many films such as ‘Just Bad’, ‘Final Payback’, and ‘I Love you, I Love You Not’. Tell us of your experiences in these films and something about each of them.

AB- Just Bad is a short film that I directed, produced and acted in. It was made to shop to investors to find funding to make the feature; a condensed version of what the feature would be. It was tons of fun to make. The cast and crew are all amazing people. Unfortunately, after completing it I was pulled away onto other projects and never shopped it. If anyone wants to check it out they can purchase it at Amazon.com or watch it online.

Final Payback – I played a young Lieutenant who finds the body of the police captain’s wife, played by the amazing John Saxon. It was a great time. I’m originally from NY and it was the first film I did after moving to Los Angeles. (more…)

ED- The Eerie Digest is happy to present Savannah Rae Linz to our readers. Savannah, as an aspiring young actress our readers would like to know how you decided on the career in acting?

SRL- I have been home schooled my whole life, even before acting. My mom was great about letting my sister and I take lots of classes to keep us active and social with other kids. One day, I took an on-camera acting class when I was about 8 years old, and after 6 weeks when the class was finished, I wanted more. I landed a lot of local things like community theatre, some industrials, student films and also did a lot of singing and dancing in shows.   Then I did a competition/showcase in New York called IMTA.  After 3 or 4 days of acting competitions, we looked at a bulletin board to see if anyone from the industry was interested in seeing us privately.  I was lucky to see there were pages of  agents and managers who were very interested in signing me immediately.  I took home several awards from that showcase, and my mom and I decided to call some of those people and get representation.  It was sort of a validation that there were people that thought I was a pretty good actress, so I wanted to take it to the next level and signed with a manager and agent in Los Angeles.

ED- We understand that you originally started on stage as part of the original cast of ‘The American Girl Revue’. How was that different for you as opposed to going before the camera?

SRL- Yeah, it’s true that I did a long contract on stage with “The American Girl Revue”,  but that is not where I started. I have been doing stage and film since I was about 7 years old-singing, dancing, modeling, musical theatre, industrials, and a movie.  When I landed the lead role of Kaya/Samantha Parkington of “The American Girl Revue“ at the American Girl Store in The Grove. We used to do auditions by driving back and forth sometimes staying  in LA for overnight, a week, a month, or several months for pilot and episodic seasons. Landing the role at American Girl changed that.  So my mom, sister and I got an apartment out here in LA and did that contract for almost two years until the theatre had to close due to the changing economy.  But yes, musical theatre is very different than film. You do show after show and you need to keep your voice in good condition. There are lots of rehearsals involved before the show ever begins. There are also additional cast members substituting for all parts and you need to do the show as though it is always this same cast that does the show each day. In film, it is one person for each role, and you can get to expect certain things from that actor as the scene goes on. Of course, the biggest difference is musical theatre is performed in front of live audiences, and film has only a few cast and crew on set. You also do not get “takes” on stage…you have do it perfectly the first time! (more…)

ED- The Eerie Digest is very please to introduce actress Anne Beyer to our readers. Anne, we understand that you originally came from Germany before you came to the States. Please tell us a little about yourself and your decision to make this move.

AB- Well, I have been in love with the USA as long as I can think of and even though  I couldn’t speak English when I was a kid,  I just repeated what I heard in songs on the radio.

It was 10 years ago when I dreamed I was flying towards the Hollywood sign. It felt so real. I saw it directly in front of me. At that time I was living in a small town in South West Germany working as a Stewardess for Lufthansa and thinking getting married and having children is what would make me happy.

But as the time went by my whole live took a completely different direction and after having spent 1year in Crete as a Choreographer/Entertainer and 5years in England, UK I  got on my knees and asked God to make a way for me.

I have moved to 3different countries and started three times from scratch, but taking the move over “the big sea” was scary…LOL.

But here I am, one year and six months later, very happy and very blessed. (more…)