Uncategorized : Verona Blue

‘This version of this character, on almost any other show, is a sex kitten’

Verona Blue, originally from Toronto, leads the Bitch Cats as Deidre, a band front-woman like you’re never seen before, largely attributed to Maggie Levin’s commitment to not over-sexualizing or glossing up the character.

“Maggie gave me so much freedom to make Deidre exactly the character that I sometimes sort of get invited to play on other shows, but she’s really glossed up by television standards,” Blue said. “This version of this character, on almost any other show, is a sex kitten, like the fishnets are torn in a very like inviting way, her makeup is black lipstick but it’s sultry, and Deidre’s like, ‘hey, go f-ck yourself, do not get any closer, I will hit you.”

“There’s not a real lot of representation of authentic, alternative people on television or in film. It’s always this interpretation of like, they work at a Hot Topic, they hate their parents, they’re a walking costume, they don’t have any depth to them… Being able to just be like, ‘Hey, can I make her scary? Not pretty, not cute, not a sexy rocker, but tough, really tough,’…that was really amazing.”

Maggie Levin – Director of Shredding in V/H/S/99

‘A remarkable free space for female empowerment’

When V/H/S/99 premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), there was such excitement in the crowd, likely the most vocal audience of the festival. It speaks to not just the communal aspect of watching horror content, but the impact that the genre has on its fans, particularly women.

“Horror is such a remarkable free space for female empowerment and kind of always has been, I think in a sneaky way,” Maggie Levin said. “The concept of a Scream Queen goes way back and I think it lends itself beautifully to exploring the things in our world that I think deserve some catharsis.”

“There’s a reason why women are particularly attracted to true crime and to really gritty, gory stuff. There’s something about getting to go through the worst of the worst and then come out the other side of it, more alive than ever. So that’s really what I adore about horror and also, you just get to do some weird, wacky stuff.”

“I think there’s not a lot of opportunity to get to play a hero and a villain at the same time, or to have a switch in an interesting way, unless you’re like a huge movie star in a thriller, ” Verona Blue added. “In horror, you get to meet a lot more variety of creatives, from writers and directors, because it tends to be slightly lower budget, and so it’s more scrappy, you have more people whose scripts are not being micromanaged within an inch of its life.”

“They get to come in there and be like, here’s my idea, people rework it a little bit to make sure it fits the budget and the timeline and whatever, and then you just get to run with it. As an actor, it’s a very free space.”

#TIFF22 INTERVIEW WITH V/H/S 99’S VERONA BLUE

SEPTEMBER 24, 2022

by Jacqueline Valencia

On September 16, 2022, I met up with LA-based actress Verona Blue. I’ve known Verona for a long time since my later goth days in the clubs. Verona has been a local Toronto DJ, alternative model, animal rescuer, and always an up and coming actress.

I hadn’t seen her in a while, but she always champions her friends and has a way of bringing out the best in you. Verona doesn’t morph from punk to goth, she is all of it. Brutally honest and completely self-aware of who she is, she is tough as nails, and a person with a good heart.

As she came to meet me at Luma (my favourite restaurant/bar space inside TIFF Bell Lightbox), she came in a like a breath of fresh air. Blue-green hair, in black jeans, black lacy top under a sleek black sweater, she cut a svelte figure, and she’s gorgeous to boot. I was excited to talk to her about her work in Maggie Levin‘s piece “Shredding” in V/H/S 99 and about her life beyond our little coven here in Toronto.

Jacqueline Valencia: How was Midnight Madness?

Verona Blue: It was wild. I love a midnight screening, opening of something with the fandom. Whether that’s a Star Wars, whether that’s a Marvel, that first show, the people that are going to show up at 11:59pm, are there to have a good time. Nobody is showing up there saying, “This is going to be the worst time of my life.” Everybody is there because they want it to be great, which I think is really rare. Especially in a festival everyone wants to go to a movie with judgment goggles. Was this with my time? Does this deserve it?

JV: Especially horror fans.

VB: Right. The horror people who are going to go to a Midnight Madness, they want it to be the best movie they’ve ever seen. They want to have a good time. And it was. From the second the pre-roll started the people who’d been doing lots of movies, screaming at the screen. Speaking along with the trailers, saluting the volunteer reel…just wild. It was really fun.

JV: The best part of TIFF is saluting the volunteers!

JV: With V/H/S 99, I was trying to figure out, because it was so well done, Maggie’s piece, the make-up…I don’t want to give away too much. Was that CGI and make-up?

VB: No, it was just make-up. Practical effects is the name of the game in V/H/S. It was just a lot of disgusting make-up. The heads are masks. They did a full cast thing on our faces. The good part about that is you can kind of take it on and off, as opposed to it being glued to your face. But our hands, all our other skin, they put an adhesive, then they apply a cotton batting, and loop it on, with warm gelatin. It’s unflavoured. It smells disgusting. It emanates the smell of hooves or something. They paint it on and layer it. You get this really cool effect. Then they take this alcohol based paint and the make-up artists create the colours and mixtures in it.

What you see is all the make-up artists and effects team’s work. All the glitches and stuff are not CGI, but clever editing.

JV:One of the things about your part in “Shredding,” the band The Bitch Cats, what was the inspiration for that?

VB: I’m sure Maggie will have a better answer for this. But she was pitching ideas, one she’s always wanted to do a ghost band as a concept. And the other thing was, what are the things in the late 90s that people were really into? So you have skate videos, the CKY, the prank video culture, the Tom Greens, and this pseudo-misogyny-core that was up and coming. At the same time you have L7, Bikini Kill, riot grrls, Hole, all of these bands that were “inventing feminism” from their perspective, with the attitude, Bitch Cat represents that segment of society. A little Lollapalooza, a little Lilith Fair, and all of those bands that really made an impact. Even Alanis Morrisette with Jagged Little Pill made an impact, she wasn’t really a riot grrrl, but the attitude is there. “Shredding” is really rooted in, “What was the culture?”

JV: Who did you call up for your character, Deidre?

VB: The thing that was great about being able to work with Maggie on this is two-fold. She’s an amazing director to work with. As an actor she’s very welcoming. Maggie always lets everybody know, on set, a couple of things. “One. I want you to look good, so don’t worry about how you look. I’ll make sure you look good. Two. If there is something you didn’t get or feel like you want to do it again, or in a different way, just tell me. We’ll do as many takes as you need to do the thing that you want.”

She’s really collaborative with actors. For Deidre, specifically, I’m pulling from late 90s Queen St.. Catch-22, Sanctuary, all of those. It’s not any particular person, but it is the whole Toronto goth scene in the 90s and early 2000s, of really aggressive women. We had the largest goth scene in the whole world for a really long time, which is wild in this Canadian city. Something about goth culture here in Toronto, it was really big on female empowerment.

Yes, there are pretty women and a culture of beauty, also a very strong sense of unapproachability. Women did their make-up in a way that wasn’t appealing to men. Women dressing in ways that aren’t meant for the male gaze. That’s everything I wanted Deidre to be. I don’t think any of the band felt like sex kittens. I don’t think there’s anything about Bitch Cat as if they were created to appeal to men. Men would find something wrong with each of the members of Bitch Cat. Darcy’s hair is too short. Deidre has all the shit in her face and white makeup. Carissa is too manly to play the drums. There are all these things that aren’t traditionally appealing to men.

I did my own make-up because the make-up artist would make it look really good! The make-up artist wants you to feel good and wants you to feel beautiful. Deidre does not want to be beautiful. Her idea of beauty is not everyone else’s idea of beauty. The make-up artist would make the eyeliner wings perfect. It was intentionally really harsh. It was a little bit weird because I was doing it at home. I would get in my little car and drive on the freeway. From neck to hair it was all nightmare and I’m in my pajamas the rest of the way down. I’m going to dress comfortably until I get there.

I wasn’t pulling a specific person. I’m pulling from everything I know growing up in Toronto, especially as a goth in this scene surrounded by really strong women.

I don’t know her name. She’s not goth, but you might know who she is. A Black woman with a shaved head that used to ride a recumbent bike down Queen Street. She was super punk, lots of piercings, and really stunning. I’ve never met her, but I used to see her all the time. She gave me such Tank Girl fuck off vibes energy. I aspired to that. She was like a goddess and no one would fuck with her. That is the pinnacle of femininity for me. And that’s where I was coming from with Deidre and you have to do it in thirty seconds.

JV: Tell me about growing up in Toronto and how you got into acting.

VB: Oh boy. I mean, like all actors, “When I was a child…” I just really wanted to be an actor ever since I was little. My parents were very supportive of the arts, not really super interested in acting as a career. You know, I went to a really academic school, barely had a drama program. During summer I would do children’s theatre and National Music Camp of Canada, so I had arts. But school was academically rigorous. I still wanted to act all the way through. The last couple of years of high school I struggled with my general happiness being in an academic program instead of a performing arts program. By that time though, my parents were already getting to the point of thinking that maybe I could change schools. Well now it’s gonna look like I quit. I kind of made the decision to finish at the private school instead. Then after that I went to Ryerson to do film and new media and sort of avoided acting. I did other stuff.

In Toronto, I DJ’d, did events, did some modeling, and some performance stuff. Then I started hanging out with actors again. I met some people who had become really successful in a variety of mediums. I couldn’t get away from it. I grew seethingly jealous that they got to do the thing that I’d always loved. Sometimes you get a dream as a child and you have some idea of what it’s like. Then you grow up and it’s not necessarily what it’s like. I got to thinking that if I really wanted to do this thing, I had to figure out if I actually liked it. I started taking acting classes at an acting school here, just to see how I felt about it. I ended up liking it. Then I applied to a Shakespeare intensive in London for the summer at RADA to see if I hack a full day? It’s one thing to do an hour class once a week. But can I do a 7am to 7pm intensive…”

JV: Geezus!

VB: That’s how long theatre school conservatory programs are like that. You usually show up at 7, have a warm-up, and have classes until 8:30. By 6 or 7 you’re doing the rehearsal for whatever your show is. It’s a long day. There’s a lot of emoting and shouting, breathing, and things that wear out your body really quickly.

I really thought about, is this the thing I really want to do? Or is the idea of being an actor, the idea of fame, the thing that attracts me to this. And I got there, and no it wasn’t. I really loved it. I love working with creatives and watching other people love the thing that they’re doing. So after doing that, I decided I wanted to do a grad program. I applied to a bunch of UK schools because I knew I wanted to do it in England. I think the best actors are UK trained. I got into Bristol Old Vic and did a one year Masters there. Then I lived in London for two years doing theatre, then I moved to LA. It’s been all from there.

JV: I’m thinking of the kind of culture shock, when it comes to acting, in those various environments. You’ve got Toronto, you’ve got London, and Los Angeles. Is there a difference?

VB: Yes. The biggest difference is two-fold. The general business side, LA is the Superbowl. The rules are very specific because the competition is so tough. Where in England it is definitely beginner since they’ve been filming the Harry Potters and the Game Of Thrones. Big shows that when I went to theatre school, they didn’t have these big shows. It wasn’t a centre like it is now. In England, if you wanted to meet a casting director you could just pop by, bring your headshot, have a cup of tea, have a nice chat…you didn’t have to call and make an appointment. In LA, if you show up to a casting director’s office uninvited will get you on a blacklist. Prior to the pandemic, sometimes you could kind of crash auditions, but mostly commercial stuff where they see a lot of people. You can’t do that now because a lot of it is online, you get the link and that’s how you get it. So the business part is a huge difference. The terms of how casting works, the relationships you create in all these different cities, LA is the most stringent, even though it has the most people.

In terms of acting, people in England go to acting school to be actors. Their schools are part of an arts commission. If you get into RADA, it’s not like Julliard where it’s twenty-five or whatever. It’s subsidized like a regular university if you’re a resident. It’s much more affordable. The classes are competitive. They take 12-15 people max every year, but it’s a full conservatory program. You’re learning classical texts and how to break them down. They teach you how to use your body as part of your acting tool box. There’s breathing and projecting because the ideas with a classical style is that you have to hit the back wall.

In LA…

JV: Does that ever come into play?

VB: Yes, if you have that training, it’s always valuable. It just makes you a better actor. But in LA it’s a lot of beautiful people who are the most popular people in their high school. They got on a bus or an airplane when they were eighteen because someone told them, “You should go to Hollywood and be famous.” With no acting background, they’re just very good looking, very thin, and they show up and think, “I’m here now, you should make me famous.” That is a career choice, with reality TV you get that, if that’s what you’re after.

Acting isn’t easy. It’s a job. You wouldn’t hire a pop star to be a basketball player, but we hire pop stars to be actors all the time which I think is weird. But it’s a real job that requires real skill. There is a bar that is called The Good Enough bar, and as long as you meet that bar you can get cast. You might not go that far if you don’t go above that bar though.

Like I said, LA is like the Superbowl. Only the best get to play and not very often. You have to have other things you like to do. Your plan can not be, get there! Make it big! Get rich!

LA can exhaust you. It’s hard to get auditions if you’re not represented, if you do, it’s hard to get called back and if you get called back, it’s hard to get the job.

JV: You’ve been through a few transformations, in the end, you’re you. I love that if you approach a character, you will turn into that character, but at the core, it’s you, like a chameleon, a different version of you. How do you go from a character like Shaz in Bosch to Deidre in V/H/S, or even a voiceover of a Star Wars computer? How do you get into the space of a character?

VB: I think it’s all in the writing. That’s part of the training. It’s all in being able to look into the context of the writing and drop everything else. You have to drop every pretense about yourself and give into the world that was created. Hopefully you have enough advanced information because you have the script. You can look up the director and the writer and see their previous work. You can get a feeling of what that world is like.You have to percolate your personality through that lens to really be believable in that world. I think I’m not believable in a soap opera. My personality, let alone my look, does not exist in a soap opera. But like a Bosch, a real, rounded, gritty, where there’s real people, type of show. It works great.

JV: I’d like to see you solve crimes in a gritty detective show.

VB: Let’s do it.

JV: What sort of things are you looking for right now?

VB: My North Star has always been a series regular. I would love to be in an ensemble type of show where you have multiple lead characters, with interesting and intertwining storylines. Now that we’re in 2022 and being alternative is cool again, whether it’s trendy or relevant it doesn’t matter. All the Millenials, Gen Xers, older Gen Zers, really have an authentic alternative look and are in the workplace, as themselves. I would love a character who is a CEO at a tech company, somebody who exists in reality who isn’t just a costume. I get regulated a lot to wearing the goth outfit, and sometimes there’s not a lot behind that. That’s why Deidre was cool because I could root her in reality. Maybe an author, a lady Neil Gaiman type who is writing fantasy/science-fiction, whatever is happening in her world. More horror as well would be amazing.

JV: I feel like you’re writing and producing in your head a lot.

VB: In my head, yes. On paper, no.

JV: But you’ve accomplished stuff.

VB: Yeah. I mean, I get to see Maggie Levin’s draft because we’re friends. Her pitches. I get to read her scripts sometimes before they go out because she lets me. And she’s SO good. She’s so good at it. There’s a difference between really good writing when you see it. I can come up with bits, I can come up with ideas, and I can come up with little scenarios that could be evolved into something more interesting.

The thing that I would love to do, my agents do this sometimes, they set me up for characters that are the right vibe for me, but not necessarily described to look alternative. The characters are tough or whatever. They send me in as an option, to be like, “What if though?”

But I’ll do anything. I just love acting.

JV: How do you juggle all that? You’ve got your work with Dogs Without Borders, regular work, and then you have acting.

VB: I don’t have kids! That’s a good start for me. Carefully. My husband is very supportive and extremely helpful. We have a good system at home. We’re really respectful of each other’s time. Having someone on your team knowing what you’re trying to do, and also isn’t in the business, helps a lot. I spend most of my time doing my day job. The trajectory is slowly going up. I’m getting more opportunities and things are getting bigger, so that’s very cool. But every day is the day job, remote on a computer and it’s very flexible.

Dogs Without Borders, my dog rescue in Los Angeles, and I’m the vice-president. We have a staff that does the day to day. I help manage the volunteers and a lot of social media. Again, I’m on the computer and kind of on the phone. A lot of my day to day is contained in my laptop.

When it comes to auditions, I have a booth at home, especially for voice auditions, I can just pop into the booth. Now most of my auditions are done either over zoom or it’s a self tape and I’m recording it and bringing it in.

I have good people supporting my efforts to do this job. It is a lot and I don’t have a lot of down time.

JV: Any projects lined up that we should keep a look out for?

VB: I’m working on this video game of which I can say nothing. I think it comes out next year. That’s all I can say. It’s performance capture, so it’s my body, my face, and my movements originating in this character.

JV: And lastly, how are the dogs?

VB: They’re so good. I have four permanent dogs. My little medical dog, Pixel, continues to be an endless money pit. She’s very cute, so we started her a tiktok to help with vet bills.

The dog rescue is good. We have a new Executive Director called Chloe and she’s working really hard. We’re rescuing a lot of dogs. It’s tough! We’re trying to keep up with the good work and stay involved in the community.

Outside as we were about to part to our separate ways, we ran into fellow Queen Street East pals. It’s one thing to see a friend become a star, it’s another to see pals stay true to their core.

In “Shredding,” Maggie Levin and Verona Blue conjure the ghosts of MuchMusic, Britney Spears, and Ani DiFranco in the late ‘90s.

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V/H/S/99 – Photo Credit: Shudder

V/H/S/99 kicks off with a bang as Maggie Levin’s segment (“Shredding”) introduces us to Bitch Cat, a fictional riot girl band who brutally bit the dust before they could tear apart the Billboard charts. With her previous credits including Into the Dark‘s My Valentine, it’s obvious that music-based horror movies are in Levin’s blood. With V/H/S/99, she gets another chance to splatter this passion all over the stage and screen.

After V/H/S/99‘s world premiere at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival, Levin and “Shredding” star Verona Blue sat down with Dread Central to talk about making this much-anticipated and era-specific sequel, including the real women in music who inspired (and wrote for) Bitch Cat, the scary movies/series (cue the Unsolved Mysteries theme) that terrified them as young horror fans, and the practical effects that turned Blue and her co-stars into the gnarliest ghoul band on the block.

Read our interview (which was edited and condensed for length) with Maggie Levin and Verona Blue below. And catch V/H/S/99 on Shudder starting October 20, 2022.

BeFunky collage 1024x683 - 'V/H/S/99' Director and Star on How to Make a Killer Ghoul Band [TIFF 2022 Interview] — ***V/H/S/99*** director Maggie Levin (left) and actress Verona Blue (right)

Dread Central: Maggie, why this was the story you wanted to tell for your segment of V/H/S/99? Based on your previous work, I know you’ve got music in your blood.

Maggie Levin: Well, when we started talking about what’s compelling in 1999 from a found footage perspective, I started thinking about what I did with a camera when I was very small and then, what my friends did with a camera. It was sort of the CKY days and very, the seminal Jackass days and…

Verona Blue: The Tom Greens, if you will.

ML: Real shock comedy and pranking. And so, I wanted to kind of fuse what really my younger brother was up to, and what I was up to in ’99, along with the supernatural sensibility that I have. And I’ve long wanted to do a ghost rock band concept, so this was the perfect outlet for it.

Also, V/H/S just encourages taking something to the absolute maximum and I am personally a maximalist in every regard. So, this was a really great opportunity to express just the most of everything that we came up with.

VB: There are almost no boundaries for the V/H/S/99 filmmakers, as far as I can tell. So they could just be like, “What if though?” And the producers are like, “Great, let’s do it.”

DC: I really liked the parts in [“Shredding”] that looked like MuchMusic, or MTV shows. Was there a particular show that you were trying to mimic or capture with the writing and the style of those clips?

ML: Absolutely. Those, like, 120-minute, late-night MTV shows.

I think at one point we were trying to actually license some Korn interviews from MuchMusic and almost got a Britney Spears interview from MuchMusic. But it’s hard to get sign-offs from very major celebrities on these kinds of high shock values.

The original concept, and I think you can still feel it in the final movie, was that this segment was made on top of a video mixtape that Rachel was making. So, the idea was that she was taping her gang’s tape on top of music videos and snippets from MTV that she was recording off the TV. So that influence is really in there and I’m so glad that it came out to you. That means a lot.

DC: Verona, how fun was it to play that side of it, but then also the zombified ghost side?

VB: I mean, playing a rock star when you don’t have to have any talent, you don’t have to write any songs, and you don’t have to be able to sing? You get the best parts: you get the outfit, you get to rock out. I mean, when [we were] shooting it, we’re like lip-syncing to a track, except that it looks weird if you lip-sync. So, you just go for it. Thankfully, the mic was not on…

And then, the prosthetics are so gross. They’re like gelatin that they kind of goop on you and eventually it sort of solidifies and then they paint it? And it’s on the upper body and then on our fingers all the way down because you could see our hands a lot.

It was very fun to just be this creepy, disgusting person for a day and going up to the craft table and trying to find something that fits in the mask and all the crew’s side-eyeing you. It was really the most playful you get to be as an actor because there’s no wrong choice when you’re a disgusting zombie ghost.

ML: Verona’s a very accomplished creature actor as well and [motion capture] actor. And so, I wrote the script with her in mind for this part…

There’s a lot of icky sticky, gory, gross stuff in this whole movie. But when I was talking to [SFX artist] Patrick Magee, I was like, “Can we melt one of the ghost heads?” And I chose my girl for that job.

DC: What an honor.

VB: They make these masks, which is better than having prosthetics applied to your face. But for that part, it was like they had a second mask and it had these tubes in it and then, they did a very middle school volcano situation. But we were blowing into it as well?

I’m sort of on all fours, the cameras right here and there are all these prop people huddled with these tubes in their mouth and there’s like a 3, 2, 1 and they just start blowing. And I was like, “What’s in here? Is it going to hurt? Can I open my eyes? What should I do?” And he was like, “I would probably keep your eyes closed just in case it might splash.” And I was like, to Maggie, I was like, “Can I make noise?” And she was like, “Do whatever you want.” So they go, “Action!” and we start to do it. And then once it hit my skin and I was like, “It feels like nothing.” Then I just started making the weirdest grossest noises. Gurgling, screaming, shrieking noises that I was like, “If they use it, great. If they don’t use it doesn’t matter.”

ML: Originally, we were going to replace Bitch Cat’s ghost voices with some guitar noises and we had some soundscapes planned. But the noises, particularly the ones that Verona and Tybee [Diskin] made on set, were so delightful, that we just did sort some after-effects modulation on them. It just sounds like a Muppet dying. It’s fantastic.

DC: Were there any particular girl bands that you were trying to evoke with “Shredding”? I felt Hole vibes for sure.

ML: Getting to dive into the mid-nineties, riot girl stuff again, which I had a phase with at one point before this movie, was great.

VB: We watched a lot of L7 videos

ML: It was really L7 and Hole.

VB: Bikini Kill…

ML: Also, a lot of the Bitch Cat dialogue is directly inspired by a very strange combination of Ani DiFranco and the Spice Girls. Two promo videos and an interview of Ani and the Spice Girls.

DC: Together?

ML: No. Several interviews that I remembered watching when I was small and I was like, “I’m going to go back and find those.” And what’s lovely about interviews with female artists in the ‘90s is it’s like the invention of feminism.

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DC: It’s an interesting contrast with the part in [V/H/S/99] where the girls stomp on sex dolls filled with Jell-O. Because there was much misogyny in the ‘90s too… It’s such a slippery slope exploring the girl power movement of the ‘90s and also the exploitation of women in the ‘90s.

ML: That juxtaposition is absolutely intentional. Because, especially from 1999 into the very early ‘00s, this kind of misogyny core was actually very popular. The Man Show came right after 1999. And just look at the Woodstock ’99 doc.

VB: We had a lot of conversations about potential Maxim covers. Like, The Top 12 Bitches You Should Fuck Before You Settle Down. And it’s like, no, that’s probably real.

ML: If you’re looking deeply at the film, you’re meant to look at those things slammed up against each other. And yes, there was an incredibly empowered movement of women going on, but against this massive wave of misogyny.

DC: Verona, what was it like working with Maggie and with this mainly female cast?

VB: This is not the first time I worked with Maggie, very luckily for me. So, this was one of those times when I could walk on set and just feel so secure that the day was going to go exactly to schedule. There would be no shouting. It would be a very even-tempered fun time and that was exactly what it is because all of her sets are normal. She prepares, she does the work in advance, and when you show up on the day, it’s so organized. Everybody knows what they’re doing.

And then, of course, Alex Choonoo, the DP that she works with, they have a shorthand that you can observe, so setups are really fast. And especially when you’re in full prosthetics, you don’t want to just be waiting around forever because it gets really uncomfortable and it’s hard to regulate your temperature. So, it was great to work with her.

ML: Thank you.

VB: I wish we were a real band.

DC: Me, too!

VB: Also, I met the younger cast and everybody seems like real friends…

Some of that footage [of Bitch Cat] that we have that was taken on film was literally us just sitting around and not breaking character, but also there’s no sound. So, we were just shooting the shit and hanging out and taking a break and they were filming it and it looks very real and it’s because it was.

ML: The chemistry was there instantaneous.

I think casting is a deeply important part of the process. And half this cast were actors that I worked with before and wrote roles with them in mind. And then, half came from a week-and-a-half long casting process. So, I think we just got lucky that the group chemistry was really wonderful.

I felt incredibly blessed that everyone showed up so excited to dive into this period of time and to get to do these outrageous things. And the early conversations that we had about it were really just that everyone’s job, while all of this craziness went on, was also to bring real authenticity to their performances. Because you have two seconds to get to know who these people are—it’s a short film, it’s in your face, and you want to have a real sense of the person behind the chaos. And I just got so lucky that everyone was just terrific and brought their A game and worked really hard to nail that aspect.

VB: The thing that I really enjoyed about being able to do this girl band with Maggie is that I think in a lot of other contexts there would’ve been a lot of pressure for all four of us to be sexy sex kittens and there was none of that. I got to make Deirdre unapproachable in a very realistic way, the way people actually are unapproachable because this is their armor.

DC: Totally.

VB: Everybody was comfortable in their costume, but nobody had to wear something that they really felt it didn’t make them feel their best, in terms of modesty or coverage or whatever. And then also, I did my own makeup because the makeup artist would make it really good.

DC: Too good.

VB: It would’ve been like Pinterest/TikTok, goth girl. And I was like, “No, it was done in the bathroom at the bar right before they got on stage like a pencil and white Manic Panic makeup.” I texted Maggie and I was like, “What about if I just do myself before I come?” She was like, “Do whatever you want.”

ML: Watching her get out of her Mini Cooper in full makeup every morning was a real joy.

VB: Driving on the freeway was weird. There were normal clothes and then this is just shock white, black, and orange.

ML: And Jennifer Newman, the costume designer, did a spectacular job. Walking into that wardrobe room was like stepping straight back in time. It was really special.

VB: It was very cool to be able to put on that character because in my television work, it’s always glossed over. It’s always the pretty, sexy, “loves cops” version and Deirdre is not that.

ML: The thing about the [V/H/S] series is, you do not have to do the made-for-TV version. You can do the real, hardcore version of everything.

DC: I was born in 1989, so I was 10 in 1999 and I have many memories of exploring horror movies for the first time at that time. What really shocked you when you were kids?

ML: That’s a great question. I had some, I think, very early trauma surrounding horror movies genuinely. I had the classic “watch the original Scream at a sleepover and not be able to sleep for the rest of the week” experience. And I woke my mom up all the time. I was just looking for Ghostface everywhere.

And there’s not a lot of slasher DNA in this film in particular. It’s mainly hidden, in a totally license-free way, in the collage on Rachel’s wall. All the movies that scared the absolute jitters out of me when I was 13 are there. Jennifer Love Hewitt is there in full glory.

I watch those things now and I’m like, “The fisherman with the hook? He’s fine.” But yeah, those things really can get in your young brain and really unnerve you in a sick way.

VB: I completely self-traumatized myself by watching Unsolved Mysteries. I hated it and I couldn’t stop watching it—it was a weird fear addiction. And then I would get upset all the time because my parents’ house where I grew up has this big backyard which led onto a ravine…

There were windows at the back of the house looking into the backyard. And I remember one time someone escaped from a prison, or whatever, and they were like, “He’s in Earl Bales Park, avoid the ravines.” And I remember I had to go get something from downstairs and my parents’ house is not creepy—it’s like a mid-century modern. But going down these stairs and it’s all windows and I’m like, “They’re going to see me.” I just fully self-traumatized on a thing that had no answers?

The thing about Unsolved Mysteries is in the title: we don’t know what it is! Anything similar, like Fire in the Sky, fucked me up for life. I’m fine with it now because as a filmmaker I’m like, that’s cool how they did that. But as a smaller human… the original A Nightmare on Elm Street and then the original Hellraiser. All of that stuff I was like, “This is definitely bad.”

ML: I’m very excited about David Bruckner’s new Hellraiser. It’s going to be the first Hellraiser that I will watch all the way through. I’ve never been able to handle Hellraiser.

VB: When I got older, I watched the original. At this point, I’m solidly goth and I was like, “This is cool, right?” I had a little puzzle box like on my shelf in my apartment and everything.

But, yeah, there was a period where it was just like, “Hey, what about all the things that could haunt you for the rest of your life? Let’s consume them all now and see what happens.”

DC: You just test yourself. The Unsolved Mysteries theme song still scares me to shit!

VB: Scares the shit out of me.

DC: It’s haunting, man! Speaking of music though, will we hear the Bitch Cat songs anywhere outside of the film?

ML: I really hope so. Dresage, who wrote all of the songs for the film and composed a very subtle score threaded throughout, is just an incredible artist who I’ve collaborated with before and plan to collaborate with for the rest of my life. If not for me and the audience’s enjoyment, I think that Dresage definitely deserves to have those songs out there.

“We Hate the Same Things,” which is the lost Blink-182 song in the beginning is hers. Then “Diamonds Turned Black” is the name of the Bitch Cat’s hit single that would’ve taken the world by storm had they not been trampled to death by their own fans.

DC: A true tragedy.

VB: Fingers crossed for a Spotify or something?

ML: I really hope we can do a little album. And also, Flying Lotus did the music for his [segment, “Ozzy’s Dungeon”]. So we should have that V/H/S/99 playlist soundtrack score out there.

DC: Honestly, all of V/H/S/99 made me want to go and listen to music that I loved when I was 10 years old.

ML: I love to hear that. That’s a thrill to me!

Verona Blue

Classically trained actress with tattoos