Check out our recent interview with Chantelle Albers.
upfrontNY: What do you love most about acting?
Chantelle Albers: I love being able to take on a new reality and a completely new mindset of someone or something else. As actors we get to play for a living, and there is always a sense of thrill about the work. Which in turn makes it not work. Being able to escape from your current reality and creating something outside of yourself is thrilling, cathartic and artistically freeing. It’s almost like riding a wave you’re coasting on. Spreading culture, new ideas, and new artistic art forms is something that has always been important to me with film making and theatre. I love thinking outside the box and going against the grain a bit.
upfrontNY: How did you get your start and when did you know that this is what you wanted to do?
Chantelle Albers: I grew up as a theatre kid and I did some musical theatre and a lot of straight plays in my youth and throughout college where I got my BFA in Theatre. I guess it started when I was in elementary school and I would read through the newspaper, back in the 90’s, to find auditions that I would insist my parents take me to. I grew up in the mid-west so they were pretty much all theatre auditions, but that’s how I got my start, by performing live and doing improv. I really couldn’t get enough of it. I loved rehearsal as much as I loved performing. The exploration of the characters and story fascinated me, and I loved digging deep into the details of my character choices. Being able to add in-depth detail to your characters from the ground up is essential when creating them. Just as people are all individual and unique, so are characters. I loved being able to add detail to other characters and that’s one of the many things that made me love acting.
upfrontNY: Can you tell us about the film The 6th Friend?
Chantelle Albers: Yeah! It’s a horror movie, with lots of comedic innuendos, that stars a female main cast and is female directed. It had a theatrical run earlier this year and is now available on VOD. It’s the first film that I acted in and produced, so it was definitely a huge learning experience in many aspects as far as people and film making. The story starts off the night of a college graduation, where some psychedelics are involved, and a horrible crime is committed. Five years later the culprit whom we thought was dead is back haunting the six girls, but there is a twist at the end of who the culprit is. What I love about the film is all the humor that is in it. In spite of it being a horror film, we added a lot of comedic characteristics to the dialogue and characters.
upfrontNY: What was it like acting and producing the film?
Chantelle Albers: It was definitely a creative journey filled with tons of learning experiences on both people and film making. You learn so much when doing both and being able to complete it and have a theatrical release was really amazing. I like building a movie from the ground up (once the funds are in order!) and having a creative say in the process. It’s a work of art and being a part of the creation from beginning to end is very fulfilling and something I’m passionate about.
upfrontNY: The film has won several awards. What has this meant to you?
Chantelle Albers: It’s been really amazing to get awards and nominations for our film. There’s so much talent out there right now and technology has changed so that people have access to making movies and getting equipment to make quality films. It was an honor to win with all of the deserving talent in the world. Living in a film town like Los Angeles, there is a very concentrated pool of talent and we were very lucky and fortunate to have such great crew to work with like Dominique Swain and director Leia Clouston.
upfrontNY: Are you a fan of horror films? If so what are some of your favorites?
Chantelle Albers: Yeah I love horror. I also love comedy, but some of my favorite horror films are a lot of the classics, and I’ve always loved the movie Scream. When I was a kid I watched it quite a bit and I was always fascinated with the relationships between all the teen characters. It was so passionate and dramatic in that typical teen way. It also had a strong element of comedy to it that I really liked and I found the comedic writing to be clever. I love it when horror has well written subtle comedy in it. I also love the movie Beetlejuice, which has a little more on the nose comedy. I love the world that was created within that movie. The characters have such strong relationships, and they range from a moody gothic teenager, to an eccentric mother and a quirky father, to a loving couple and Beetlejuice himself. The style of the film is like this stylized non-realism that had an element of shock, creativity, humor, and subtle scary moments. It made me want to live in the world of that movie.
upfrontNY: Can you tell us about your film The Desert?
Chantelle Albers: Yeah! It’s a film produced by one of the creators of NBC’s Grimm (Lynn Kouf) and directed by Ben Bigalow. We had some premieres in London, Sweden, and New York so far, and it will be coming to streaming this summer. The story is kind of cool because it has a duality of worlds: one being the “real world” of living in a suburban mansion, and one being the imaginary world of The Desert. The style of film is a cross between 1950’s melodrama and contemporary sci-fi. My character of Martha sneaks into my son’s imagination chamber which was being used as a form of psychiatric treatment, but in doing so has broken open the two world causing the desert to bleed into the real world.
upfrontNY: What has been one of your favorite filming experiences?
Chantelle Albers: Hahaha! I haven’t thought about this for a long time because it happened so many years ago, but I was working on a film and my co-star was supposed to come around the corner on her line, and instead of saying her line she kept getting the giggles. We were shooting at 1am and everyone was starting to get tired and giggly. What made me laugh so hard though is the fact that when she got the giggles she wouldn’t laugh, she was holding it in and making this ridiculous face while holding in laughter and doing a silent laugh. It still makes me crack up to this very day!
upfrontNY: What is your dream role?
Chantelle Albers: I really want to make a western! Or at least a movie where I can ride horse and do some galloping in the wind! I’ve been riding horse since I was four, and it’s something I really love. I had my first pony, Rider, at the age of four, and one of my favorite things to do is to go horseback riding in the pastures and fields with my dad. I would love to do that for a film.
upfrontNY: What do you like to do when you are not working?
Chantelle Albers: My friends and I are in love with LA Farmers Markets and brunch! It probably sounds typical, but those are some of my favorite things. We also love live music. I have two dogs that I try and take to the dog park as often as I can. I also read quite a bit and always have scripts to read. I also volunteer with nonprofit animal rescue organizations and helping with the homeless.
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