Thora Birch has been entertaining us for of her life, from kids films like Monkey Trouble and Hocus Pocus all the way up to her breakout roles in American Beauty and Ghost World. Now Birch concentrates on smaller films with strong character roles and her latest is the horror film Dark Corners where her character wakes up one day as a different person being stalked by terrifying creatures
Check out the website for Dark Corners
Daniel Robert Epstein: What are you up to today?
Thora Birch: Ive actually got a couple of interviews lined up and Im leaving town tomorrow so Im getting ready for that.
DRE: How did Dark Corners come to you?
TB: I found that increasingly there is no usual way that these things come to me. But this one came just because the writer/director always, in some way, had me in mind for this. When I read it, I loved the idea that it was a dual role and I love to play on that back and forth between reality and dream life and the audience never knowing what was what. I like being just as confused as they were and at the same time I wanted to get behind that mystery and know it and then make it possible or at least entertaining.
DRE: Since the writer/director had you in mind, did it seem like it was in your voice?
TB: No, not at all. It was a completely a challenge. I didnt like either of the women I was playing. But I found it was fun to try and create them and to me they are both unreal. Neither of them exists.
DRE: You said you wanted to be as confused as the audience, what confused you about it?
TB: The plot and the structure of it and what the meaning is and what the events are representational of. I found that to be confusing. At least I hope that it would be confusing for the audience because thats the puzzle of it. Youre trying to figure what is real, what is not, what the dream was, what is the reality. While I was doing it, of course, I had to know the ins and outs and come up with all these answers to questions that one would ask but at the same time, I dont think its up to me to plainly provide them. I dont want to give anyone a tutorial before they watch it. Let them find it on their own.
DRE: How does an actor portray hidden confusion?
TB: I think its more a head space that you get into. It becomes a very collaborative effort. Its not only my responsibility, its also the job of cinematographer and the director and the editor and the composer. It becomes a group effort to create that atmosphere of delusion or confusion but I think both are in play in Dark Corners.
People say, Oh this is a horror movie but when I read it, I was like, Its not really a typical horror movie. I had a few phone conversations with the director and realized that he didnt think it was your typical horror film as well. All of the elements that are obvious for that genre were in there but when we were doing it, we stripped some of those away. I think were more fascinated with playing with the plot and the plot structure and some of the characters. Also theres an element to the film thats just funny. Its borderline campy if you have a sick sense of humor, which apparently I do.
DRE: Youve played a number of Gothy type roles, is that reflective of who you are?
TB: I think its been really fun for people to come and say, Shes a Goth. Definitely in my late adolescence I went with that, but if you were to ask me at that time I would say No I am not a Goth even though I wore all black, my hair was blue/black and my mood was like some of the Goth personalities. But I still dont think that Im that. Its fun to flirt and play with that but youre not going walk into my house and see posters of Marilyn Manson or whoever the hell those people listen to.
DRE: If you say youre a Goth, youre not really a Goth.
TB: Then I must have been because I was just short of piercing my clit.
DRE: [laughs] I myself have memories and then I try remember when these things happened and it turns out that it was a dream. Has that ever happened to you?
TB: I have. It is definitely different from dj vu where you have a distinctive feeling that youre reliving something that happened before. Ive had things that have happened to me where Ive thought, Have I done this before or have I seen this before? Not so much in a dream but I feel like I have done it before. Thats pretty freaky but a lot of people have those weird moments and just not want to admit it.
DRE: Dark Corners is a film that is going straight to DVD and a number of films youve been in recently have gone straight to DVD.
TB: Ive been doing a number of films over the past few years period. What happens to those films after Ive shot them is not up to me.
DRE: Right, actors have no control about how the film gets released or anything like that but is it frustrating?
TB: Today less and less people are going to the theatres, more and more people are immersed in home entertainment. Either theyre trying to create their own private screening room or they only watch films through NetFlix. Its all about doing it at home on your own time, when you want it, how you want it. Not everybody these days wants to go out to the theatre and fork over all that money for parking, the tickets and the like. For big event films, people still want that experience but for other stuff thats more personalized towards their own taste, they want to watch it at home in their pajamas on their couch and I dont blame them.
DRE: Do you find you have more creative freedom on smaller pictures like this?
TB: The freedom comes from the people that are willing to back these types of films. They are generally a different type of personality. No ones going to spend $150 million to make Dark Corners but the people that do make it arent around all the time. I think on the event films theres freedom but its only because you understand going into it that youre working within a certain framework. Its not really about control so much as it being the right product and does it fit in with the franchise. With something like Dark Corners theres no franchise, its just a movie. So the financiers realized that and they realized that there are kooky little filmmakers who need to left alone to have fun in the dark.
DRE: In college, it was a lot fun to get high and look at the poster for Monkey Trouble on my friends wall.
TB: [laughs] Why because my eyes were so huge?
DRE: Because your eyes were so huge and my friend has a bit of a round face, so he would roll his eyes the way you did on the poster.
TB: Thats pretty funny, thats a compliment, thank you. Ill have to try that some time.
DRE: I know that as a child actor, you dont get always the best roles but
TB: That was a cool role. We shot that in Venice. It was great. That was at a time when Venice was not the urban sophisticated neighborhood that it is now. Literally cops were chasing gang members through our shots in the middle of the day.
DRE: Do you have any idea how Ridley Scott ended up producing that movie?
TB: He was always just the producer. I thought it was really cool because even at age 12, I loved Blade Runner.
DRE: How was it working with Harvey Keitel at that time?
TB: It was great and I palled around with his daughter. It was funny because I was always talking to him about these movies that hed been in that Id seen and hes like, You saw that? Why? When he was getting his makeup on he would ask me, Is this scary? and part of me was like, No, this is so not scary but I always said, Oh yeah, its really scary.
DRE: Its not as scary as the pimp in Taxi Driver.
TB: Right, its not scary at all but you cant tell him that.
DRE: I read this quote that you said when you were younger that people always asked you if you feel like you missed a normal childhood and you said I dont even know what normal is and I wouldnt want to be that way anyway. As youve gotten older, have you figured out what normal is for you?
TB: No, I just stopped thinking about it altogether, its not even an issue. You just go on with your life and you try to create surroundings for yourself that youre comfortable.
DRE: Do you have a lot of friends that arent in show business?
TB: Enough.
DRE: Did they ever mention things from their childhood that you wish you got to do?
TB: Yeah, there is that. But Ive been fortunate to balance family and a social life. Also the best experiences that Ive had have been because, in one way or another, of my connection to the entertainment industry. People will plan their vacation time to go whitewater rafting or whatever but my work has enabled me to enjoy some of those same things. Ive been pretty lucky. Its a lot of work to do and theres a lot of stress involved but it is still pretty sweet.
DRE: I got a chance to speak with Scarlett Johansson a couple of years ago. I asked her if she picked up new fans because of that movie. She said that she got a whole new fan base of alternative lifestyle type kids.
TB: Yeah, it has an underground following and its representational of a wide range of people from middle aged guys to girls. Sometimes I can just walk around and see somebody and I think to myself, Well, thats a member of Ghost World right there. Its just something thats written on some people.
DRE: Did you get into those kinds of comics after the movie?
TB: I was not so familiar with it before but then during filming and afterwards, Ive kept up on it. I got into the whole San Francisco underground world of Dan Clowes and Robert Crumb. Also the female artists that were basically trying to copy those guys. Its fun and its got its own flavor and style. I would have to say that Dan and Robert are the best out of that.
DRE: Were you amazed that a 60 year old guy and a 40 year guy could write teenage girls so well?
TB: I was initially, but then I was actually reading an article with Terry [Zwigoff] and he said that he felt that he was no different from that age than hed ever been. I think that happens to a lot of people. They come to a place where they have a certain perspective of the world and then thats it. I think people do that more often than not. Its very rare when someone really does go through their life feeling and thinking as completely different people, like the more things change, the more they stay the same.
DRE: I read that youre interested in being a director and I know that you directed some shorts. Are you trying to get a feature together?
TB: Yes, I love acting but my passion is the filmmaking process, so Im always going to be working in some way on something in another vein other just acting. Maybe certain things Im working on are further along than others but nothing is at a place where I could sit down and go, lets get this movie going.
DRE: Do you have any tattoos?
TB: No, it took me forever just to get my ears pierced but before that I was flirting with the idea of actually getting tattoos on my earlobes but I got my ears pierced instead. I saw this beautiful dark skinned girl the other day that had this weird piercing on her wrist. It looks like it was a bar all the way through her wrist or she had these two things on either side or her wrist to make it look that way.
DRE: The spikes thing, right?
TB: Yeah, but they were tipped with bolts. I was like, Wow, that is beautiful. It looks like it hurt. I was pretty tripped out by that.
DRE: Did your dad actually come to the set of Winter of Frozen Dreams and watch your sex scene?
TB: He was on the set. But no one goes on set and tells the director where to put the camera. None of those things in that story are remotely true. Theyre comical. I was reading it and laughing. Somebody was obviously having a little fun.
DRE: It didnt make sense because unless youre underage parents dont even have to be on set.
TB: I know, even I cant tell them where to put the camera and if I could, I wouldnt.
DRE: How was it working with Dean Winters?
TB: Hes a real sweetheart. Its funny because whenever you see him in anything, hes always a tough guy. But hes a really nice guy.
DRE: Do you know what youre working on next?
TB: There are two things and one might shoot at the end of June and the other goes in May. This is probably going to be a very busy year.
DRE: If you had kids, would you have any problem with them becoming actors?
TB: I would have a problem with having kids, thatll be the problem right there [laughs].
DRE: So no kids for you?
TB: Im not thinking about it. Its not a necessity for life to have kids. Its not anything that people need to do especially in this day and age. People always say, It makes you a responsible member of society but that doesnt make any sense.
DRE: Yeah, my wife keeps bugging me about it.
TB: Well, maybe I should shut my mouth. Your wife is going to come after me with a bat.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
Check out the website for Dark Corners
Daniel Robert Epstein: What are you up to today?
Thora Birch: Ive actually got a couple of interviews lined up and Im leaving town tomorrow so Im getting ready for that.
DRE: How did Dark Corners come to you?
TB: I found that increasingly there is no usual way that these things come to me. But this one came just because the writer/director always, in some way, had me in mind for this. When I read it, I loved the idea that it was a dual role and I love to play on that back and forth between reality and dream life and the audience never knowing what was what. I like being just as confused as they were and at the same time I wanted to get behind that mystery and know it and then make it possible or at least entertaining.
DRE: Since the writer/director had you in mind, did it seem like it was in your voice?
TB: No, not at all. It was a completely a challenge. I didnt like either of the women I was playing. But I found it was fun to try and create them and to me they are both unreal. Neither of them exists.
DRE: You said you wanted to be as confused as the audience, what confused you about it?
TB: The plot and the structure of it and what the meaning is and what the events are representational of. I found that to be confusing. At least I hope that it would be confusing for the audience because thats the puzzle of it. Youre trying to figure what is real, what is not, what the dream was, what is the reality. While I was doing it, of course, I had to know the ins and outs and come up with all these answers to questions that one would ask but at the same time, I dont think its up to me to plainly provide them. I dont want to give anyone a tutorial before they watch it. Let them find it on their own.
DRE: How does an actor portray hidden confusion?
TB: I think its more a head space that you get into. It becomes a very collaborative effort. Its not only my responsibility, its also the job of cinematographer and the director and the editor and the composer. It becomes a group effort to create that atmosphere of delusion or confusion but I think both are in play in Dark Corners.
People say, Oh this is a horror movie but when I read it, I was like, Its not really a typical horror movie. I had a few phone conversations with the director and realized that he didnt think it was your typical horror film as well. All of the elements that are obvious for that genre were in there but when we were doing it, we stripped some of those away. I think were more fascinated with playing with the plot and the plot structure and some of the characters. Also theres an element to the film thats just funny. Its borderline campy if you have a sick sense of humor, which apparently I do.
DRE: Youve played a number of Gothy type roles, is that reflective of who you are?
TB: I think its been really fun for people to come and say, Shes a Goth. Definitely in my late adolescence I went with that, but if you were to ask me at that time I would say No I am not a Goth even though I wore all black, my hair was blue/black and my mood was like some of the Goth personalities. But I still dont think that Im that. Its fun to flirt and play with that but youre not going walk into my house and see posters of Marilyn Manson or whoever the hell those people listen to.
DRE: If you say youre a Goth, youre not really a Goth.
TB: Then I must have been because I was just short of piercing my clit.
DRE: [laughs] I myself have memories and then I try remember when these things happened and it turns out that it was a dream. Has that ever happened to you?
TB: I have. It is definitely different from dj vu where you have a distinctive feeling that youre reliving something that happened before. Ive had things that have happened to me where Ive thought, Have I done this before or have I seen this before? Not so much in a dream but I feel like I have done it before. Thats pretty freaky but a lot of people have those weird moments and just not want to admit it.
DRE: Dark Corners is a film that is going straight to DVD and a number of films youve been in recently have gone straight to DVD.
TB: Ive been doing a number of films over the past few years period. What happens to those films after Ive shot them is not up to me.
DRE: Right, actors have no control about how the film gets released or anything like that but is it frustrating?
TB: Today less and less people are going to the theatres, more and more people are immersed in home entertainment. Either theyre trying to create their own private screening room or they only watch films through NetFlix. Its all about doing it at home on your own time, when you want it, how you want it. Not everybody these days wants to go out to the theatre and fork over all that money for parking, the tickets and the like. For big event films, people still want that experience but for other stuff thats more personalized towards their own taste, they want to watch it at home in their pajamas on their couch and I dont blame them.
DRE: Do you find you have more creative freedom on smaller pictures like this?
TB: The freedom comes from the people that are willing to back these types of films. They are generally a different type of personality. No ones going to spend $150 million to make Dark Corners but the people that do make it arent around all the time. I think on the event films theres freedom but its only because you understand going into it that youre working within a certain framework. Its not really about control so much as it being the right product and does it fit in with the franchise. With something like Dark Corners theres no franchise, its just a movie. So the financiers realized that and they realized that there are kooky little filmmakers who need to left alone to have fun in the dark.
DRE: In college, it was a lot fun to get high and look at the poster for Monkey Trouble on my friends wall.
TB: [laughs] Why because my eyes were so huge?
DRE: Because your eyes were so huge and my friend has a bit of a round face, so he would roll his eyes the way you did on the poster.
TB: Thats pretty funny, thats a compliment, thank you. Ill have to try that some time.
DRE: I know that as a child actor, you dont get always the best roles but
TB: That was a cool role. We shot that in Venice. It was great. That was at a time when Venice was not the urban sophisticated neighborhood that it is now. Literally cops were chasing gang members through our shots in the middle of the day.
DRE: Do you have any idea how Ridley Scott ended up producing that movie?
TB: He was always just the producer. I thought it was really cool because even at age 12, I loved Blade Runner.
DRE: How was it working with Harvey Keitel at that time?
TB: It was great and I palled around with his daughter. It was funny because I was always talking to him about these movies that hed been in that Id seen and hes like, You saw that? Why? When he was getting his makeup on he would ask me, Is this scary? and part of me was like, No, this is so not scary but I always said, Oh yeah, its really scary.
DRE: Its not as scary as the pimp in Taxi Driver.
TB: Right, its not scary at all but you cant tell him that.
DRE: I read this quote that you said when you were younger that people always asked you if you feel like you missed a normal childhood and you said I dont even know what normal is and I wouldnt want to be that way anyway. As youve gotten older, have you figured out what normal is for you?
TB: No, I just stopped thinking about it altogether, its not even an issue. You just go on with your life and you try to create surroundings for yourself that youre comfortable.
DRE: Do you have a lot of friends that arent in show business?
TB: Enough.
DRE: Did they ever mention things from their childhood that you wish you got to do?
TB: Yeah, there is that. But Ive been fortunate to balance family and a social life. Also the best experiences that Ive had have been because, in one way or another, of my connection to the entertainment industry. People will plan their vacation time to go whitewater rafting or whatever but my work has enabled me to enjoy some of those same things. Ive been pretty lucky. Its a lot of work to do and theres a lot of stress involved but it is still pretty sweet.
DRE: I got a chance to speak with Scarlett Johansson a couple of years ago. I asked her if she picked up new fans because of that movie. She said that she got a whole new fan base of alternative lifestyle type kids.
TB: Yeah, it has an underground following and its representational of a wide range of people from middle aged guys to girls. Sometimes I can just walk around and see somebody and I think to myself, Well, thats a member of Ghost World right there. Its just something thats written on some people.
DRE: Did you get into those kinds of comics after the movie?
TB: I was not so familiar with it before but then during filming and afterwards, Ive kept up on it. I got into the whole San Francisco underground world of Dan Clowes and Robert Crumb. Also the female artists that were basically trying to copy those guys. Its fun and its got its own flavor and style. I would have to say that Dan and Robert are the best out of that.
DRE: Were you amazed that a 60 year old guy and a 40 year guy could write teenage girls so well?
TB: I was initially, but then I was actually reading an article with Terry [Zwigoff] and he said that he felt that he was no different from that age than hed ever been. I think that happens to a lot of people. They come to a place where they have a certain perspective of the world and then thats it. I think people do that more often than not. Its very rare when someone really does go through their life feeling and thinking as completely different people, like the more things change, the more they stay the same.
DRE: I read that youre interested in being a director and I know that you directed some shorts. Are you trying to get a feature together?
TB: Yes, I love acting but my passion is the filmmaking process, so Im always going to be working in some way on something in another vein other just acting. Maybe certain things Im working on are further along than others but nothing is at a place where I could sit down and go, lets get this movie going.
DRE: Do you have any tattoos?
TB: No, it took me forever just to get my ears pierced but before that I was flirting with the idea of actually getting tattoos on my earlobes but I got my ears pierced instead. I saw this beautiful dark skinned girl the other day that had this weird piercing on her wrist. It looks like it was a bar all the way through her wrist or she had these two things on either side or her wrist to make it look that way.
DRE: The spikes thing, right?
TB: Yeah, but they were tipped with bolts. I was like, Wow, that is beautiful. It looks like it hurt. I was pretty tripped out by that.
DRE: Did your dad actually come to the set of Winter of Frozen Dreams and watch your sex scene?
TB: He was on the set. But no one goes on set and tells the director where to put the camera. None of those things in that story are remotely true. Theyre comical. I was reading it and laughing. Somebody was obviously having a little fun.
DRE: It didnt make sense because unless youre underage parents dont even have to be on set.
TB: I know, even I cant tell them where to put the camera and if I could, I wouldnt.
DRE: How was it working with Dean Winters?
TB: Hes a real sweetheart. Its funny because whenever you see him in anything, hes always a tough guy. But hes a really nice guy.
DRE: Do you know what youre working on next?
TB: There are two things and one might shoot at the end of June and the other goes in May. This is probably going to be a very busy year.
DRE: If you had kids, would you have any problem with them becoming actors?
TB: I would have a problem with having kids, thatll be the problem right there [laughs].
DRE: So no kids for you?
TB: Im not thinking about it. Its not a necessity for life to have kids. Its not anything that people need to do especially in this day and age. People always say, It makes you a responsible member of society but that doesnt make any sense.
DRE: Yeah, my wife keeps bugging me about it.
TB: Well, maybe I should shut my mouth. Your wife is going to come after me with a bat.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
VIEW 25 of 25 COMMENTS
madeleine:
I've had a crush on Thora for a very long time; I think American Beauty kickstarted it but it's a crush that's sustained itself for a very long time. Besides the fact that she's intelligent and articulate, she's got a lovely, curvy body and a non-mainstream beauty that just...makes me keel over.
jung:
♥