INT: Jaime King

I really was happy with the opportunity of speaking to the good folks behind MY BLOODY VALENTINE 3D. The experience was made even better because I really loved the film. It is an old fashioned Eighties slasher movie with modern technology. And it has Jaime King who is officially one of my favorite people. She was great in SIN CITY, she was hilarious in “Kitchen Confidential” and she has a ton of other movies on her resume. Add to that, the fact that she is absolutely beautiful… and she is just amazing to talk to.

I walked into her room at the W in Westwood California and was instantly made comfortable. She even talked about how lame one of the questions she’d been asked earlier was, and I had to agree. It’s nice to see her in the horror genre, but I get the feeling she is going to do exactly what she wants to do in regards to her career. It is utterly refreshing to meet someone who really loves film and she is one of those people. So read on and make sure you go check out MY BLOODY VALENTINE 3D. And you can’t beat Jaime in 3D… she is just cool as hell in any dimension.

Jaime King

Isn’t it kind of cool for a film like this to get this much press and attention?

I know. It’s been really awesome. I’m friends with, you know Capone from Ain’t It Cool News, and we screened our movie down at Harry Knowles thing, which I was so excited about because I’ve been dying to go to the Butt-Numb-A-Thon for years. My husband goes every single year, and he calls me and texts me all these sweet movies he gets to see and I’m always working. But it was so awesome because that was the first time I ever saw the movie with an audience, you know, I’d only seen it once before. So this time I could actually really enjoy it. The response was out of control and I couldn’t believe it. I was more nervous in front of that kind of audience because they’re the kind of people I like to make movies for. They’re like me, they’re fans. And what I realized is that this film turned out much cooler than I could ever possibly imagined. For the past years they’ve been making like a shitload of horror films because it was all the rage or whatever. But I never really wanted to do one because it was all this torture porn crap. And I was like, I’m never going to watch that movie so why the hell would I wanna make it? And then this one came and I was like, wow, this leading lady is kind of interesting. You know, if we play it right and if we talk about the character enough, we can actually give her layers and use her history to make her like kind of a tragic character in a way. And if I play it really grounded with all the slasher gore stuff around us, it would actually be kind of interesting. And my friends were obsessed with the original one and I was like, well if my friends are obsessed with it, you know, there’s gotta be a reason for that ‘cause they’re snobs when it comes to movies. And I read the script and I thought, this is cool. Then met Patrick and I really loved him. I was like, okay, this dude is the master of editing, he’s like Wes Craven’s go to guy and all these people, if anybody knows how to do this, it’s him. There we go.

Well I personally am a huge fan of the first one, I saw it when I was ten and have seen it several times since.

That’s f*cking awesome. Okay… so I gotta hear, what did you think of it?

I loved it.

Awesome.

Well because, the thing is, I don’t mind characters occasionally doing dumb things… it’s a slasher movie.

I feel the same way. If you don’t have that, then…


You don’t have a movie…

Exactly… like someone just asked me that, some woman was like, [with a high mimicking voice] ‘Why is it that girls in horror movies, that they always, like make choices and run places that they shouldn’t?’ And I was like, well if they didn’t you wouldn’t have any conflict. You wouldn’t have any movie and you wouldn’t have any drama, and there would be nothing to try and figure out, you know. I mean, you want your character to be smart, and I thought my character was pretty damn smart in a lot of ways. But if you don’t have them… but if you don’t have the other characters doing something like that, what fun is it?

Yeah.

It’s called entertainment.

Well my thing with your character is, she is not a young teenage girl, she’s a mature woman dealing with real issues. And you really downplayed her and it became a very real person for this type of film. Did you go into it thinking how can I keep this real in this kind of setting?

Absolutely. You know, ‘cause my like “actor brain”… my big thing is how can I keep it real and authentic. I know what the movie is and I know that the 3D is the big star of the film, you know. All I wanted it to be is that I could play a character that people can relate to. And I frickin’… it drives me nuts when I see like, people in these kind of movies or whatever, like running around… like the lead girl is running around in Daisy Dukes and like a wet tank top. Nobody’s going to take her seriously. What I love about Betsy [Rue] is she just takes it all off. She doesn’t give a shit. So you’ve got that covered, you’ve got the nudity, and that amazing scene…

That’s a great scene…

That’s frickin’ awesome. I love that! Who doesn’t wanna see a hot naked girl running around? I do… know what I mean? And you’ve got that covered by that character. But your leading lady, I think for men and for women, you wanna be invested in her so that you can care about what it is that she’s going through. I wanted her to be a tragic character. She had no happy scenes in the movie except for maybe when she sees her son. I thought that that was really important. I didn’t want to be the girl from the mining town that was like, a blonde bombshell in tiny little clothes. I only wanted boots and flannels and jeans, you know, to look the way that I know that these girls look. I’m from Omaha, you know what I mean, so like I’m from a small town, I know what the deal is. So I was really thankful that ultimately they let me do that. The thing was, I knew if I wasn’t allowed to do that I wouldn’t be able to do my job. Because when they try and put me in “clothes” or something that is trying to make me a certain way that’s not appropriate, I feel like I can’t act. I feel so inauthentic that it drives me… I literally go crazy and I have like a meltdown [Laughing]. ‘Cause there’s nothing worse than doing a scene and feeling like you’re not able to be authentic. You know what I mean… it’d be like having to write something that you couldn’t stand writing but you’re being forced to do it. You know, it’s like you have integrity or you don’t.

Very true. Well, there really seemed to be integrity in the whole project. This was the film they wanted to make and I really appreciated how they kept the love triangle from the original.

So many reviewers love that part. They love that we were mature, that were not little kids… we got that out of the way. And Kerr [Smith] and I worked a lot to keep a lot of layers into our relationship and our marriage so that you could see that it was really kind of f*cked up, but that they’re both still good people, you know what I mean? And that she could easily go to either one because either one could be good but bad at the same time. And I just think that love triangle adds a nice element to it because it gets women more invested… everybody more invested. It adds another element of suspense to it.

And that will balance out the shovel scene.

Yeah… I love that shot. It’s all about balancing the gore with something a bit more grounded.

How was it for you coming into this film and it being shot in 3D… did it make an impact at all on your performance?

Well that was one of the main reasons why I wanted to do it, because I’m like a tech nerd and I just love doing any kind of film where they use new technology. For me, acting wise it wasn’t any different. You know, I learn everything about the tech side on the opposite side… I don’t ever want to be distracted by the camera, I just want to deal with the actors. The only different thing about it was that it took friggin’ forever dude. It added thirty percent more to our day and nobody knew. So our days are normally, minimum, twelve hours. And then all of a sudden we went from five days a week to six days a week, minimum of eighteen hours a day, all night long. So we would wrap on Sunday at nine o’clock in the morning and Sunday would be our day off, but we just worked eighteen hours so you’d go and you would sleep. And then you’d get picked up on nine a.m. on Monday and that was your day off.

Oh my God.

So it was hardcore. We were… it was really hardcore.

How long was this?

Like two months. And they light it so much that you feel like your in the Bahamas. And you’re like, really guys… this is supposed to be dark and creepy… you know… really? But they’d make so much light and then when you see it, it’s like wow… it’s actually really dark and creepy.

Now I gotta talk about this little flick that may be comin’… what’s happening with SIN CITY 2?

It’s gonna be really awesome and I know that Frank is writing a third one. He’s finished the script… he came to the premiere, he was so sweet, I said, ‘You have to promise me to come to my premiere.’ He stayed in town to come… he’s like one of my best friends. He’s like my brother, we became really close on SIN CITY. So yeah, he finished the script and now we’re working on… because it’s at the Weinstein Company, we’re just working things out with the studio.

Are you excited about it? You think it’ll be even better this time around?

I mean, it’s hard because the first one was so awesome.

I know… I really dug Elijah Wood in that.

You know, I love him, he and I are both geeks. We were the only two actors that actually stay for the movies. It’s me and Elijah keeping’ it real. Everybody else is like [mimicking] ‘I guess I’ll just come for my interview.’ Like, how could you pass seeing these awesome movies on the big screen. Yeah, I love Elijah Wood, he’s awesome.

That’s kind of sad though, I mean, they’re in the business to make movies… how can you be in the business and not love movies?

‘Cause not everybody’s in this business because they love movies. You know what I mean? I mean we all have our own agendas right? Some people’s agenda is because they want to be famous. Or some people just don’t know how to be comfortable in a crowd. I know actors that are really good friends of mine and they’re fine when they are playing a role, but when they have to be themselves they feel very awkward and weird. So you just never really know.

Well what else is up for you? I mean you seem like you’ve been busy.

I just started working with George Lucas for the Clone Wars series, so I start doing voices for that.

What character?

[Whispering] I can’t tell you. But I’m doing a few.

Oh man…

You know… they’re so tight-lipped over there. So I really wanna honor that. I’m doing that. I’ve got FANBOYS coming out next month.

Which I can’t wait to see.

It’s awesome! It’s awesome… it’s awesome. And I’m getting ready to direct my first short. So I’m really excited and focused on that.

Oh nice. Tell me about that.

I’m doing a short for Comedy Central that T.J. Miller is gonna star in. So I’m really excited about that because I really want to direct. So that’s going to be my first time doing that. And I’m working on a new comic book series… do you know Marc Andreyko? He wrote Torso.

Yeah.

So me and Marc are working on a new series together. And then I am writing a screenplay that Frank is producing for me.

So you want to do it all?

Yeah… for sure. I mean to me, acting is literally like a quarter of what it is that I want to do. I’ve been writing since I was seven. And directing, to me, seems like the more natural thing for me. I mean acting is very natural, I love acting. But just making films is the ultimate thing for me.

Let me know what you think. Send questions and/or comments to [email protected].