12 Hour Shift will have a lot of surprises in store for horror fans when they watch the comedic thriller, which is currently available through VOD. The story follows a drug-addicted nurse and her colleagues as they face several obstacles in their noble goal of organ trafficking.
Chloe Farnworth plays relative newbie Regina, who can’t seem to stop getting in everyone’s way as she scrambles to make it out of the situation alive. The actress spoke to Screen Rant about the collaborative process with writer-director Brea Grant, as well as what sets 12 Hour Shift apart within its genre.
First and foremost, congratulations on the film. There's something for everybody. How does Brea being director and writer help inform your performance?
Chloe Farnworth: She wrote the script and she's directing it, so she knows it inside out - backwards, upside down, she knows it so well. She's also an actor, so she's so good at directing and giving you helpful direction as an actor. And she's just so awesome to work with; she's such a lovely person. She has his vision, and she knows how to get it. She's just fantastic. I can't talk more highly of her; she's amazing. I would work with her every single day. She's awesome.
And on set, she's so good at directing. She does it in such a lovely way, and she also lets you have these great improv takes. So, we'll do the whole scene a few times, and then she'll be like, "Okay, just do whatever you want. Say whatever you want, and go for it." You can have so much fun, and you don't know me get that. It was really awesome.
Talk to me about your character, Regina. What's Regina all about?
Chloe Farnworth: Regina, she's this kind of psychopathic tornado of chaos that comes in, turns everything upside down, and then goes on with her life like nothing happened. She's crazy, a little bit weird; she has her weird facial expressions. I gave her a bit of this wonky walk, because I wanted her to be a little bit clumsy - but also, she just doesn't fully know how to walk in a way.
I wanted her to be in this bubble. She only really sees what's in front of her and inside this bubble, and doesn't really think of the consequences. That was my vision of her. Me and Brea talked about it lots, and we kind of just went with it.
It seems like she's the one who continuously digs the hole deeper. What's motivating her actions initially?
Chloe Farnworth: She's pretty new to this job [of] transporting the organs. She's kind of new, and she messes it up pretty quickly, and she doesn't want to get her to die. So, she's like, "Okay, this is what I've got to do so I don't die." She just goes and does all this stuff - I don't know if I should say exactly what. She does all this stuff, but she's okay. Doesn't really think of everyone else. She's like, "I have to be fine. This is happening. Go go go!" And then she's like, "Okay, it's done."
You and Angela Bettis have great chemistry. What do you think is behind your characters' antagonistic relationship?
Chloe Farnworth: I think Regina doesn't really have anyone else in her life. She's dying to be a part of Mandy's, Angela Bettis, [circle]. I think she really wants to be a part of her and make her proud, but she's also like, "I have to make sure I'm okay at the same time." She's trying to be Mandy's friend and do things right, but she also doesn't want to get hurt.
She just has this weird, "I really want to be your cousin, but also I don't want to get hurt, so save me. And also, ahh what do I do?" Yeah, that would be my take on that.
What kind of research did you do to prepare for the role?
Chloe Farnworth: I mostly worked a lot on the accent, because my character doesn't really know so much about organ smuggling. She's new to it, so I didn't want to really know anything about that in real life. I wanted to just go into it blind, so I could just put that into a character.
For me, I was mostly working on the accent. I'm British, and it was my first time working in this kind of Southern Texas accent. I got the job about three weeks before shooting, so I spent the whole three weeks listening to Dolly Parton and Thelma and Louise. I watched that movie about 30 times. It's amazing; I love it. I think I know it word for word. And I worked with my acting coach, Gaby Santinelli, a lot just to get the accent feeling right and working for the part. That was mostly my process leading up to it.
This film has a female director, writer and lead. However, this is certainly a different story than we're used to seeing with that makeup. Why is this movie important in stretching the preconceptions of what female representation can be?
Chloe Farnworth: With Brea and everyone being female - a female lead, director, and a lot of the crew as well - I think more films should be like that. There should be more females in the film industry, more female directors and female leads.
It was nice that, in a horror movie, my kind of character - the blonde, ditzy one - didn't just get killed off midway through. I find in a lot of these horror movies, this kind of character is killed off straightaway. I really appreciated the fact that we continued on all the way through, and the same with Mandy. We kind of brought the whole film from start to finish, and we weren't just the girls getting killed off. I think there needs to be more of that in the horror genre.