Over the past five weeks, Paranormal Activity's besieged couple Katie Featherston and Micah Sloat have gone from being virtually anonymous actors in a micro-budgeted horror movie to the stars of the top-grossing film in the country. Having found its cast via writer-director Oren Peli's cryptic Craigslist notices, the terrifying film works as well as it does thanks to the strength of their devilishly convincing and completely improvised performances. We spoke to the pair on Friday afternoon, just as Activity's snowball effect was about to turn Featherston and Sloat into the biggest movie stars in America. [Warning: Spoilers follow.]
MOVIELINE: So where are you on your Paranormal odyssey right now?
MICAH SLOAT: Good question. I don't really know what's going to happen tomorrow, so I can't put a timeline on it, so I'll just say that it's been good and continues to get better every day.
KATIE FEATHERSTON: I take it one minute at a time. You know, I'm on my phone waiting to get into an audition, and I'm getting a lot of static right now. So let me cross the street and see of that's any better. I apologize.
So what's the back story on how you guys came to star in Paranormal Activity?
SLOAT: There was a casting notice posted online on a number of actors' websites and Craigslist.
[At this point, an ungodly sound that sounds like a baby tiger screaming begins to interrupt our conversation.]
It sounds like there's a demon on the phone.
[They both laugh.]
What the hell is that?
[Chilling pause.]
SLOAT: All right, I'm sorry, that was just a little distracting. Can you hear me OK at all? [Sound is still there, but eventually fades away.]
So as I was saying, it was posted online, and it was a really mysterious notice. Most of the time it says, "Here's the sides, this is what the project is about." In this case, all that it said was "we need actors who are willing to work without a script or knowing what was going to happen next, willing to shoot all night with very little sleep." It was like an adventure.
FEATHERSTON: It was definitely an unusual posting.
SLOAT: It was more like a warning than a casting.
Did you guys meet at the casting?
SLOAT: At the callbacks.
What was the audition like?
SLOAT: The audition was completely improvised. He didn't even ask my name. I just sat down, and Oren [Peli] immediately asked, "So tell me why your house is haunted." And we had to come up with the story on the spot to explain what was going on.
Did he say the same thing to you, Katie?
FEATHERSTON: Yeah. The initial audition I just walked in and he said, "So why do you think your house in haunted?" And I said, "Well, I'll tell you." And we kind of went into it. And Micah and I met at the callback and just had to pretty much instantaneously start telling him how we met, and how long we'd been together, and all sorts of things like that. So it was heavily, heavily improv'd.
SLOAT: Yeah it was basically, "Micah this is Katie. Katie, this is Micah. Tell us how you met. Go."
Were you both living in L.A. at the time?
FEATHERSTON: Yeah.
So you got the parts. Were you at this point thinking, "OK, this will probably not get seen by that many people but it will be a good addition to my reel?"
FEATHERSTON: I was just excited to be filming a movie, and it was very clear that Oren was incredibly passionate about the project. So I was excited to be a part of it. I wasn't writing the ending, it was just about doing the work. Everything that's happened since then has just been unbelievable.
SLOAT: And I think that while we were doing it that all of us just liked so much what we were doing and saw the potential in what we were doing, that every single scene we shot, we kind of evaluated. And if it wasn't good enough to be on the big screen, we reshot it. So that was definitely a goal from the beginning -- not that we could have ever expected what is happening now, or whatnot -- but we always were aiming for it.
FEATHERSTON: We just wanted to make the best possible movie for hardcore horror fans. We were tough on ourselves.
Well it shows. I was very pleasantly surprised at just how effectively you guys managed to scare the shit out of me.
FEATHERSTON: Ah, good!
As a moviegoer, you leave with lots of questions about how it came together. Was the dialogue entirely improvised? How much of that was completely off the cuff?
SLOAT: All of it.
FEATHERSTON: Oren has a very good vision and very good structure as far as getting what he wanted, but every bit of dialogue was improvised.
SLOAT: Yeah, we had certain topics exposition-wise that we had to bring up every scene, certain connections we had to make, but as far as actual dialogue, it's all improv.
Very impressive. And so the world premiere was at Slamdance last year?
FEATHERSTON: Actually it was at Screamfest a little before that here in L.A.
What was your reaction to seeing it with an audience for the first time?
FEATHERSTON: Ah -- it was amazing. To watch people become really invested in the movie, hear them react scared. The night scenes would come and you would hear the tension raise up a few notches. It was really cool.
SLOAT: I think that the Screamfest screening was the first time that we had something special. Oren had been working on the movie for a year in his spare time, and just to see how he all put it together was a real rush. It scared the crap out of me when I saw it. I mean, I was freaking out in the theater, and the guy next to me tapped me on the shoulder and said, "You know you're in the movie, right?" Coming out of the screening and feeling what the crowd was feeling and knowing that we were responsible for making that film was the biggest high I'd ever had in my life.
Was the fear there on the set while you were shooting? Or is this all illusion?
FEATHERSTON: I think for me, at least, you kind of get into the zone, and push yourself into that scared place, and you stay there for a while. We were scaring ourselves a lot.
SLOAT: We were shooting for 16-18 hours a day. So we were basically in character for all of our waking hours. The difference between acting scared and really being scared is slim -- it's just a matter of how much control you have over your situation. So I would say that, yes, when you see us scared on camera, we are literally scared. It was pretty freaky. It was really hard to sleep on set.
I have two technical questions. The first is when Katie's character is standing by the bed for a time lapse of over an hour or whatever it was. You weren't really standing there the whole time, were you?
FEATHERSTON: Yeah, I was. I can't really remember exactly how long it was, but I know it was for a while. I know I was tired.
SLOAT: It was a lot longer than you'd think.
FEATHERSTON: We did a few passes. Long enough for my feet to get tired, and I just had to keep rocking.
That was particularly unsettling to me. Because you're with us the whole time, and then suddenly you're like, yikes, why is she doing that.
FEATHERSTON: It's unnatural.
And Micah, we glimpse you several times in mirrors holding the camera. How much of the movie did you shoot yourself?
SLOAT: The camera, whenever it's not on the tripod I'm holding it or Katie's holding it. Most of the time I'm holding it, unless you see me on camera.
So you are pretty much the cinematographer.
SLOAT: I am the cameraman, cinematographer, actor and I actually put a few songs on the soundtrack as well. So it was a pretty creative opportunity for everyone, especially me. I was actually getting so into the camera work that Oren told me I was not allowed to look into the viewfinder and I had to shake the camera because the shots...
Looked too slick?
SLOAT: Yeah. He didn't think anyone would buy it as real home footage.
Some conservative critics of the film have written that the reason you're being punished now by this demon is because you guys are shacking up. What do you say to that?
[Both laugh]
FEATHERSTON: I'd say that would have to be a pretty conservative demon.
They tend to be religious.
SLOAT: I'm going to second that answer, if that's OK.
FEATHERSTON: I had not heard that before. I will think twice now before moving in with my real life boyfriend.
Was there a backend deal for you guys? Will you benefit from it blowing up so huge?
FEATHERSTON: We're not going to starve. Everybody's been pretty great.
SLOAT: We're definitely satisfied with how the producers are treating us. ♦