Whitney Able on Monsters, Mexico and How to Act in the Middle of a Drug War

When speaking to Whitney Able, it's hard to tell what she found more frightening: The alien life forms in her new film Monsters or the real-life dangers of shooting in the drug war ravaged mountains of Mexico -- a location so dangerous that bodyguards were assigned by the government of Mexico, free of charge. Also adding to the complexity of this particular production, there was no script to speak of -- just a general outline. So if or when first-time leading lady Able looks a little stressed on-screen, that may not be 100 percent acting.

An SXSW Film Festival darling from earlier this year, Monsters tells the story of a probe that, while returning from a moon of Jupiter, crash-lands in Central America. Meanwhile photojournalist Andrew (Scoot McNairy) and his boss's daughter, Samantha (Able), attempt to cross an "infected zone" of Mexico back into the United States. The "infected zone" is filled with mutated life from the probe -- as depicted via stunning yet shoestring-budget CGI.

I spoke to Able -- who's also known for her roles in the cult favorite All the Boys Love Mandy Lane and Scott Caan's Mercy (not to mention her popularity among the Maxim set) -- about the difficulties of indie-horror shoot, where she came from and where she thinks she's headed.

Monsters is interesting because it's the type of movie where if it's not done right, it could have been really silly.

Absolutely. That's how we felt... Well, I'll speak for myself. I definitely wasn't really a fan of the genre, yet. Since then, I've become a fan of the genre. I understand, now, even looking back at films in retrospect with the same subject matter or similar subject matter, it's sort of cool to see that it can be done that way. You know, introspective and sensitive and not over-the-top and not... You know what I'm saying.

If you were not a fan of that genre, how were you convinced to star in this movie? When they asked us to do the movie, we were really excited about the traveling part. And I was really excited to speak Spanish because I hadn't gotten to use that yet in film. I don't know, it just seemed like a really fun, crazy thing to do. It was completely nuts. It could have potentially been suicide as an actor because you have no script, you're running around in the woods for two months... It's kind of crazy. It worked out that it was really mind-expanding and I learned a lot as an actor working on it and I just had to let go, really, and jump off of the cliff.

This whole concept of no script, how far was that taken? Even on the day that you shot, there wasn't a script?

No, there was never a script. It was a 12-page outline. We had blue and black outlines when we came to work every morning; one color was the emotion and one color was the action -- the physical nature of it. And we had discussed the storyline and the points that we had to hit, and there was definitely an A-to-Z plan of action. But, no, there was no script.

That sounds like you were shooting an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm.

[Laughs] It was pretty nuts, man. It was pretty nuts, and a little nerve-wracking. It was nuts, but at the same time it was definitely a learning experience. I had a moment with Scoot [McNairy] where we were in Mexico City and we'd go get a cup of coffee at midnight going, "What are we doing here?" It was really scary.

That's impressive because, especially with a movie like this, that kind of format could have easily turned into an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm, which probably isn't quite what everyone is going for.

Yeah, there were a few... I wouldn't call them comedic moments, but Scoot is so charismatic and he actually does a lot of comedy work. He's a really funny guy. I knew that I felt safe signing on to do the movie with him because I really just had to sit back and listen to him. He was enough so that I could sit back and trust [what I was doing].

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