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].
This probably isn't the movie for anyone who's thinking of vacationing in Mexico. It's dangerous enough right now without the aliens.
[Laughs] Well, I don't want to deter anybody from tourism in Mexico, it's one of my favorite places in the world. But it was a little bit scary; we were definitely off of the beaten path and in the thick of it. And the drug war going on is still there; it was quite dangerous, actually. My family was pretty worried about me going down there.
Did you see any evidence of the drug war while you were filming?
Absolutely. We experienced something to do with that nearly every day. Danger was always on the horizon and at our heels. We'd go into town, and there are 13 coffins laid out in the street -- in a town in the middle of the mountains. You wouldn't think that sort of thing would touch that place, and there it was. It's just everywhere. The corruption is so deep. It's very scary what's going on, and on a personal level I was really touched by what I saw.
Does that add to the tension of what we see on-screen?
Yeah, absolutely. That was my reality as I was working. We actually had bodyguards that were provided by the state. It didn't cost us, they just wanted to protect us and make sure there wasn't a terrible event that happened that would be publicized.
The effects were pretty amazing, considering the rest of the film was so based in reality.
Yeah, the special effects, we didn't work in front of a green screen or anything. And we didn't have a lot of information besides from what Gareth told us. The drawings that we saw were very vague. So as far as working with the special effects, it really just turned into an idea or an emotional concept rather than a thing, for me at least. Which actually helped a lot because it helped take the pressure off of looking at some model of something and having a reaction that is totally out of this world and over-the-top. It really just allows for us to let things sink in and it's just kind of there.
There's not lot about you online, as far as where you're from originally. You mentioned wanted speak Spanish in a movie, where are you originally from?
I'm from Houston, Texas. I'm from Texas but I sort of grew up all over -- in Washington D.C., Spain, Tennessee, New York and Los Angeles.
How did you get into acting?
Well, I always wanted to be an actor. I started in a local community theater school when I was younger. I went to a performing arts high school, then I continued throughout college. Yeah, it's always something that I wanted to do. I don't know, it just always has been that way.
Monsters is getting a lot of great buzz and you play the lead. Why is it that you have a role coming up in Man Without a Head as "Girl #4." After Monsters, shouldn't all of your characters a least have a name? Or is that a bigger role than it sounds?
Heh, well... Man Without a Head is a really interesting project that I really wanted to be a part of, and I was unavailable to do one of the larger roles. But I really wanted to have a little cameo role in there. I found it weird and interesting. So it's really just in one scene, and I think a lot of the characters are named that way throughout. That's how I work, man: If something is really interesting, I want to be a part of it. I want to know what it's like to work with quality people all the time. I want to keep raising the stakes for myself and staying around people who are helping me to get better and are a joy to work with and are interesting people. And I don't care about any of that other stuff. I just want to keep working and I want to work on things that are interesting to me.
What do you have coming up?
I don't know. I don't know yet.
Well, that's exciting in a way, right?
Yeah, there are some things on the horizon. We're figuring out what our next step is and you'll know when we do.
That's pretty vague.
[Laughs] Yeah... I have to be as vague as possible.
[Top photo: Matt Carr/Getty images]