Interview: Audrey Cummings Talks Directing, ‘She Never Died’

Photo provided by Audrey Cummings

Recently we had the chance to talk with Audrey Cummings about her career, including how she became a director and her latest project, the horror film She Never Died.

Horror Geek Life: Where did the interest come from in terms of wanting to work in film? Was it something you always wanted to do or did you discover it later, like one of those wonderful happy accidents?

Audrey: The first feature film I ever saw was E.T. and it was one of those moments that marked me forever. After seeing that, and realizing holy shit, you can do that, you can create other worlds. I have to say that Steven Spielberg was the big reason that as I grew up, watching E.T. and all the rest of his amazing films, I knew I wanted to make movies.

Horror Geek Life: You’ve done some writing and producing, to go along with directing. Was it a natural progression for you, to move to directing, or was that simply what you always wanted to do?

Audrey: I always wanted to do it, I just never really knew how to get into it. When I was in university, I took some film classes, and I took drama classes and I knew right away that acting was not for me. I knew getting behind the camera, creating the story was what I wanted to do. The storyteller in me was too powerful not to want to pursue that and directing was a great way to express that.

Horror Geek Life: What has been the biggest challenge for you, in terms of learning the ins and outs of directing?

Audrey: Oh my god…(laughs). The problem is when you’re making Canadian movies, the budgets are small and you’re constantly up against time and money and, I would say, with very ambitious scripts, that we’re trying to pull off with nothing. Each time I do a movie, I write down a list of things I learned, and yeah, every film is a whole new list of different problems that you’ve never encountered before. I’ve come to learn that, with so many new problems on each film, you really have to learn to become a great problem solver. With these schedules, we had fifteen days to shoot She Never Died, you are on the brink of failure or disaster every day because there is no extra time. If I can’t make my day, don’t get a scene done a certain day, there is no time in the schedule to start shooting again.

Horror Geek Life: You’ve been in the movie business for a few years now. Have you noticed a change in terms of women getting more prominent roles or do we still have a ways to go yet?

Audrey: You know, I’m really optimistic and happy about how things have been changing. I remember my first feature film, Berkshire County, I was up against so much opposition, no one wanted to finance the film and I really felt being a woman was a disadvantage at the time, and that was only six or seven years ago. I went ahead and made the movie myself, I put my own money into it because I was tired of hearing no so I said fine, I’ll make it myself and really, that was the landscape back then, a lot of no, no, no.

I think Canada really loves their horror, drama, and comedies but I think it’s taken a long time to get back to where we were in the seventies, the sort of golden age of genre horror/thrillers. I never understood why people looked down on genre films because I think they are really, really difficult to pull off properly. To pull off a horror film, you have to be so good at so many things, including drama, action sequences, build scares and tension, and you need to be able to release it in comedic moments. You really do have to be good at a lot of things to make a solid horror film, they were never given enough credit, so I’m really glad that landscape is changing, too.

‘She Never Died’ / A71

Horror Geek Life: Let’s talk about She Never Died. How did you get involved in this project?

Audrey: So a few years back, they did He Never Died, with Henry Rollins, and it was really successful, did really well, people loved Henry so they decided they were going to do a sequel. As they started rolling, the whole thing gut Henry got some big roles on some TV shows, so it was like okay, what do we do now? Jason, the writer, had created this huge world with so many characters so they said, why don’t we show another character in this world instead? Create this sister film and show the character, Lacey? Once they decided to go this route, they wanted a female director for it. A71 had distributed my two previous feature films, and I was their first choice to come on and direct. I read the script and loved it, so I said yes.

Horror Geek Life: She Never Died feels more like a companion piece to He Never Died. Do you think people need to see the first one to better understand She Never Died, or does it stand alone?

Audrey: I think it stands alone, myself. One of the things I was conscious of when I was making this movie was I didn’t want to over-explain things too much. Audiences are very intelligent and they can catch on quite easily so I didn’t want to fall into that trap of over-explaining things, trying to connect things too much. The one thing I did try to do to connect the film so to speak was through tone, the tone of the movie, the dry wit and dark humor. Beyond that, Lacey is her own character and I wanted her to have her own story.

Horror Geek Life: It’s not an easy task, balancing humor and horror in a film. Did you have any trouble walking the line between the two?

Audrey: I have to totally agree with you on that, absolutely. It’s a balancing act and for me. They have to support each other somehow, so when you’re creating your scares, building tension to get to the peak of the scare, you then have to give your audience a moment to relax and breathe, so you can ramp up the next scare again. It depends on the tone you’re going for but for me with this film, it needed to be this very subtle and supportive companion to the horror. It really is a fine art balancing the two so they support each other and not conflict with each other.

Horror Geek Life: There are some wonderful female leads and supporting roles in this film. Was a strong female presence something you wanted for She Never Died right from the beginning?

Audrey: I really like, social message wise, the fight against misogyny, human trafficking and all that kind of stuff, but for me what bound all the characters together was women supporting women. Olunike (Lacey) and Kiana (Suzzie) teaming up together and Lacey taking down the bad guys to protect Suzzie and innocent women on the street, I really like that. When I was casting this film, Olunike was my first choice. I worked with her on my previous film Darken and she killed it in that film, she was so amazing, and when I read this script I thought oh my god, I know exactly who needs to do this. Michelle Nolden as the lead antagonist Meredith, she was my first choice for that role too, she was amazing and then Kiana Madeira in the role of Suzzie, the little sidekick, she was an absolute treasure, what a find. All of them brought so much to the table, I couldn’t have asked for anything more.

Horror Geek Life: What would you say to someone who wanted to get into this business, specifically as a director?

Audrey: You have to be willing to press or impose your will on everyone, and non-stop, because everyone will want to say no to you and you have to do everything you can to get a yes. It’s true. You have to fight for it, all the time, every step of the way. You have to fight to get your movie made, to finish the movie, every step of the way feels like you’re fighting the fight to get to that finish line, but it’s so worth it.

Horror Geek Life: So what other projects do you have coming up?

Audrey: Well, I have one script, it’s a week or two away, called Greensboro County. I’m working with the writer from Berkshire County, my first feature, and I don’t want to say anything and jinx it, but I’m hoping we’re going to have a really good home for it soon. I’m also developing five other scripts that hopefully this quarantine time will allow me the time to finish them. It’s madness but so much fun! (Laughs)

I want to thank Audrey for taking the time to talk with us.


Related Article: Horror Film ‘She Never Died’ Now Available on VOD and EST

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