Read our review of The Machine HERE...
For many, Caity Lotz has been one of the best additions to the current series of Arrow... but away from Starling City, the actress makes quite an impact in two very different roles within The Machine, an interesting take on the ideas of evolution and militarised AI. John Mosby found out that the process (and result) was more organic than expected...
IMPACT: A question we often we start with is… when did you know you not only COULD act but that you wanted to make it your career?
CAITY LOTZ: I started dancing when I was seven and started dancing professionally when I was seventeen. I was doing it because I was fun… I loved it. I didn’t ever think it could be a ‘career’. Then I went to Europe for two years and was in a singing group. When I came back it was a question of ‘What now..?’ Do I continue dancing, do I go to college, what DO I do? There was nothing else that I could imagine myself doing. That’s kinda when I realised that I could actually do this, that this was something where I could survive and live with in this career. It was possible.
IMPACT: Anyone seeing artwork or reading the synopsis for 'The Machine' could be forgiven for thinking it’s just another run-of-the-mill killer robot movie. But the truth is it’s a bit more ambitious than that, isn’t it?
CL: Yeah it’s not a ‘crazy killing machine that has no soul…’ A lot of people think it’s that and I even read one review of the film… and I’m not convinced the person even watched the film because they said I was an ‘emotionless killing machine…’. That’s a good thing that makes this movie different from other things like Terminator… it is the emotions of the machine and how human the Machine is. That makes it a lot more complicated and gives it a lot more layers and room to play with.
IMPACT: I know you film 'Arrow' up in Vancouver, where there can be famously inclement weather but even by that standard, the British locations for The Machine look particularly cold and bleak and uncomfortable
CL: Yeaaaah… and I’ve got this California blood (laughs). It was pretty cold. As you could see everywhere we were shooting was dark, cement, dirty, cold, wet warehouses. I think we shot in an old electric plant at one point. The shooting conditions were a little rough. We shot in Essex and most of the film was shot just outside Cardiff. It is set in another recession and cold war settings so there wouldn’t be a lot of money to have super-tech. It’s what it would be like if you had these old places and just stuck new technology into it…
IMPACT: One thing that films like this often get wrong is the basic, formulaic robotic movement of the ‘machine’. It couldn’t be more different in the THIS film. There’s almost an ethereal, balletic quality to the way that your main character moves and a more graceful (if very effective) way of fighting…
CL: Yeah, my dance background definitely helped. I also have a martial-arts background, not as much as my dance, but I think dancing gives you a huge advantage as somebody who’s not as physical. In an action film like this you are not doing so much martial-arts as doing fight choreography, so it’s a lot like a dance. It’s remembering long sequences and making something with dynamic moves. You have to have that body awareness of distance, of timing. Dancers are good at copying bodylines so that we’re aware of our bodies and can watch a real martial-artist throw a punch or a kick and know how we need to manipulate our own body to work that way. It’s super-helpful. I think dance is helpful with everything physical. I was having archery training yesterday and she was surprised at how quickly I picked it up - I knew for sure that it was down to my dance background. You remember things… if you don’t you’re going to get punched or punch someone in the face!
IMPACT: Was one of the reasons you were attracted to this project the fact that you actually get to two play two characters within the story, the human Ava and the evolving Machine… so there was a chance to play them off each other a little. I’m wondering which one was the bigger dramatic challenge in some ways… making the ‘ordinary’ human interesting or the more fantastical ‘soldier’ believable..?
CL: It’s something I’ve always wanted to do – play dual characters. I was definitely attracted to playing the Machine, for sure. That was really exciting… to build somebody from scratch and to do be able to do a lot of work on it, change a lot of things and make things weird. Sometimes, with characters it’s not about… we want to do so much and you don’t need to… it’s just a matter of letting be ‘real’, be ‘natural’… That was the challenge of playing the Machine but I DID like playing Ava. That was really hard too – it’s almost like… you have to make something really dynamic but less obvious. It’s more subtle, so in that respect playing Ava was more difficult.
IMPACT: For a film that clearly doesn’t have access to blockbuster budgets, the special-effects that ARE there seem very well designed and implemented. Particularly with the Machine’s look, it was sometimes difficult to work out what was added in post-production or just imaginative use of elements on the set.
CL: When I saw the film I was blown away by the special effects. I think they did a really great job and had a great team on that. A lot of it IS post-production. We never did anything to my eyes,that was all in post. All the stuff where the body is getting filled up with blood and I’m hanging from the ceiling… that’s ALL special-effects. I had to put little stickers all over my body and then they took pictures. It doesn’t become me until the moment I’m on the ground. They really did a great job. Sometimes people hate it when there’s too much CGI, but I think this is an example of a film that really does it delicately. Like you were saying, you really can’t tell what scene is which with FX…
IMPACT: You’ve had real success with your role as Sara Lance/ Black Canary in 'Arrow'. Can that be a double-edges sword in the sense that it’s been great exposure but also limits your time to do other projects?
CL: Yeah, but I tend to not plan too far in advance or worry about it. I kinda see what comes my way and if there’s something I really want to do then I’ll do it. If not, then I won’t. I’ve been shooting out in Vancouver for nine months straight, I think, so it wouldn’t be bad to get a little time off as well (laughs). But we’ll see what happens. We wrap production on the second series of Arrow in mid-April…
IMPACT: A lot of people talk about the differences between filming episodic television and a feature film. Did you find it was largely the pace of things on set as well?
CL: More than the timing – which you get used to after a while – I like the pace of tv, it’s fun. But I think the part I miss about film is that tv is a lot more technical. The acting has to be more technical, it’s a dance with the camera and working with it and knowing where you need to stand. In film it’s a lot more free – you have the time to get all that coverage and move and feel more organic…
IMPACT: Your character in Arrow has been high profile and certainly brought out strong opinions from the fans on some elements of her storyline. Is that something you were prepared for… are you ready for the convention experiences?
CL: (Laughs) The Arrow fans are great, they’re really awesome and really active. There’s a lot of online communities and stuff like that. I didn’t know what to expect when I got this part and… I don’t know… it’s cool. It’s fun to be part of something that’s so iconic for people. I haven’t gone to any conventions yet but I AM going to do some this year and I’m looking forward to it. Talking to some of the cast – Slade Wilson – he loves it. He told me how much fun it is. I’ll try it out and it should be fun to meet the fans…
IMPACT: I suppose we should finish by asking the actor who plays the Machine how tech-savvy she really is. I’m sitting here with a Samsung Galaxy Note 3… what’s your gadget of choice?
CL: Hey, I just got a Samsung Note 3! Did you get the watch too? That’s my new toy. You still get the iPhone users who are all ‘ Ohhhh, is that your mini iPad?’ (laughs) But I’m really enjoying it. It’s a phone that you have to work for… you have to watch youtube videos because there’s so much stuff you can do. What you put into it, you get out of it…
The Machine (15) is released by Anchor Bay on the 31st March...
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