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The seductive supernatural thriller Dead Awake is set against the backdrop of a mysterious tragedy that shattered the lives of three people a decade ago, and which sets them on a path to uncover the truth that lies between the living and the dead. When Dylan (Nick Stahl), a depressed assistant at a funeral parlor, decides to fake his own funeral to see who will show up, he ends up befriending a mysterious street junkie named Charlie (Rose McGowan) and is reunited with an old love from his past (Amy Smart), whom he abandoned 10 years prior. He then must confront his past and get the answers to an old mystery before he can proceed with the business of living his own life. In this exclusive interview with Collider, actress Amy Smart talked about her desire to work with the film’s director Omar Naim, how much she enjoyed working with Nick Stahl and Rose McGowan, that psychological horror can often be much scarier than outright gore, how she would love to emulate the careers of Meryl Streep and Kate Winslet, and how she’s hoping to do another comedy soon. Question: How did you get involved with Dead Awake? Was it an audition, or had they specifically asked to see you? AMY SMART: I was fortunate to get offered the role. I met with Omar Naim. I’m a really big fan of his. I loved The Final Cut. I just thought it was an original film. So, after reading Dead Awake, I decided that I wanted to work with him. I also like Nick Stahl a lot, and Rose McGowan. I thought it would just be a really interesting, unusual, original movie. Do you prefer the type of situation where you can just meet with and talk to someone about a role, instead of having to audition? SMART: It’s a mix. Sometimes, when I do audition, I feel like I’m won the role because they’ve seen what I can do and, therefore, that’s why they’re hiring me. So, there is a gratification from that. But then, I also really like meeting with filmmakers and talking about it and them already trusting that I could play that role. It’s a little bit more of a creative collaboration. What was it about this project and this character that appealed to you and made you want to get involved? SMART: I loved that she had this past with this ex-love of hers, and that she’d moved on, yet she still has this hope in her heart for her old love. And that she’s a nurse. She didn’t really follow her dreams, but she’s settling and trying to make the most of her life. And then, out of the blue, she reconnects with her old love. I liked the history of it. I liked the characters and their tortured past. What can you say about this film to interest audiences in seeing it, when there are so many films opening at this time of year? SMART: Anyone who’s a fan of Omar Naim will really enjoy this. I loved The Final Cut and thought it was so amazing and original. And, this film is the same way. You can feel him, as a director, in this movie. In the end, it’s hopeful, but it goes through a roller coaster of love and pain and allusion. It’s about Dylan (Nick Stahl) trying to figure his life out and being haunted by something. I think everybody, in their life, is haunted by something that they struggle with inside, and it’s really lovely to see Dylan really try to work out this demon that’s been eating away at him and that’s been holding him back in his life. That’s his journey in this movie. And, he meets this junkie, Charlie, who he’s befriended, that Rose McGowan plays. Then, he reconnect with his old love, Natalie, which I played. It’s about the journey that Dylan goes through to find out how to free himself from the torture that he has inside of him. In the end, you’re left feeling resolve. It’s not like you feel torn to pieces and you leave feeling gutted. But, the journey of it is really fascinating, and Omar is such a brilliant filmmaker that I think people will enjoy it. Once you were cast in the role, were there any changes made to the character to better suit your vision of her? SMART: It was pretty much what was there when I read it. In the editing room, they definitely changed things around, here and there, which makes it feel a little non-linear. That works really well for that movie , but wasn’t necessarily in the script that way. But, the character was the way she was, on the page. |
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Actress Amy Smart has made a fresh and charming impression in a string of comedy features, from ROAD TRIP to RAT RACE to JUST FRIENDS, but her career also has a dark side. She had early roles in CAMPFIRE TALES and the Dee Snider vehicle STRANGELAND, and more recently appeared in MIRRORS and SEVENTH MOON. Starting today, Smart can be seen in the supernaturally tinged dramatic thriller DEAD AWAKE (in select cities from New Films Cinema), and she took the occasion to discuss her many genre features with Fango. DEAD AWAKE, directed by Omar Naim, casts Smart as Natalie, the high-school flame of troubled protagonist Dylan (Nick Stahl). Once a guy with a promising future, Dylan was devastated by his breakup with Natalie and has wound up as an attendant in a funeral home, and after witnessing the crowds that attend the wake of a local football hero, he bets his boss, Decko (Brian Lynner), that no one would show up on the occasion of his death. But when they plant his obituary and Dylan is laid out in a coffin, two people do make appearances: Natalie, who’s currently engaged to another man, and a street junkie named Charlie (Rose McGowan). While Dylan has never seen Charlie before, the duo seem to share a strange—perhaps otherworldly—connection, and the more he gets to know her, the closer he gets to uncovering some frightening truths. Smart joined the DEAD AWAKE ensemble after Stahl and McGowan, and says, “After reading the script and knowing that Nick was playing Dylan and Rose was playing Charlie, I wanted to be a part of it. I’d seen Omar’s film THE FINAL CUT with Robin Williams, and I found it such an interesting, original film that definitely made me think about my life, and I loved his style of directing. “I also really enjoyed the journey that Dylan goes on,” she continues, “because I believe all of us have these things inside us that hold us back, that sabotage us in our lives. To see him actively working that out, trying to figure out how to move forward in his life and his struggles and illusions—I like that journey he takes. There’s redemption in it, and the idea of letting go of the old and truly facing your fears, with the theme of souls being trapped and unable to move forward because they’ve committed certain crimes that keep them stuck in their own personal hell.” As dark a journey as the characters take on screen, Smart recalls the five-week shoot in Des Moines, Iowa in September 2009 as far more pleasant. “It honestly was great,” she says. “We had such cool locations, because there’s so much history in Des Moines and we had great old buildings and different neighborhoods we filmed in. Also, when you’re on location, you have more of a bonding experience with the cast and crew, and that plays into the film. I worked with Nick on the first acting job I ever did, for MTV’s ROCK THE VOTE; we hadn’t done anything together since, and it was wonderful working together again. I’d been following his career, and he’s so talented. He really throws himself into his roles full-on, and he’s not scared to take risks. He becomes so transparent and revealing with himself and his character. Rose was great, too; this role was so outside the box for her. She was really witty and fun and has a great personality, and I enjoyed playing off both of them.” |
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Last night in Los Angeles there was a premiere for “Dead Awake” and Amy Smart was in attendance! I have just added 47 HQ/MQ photos of Amy from the event into our gallery.     
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With director Omar Naim’s supernaturally-tinged feature Dead Awake opening in limited release this Friday, December 3rd (the flick is set to hit DVD and Blu-ray on March 29 of next year), this writer caught up today with one of the film’s principals, actress Amy Smart, who dished on the movie, as well as the possibility of a third in the Crank series, and her potential inclusion in a future horror project. Known best as a comedic actress for her turns in the films Just Friends and Road Trip (among others) and to genre fans for her roles in The Butterfly Effect and Mirrors (as well the gonzo action flicks Crank and Crank: High Voltage, in which she portrayed the girlfriend of actor Jason Statham’s adrenalized hit-man ‘Chev Chelios’), Smart appears in Dead Awake as ‘Natalie’, the long-lost love of young funeral parlor employee ‘Dylan’ (actor Nick Stahl), a young man who works diligently to piece together the events which shattered his life ten years prior. Rounding out the cast of Dead Awake is actress Rose McGowan (Planet Terror, Scream) as the junkie ‘Charlie’, a character who befriends Dylan, and who sets in motion an altogether surprising series of events. Penned by Johnny Harrington, Justin Urich and David Boivin, Naim’s New Films Cinema flick (the director previously helmed the 2004 Robin William’s thriller The Final Cut) proves to be a bit of a cipher, which is one of the things – according to Smart – that attracted her to the project. “I feel that the movies which are now being made are hybrid movies,” stated the actress, whose real-life persona proved to be just as charming and witty as her on-screen demeanor. “They have supernatural elements. They’ve got romance, and they’ve got drama and they’ve got comedy. I feel like they are starting to mingle the genres. It’s hard to market a hybrid movie though, because it looks like a horror film (on the surface), but after reading the script and seeing the final cut (of Dead Awake), I knew that it wasn’t, and that it was a hybrid. I just love Omar as a filmmaker, and I think he is really talented, and I really wanted to work on this project. I thought the story was really interesting, and now that I’ve seen it, I’m really happy with the way it turned out, because it’s the kind of film where you are hanging on to the last moment wondering what’s real and what’s not real.” As for what attracted her to her Dead Awake character of ‘Natalie’, a RN who leads an emotionally conflicted life, ”I really liked her,” stated Smart, “because she has this past with her ex-love, and it was such a deep love that I don’t think that she has ever been able to move on from him. She settled with a new guy, and sort of decided to settle in her life, and she isn’t completely happy. So in rekindling the relationship with her past love, it makes her see that she had settled. I liked the nuances of seeing her struggle with her present-day life situation, and wanting to break free from it. The fact that she is a nurse and isn’t a doctor (is also indicative) too, because she didn’t push forward towards her dreams. I liked that she is awakened.” Commenting on the project, Smart stated of co-stars Stahl and McGowan, who at the time were already attached to Dead Awake (the film shot in Des Moines, Iowa for an estimated 3.5 million), “It was funny, because the first acting role I ever had was in a “MTV Rock The Vote” (spot), and it was a vignette about gun violence, and it was with Nick. We played a boyfriend and girlfriend in that (too).” While Smart hadn’t worked with Stahl since (interestingly though, Smart appeared in Alexandre Aja’s 2008 horror film Mirrors, while Stahl took the lead in that film’s Vincent Garcia-directed sequel Mirrors 2 – a fact the actress was surprised to hear), she stated of Stahl (whose other genre flicks include Disturbing Behavior, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines and the venerated series “Carnivale”), “We stayed friendly, but not super close, but I was so happy to work with him again. I think he is such a solid, great actor, and he just brings a lot of weight to whatever project he is working on.” According to Smart, she too enjoyed her working relationship with Rose McGowan. “She was really fun,” said the actress. “She’s funny and witty and sarcastic, and while we didn’t have that many scenes together in Dead Awake, we definitely spent a lot of time together in Des Moines, and I think she’s really talented. It was the type of character she’s never played before. She’s known as the gorgeous bomb-shell who can act, and in this film it was so outside of anything she’s played, and I think she did a great job. I know that she was definitely pushed out of her comfort zone, and what’s fun as an actor is to take risks at things that you think you may fail at, and to go for it, and to grow and to expand.” As for what else Smart has been up to, she revealed, “I just finished a film earlier this month called Blood Brothers. It’s another hybrid, a family drama slash comedy slash action film. It’s with Ethan Embry (Vacancy, Freakylinks) and the WWE wrestler John Cena. It’s basically about these four siblings – three brothers and a sister – who come together for their father’s funeral, and who have all been estranged, and the father’s wish is to bring everyone back together, so the sister sort of facilitates that, and lies about what’s in the will to bring everyone back together. It’s a great dysfunctional family that then has this incredible challenge that they must overcome.” (Produced by WWE Studios and directed by Michael Pavone, Blood Brothers recently wrapped in Albuquerque, NM, and also stars Michael Rispoli and Boyd Holbrook). We of course weren’t remiss in questioning Smart as to her character of ‘Eve Lydon’ in the Crank films, and as to whether she’d be interested in returning to the franchise. “A while back I heard that it was a possibility,” hinted the actress. “The second one was so over the top. It was like, ‘Let’s try to top the first one!’ It was pure entertainment value. I’m actually slightly scared to see what they would write for a third, but I would be interested in returning. I had such a great time working on both of them, and I love Jason Statham, and we’ve become friends since, and I really like (Crank directors) Brian (Taylor) and Mark (Neveldine), so it would be fun to work with them again. I’m just a little bit wary of where they would want to take my character in the third one! I’m not sure where they could – possibly to the insane asylum!” And while the actress’ current personal interest lies in returning to comedy, Smart hasn’t ruled out the horror genre. “There’s actually this one film called Glimmer that I am supposed to shoot early next year,” she concluded, “and that’s more of a horror film. It’s a supernatural thriller, but it has much more of a horror element. It’s a very original idea, but I think they just maybe switched the director. The script is really good, so that’s a possibility coming down the pike.” (Dread posits that Glimmer may perhaps be the feature which Farmhouse director George Bessudo has been rumored as attached to). |
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“Life in Flight” will be released on DVD on Tuesday, November 30th! You can still pre-order the film at Amazon.com for $22.49. |
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On Thursday night, Amy Smart was photographed at the IN ADD MINUS Celebrates The Launch of Its Flagship Store in Los Angeles. I have just added 20 HQ/MQ photos from the event into our photo gallery!     
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Amy Smart has signed on to a new film titled “House of the Rising Sun”. The movie will be filming throughout the month of December in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
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This past weekend and last night, Amy Smart was photographed at two new events and I have just added 70 HQ/MQ photos from them into our gallery!     
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Amy Smart Online is an unofficial non-profit fansite dedicated to Amy Smart in hopes to help promote her talent and her career. This site has no official affiliation with Amy Smart or her agents - it is run by fans for fans. The webmaster(s) of this website claim no ownership to any material seen on this website and is used, to the best of their knowledge, under the "Fair Use" copyright laws...