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Ah, CRY WOLF - very underrated, underappeciated whodunnit for all the same reasons APRIL FOOLS DAY was - heck, felt like a companion flick. But I digress. Actor from that film, Julian Morris stars in SORORITY ROW (2009), and speaks about the redux:

Were you familiar with the original

House on Sorority Row

, and, if so, how faithful is this remake?

I had heard about the original, but it wasn’t a movie I had seen. When I read the script for the new one, I watched the older version and have in fact met the original writer and director, Mark Rosman. He actually came to set a number of days when we were filming the new one. He’s a huge supporter of the new one, which is a totally different animal. Characters are being changed and the killer is different. The new version is definitely contemporized.

Who do you play in the film and how does he get sucked into all the chaos going on?

I play Andy, the boyfriend of the lead girl, Cassidy, and at first, I see her in this awful sorority house with these awful sorority sisters. He doesn’t know about their prank gone wrong, so I’m not sure why she’s trying to distance herself from the sorority. Being the good boyfriend, I give her my support. I’m also the valedictorian. I give a speech and initiate the graduation ceremony. Of course, when the serial killer starts striking, I’m the one who has to save my girlfriend.

The guilty pleasures of many horror movies are the gruesome deaths. Which one made you squirm the most?

I don’t know if it’s because the writers of the script are sick or the director is sicker but this one is really good. A lot of the deaths involve a slight edge or dark twist of humor. It makes them all the more perverse and worse. My favorite one involves Margo Harshman’s character Chugs who is seeing her psychiatrist and having an affair with him. Of course, it’s not the therapist who is there but the killer. I don’t want to give it away but it’s fantastic. My death is pretty good as well.

Is the whodunit aspect as important as the gore?

For this type of film and genre, it often is. The great thing about

Sorority Row

is it’s a horror, but not in the same vein as

Hostel

or

Saw

, where it’s gratuitous violence. It harkens back to the genre pieces of the ‘90s, like

I Know What You Did Last Summer

or

Scream

, where you have that humor running through it. It’s slightly self defacing and self referential. Particularly for these films, the whodunit aspect is vital. That’s very true for

Sorority Row

where you are wondering who did it and how the killer knew about the prank. Is it one of them? An outsider? Are they from the sorority house? A lot of these sorority sisters are awful people so when they are killed, you really enjoy it. In a way, you are rooting for whoever is behind this mask and graduation gown. It’s also thrilling when you have the reveal to see who it is.

In

Cry Wolf

, the deaths were mainly smoke and mirrors, so how much corn syrup did you have to deal with for

Sorority Row

?

A lot. It’s funny but

Cry Wolf

was pretty tame in comparison, but at the time I didn’t think it was. There is a lot of corn syrup in this one and it does have an R rating.

Ah, CRY WOLF - very underrated, underappeciated whodunnit for all the same reasons APRIL FOOLS DAY was - heck, felt like a companion flick. But I digress. Actor from that film, Julian Morris stars in SORORITY ROW (2009), and speaks about the redux:

Were you familiar with the original House on Sorority Row, and, if so, how faithful is this remake?

I had heard about the original, but it wasn't a movie I had seen. When I read the script for the new one, I watched the older version and have in fact met the original writer and director, Mark Rosman. He actually came to set a number of days when we were filming the new one. He's a huge supporter of the new one, which is a totally different animal. Characters are being changed and the killer is different. The new version is definitely contemporized.

Who do you play in the film and how does he get sucked into all the chaos going on?

I play Andy, the boyfriend of the lead girl, Cassidy, and at first, I see her in this awful sorority house with these awful sorority sisters. He doesn't know about their prank gone wrong, so I'm not sure why she's trying to distance herself from the sorority. Being the good boyfriend, I give her my support. I'm also the valedictorian. I give a speech and initiate the graduation ceremony. Of course, when the serial killer starts striking, I'm the one who has to save my girlfriend.

The guilty pleasures of many horror movies are the gruesome deaths. Which one made you squirm the most?

I don't know if it's because the writers of the script are sick or the director is sicker but this one is really good. A lot of the deaths involve a slight edge or dark twist of humor. It makes them all the more perverse and worse. My favorite one involves Margo Harshman's character Chugs who is seeing her psychiatrist and having an affair with him. Of course, it's not the therapist who is there but the killer. I don't want to give it away but it's fantastic. My death is pretty good as well.

Is the whodunit aspect as important as the gore?

For this type of film and genre, it often is. The great thing about Sorority Row is it's a horror, but not in the same vein as Hostel or Saw, where it's gratuitous violence. It harkens back to the genre pieces of the 90s, like I Know What You Did Last Summer or Scream, where you have that humor running through it. It's slightly self defacing and self referential. Particularly for these films, the whodunit aspect is vital. That's very true for Sorority Row where you are wondering who did it and how the killer knew about the prank. Is it one of them? An outsider? Are they from the sorority house? A lot of these sorority sisters are awful people so when they are killed, you really enjoy it. In a way, you are rooting for whoever is behind this mask and graduation gown. It's also thrilling when you have the reveal to see who it is.

In Cry Wolf, the deaths were mainly smoke and mirrors, so how much corn syrup did you have to deal with for Sorority Row?

A lot. It's funny but Cry Wolf was pretty tame in comparison, but at the time I didn't think it was. There is a lot of corn syrup in this one and it does have an R rating.

The thing about Julian is that he’s a great interview.

The man has a way with casual conversation that you wonder if he’s been doing this for a long time or if he’s just that sincere when he talks about what gets him excited with regard to his work. The first time I talked to him it was over some water at the Beverly Hills Hotel (a swank locale that is excruciatingly difficult to navigate into but reeks of people who have more money than I’ll ever see in this lifetime) and I was struck by his genial and affable nature. That’s why when it was he who I could talk to regarding his newest venture, DONKEY PUNCH, I not only said yes but I campaigned to speak to him; it’s just easier when you have a connection with someone, however tenable and dubious the tether, that this helps to kick start a conversation when you only have 15 minutes to talk.

You’ve got to be able and make the subject feel comfortable and when you’re doing it over the phone it’s almost like you’re rushing a relationship where no one has the time for witless banter. Julian, though, is a true gentleman in the sense he’s willing to share his thoughts but is willing to go that extra few inches and talk about what he’s really thinking. It may not mean much to you, those who are reading this, but for someone like me, who is stuck on the other end of the phone, it’s the difference between a long 15 minutes and a conversation you wish could go a little longer. To be sure, you’ll hopefully be reading another conversation between him and I in the near future.

Again, like last week, DONKEY PUNCH is in limited release and will be out on video in mere months.

JULIAN MORRIS: Chris?

CHRISTOPHER STIPP: Sir…

MORRIS: Good to hear your voice again.

CS: You too. How have you been?

MORRIS: The last time was the Beverly Hills Hotel, right?

CS: That’s correct. How have things been?

MORRIS: Since I’ve seen you last, things have been incredible. Social’s been great. Life’s great. Did a movie with Tom Cruise. Did, this one, DONKEY PUNCH. Played a doctor on ER. What else? Got another movie coming out this year that you would be interested in, called SORORITY ROW.

CS: Well, I had no idea that you were in this film. Zero.

MORRIS: What? You saw it?

CS: I’m having a copy being sent to me. I think it’s at my house today.

MORRIS: Great.

CS: I’m hoping to be able to watch it tonight. I’ve just culled a bunch of information about it and now I’m really amped to see it at least after reading everything about it.

MORRIS: It’s pretty out there. I’m really proud of it. I think it’s really different from movies that are being made for our demographic. It’s a smart movie. Incredibly disturbing but people get a kick out of it.

CS: How did it come across your table? And I only ask because I know because Ollie [blackburn] is a first time director. This film was only made for less than a million pounds if I am to believe the reports.

MORRIS: Well, I loved Oliver Blackburn’s reel. I loved the short films that he’s done. I loved the videos he’s done. And when we were meeting to discuss the film – his insights into the character and his vision really excited me. And also with the way he directs, you would never believe he is a first time director. He directs with the confidence and also the ease of someone who has been doing it for decades. So, how I came about it was being in America a lot I was shooting this film Privileged and my agent called me up from London and said there is a script that I think you will love and initially I was being looked at for another part but I really like the character I play and when you see it you will understand why. He’s interesting. At the beginning he’s quite shy, slightly awkward, young man but with this huge internal to be the alpha male or at least within the respect of the huge chasm between the man that he is and the man that he wants to be and that was really exciting to play out. He does the famous Donkey Punch. How could I say no to that?

(Laughs)

CS: Exactly. That’s all I’ve been hearing about this technique. How was it doing the thriller/horror genre? You’ve been through it now with your other film…

MORRIS: CRY WOLF…

CS: So do you have this down to a science about what it takes?

MORRIS: I guess I’ve been lucky in that all the characters I’ve played have been exceptionally different. Josh is very different from Owen in CRY WOLF. And not only that, the movies have been very different. Whereas CRY WOLF is, I don’t want to say generic, but it was a very Hollywood slasher of it’s time and I think that a film like SORORITY ROW which I just did is like a remake of one of those 90’s films like SCREAM – a lot of that dark twisted humor running though it and DONKEY PUNCH is more intellectual and serious one. I don’t know that I would describe it as a horror film as much as fascist almost in it’s intensity of extreme thriller in the way STRAW DOGS was and I know that Pauline Kael, the terrific critic, she coined it “fascist cinema” and I think DONKEY PUNCH is more in that genre. Like Michael Haneke’s film, FUNNY GAMES, CACHE, etc.

CS: Speaking of the way the movie unwinds, I read that it was very unique in that it was almost shot in sequence.

MORRIS: Yes, the director was great. Some things were done on stage and that was separate, but it was all one location on the boat, either below the boat or on deck and did that in sequence setting up the character development.

CS: The old adage of you never shoot on water

MORRIS: You never work with animals or kids…especially in porn.

(Laughs)

You know what? I think it was surprisingly nice shooting on water. It was a gorgeous super yacht that was the kind that you see on MTV owned my wealthy people or huge rock stars. It was great fun. And also the fact that we were all on this boat in this relatively small space. There weren’t dressing rooms, never in trailers, a single green room. We would be there in our wet costumes when it was cold, covered in blood and it was intense. There was never escape of the characters or anyone else and I think that intensity comes through in the film.

CS: How was that? Now you’ve been on a few sets of this kind – this variety. What kind of challenges does horror, an intense thriller, like this present? What do you have to bring to a role to really get that kind of emotion across in your performance?

MORRIS: Well I think in any scene you want to bring realism. I think with the horror genre you tend to be looking at the emotion of fear a lot and particularly with horror and I think it’s true with all cinema, at least in the cinema I like to make and the characterization I like to make, you want it to be an incredibly empathetic vicarious experience for the viewer in a sense that I want the audience to empathize with my character plus I want them to feel what my character is going through. Any successful cinema, when you are feeling what that character is going through, when you are in that experience, so whether I’m running away from a nice bear I can cry wolf I want the audience to be running with me. I want them to get that tightness in their chest, their heart pounding or in this film – there’s a torture scene and I’m digging a knife in someone (I hope I didn’t give anything away but I think it’s fine to say) I want the audience to be torturing that character with me or at least going through what I’m thinking and what I’m feeling while I’m doing it. If I’ve done that successfully that’s great. If not, oops.

CS: And I guess on that point as well and something I want to bring back with your stint on ER for a few episodes, is the idea of ensemble acting. How is that working within a group, is there a dynamic of sorts that has to take place, whereas do you have to throw it back or forward to make sure you don’t overshine anybody?

MORRIS: Ensemble is great. I think when you are in the lead in something there is just so much what the audience sees but there’s a lot of you are on your own a lot just because of how the filming and the machinations of the filming takes place. When you are doing a scene with a lot of other actors it won’t always be with the same people you’ll be in your travel a lot of the time. You’ll be first in and last out. You’ll spend a lot of time by yourself. The experience is quite isolated. The experience is all good but it’s isolated. Ensemble acting you are with your cast mates all the time. It’s a different feeling. A great sense of teamwork and I think it helps that you are always with the other actors and feeding off them, bouncing off them, not just on camera but off camera as well so you bring that to the set as well.

CS: Being that it’s an ensemble, ensemble cast as well, all these things working against you, first of all it’s low budget, second it’s that it’s a first time director, third you are shooting this thing in 24 days. Were there really any challenging moments where people had to come together to get something done, i.e. go beyond your acting duties, or did everything go smoothly?

MORRIS: This is about two people, the producer, Angus Lamont and also the first AV, Barry Wasserman. I think both AV’s don’t get credit nearly as much as they should but they were really in charge of creating the atmosphere and space on set with which to work between the actors and the directors. They did a tremendous job. So, although we shot in 24 days it was intense. It was challenging. We were jumping in the sea which was probably pretty close to freezing and spent long hours – at one point we shot 24 hours straight. We never got the feeling that we were being rushed at all or forced to act on the nail. The space was always really terrific to work in and very comfortable. That said, the intensity of the drive and the excitement of working in such confinement both on the boat and in time, did create a sense of urgency and intensity and I think that comes through in a successful way and translates itself very well into the film.

CS: Looking at the finished product, what came up on screen, a lot of films try to mimic this, why does this one stand out? Why is this film getting attention?

MORRIS: Because it’s very real and realism works in a number of ways. It works well for the horror. The horror is this fantastic imagined horror. The baddie isn’t some supernatural being with crazy feet. It’s us. We’re the enemy. The other characters are the enemy. We are each other’s own worst enemy. My character is his own worst enemy. Because it’s so real, the audience can associate with them far more. And in that sense, the experience for them is more haunting and exciting. And the last thing is that it’s real. When these kids are on the boat, and they are young people, they are doing what any other young person would be doing or would like to be doing with their best mates, gorgeous girls, drinking a little bit, skinny dipping in the Mediterranean as the sun’s setting. It’s a crazy orgy. And up until the point of the donkey punch it is really the best of youth or the best of any fanaticized youth. After which these real people are confronted with an extraordinary situation and how they deal with it is probably how many young people would deal with it and try to get away with it. And it all goes wrong and leads to this bloodbath. Does that make any sense?

CS: What elevated this? From the very beginning you would think that if you were explaining it to someone they would be apt to say “Nah, this seems like just another teen thing” but what elevated it for you?

MORRIS: I think Oliver Blackburn is probably one of the greatest directors working right now in Britain and his vision was incredible. The cinematic devices he used, whether it was slow motion which was reminiscent of Peckinpah, STRAW DOGS, he drives this menacing destructive crushing atmosphere that’s on this boat and it is a great experience when you are watching it. It’s definitely nails getting right down to the knuckle.

CS: Julian, I know our time is short so let me ask just one more question of you. You are doing a lot of TV, you’re doing a lot of films now, where is your heart taking you? Do you want to have your cake and eat it to? Do you want to keep doing both? What’s on the horizon?

MORRIS: Yeah. I think the line now between great film and great TV is diminished. I think it’s quite easy to swim between the two and I’m just enjoying playing great characters and I want to continue playing characters that inspire me and hopefully inspire those that watch them.

My introduction to ER’s Julian Morris was when he played the innocent schoolboy who gets roped into some deadly fun and games in the movie Cry Wolf. In his new movie, Donkey Punch, Julian’s character, once again, gets pressured by his peers into taking part in a deadly game, but this time around it’s a whole lot darker. Julian Morris talks with me about crying wolf, close quarters and hanging out in the desert with Tom Cruise.

Cyn: Before we talk about your new movie, I have to ask about Cry Wolf. I love that film.

Julian: Cry Wolf is brilliant. It was one of my first features I’d ever shot as a lead and only my second feature that I’d done in America. Jeff Wadlow, the director, was great to work with so was the rest of my cast mates. We filmed in Richmond, Virginia and we were all living together. I was twenty-one at the time, and we had so much fun! You know on set and particularly off set.

Cyn: You got to work with Jon Bon Jovi in that movie.

Julian: Actually, check this out, my first audition that I ever did, gosh I must have been really young, was for a Jon Bon Jovi film. I didn’t get it, but it’s [funny] how things come around. And he was great to work with.

Cyn: In the behind the scenes feature on the DVD, there’s this section all about you having to do that stunt where you dive off a balcony and into a pool. . .

Julian: I didn’t know until the day that I was going to be doing it and in retrospect it probably wasn’t that big a deal. But I remember at the time thinking, what the hell! I’m gonna go from the bleachers to jumping right in the pool and I’m one of those people who finds it difficult to open my eyes under water. But it was fun after the first try, you know, you get the butterflies out of your tummy. It was great, I wanted to go again and again and again.

Cyn: Last year, I interviewed Sandy McCoy (Mercedes) and she told me that she got so addicted to the Cry Wolf game that she still plays it at parties.

Julian: It’s true! I actually introduced it to the cast of “Donkey Punch” and so when we had downtime we would all play with each other.

Cyn: Perfect segue, Julian. So tell me about Donkey Punch. It’s a thriller like Cry Wolf, right?

Julian: I think that probably the best way to describe it would be as an extreme thriller in the same light that maybe a film like Straw Dogs was, or Michael Haneke’s films like Funny Games, and Cache.

Cyn: The majority of the film is spent on a yacht at sea. How was that to film?

Julian: There are two sides to this. We were filming on this motor yacht off the coast of South Africa and the first few days it was like being on this fantastic vacation. Out to sea, the sunshine, much like the beginning part of the film, where it is the best of youth, you know, these characters are on this gorgeous yacht, the sun setting into the sea, they’re enjoying each other’s company, they’re skinning dipping and then of course it leads into this orgy.

The donkey punch really is a reflection of that youthful ideal; in this case, hedonism, but in a very innocent and, despite the drugs and the sex, a very innocuous way. Certainly the first few days of filming on this boat were that for us. Here we were, a bunch of actors, all of us becoming very, very close, in this strange project, but having an absolute ball on this boat. And then, as the scenes became darker and they were less about the enjoyment of youth, but the sheer desperation to survive, that’s when the claustrophobia set in.

We had no escape from one another, because we were working such long days—I mean one day was 21 hours, we were in character for every single waking moment of that day and because we’re all on this—you know it’s a big yacht but its certainly not a big space, we don’t have our trailers, there was no escape from those characters. That, of course, created that palatable sense of claustrophobia, that fear, that heart-pounding sensation and I think one of the successes of the film is that it translates that feeling during the film-making process into one that the viewer and the audience can enjoy… or not enjoy, in this case.

Cyn: Donkey Punch is not a movie for the squeamish and here in the US, I understand you’ll be hit with a more adult rating than you got in the UK.

Julian: Listen, what it contains are some really graphic moments; graphic violence and also graphic sexuality. Its interesting, but it’s the female sexuality that disturbs, not so much the American audience, but the ratings system here because it shows a female enjoying a sexual moment that perhaps isn’t too PC. In this particular instance its one character in a threesome and it’s instigated by the female character and she’s clearly enjoying herself. Were it to be perhaps a rape scene, then it might be more palatable for those that are doing the ratings and deciding them, but because she enjoys herself I think that’s what’s disturbing to them.

Cyn: So it sounds like you didn’t really have any reservations in regard to the explicitness of the film?

Julian: I think, taken within the context of the film, it serves its purpose and serves a very important one. In terms of my commitment to it, that was driven by [director] Oliver Blackburn’s vision. I couldn’t feel anything but total excitement for the type of film that he was going to make and that of course translated into 100% commitment.

Cyn : This is an unusual role for you, isn’t it? Playing something so. . .

Julian: Dark? I love the characters I’ve played; I love Owen Matthews in Cry Wolf, and James in Whirlygirl, but they’ve all been, and I say this in modesty, extensions of myself. They’ve been dealing with a situation in a not too dissimilar way to how I would have dealt with them. Whereas here, with Josh, I can’t think of anything that we have in common. I’d say he’s deeply wrapped up in his shell of insecurity and I can say I’m a pretty secure person. He’s not confident; I’d say I’m pretty sure of myself. He’s not too experienced in the ways of the world and while I still have a hell of a lot to learn I still think I’ve probably lived and experienced a lot more than he has. And certainly with the way he deals with situations, he does so in a very selfish and ultimately cruel way that leads to the deaths of his friends. And… I don’t think I’ve ever done that.

Cyn: I certainly hope not. The method acting taken a little too far, I think.

Julian: Exactly! To answer your question, yes it was a huge jump for me to play. It was a big challenge, but that’s one I relished and I love the opportunity to play such a character. If I look at the actors that inspire me—purely on a talent level, Jack Nicholson, he’s famous for The Shining and that’s maybe his most memorable role or someone like Anthony Hopkins, all those other fantastic roles he’s played and he’s most famous for Silence of the Lambs.

I think there’s a great freedom when you play such a dark character because it allows such opportunities in terms of your breath of choice in deciding how to play that character, what would drive him to do such a thing. Whereas when you’re playing a character closer to home, perhaps because they might be that much more similar to you the choices are much more obvious and so there’s a reluctance to veer too much away from those obvious choices, simply because it would feel unreal both for you as an actor and for your audience.

Cyn: When it comes to characters hitting home, you had an interesting experience working on the World War II movie Valkyrie.

Julian: My grandpa, he fought in the second World War, and he was actually captured and taken to this prison camp in Italy a couple of months prior to when the Germans came to take those that were Jewish to the concentration camps. He managed to escape, and he did this incredible trek across the Alps and he kept a diary the whole time he did it. It was this green leather bound diary with these incredible stories and these immaculately sketched drawing of where he was, the people he met, those that helped him and so when I was very young he gave it to me. I’ve always had it, sits in my room and I keep it somewhere very, very safe and I always will.

So, when I was shooting Valkyrie, I was playing a young lieutenant in Stauffenberg’s army in North Africa. I was playing a Nazi, my grandpa wasn’t a Nazi, he was one of the allies, but he also fought in North Africa. There was a scene where all these explosion were happening and I remember thinking, gosh this is exactly the same region that my grandpa would have experienced; I’m wearing a World War II uniform, I’m seeing people running around in uniforms, bloodied and injured, manning guns, I can smell the gunpowder in the air and the searing heat and that moment, I was there. I was exactly there where my grandpa had been in the early 1940’s. It was spectacular.

Cyn: That must have been some shift, going from an indie such as Donkey Punch to a blockbuster like Valkyrie.

Julian: Just in terms of the time that you have, we shot Donkey Punch in 24 days, and Valkyrie was shot over the course of a year. And so the time that you can dedicate to each scene is immense. I don’t know whether that’s necessarily a good thing, I think there’s always the case where you can think it too with something. And sometimes you need to feel that energy and in a movie like Donkey Punch where the film does need to have that accelerated pace, that claustrophobia, it works well when it’s a short shoot; because it’s all condensed in those days.

The other thing though is there’s going to be days when your fellow actor brings over the planes and lets the whole cast and crew on to see a flight show, and you get to come home from work in a helicopter and its pretty cool going into the craft service where they have like fresh Mahi-Mahi burgers all day long. . .

Cyn: So I have to ask. How was it working with Tom Cruise?

Julian: It was very, very cool. And Tom Cruise was—I can’t say how fantastic he was towards me. He was of course, shrouded in myth and legend, you know, he’s Tom Cruise. He’s a superstar. But he was the most regular and approachable man. He gave me fantastic advice on acting and choosing roles… he was remarkable. One evening it was a bunch of us, and we were staying in the desert having this barbecue together, sharing beers and he was just telling the most incredible stories about film making and films and Stan Kubrick and Paul Newman- it was just incredible.

Cyn: You also work on TV. I saw you recently guesting on Eleventh Hour.

Julian: Absolutely. And then ER’s been great as well! Its nice to mix it up, it’s great to just be able to choose great roles and be able to work on characters no matter whether it’s a small independent movie or a movie with a budget of 19 million dollars… and that line between TV and film for an actor is definitely blurred and that’s great for audiences and for performers alike.

Cyn: Finally, I have to ask my favorite questions. What’s something you’ve done that there’s no way you’re ever doing that again?

Julian: That is a great question! I generally try and live my life without regret, but something that I’ve done that I would never do… this a silly story, but I was backpacking through Belize over the holidays and I was on this night walk with one of these jungle guides. I was walking, getting ahead by myself, the rest of the people in my group were taking a long time, they were looking at ants that cut leaves; I was like, can we go, there are better and bigger animals and so I walked ahead and I saw this snake about three feet from me and I was like wow, that’s wicked! I grew up in South Africa, I remember we’d find snakes in the wild and my parents, or who we were with, would handle them.

So, my natural instinct when I saw the snake was, oh I want to get close, maybe I could pick it up, and I’m getting closer—this is such a stupid thing to do— and suddenly I feel this hand on my shoulder and it’s this local Mayan guy who we’re walking with and he lurches me backwards and his face is drained of color. The snake was a Fer de Lance which is the most deadly, toxic snake in the whole region of Central America. It’s local name is Spear of Fire because they extend their whole body, latch into you and shoot this fiery venom into your veins that feels like a conflagration within you. So that’s probably something I won’t do again in the future.

Cyn: Captain Kirk vs. Captain Jack Sparrow?

Julian: Well, I guess, if you’re talking purely—actually, I was gonna say if it was who was going to get from A to B, you’d think that Captain Kirk would win, but I think that Captain Jack Sparrow has got that—what is it? Not the Golden Compass, that’s another film… what’s that… special compass he has?

But in terms, of a good weekend, like someone you want to have like fun with and like go to a party with or go to a bar, I think I’d wanna—I think Captain Sparrow would be a lot more fun than Captain Kirk. You could certainly drink more tequila shots with Captain Sparrow.

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My introduction to Julian Morris was when he played the innocent schoolboy who gets roped into some deadly fun and games in the movie Cry Wolf. In his new movie, Donkey Punch, Julian's character, once again, gets pressured by his peers into taking part in a deadly game, but this time

around it's a whole lot darker.

Julian Morris talks with me about crying wolf, close quarters and hanging out in the desert with Tom Cruise.

Cyn: Before we talk about your new movie, I have to ask about Cry Wolf. I love that film.

Julian: Cry Wolf is brilliant. It was one of my first features I'd ever shot as a lead and only my second feature that I'd done in America. Jeff Wadlow, the director, was great to work with so was the rest of my cast mates. We filmed in Richmond, Virginia and we were all living together. I was twenty-one at the time, and we had so much fun! You know on set and particularly off set.

Cyn: You got to work with Jon Bon Jovi in that movie.

Julian: Actually, check this out, my first audition that I ever did, gosh I must have been really young, was for a Jon Bon Jovi film. I didn't get it, but it's [funny] how things come around. And he was great to work with.

Cyn: In the behind the scenes feature on the DVD, there's this section all about you having to do that stunt where you dive off a balcony and into a pool. . .

Julian: I didn't know until the day that I was going to be doing it and in retrospect it probably wasn't that big a deal. But I remember at the time thinking, what the hell! I'm gonna go from the bleachers to jumping right in the pool and I'm one of those people who finds it difficult to open my eyes under water. But it was fun after the first try, you know, you get the butterflies out of your tummy. It was great, I wanted to go again and again and again.

Cyn: Last year, I interviewed Sandy McCoy (Mercedes) and she told me that she got so addicted to the Cry Wolf game that she still plays it at parties.

Julian: It's true! I actually introduced it to the cast of "Donkey Punch" and so when we had downtime we would all play with each other.

Julian Morris has a lot of blood on his hands. After making a horrific splash in Cry Wolf, Morris also got messy in a recurring role on TV's ER and Valkyrie. Now the 26-year-old actor is returning full-force to the horror genre with Donkey Punch and Sorority Row. Morris spoke exclusively with FEARnet about the two projects, which both feature a series of events gone awry and their terrifying consequences.

After doing Cry Wolf, what made you want to return to the horror genre?

After Cry Wolf, I didn't return to the genre immediately. I did Whirlygirl, which was a love story, and Marple, which was a period piece in England. But what has always motivated me is the material. If it's a great character, a great script, and because of my age, a lot of those films are going to be thrillers or horrors. They are like the bread and butter of young Hollywood. They tend to do well and, as a result, studios tend to put money in them. I tend to like fast action pieces, so I thought the scripts for Donkey Punch and Sorority Row were fantastic. Yeah, I had done the genre before, but I found them very distinct from Cry Wolf and each other. And Donkey Punch was filmed in Cape Town on board this luxury yacht with six other English actors. I had the time of my life making it. Sorority Row was filmed with some of the most gorgeous girls I've ever laid eyes on, up in Pittsburgh.

Were you familiar with the original House on Sorority Row, and, if so, how faithful is this remake?

I had heard about the original, but it wasn't a movie I had seen. When I read the script for the new one, I watched the older version and have in fact met the original writer and director, Mark Rosman. He actually came to set a number of days when we were filming the new one. He's a huge supporter of the new one, which is a totally different animal. Characters are being changed and the killer is different. The new version is definitely contemporized.

Who do you play in the film and how does he get sucked into all the chaos going on?

I play Andy, the boyfriend of the lead girl, Cassidy, and at first, I see her in this awful sorority house with these awful sorority sisters. He doesn't know about their prank gone wrong, so I'm not sure why she's trying to distance herself from the sorority. Being the good boyfriend, I give her my support. I'm also the valedictorian. I give a speech and initiate the graduation ceremony. Of course, when the serial killer starts striking, I'm the one who has to save my girlfriend.

The guilty pleasures of many horror movies are the gruesome deaths. Which one made you squirm the most?

I don't know if it's because the writers of the script are sick or the director is sicker but this one is really good. A lot of the deaths involve a slight edge or dark twist of humor. It makes them all the more perverse and worse. My favorite one involves Margo Harshman's character Chugs who is seeing her psychiatrist and having an affair with him. Of course, it's not the therapist who is there but the killer. I don't want to give it away but it's fantastic. My death is pretty good as well.

Is the whodunit aspect as important as the gore?

For this type of film and genre, it often is. The great thing about Sorority Row is it's a horror, but not in the same vein as Hostel or Saw, where it's gratuitous violence. It harkens back to the genre pieces of the ‘90s, like I Know What You Did Last Summer or Scream, where you have that humor running through it. It's slightly self defacing and self referential. Particularly for these films, the whodunit aspect is vital. That's very true for Sorority Row where you are wondering who did it and how the killer knew about the prank. Is it one of them? An outsider? Are they from the sorority house? A lot of these sorority sisters are awful people so when they are killed, you really enjoy it. In a way, you are rooting for whoever is behind this mask and graduation gown. It's also thrilling when you have the reveal to see who it is.

In Cry Wolf, the deaths were mainly smoke and mirrors, so how much corn syrup did you have to deal with for Sorority Row?

A lot. It's funny but Cry Wolf was pretty tame in comparison, but at the time I didn't think it was. There is a lot of corn syrup in this one and it does have an R rating.

You recently had Donkey Punch released on DVD. How do you explain what that is to your parents without blushing?

Actually, I was the one blushing because my Dad explained it to me. "Dad, I'm doing a movie called Donkey Punch," and he's like "Come here son. That's the part of the birds and the bees conversation I didn't tell you."

What causes things to spiral out of control for this group of youngsters on the boat?

This movie really is in two parts. You have the first part, which is the best of youth. These seven characters, four guys and three gorgeous girls, are on this yacht in the Mediterranean Sea. The sun is setting, we are skinny dipping, we are getting high, and we start talking about donkey punching. We go down to the cabin and it's almost a natural progression into the sex with the video camera out. During a sex act, my character Josh performs a donkey punch which leads to the death of this girl. From that point onwards, everything changes. Naturally, they decide on how to deal with this. Should they call the police? They don't want to do that because their lives would be over. Josh wants to be a lawyer, but he'd go to prison so he pushes them into dumping the body overboard with the plan they'd go back and say she drowned. However, they dump the body and it floats. The other two girls freak out, thinking the other guys are going to rape them or have ulterior motives. Everything we try to do to make things better just makes the situation worse. It's like Lord of the Flies with these young people performing the most horrible deeds.

Is it more interesting being the catalyst for the chain of events, as in Donkey Punch, or swept along such as in Cry Wolf or Sorority Row?

That's a really good question. It really depends on the character or script. Owen Matthews in Cry Wolf was a great character, because in a sense he was forced into madness and into believing events were happening, to the extent he kills somebody. In the case of Josh in Donkey Punch, you could argue they come from a state of madness already.

What else do you have in the pipeline?

I just finished ER which was amazing and very different to horror. I start a new movie in two and a half weeks once everything is signed on the dotted line. I don't want to say anything yet but it's a horror thriller. I keep getting these scripts that I really like. I need to ask my agents to do a nice romantic comedy, but I'm never going to leave this genre. I really genuinely love it.

British horror movie Donkey Punch will be released on DVD and Blu-ray on 10th November 2008. Tom Burke plays Bluey and Julian Morris plays Josh.

How did you get involved in the film?

Julian Morris (Josh): I was shooting this TV show, and I got this script from my agent just saying read it, you'll love it! and I read it, and of course I did love it and knew this was something I wanted to do. I raced back to England and auditioned, and thankfully, luckily, I got the part. And that's how I got involved with it.

Tom Burke (Bluey): I got the script and was quite worried about it, because I thought it was quite a. a step into the unknown a bit. But I met Olly, actually for Josh.

JM: Really?

TB: Yeah.

JM: And I met you originally for Bluey, that's interesting.

TB: Aaaah.

Describe your characters....

TB: Bluey is really quite.mentally ill I'd say. I've played a lot of people who are sort of dark and violent and obsessive, but they usually have some sort of poetry to their soul, and I wouldn't say that Bluey had that. He's not in touch with those things, and doesn't come in touch with those things in the course of the film. He's not a leader, he's not a poet, he is a follower that shows absolutely no sign of remorse throughout any of the film. And I wanted to acknowledge that rather than play against it.

JM: With Josh, and this is one of the main reasons why I was attracted to his character is that I've never played anyone like him before. He's a weak male and I certainly think the root to his character was more like what he wasn't than what he was. He's not an alpha male, he's not a charming guy, he hasn't got laid much in his life. Certainly with him there's a huge space between the guy that he is and the guy that he wants to be. He'd love to be a character like Marcus, or even like Bluey, you know, in charge, charming, able to pick up girls pretty easily, and he can't do that. He's knotted, he's insular, and yet desperate to go out there and have fun. And certainly up until the Donkey Punch he's doing that, he's living his dream. He's on this boat, getting laid, with his best friends. Not getting laid with his best friends (laughs) but you know what I mean. Having fun on this boat and then up until this moment it all goes completely wrong for him. Not through any I think deliberate action by him but from that moment it is a fight for survival for him, he's got to do anything to survive. And that primal instinct in him just comes out and unleashes itself.

How did you prepare for the role?

TB: (Points at JM) He only ate raw meat for 5 weeks before and during the shoot.

JM: Yeah.

TB: He was quite constipated, it gave a certain frustrated energy to his performance.

JM: But you really fed off that!

TB: I fed off that.

JM: The energy, not the constipation.

TB: Not the constipation.

(Both laugh)

JM: The preparation! I went to sailing school with some of the other guys. Which was a lot of help, because when we're on the boat we have to look fluent, look as if we know what we're doing, so that helped. The director, Ollie Blackburn, was hugely helpful. He gave us a CD of the music our characters would like. We discussed at length the backstory of our characters, our family upbringing, our relationships with our parents, the relationship with my brother, played by Robert Boulter.

TB: I did go, Rob helped me go to Fabric, and I was supposed to meet some DJ in Fabric, but she.

JM What do you mean helped you go to Fabric?

TB: Well I wouldn't have known.

JM: what, helped to get you in at the door?

TB: Yeah, I just had this free pass the Fabric, and went with a friend. I was trying to get through to this DJ all night, she was delayed, she was in Brighton or somewhere, never arrived. I didn't like it in there and I stayed for about 10 minutes. It was too loud. So it was very much. There were a few mates who really helped me out who'd I think had known more people like Bluey than I'd known.

JM: But you were great at Dj'ing when you were on the boat, putting on the tunes for us. And you knew how to use the decks, was it all pretend, was it acting?

TB: Don't know what I was doing. Yeah.

JM: You were pretty good at that.

TB: Yeah.

Was the atmosphere on set intense?

JM: The atmosphere on set often was something you wanted to rush from, so it heightened the intensity certainly for us as actors. And you know we were filming nights, and long, long hours, so it all just encouraged that feeling.

TB: It was a bit weird being stuck on a boat all day. There was usually a point about 4 o'clock where Jamie Easton be going I'm going mental, I'm going fucking mental! and she'd sort have to do that every day for like an hour. And we'd just be like yeah 'I'm going mental, I'm going mental, yeah and then she'd calm down and we could carry on.

How did you feel about the sex scene?

JM: Best day of filming of my life. I loved it.

TB: Gosh. No.

JM: Did you not like it?

TB: No. I tried to. I tried to just go with it. I was quite brave.

JM: I thought you were very, very brave.

TB: I noticed in the Empire interview you said that we'd all took our cock socks off.

JM: I did as well!

TB: I remember that it as just me who took it off.

JM: No I did as well!

TB: Well I did from day one. A cock sock is a piece of stocking with elastic in one end. Yeah, it looks ridiculous.

JM I love filming and acting naked, and I'm certainly going to ask to do more of it in future. I think It's very liberating, you don't have to worry about anything at all other than the acting. Clothes don't get in the way costumes, props don't, it's just you and the suit you were born in.

JM: I think on the film, the sex scene, it starts off quite fun but at the end it's very, very intimidating incredibly intense. But certainly on the day we were filming, I really enjoyed it, I think we were all pretty close by then. Ollie Blackburn created a very, very relaxed and welcoming set for us to film in, and we had fun. Certainly I had fun.

How did the sex scene shape your character?

JM: For Josh the Orgy scene is a crucial juncture, up until that point he's been this very repressed individual, really gone from A-b, he's gone to law school, very, very focused, maybe he's had sex once in his life before. So here he is, on this, boat, having the time of his life, it's the best of youth. He's got these Gorgeous girls around him, his best mates, they're high, they're drunk They're into this scene where every young person is going to look at it, and whether you like skinny dipping or not, or doing this or not, it's the best of youth. He's having the time of his life. And then for whatever reason he does this Donkey Punch, and that moment his whole life changes. It changes not just the movie but that atmosphere obviously from being the best of youth to absolutely the worst nightmare you can imagine.

TB: I think for me, or I think for Bluey rather, from the beginning the sex is quite wrong, but I think that's probably what he's into, I think he quite wants it to be a little bit wrong so he's pushing the wrongness more and more. And then it goes really wrong.

How did you feel about the violence in the film?

JM: I loved doing the violence. One of my favourite scenes in the movie is a scene that we had together.

TB: Ah!

JM: Which is the torture scene. It was something I was looking forward to hugely. Because I clearly don't like torment.

TB: I think that was probably my favourite day. In retrospect I don't know if it's because I was snorting massive amounts of glucose.

(JM Laughs)

TB: Because I remember feeling quite kind of upbeat that day.

JM: Yeah, yeah, but you were brilliant though!

TB: But I think I really had consumed a large amount of glucose through my nostrils.

JM: Because he's supposed to be snorting Ketamine, and obviously you don't really snort Ketamine when you're filming. Or at least Tom doesn't.

JM: But Tom, every single time I was doing the knife, when it wasn't on camera, he was giving it to me totally with screaming, and that certainly helped me a lot.

TB: It was a kind of real release. I think I probably spent a few days in the little caravan right on the shore before that scene, so I had a lot to give.

JM: But also the torture scene for Josh is his get back to Bluey. During the Sex scene, it's Bluey who in all respects who emasculates Josh, the one who tells Josh to do it, to do it, he encourages Josh to do something, Josh takes it as the Donkey Punch. But certainly Bluey is in control, he's filming, and then Josh does the punch and it's all over for him. This time round it was me and him, I was in control, I was the one doing the penetrating with the blade.

How was working with the director Olly Blackburn?

JM: He's a fantastic director, he's a brilliant director, and I certainly think he's going to be one of the biggest names in British cinema in years to come. He created space for us to work in as actors. He wasn't, you know, too on top of us with direction, but at the same time he was very, very clear. when he spoke to us, the ideas that he had for us, but also very responsive when we had an idea and always listened.

TB: Yeah, he gave us space, and time, and matter (Smiles) And the earth in seven days (laughs)

JM: He created everything! But also on such a frenetic.Because it was! A very frenetic pace and the producers were looking at finances, and budget, and timing, and I never got a sense of that. I always felt there was time to expand and play Josh as I wanted to.

What does the film mean to you?

JM: On a professional level it's something. I'm immensely proud of, it's terrific British cinema. The response I've had from people who've seen it, whether it's at Sundance or friends who've seen screenings the love it, they really like it. On a personal level, I've had the time of my life making this movie. We filmed in Capetown, which is a city I love. I made some of the best mates I'm likely to have for the best of my life, and I certainly made some of the most incredible memories doing this film.

TB: I remember my agent saying that he thought it was Of the time when we read the script and I thought What do you mean of the time? and he went you know, young people, taking drugs, get their comeuppance.and yeah, I dunno if it's Of the time, I don't know if I know enough about the time to say that. It certainly is moralistic, the only person who sort of survives is the purest individual and I think all the characters in the film are on this moral scale somewhere. I think it has a moralistic tone in there somewhere.