Archive for the ‘Jane Levy’ Category
Jane Levy, 23, is the star of TV comedy Suburgatory, in which she has red hair. She loves changing her look and will be black-haired in new film Evil Dead.
What can we expect from Tessa in the next series of Suburgatory?
She’s a Chatswinian now. She’s no longer trying to get out of suburbia, she’s embraced it as her home. She also has a new interest in her mother. She spent the summer in New York, found some of her mother’s things and is starting to wonder who she is. Then she meets her. It was such a pleasure to discover that relationship with Malin Akerman, who plays her. She’s a great actress.It must have been emotional to film the scenes where Tessa meets her mum for the first time?
It was. This is a huge moment, meeting a parent that you never met before. It’s almost so big that Tessa doesn’t even know how to comprehend it yet. In a way it brings her and her dad [Jeremy Sisto] closer together. There’s an episode where she says to her mum: ‘Thanks for having me, but I’m going to go back to my dad now.’Is it true the show is planning a tribute to Homeland?
I’ve never watched Homeland, but Suburgatory’s creator Emily is in love with it. She likes to make sure she’s not making fun of it but I know there was an episode recently where Dalia [Carly Chaikin] opened up a Torah [Jewish religious text] and prayed. I don’t know why, but that has got to be to do with Homeland.
Suburgatory star Jane Levy has signed up to play the lead in In A Dark Place. The film is a psychological thriller focused around a young American governess, played by Levy, who goes to London to take care of a doll. The family treats the doll like it was their son and expects the governess to take care of it as such. Gold Circle is financing the film with Bharat Nalluri to direct from a screenplay by Stacey Menear. Paul Brooks, Roy Lee and Jim Weddaa will produce. Scott Niemeyer and John Middleton will serve as the executive producers of In A Dark Place. Besides this new role and her role on the ABC sitcom, the actress is also going to be the lead in the upcoming Fede Alvarez-directed remake of Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead.Jane Levy is repped by WME and Sloane, Offer, Weber and Dern.
Star Jane Levy is taking over the role originated by Bruce Campbell. That is not to say she is playing a female version of Ash. She is Mia, a young woman with a drug problem who is brought to a cabin in the woods to kick her habit and get herself clean. It is here that she unwittingly unleashes the Deadite army. Like Ash, she is put through the wringer, and is the main subject of the film’s brutal violence. She will be beaten, shot, stabbed, and bled like a stuffed pig. She is getting dirty for the role, there is no doubt. She is joined onscreen by Shiloh Fernandez, who plays her brother, Lou Taylor Pucci, who plays a close family friend, and Jessica Lucas, who thinks she’s just accompanying her boyfriend on a quiet getaway in the woods. She couldn’t be more wrong.
Jane Levy explains the story that lies at the root of this remake, and how it is quite different from the original.
“A lot of this movie is based on the relationship between the brother and the sister. They’ve had a broken relationship, they haven’t talked for a few years, and you don’t know if it was Mia’s idea, or if it was one of their friends’ idea, but in order to kick this habit maybe I also have to mend this relationship with my brother. He’s the only family I have, and I need him to get me through this horrible thing. And again, that expands into the supernatural. But our relationship, and healing the wounds there, makes it necessary for me to survive.
Actress Jane Levy has played the gamut of high-school stereotypes, including a rebellious, nose-pierced teen in Shameless and a push-up-bra-clad Halloween cat in Fun Size. She currently stars as 16-year-old Tessa Altman, a New York City kid who finds herself trapped in middle America on ABC’s Suburgatory, which returns tonight at 9:30. In our January issue, Allure’s Kate Sullivan asked Levy, 23, about her own style as a teenager—and life with that fiery red hair.
You’re 23 but play 16 on Suburgatory. What’s your take on teen style?
“You watch television or a movie and everyone who’s playing a teen is in their 20s, so I had forgotten what actual teenagers looked like. Then one day we were shooting at a high school and it all came flooding back; I saw kids wearing slippers and pajama pants. I used to wear so much eyeliner and really tight hooded sweatshirts and Adidas half shells with big, colored shoelaces.”On Shameless, your character dressed a little bit goth. Did you ever go through that phase?
“No, but it was really fun to see myself like that—my fake nose piercing, my thong sticking all the way up my back. I was a little hussy!”Would you describe your style as minimalist?
“If I’m not working, I either wear no makeup or very little makeup. And I have the same rings that I wear every day.”Are you a natural redhead?
“No. I’m a blonde. For my first job, Shameless, they dyed my hair dark. Afterward, I wanted to go back to blonde, so I just started coloring it in stages, and it turned out red. I auditioned for Suburgatory and they loved the red hair, so it stuck. The upkeep sucks, I have to admit. I go to the salon once a month. I sort of wish I never did it, but I do like the color.”
In Evil Dead, Levy plays Mia, a young woman trying to kick an addiction. Her friends bring her out to a cabin in the woods to help out and only wind up unleashing evil instead.
Jane Levy (On the coolest things she’s done): The coolest thing I’ve ever done in my career so far is this one thing where Aaron [Morton, cinematographer] was on a zip line in the forest and I’m hands down in the mud and the camera is flying towards me and I have to outrun the camera. It was so fucking cool. And then I watched a little bit of the playback and it looks awesome.
Levy (On the on set conditions): In a way it’s like, I wouldn’t call it a good thing, but sometimes I don’t really have to act. I’m actually freezing cold, and I’m so tired that I’m crying, because I’m so cold and I want to go home. Really, just like my character, so you know, it makes the job easier sometimes, a little bit more real.
Levy (On the demanding nature of the role): But this is also like, an extremely physical job, and just like what Fede was saying, we’re doing everything that you see. I don’t know how much I’m allowed to give away, but at one point I vomit all over somebody. A lot of vomit. Like, a shit-ton of fluid. I had a tube practically down my throat, and I’m on top of this girl and vomiting all over her. When you actually do something like that – I don’t think I can actually describe the sensation – but I actually went to the corner and cried. I’m really sensitive. But I felt like I was really drowning my friend Jessica, it felt so bad. I was shaking.
Levy (On doing research in to addiction for her role): I did…I did, yeah. But I think that part of the story is actually kind of small. Like that gets you there, that gets you into this environment, and I think from the very beginning Mia has made the decision that she’s gonna be healthy. So she’s not using drugs at all in this movie. It’s like, withdrawl starts the minute the movie starts, and then she has to live.
The sizable shoes of the beloved Evil Dead trilogy’s Ash are pretty tough to fill, but Jane Levy, star of ABC’s Suburgatory, isn’t sweating it. While speaking to journalists at New York Comic Con, she revealed she’s playing a completely different character – named Mia – in the remake.
And, despite that rabid fans are skeptical about the 1981 cult classic being updated, Levy is certain it’ll blow their minds – especially because the original team of Bruce Campbell, Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert are producing. She discussed how first-time director Fede Alvarez pushed her on set and imparted his love for the genre into his vision for the film, the advice she was given while auditioning for the role, her immersion into horror movie education and playing a butt-kicking female protagonist, and why this film was the most challenging of her career.
Do you feel any pressure taking over such a beloved character?
I actually don’t feel any pressure. I mean, as an actor I could feel immense pressure every job that I take and think about all the people that are going to hate it, but you sort of have to choose not to do that or else it could be paralyzing.
Was doing all the practical horror effects really wearing?
Yeah, this was the worst thing I’ve ever done in my life. I’m not kidding. It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done by far. It’s extremely physical, I did a lot of my stunts, and it hurt. It was scary and I just wanted to go home, so I didn’t have to act that much.
On the latest episode of Suburgatory, Tessa (Jane Levy) will have to put her romantic prospects with Ryan (Parker Young) aside for … the KKK?
OK, so it’s much more complicated than that. Dalia (Carly Chaikin), who decides that her dad’s new fiancee is her new best friend, alienates her minions (aka the KKK, otherwise known as Kimantha, Kenzie and Kaitlyn). Naturally, the trio turn to Tessa and her best bud Lisa (Allie Grant). Unlike Lisa, Tessa isn’t so easily swayed.
“She finds the KKK walking aimlessly down the street like a bunch of zombies, not knowing even to walk on the sidewalk. They don’t know what to do without their leader Dalia,” Levy tells The Hollywood Reporter. “Tessa finds them and she realizes they need some help. She’s not interested in taking care of them, so she hands them off to Lisa, who very happily takes the role of master.”
While Lisa is off galavanting with her new friends, Tessa find herself worried about her nemesis, Dalia.
“She starts to worry about Dalia, actually,” she says. “Dalia starts to dress differently and act differently and says she’s having the time of her life but Tessa doesn’t believe her.”
Levy adds: “Most of the episode is Tessa trying to figure out what’s going on with Dalia and how to help her out.”
