The Women of Desperate Dolls
There are many films that introduce the world to a beautiful ingénue. Sometimes, a film introduces two women, just to mix things up. But it’s rare that you get to discover three beautiful, talented women in a single movie. In writer/director Darren Callahan’s latest horror feature, Desperate Dolls, Emily Bennett, Alyssa Thordarson, and Stephanie Leigh Rose portray women who are doomed, but don’t know it yet. Even the characters’ names are unusual. The Vil. Matchbox. Pretty Sexy. So what brought this trio of women together for such as special project?
“Once I started reading the script,” says Bennett, who plays The Vil, “I couldn't put it down. I was completely engrossed in the story. I felt dizzy as I read. When I finished, I said out loud, ‘I have to be in this film.’”
The dark, mysterious world these women inhabit is Hollywood of 1968. It’s not the Hollywood of big musicals or overnight successes, nor is it the Hollywood of David Lynch, Sunset Boulevard, or any other familiar story of career crash and burn. It is a story about hypnosis and murder, love, auditions gone wrong, terror and bad choices.
“I'm a sucker for period pieces,” confesses Thordarson, who plays Matchbox. “So the fact that we're doing 1960s Hollywood noir gets my geek-gears whirring. And the dialogue is so strong and snappy. None of these girls are wilting flowers. I love that. As an actress, you don't often get film roles that put you in charge sexually and also make you sympathetic.”
Leigh Rose, as Pretty Sexy, agrees. “Darren writes incredibly strong, believable, and complex female roles, which is hard to find. The words matter. Too often film dialogue is thrown away. This is a nice blend of gripping dialog with the visually fantastic.”
Each actor comes to the role with a strong resume of unique experience. “I've played many characters with similar qualities, but none quite like The Vil. Maybe a bit of Ophelia from Hamlet,” considers Bennett.
“Pretty Sexy has the drive and the passion, but something is just not clicking. If she had met the right producer, she could have been Elizabeth Taylor,” says Leigh Rose of her character.
Callahan’s work is often known for high doses of sexiness and Desperate Dolls is no exception. Bennett explains, “I'm only comfortable with sexiness when it's based in a great script and within a well-rounded character. Sexiness for its own sake isn't really sexy to me. But when it's used to set a tone, to help characters get what they want (in this case, fame) I think it can be very powerful.”
“I don't feel, and never felt at any step in this process, that we are being objectified,” Thordarson explains. “Even if the script is pulpy, that's deliberate, and in almost every ‘sexy’ moment, it's the women who have the upper hand. I'm so grateful for that. It's a film called Desperate Dolls, though, so if it weren't sexy I'd be confused.”
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