Alana de Freitas photo by Jeff Lorch
Australian actress Alana de Freitas began acting at age nine with the Helen O’Grady Drama Academy. She went on to receive her Victorian Certificate of Education for Drama Studies with the Council of Adult Education and continued her study at the Groundlings School and Ivana Chubbuck Studios. She is currently based in Los Angeles where we caught up with her to discuss her career and some exciting projects we look forward to seeing. These include the horror flick ‘Bashira’ and ‘Before the Dawn’.
Hi, Alana! Thank you for granting the interview. Congrats on your forthcoming role in Bashira. What should the audience expect to see?
Thank you! I’m quite excited about it. ‘Bashira’ is a horror film about a curse that has haunted a family for generations. Bashira is the entity that is determined to make her presence known. The film was directed by Nickson Fong, who is an Academy Award-winning VFX artists, so I think people are going to be impressed when they see it!
Bashira is a horror movie, packed with special effects. Was it a challenge working with green screen and SFX makeup?
I can’t speak for the makeup team, but it wasn’t a challenge for me. I just sit in the chair while they work their magic. They really made it all so easy for me. I don’t want to give too much away there, but I was so impressed by the work the makeup team did with creating real looking wounds. All that blood! It was glorious! The hardest part was washing everything off. And it was my first time doing any green screen work, so it’s going to be interesting for me to see how they put it all together in the finished product.
What do you enjoy most about your character and role?
I really enjoyed my wardrobe, haha. I had nice clothes and jewelry. My character is a bitchy trophy-wife type. The conflict between myself and my stepdaughter was great to cultivate with Mitzi Akaha, and then the pressure that puts on my husband, played by Colin Cunningham, who has to mediate between the two of us. It’s a really interesting dynamic. I enjoyed really enjoyed the dysfunctional blended family aspect of it.
We can see you in ‘Before the Dawn’ for which you’ve received a Best Actress Nomination. Please tell us about your role and how you got involved in this production?
Yes. I received a Best Actress nomination at the Actor’s Awards in Los Angeles, and I also won Best Actress at the International Independent Film Awards. So that was very flattering. I wrote the screenplay for ‘Before the Dawn’ so I was the first attachment. I wasn’t seeing a lot of great roles for women, so I decided to write the role I wanted to play. My character Lila is a teacher who has left behind an abusive marriage and taken a job in a new town. She relates to a student in her class who she sees as something of a diamond in the rough and takes him under her wing. At a certain point, the lines become blurred, and their attraction to each other crosses the line into inappropriate territory. So, she deals a lot with the struggle between her feeling for him and knowing that what she is doing is wrong.
Does the production bring something new to the subject matter?
I think we have seen the teacher/student relationship so many times in the news, and then the Hollywood version of that is where one of them becomes a psychotic stalker. I wanted to explore the reasons why two people, who both know right from wrong, would get themselves into this situation. What are the factors that could drive them together? So, we don’t approach it from a judgmental place, but more just a place of trying to understand.
Originally from Melbourne, you’ve been successful in finding work in LA. Do you have any words of encouragement for budding actors, hungry for success?
Be prepared for the fact that you aren’t going to have instant success. There’s a lot of work that goes into meeting people, creating relationships, building trust, etc. But also, don’t give up. If you really want to do this, do the work. It won’t come to you. Go to networking events, do casting director workshops, stay on top of your admin, create your own content. You have to make your own opportunities sometimes. And make sure you celebrate the little wins.
You’re very busy at present. Do you have anything else in the pipeline we can look forward to?
‘Bashira’ should be released in early 2020. And ‘Before the Dawn’ was just released on Amazon Prime, so you can go and watch that now!
I am about to start shooting a comedy called ‘Cash Collectors.’ It’s about a reality show that is in its third season. Basically, the contestants on the show forcibly collect from people who have defaulted on their debts, on live television. I play the showrunner of that program. The script is a lot of fun!
Do you have anything else you would like to share about your career?
I have two other projects that I’m developing at the moment. A horror film about a teenager who starts having nightmares about her own death, only to find that other teenage girls are turning up murdered in that exact manner. And also a #metoo themed documentary about the reasons people choose not to report sexual assault. It’s a really powerful piece, and I think it’s an important topic that there needs to be more understanding around.
You can find Alana on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and imdb
Watch ‘Before the Dawn’: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07YST7MJN
Outside of the US people can view it on primevideo.com
https://www.beforethedawnmovie.com/
Credit: Alana de Freitas photography by Jeff Lorch
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