There is little doubt that Evil Dead Rise is one of the scariest films in recent memory, thanks to the truly terrifying Deadite mother who terrorizes her own children. But how did Alyssa Sutherland manage to pull off such a convincing performance? The former Vikings star revealed that she tapped on her own rage and joy for the movie.
Alyssa Sutherland spoke to Collider about preparing for Evil Dead Rise and she confirmed that she looked inward to find the anger in her Deadite mom.
“I had to tap into some real rage. And I think a lot of women have rage. I think it's quite natural for us. I think society ingrains some self-sacrificing,” she said.
“Women who are self-sacrificing and don't complain and they're there to serve others and to please others are put up on a pedestal. I lived a lot of my life doing that, and I don't think it served me and I think I had some repressed rage from doing that and pleasing others and always thinking of the other person; ‘Don't make the other person uncomfortable. You be uncomfortable,” Sutherland continued.
“You can take on the discomfort so that that man isn't uncomfortable.’ And I tapped into that. And I think there are probably a lot of women that could relate to having some of that. So I found it quite easy to tap into rage and it was very therapeutic,” she added.
Although rage was effective enough, Sutherland revealed that she also added a sense of joy to her performance.
“What I wanted to add to the Deadite was a sense of joy. I had rage, but I also wanted the Deadite to have joy, because then that gave me so much to play with. And also there's something really sinister about someone getting off on disturbing you that way and getting under your skin, and then it kept the performance from being a one-note performance,” she said.
“So I wanted to have joy and have this sense of celebration happening because I think that fits for Evil Dead. It's like a celebration of carnage, the whole film,” Sutherland stated.
Evil Dead Rise is now screening in theaters worldwide.
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