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Few can tell of their stellar rise to the A-list like self proclaimed tomboy Jennifer Carpenter could, once a star of TV's Dexter, as the antihero's tragically-fated sister Debra Morgan. But just a year on from her departure of the highly succesful Showtime series, the actress was custom picked for the enviable lead role in the latest Hollywood blockbuster franchise of recent summers. Kate Halliwell reports.
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She is glamorous today, far from the goth punk persona she most notably plays: a young woman named Zoe, with deep, dark secrets. Reprising her role as lead heroine, we took an afternoon off with Ms. Carpenter to talk horror movies, veganism, and preparing for the sequel/ spinoff to "Beastforce", set in a sleepy little town called Miami.
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"It's such a different place to Seattle, where the first film was set. It was a lot darker in tone, more rocknroll. In Miami we get to have alot more fun. It's a party city."
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She says this as a colorful clique of beach-bronzed kids blares past in a topless chevy, their bass-based mobile tremor part of the thumping, throbbing soundscape. "There's something wonderfully 80's about Miami," she muses. "It's stuck in a timewarp. Fitting that I'm in a movie based on an 80's cartoon, don't you think?", she smiles, looking out the window of the hotel lobby, as an old lady trips over her dog and takes a tumble down some steep stairs, falling into the pool below.
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It was 1984 when a humble Saturday morning cartoon caused a furore among parents, with it's portrayal of cannibalism and incest in the first episode. "I remember being a kid, and having my Cheerios when that cartoon came on. There was so much sex. I think it was the first time a cartoon showed blood. Dad (John Carpenter, director of Escape From New York) was there, and he loved it. We watched it laughing our heads off! But they took it off the air the following week, I think it was too much too soon."
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The actress speaks fondly of her father, recalling trips to Hollywood backlots as a child, meeting 80's action heroes like Kurt Russel and Sylvester Stallone. "The make-believe world was always more home to me than the real one was, so I was lucky enough to be constantly around movies. I never guessed I would actually take the lead in one."
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(l) With Dexter co-star Julie Benz; (r) At a gala in NY
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In between sips of her caramel latte I notice an impeccable manicure, her nails elongated and coloured a preternatural metallic blue.
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"Were still filming. I go through a few costume changes, which is fun, I love my fur-lined leather couture outfit, it's totally bad-ass right? It's not real fur of course."
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Carpenter attributes a strict diet of organic fruit and raw vegetables to her lithe frame, which of late has been tabloid fodder du jour, specifically when the most recent pics of her filming a scene on Miami Beach surfaced. "I was a skinny kid, and not much has changed. I happen to not eat meat, because it suits me. Strange that I play something of a cannibal, right?" she laughs.
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What's it like to play tortured heroine?
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"Actually, a lot of fun. I was taken into this fantastical, nightmarish world in the first movie, observing Blake Lively's character, Liona, watching her world come down around her. The new one sees my story through the eyes of Ryan Reynolds' character, who is a cop of sorts."
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Carpenter is referring to Jonathan Sparks, a law enforcer for the race of creatures who feed on mankind as seen in the first movie, who becomes an unexpected love interest in the film.
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"It's Ryan Reynolds, Rob (Pattinson, who plays Beast surfer-dude Puma), and me, and we're basically on the run from these really bad guys who want me dead. And I get to kiss them both. It's a good old fashioned chase, road-trip, buddy-comedy, odd-couple, love-triangle movie. Did I mention I get to kiss them both?"
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What's Rob like?
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"Funny", she assures me. "He's really funny in this. His character, Rick Gordo, breaks a lot of the tension in the movie, so it's nowhere near as dark the first."
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Indeed when 2013's subversive "Beastforce" came out critics slammed the film for being confusing, and humourless, filled with dark, unsympathetic characters who killed without motive, its sex scenes bordering on soft porn. But Carpenter defends the film's use of taboos.
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"Not many people got it. They either walked in there expecting X-Men and got David Lynch, or expected American Pie and got David Lynch. To me, the best part of the ride is that surprise you get when the genre shifts."
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At the 2009 Scream Awards, where she was nominated for Quarantine
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"When I first read the script I thought, this is like an old monster movie, like Frankenstein, or Dracula. I fell in love with the theme of hiding your true self from others. Things we go through as kids. And the moral ambiguity to it all. Like, why save human lives, if you're just gonna eat them anyway? That's what got me".
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And first to sing praises of her performance is leader of the pack of Hollywood's enfant terrible nuoveau auteur, modern visionary, Zack Snyder, who has since smacked me accross the face for my over-use of french words. Touche. "She didnt even have to audition. There was no doubt in my mind as to who would play Zoe. From day one it was always Jen. She has that thinly-veiled vulnerabilty we were looking for, masked by an intense aura of menace brewing beneath the surface." And her co-stars agree. "Jen was born to play Zoe." laughs Ashton Kutcher, who played Roger Drake in the first film. "She does fucked-up so well."
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We move towards the pool as the interview comes to a close. For a minute, her almond-brown eyes are blue, and a glint of Zoe peeks through. "I was in the swim team in college." she says. My character flies, so there was a lot of wire-work my body was prepared for. Do you think that old lady's alright? Maybe we should call 911, she's not moving."
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What's next on the horizon?
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"I signed on for 3 of these, so I'm in the next one, where I'm actually playing the bad guy."
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And not just any bad guy, but the one who brings about the fall of civilisation. "It's when I actually become Darth Vader", she says, describing the 2 previous films as precursors to the real story. "I'm looking forward to cutting loose with that, Zoe regrets so much as a kid. It's only until she realises: to live past her life-span of 30 years, she has to become the mother of her race. That's when she embraces her true nature. I don't think it makes her evil. I think it just means she's afraid of death. Like the rest of us.
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Just so happens her race of people eat human beings"
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"Beastforce: Miami" is out August next year
"Beastforce" available on DVD
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The actress and her alter-ego, as she appears in the cartoon.Rolling Stone
August 2014
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(*John Carpenter isn't actually Jennifer's father, I just made that bit up)
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