A few days before the release of her new movie, 12 Hour Shift, actress Chloe Farnworth spoke with to Pop Break about the dark-comedy heist film, written and directed by Brea Grant. The film revolves around a hospital involved in black-market organ trafficking where Farnworth plays Regina, the irresponsible courier cousin of Mandy (Angela Bettis), the main nurse involved. Farnworth gives intricate life to a character who refuses to be one-dimensional, and despite her appalling actions, remains alluring.
Farnworth sat down with us to talk about her involvement with the film and its production, and what it was like working with its talented cast and crew. We also discuss how the British-born actress developed Regina’s interesting mannerisms, along with nailing that Southern accent, and take time to reflect on another tremendous performance from her past.
Well, thank you so much for taking the time to do this. I’m excited to talk with you about 12 Hour Shift, and this character Regina. I’m sure you’re excited for its release. Any particular plans to celebrate it? Are you able to attend a premier of sorts, virtual or otherwise?
Chloe Farnworth: It’s playing at a drive-in in Torrance [California] so I think myself and the rest of the cast and crew are going to be there watching it, and yeah I might have a little drink on Friday when it comes out. (laughs)
Very well earned and deserved, and that’s cool that you guys can get together, I know its been difficult.
Chloe Farnworth: It’s so hard with COVID. It’s such a weird year.
Absolutely. Well, I’m sure you read a lot of scripts and [went on] casting calls to find your next project. How did this one come about, and was there anything specific about the opportunity that got you excited to join the film?
Chloe Farnworth: About a month before they were due to start filming, I saw the breakdown come out for Regina, and I read it, and thought, “Oh this character is so cool and so awesome, I have to get an audition for this part.”
So, I actually found the producers email address online. I kind of did a big search to find these people’s contact info. So, I eventually found it and I emailed them, and I was like, “Hey I’m Chloe, and I really want to audition for Regina,” and they let me do a self-tape audition. Then I did another one, and they offered me the part. I was really drawn to this character, and all of her quirks and all of the things I could do with her as an actor, and different ways to bring her to life. I was really excited to get my hands on it.
Well they obviously did the right thing. I’m sure once they saw you on tape, that was the end of that.
Chloe Farnworth: Yeah (laughs).
Your character may be one of the most heinous, albeit somehow still likable, characters to ever grace my screen. This is a testament to your abilities, because by my account you seem like a lovely person, while Regina clearly has no moral dilemma in play for anything she does. Even before the movie really picks up, we get early hints at how we should regard her, with the drinking and driving, urinating in public and littering in your first few minutes on screen. I’ve heard you talk about developing the physicality of a character first. I’m curious, how much of Regina was explicitly written, and outlined in the sides, versus what you had to create and develop on your own?
Chloe Farnworth: Pretty much all of the physicality, with the way she walks or the darty eyes, and face twitch-type thing I gave her, that was all me. I imagined that to be her, and I did that for my first audition. The audition breakdown for her, she was more written as this kind of like, trailer trash type, tough girl. Super tough and kind of trashy, and I don’t know, she is trashy, but I wanted her to be liked, and I’m glad that came across. All the physicality I sort of brought into it myself, and I ran it past Brea (the director) and she was like, “This is really good. We loved what you did in the audition.”
It was very different than anything else they had seen, which I think is the reason that I got it, or one of the reasons. Aa lot of it wasn’t in the script and I added it in myself, because this is how I saw this girl to be. Kind of like, she can walk, but she can’t walk, and she lives in this kind of bubble, and she doesn’t see much outside the bubble. [It’s] just what’s in front of her right then and there. She doesn’t really think about the consequences of her actions. So a lot of it I kind of came up with myself out of my weird imagination.
Well you did great with it, I’m originally from the South myself, North Carolina not Arkansas, but I can certify that you did a tremendous job not just with the dialect, but capturing what I’d call, the “Bless Your Heart” type charm if you know that expression.
Chloe Farnworth: I’ve heard of it. I was looking up phrases in the South, and that’s one of them that came up. So, thank you, I’m glad you liked the accent, I worked on it a lot.
I know you worked with a dialect coach on the film, was there anyone else that you watched or based your character on? I got hints of a few different actresses and vibes from watching your performance, but I was curious if you had anyone you pulled things from yourself.
Chloe Farnworth: No one that I actually based the character on, but I watched a lot of the movie Thelma and Louise. I watched that movie a lot for the accent, and Dolly Parton, I just listened to her music a lot. So, [there’s] nobody that I based the character on specifically, it was all just kind of this picture of what she was like in my head. Definitely that movie though for the accent, I watched probably 30 times or more. It was nonstop, and it’s such a great film as well.
It’s a classic for sure. As I was writing the review for the film, and describing Regina, I wanted to talk about her comedic elements, but then it struck me that she’s really just unintentionally hilarious. It’s not like she is making jokes. So, were you able to get a sense while you were filming as to how that might come across on screen, or was there anything after editing was completed that surprised you?
Chloe Farnworth: When I first saw a rough cut of the film, a lot of the stuff I did at the time, I didn’t see the comedic value in it, because I wanted her to just be, like that’s who she is, and she’s not trying to be this funny person. A lot of it kind of surprised me when I saw it in the edit. I was like, “Oh wow, that’s really funny.” I didn’t even realize at the time, that’s how it came across, it was just how I wanted Regina to be. It wasn’t like I was going to do this to try and make her really funny. There’s a scene by the soda machine that was written to be really funny, and I played into that a lot more, and Brea let us have a lot of improv takes during filming. We could go further in the improv takes than in the first takes that we did, if that makes sense.
Wow, well that’s great for an independent film to be able to have takes to just try different things.
Chloe Farnworth: It was so good because you don’t normally get that. Having those takes just made it really great and such a good experience. So much more freedom as well.
The majority of the characters that you play opposite of in the film, especially Angela Bettis as Mandy are much more subdued than Regina. It would seem like always having to be at an 11 to your partners could be difficult when you have to carry a lot of the energy and excitement in a scene. Was that a difficult level to gauge?
Chloe Farnworth: It was because I always want to be a really subtle kind of actor. I don’t like to be over the top. So when I was filming, I was always like, “Oh God am I being really over the top compared to Angela and how she is. Like, oh gosh this is a lot at some points, because Angela is always sort of sane and level and everything.” So, yeah, it was a little bit. It was a challenge because I’ve never played a part like this before.
I’m curious about the shooting schedule, how long were you on location in Arkansas?
Chloe Farnworth: We were there for, it was about one month. It was all of April of 2019.
Was the film shot mostly in sequence? I’d assume most of what I would call the “red light” portion of the film, that last 15 minutes with all of that physicality might have been shot together? Was it all over the place or how was that done?
Chloe Farnworth: It was kind of all over the place. We had to shoot a lot of the scenes backwards so it wasn’t always start to finish. It was hard at some points because we would have to go back and forth, and it was mostly due to people’s schedule and availability. We would shoot some of the last scenes at the beginning, then shoot another part, and then go back to the last scenes. So, it was always sort of jumping from here to here, and it was a little bit of, in my head, I’m like “What scene are we in now … because we are jumping around.” Which is always fun. We had a lot of different outfits. We had the same kind of nurse’s outfits, maybe four different nurse outfits, all the same, but with different blood splatters on them for different days. This one for that day and that one for another day, so it was jumping around quite a bit.
Everyone looks a little bit different by the end than they do at the beginning.
Chloe Farnworth: Yeah (laughs), a lot more blood by the end.
It’s kind of interesting to put on, I guess the outfit, and see where the blood splatter is, and go ‘OK this must be this part of the movie.’
Chloe Farnworth: Uh huh, yeah. (laughs) So I have more blood on this sock today, so we are here, and more puke on my nurses scrubs today, so I know exactly where I am.
By your own admission, you have a soft spot for independent films and helping to tell those stories. While I’m sure they both have their merits, what do you feel like you get personally out of your experience on an independent film set that might be overshadowed on a bigger budget movie?
Chloe Farnworth: I think on the independent film projects, people are so passionate, and it’s normally a smaller crew. Everyone is so passionate; they really want to get the film made and as good as possible. Everyone is working really hard, and normally the stories are smaller than a bigger budget film. Which I love, because I love to tell smaller stories, and then have it shown to a bigger audience at festivals or wherever it gets released. They are passion projects for somebody, and it’s such a nice feeling to help bring someone’s passion project to life. I definitely have a soft spot for indie films, as I do for bigger budget ones as well because those are always really fun too. You get more perks on bigger budget films. (laughs)
Craft services is probably better….
Chloe Farnworth: (Laughs) Uh huh, trailers. Food. Everything.
Speaking of passion projects, the writer and director, Brea Grant has been an actress herself for well over a decade. Are there any advantages that come with working with someone that knows what it’s like to be on the other side of the camera?
Chloe Farnworth: I think she’s really good at giving direction on set and not being overly pushy. She lets us do our thing but she’s really good at tweaking scenes, but minimally. As she has such a past in acting, you can trust that she can see things from an actor’s point of view and a director’s point of view. She’s really easy and great to work with. I’d work with her every day if I could. She’s really awesome.
I’d imagine the fact that she was giving you extra takes to try different things probably stems from her wanting to do that when she’s acting too.
Chloe Farnworth: I’ve never asked her that, and I should too, definitely, because it was the first time I’ve ever had that happen on a job, where you can have improv takes. I’ve never done that before, so I need to ask her that question because I haven’t asked that before and it is probably something that stems from her being an actor.
Just like with Brea, Matt Glass served as DP and composer for the film, David Arquette was a producer in addition to acting, and has also written and directed in the past. It seems like a very knowledgeable and eclectic group to work with and learn from. Did you have an opportunity to pick anyone’s brain while on set, and do you have any aspirations to work on any other aspects of filmmaking in the future?
Chloe Farnworth: I talked to David a lot and he was saying how good it is to be a producer and also an actor at the same time — where you can see two different sides to the camera — if that’s the right way to say it. Matt, I talked to him, but I didn’t get a huge amount of time to talk with him on set because he was DP of the film, and was constantly busy, but I feel like he is really inspiring. He’s so talented in music and so talented as DP. It was incredible to watch him, because I didn’t know how good he was with music until I got to watch the film, and I saw a rough cut. Then I was like, “Oh my God, this guy.” I never realized how good he is at both of these things, and then as a producer as well because he was a producer on it too. It kind of blew my mind how people are good at so many different things, and I’ve only really done acting, and just put everything into that. So, it was really inspiring to see all these people with all of these different skills do their thing and do it really well.
I’d imagine with a smaller budget movie, typically if you can find somebody that can do multiple things on a set, then that’s very valuable.
Chloe Farnworth: Yes, and I think they all work together a lot on different projects, and are a little bit like a family in that way. Working on the same projects together, and can all do different things, so I think that’s really handy.
So, this last question is for me. I’d be remiss if I didn’t ask you about your experience being a part of easily the best commercial about tax preparation in history…
Chloe Farnworth: (Laughing) You’ve seen it!
You basically got to have your Jamie Lee Curtis (Laurie Strode) in a closet moment, and the ad itself was brilliant. Were you ever recognized for that TurboTax ad, and how fun was that to be a part of?
Chloe Farnworth: Thank you! Yes, I was recognized quite a few times actually. It was weird because at the time I was working a side job as a waiter, which every actor does at some point, or continues to do. I went over to this lady, and she was like, “Oh my God, TurboTax girl. You’re the TurboTax girl,” and I was like yes (laughing). Then a few times when I was just in the street, people would just be like, you’re the girl with the teddy bear, you’re the TurboTax. So, yea, it was a really fun commercial to do. I think it was one of my favorite ones I’ve done, and I’ve done a whole bunch of different commercials in my time. Ah, it was such a good commercial, and the teddy bear. They had like a puppet on set so they had these puppeteers’ sort of moving it around on set while we were filming it. I didn’t realize that was what it was going to do the first time we did a take, and I almost started laughing as soon as it started dancing because they didn’t tell me. They were just like, OK we are going to bring the teddy bear in for this shot, so I’m like OK cool. I didn’t know what it would be doing. It was such a good one to get, and to do, and to film, and it got a lot of good press and people loved it.
That’s actually even more impressive that they had the bear there for you to react to, because that had to make it even harder. I thought maybe you were just kind of staring off at nothing to make it easier to act scared or keep a blank face, but the ability to keep a straight face with that going on is impeccable.
Chloe Farnworth: (Laughing) No, no it was actually there, and there were like four people moving its arms, and legs, and head, doing all of these weird positions with the teddy bear. It was really funny.
12 Hour Shift starring Chloe Farnworth is now available on VOD.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eii5682LbH0
