Thank your lucky stars that kidnapping, DIY lobotomies and gruesome mutilation aren’t a run-of-the-mill experience at most teenagers’ high school proms.
But that’s exactly what Xavier Samuel “endured” as the lead character in the decidedly quirky new Australian pop-horror film The Loved Ones.
It’s not every day that household drills and humble kitchen kettles are put to such creative macabre use, so when Samuel first read the script for The Loved Ones, his immediate reaction was, “Who’s the demented mind that came up with this stuff?”
Speaking on the phone from Sydney where he is back home for a break, the 26-year-old actor says he was drawn to the complexity of the script, even though the large extent of his role in the film consists of writhing and shrieking in agony while his character is nailed to the floor in a house of horrors.
This is because (as if high school balls aren’t excruciating enough already) Samuel’s character Brent is kidnapped on the night of his school ball after he knocks back an invitation from the quietest girl in his school, whose father is the resident town weirdo-come-psychotic murderer.Perhaps it’s the inherent “Australianness” of the film, but while it might seem an odd combination, the film successfully forces the mundane and the extreme to converge, and juxtaposes moments of genuine recoil with laugh-out-loud moments of hilarity. After wrapping up the film in 2008 and traversing the festival circuit in 2009, Samuel is excited to see how the film will be received by Australian audiences when released in cinemas next month. “When I read the script I thought, ‘Wow this is really rare.’ Especially with horror films, sincerity tends to be a bit of a pitfall – you watch the film and end up laughing for all the wrong reasons when it’s not necessarily intended to be funny,” he says. “But The Loved Ones has its tongue firmly in its cheek and has a sense of humour about it.
“That’s why it appeals to a wider audience, not just the horror fan base. Because of the school-dance thing, which is an experience everyone can identify with, and because the film has a sense of humour, it sort of transcends the genre in a way.”
Born in country Victoria, raised in Adelaide, now based in Sydney, Samuel has had a busy few years since his graduation from Adelaide’s Flinders University Drama Centre, which has seen him leapfrog from low-scale Australian productions to big-budget blockbusters. His first foray into the US film industry was a role as newborn vampire Riley in the third instalment of the Twilight franchise, Eclipse.
“I was in Sydney doing American auditions for a while, just sending these DVDs off, not knowing whose desk they landed on, or if anyone even watched the audition, just sending them off into oblivion,” Samuel says.
“Twilight was just another audition that came along, so I did it as best I could and sent it off and forgot about it. A month or two went by and then I heard it was down to me and four or five other guys, so I got myself on a plane to Vancouver, met the director and it all happened fairly quickly after that.
“It was incredible to be involved in a story of that magnitude that reaches that far and wide, and has a really passionate following.”
As for the fans, Samuel embraces the self-proclaimed Twihard fan base as a phenomenon in itself.
“Often people palm it off as craziness but it’s really a kind of cool thing when people are able to express their enthusiasm in that way.”
For a young actor breaking into the US market, being involved in a film with such a widespread release and enormous publicity as Twilight was a dream gig for Samuel, and he’s appreciative of the opportunities which have presented themselves as a result.
“I was lucky enough to go over to Berlin to shoot a film with Roland Emmerich called Anonymous, which is completely different to the tortured, comic world of The Loved Ones, and the vampiric, dangerous love triangle that is Twilight. This film is a political conspiracy thriller about the authorship of Shakespeare’s plays.”
And from the sounds of it, work opportunities aren’t the only perks Samuel has been enjoying since his role in Twilight – his paparazzi-credibility rating isn’t doing too badly either – snaps of Samuel are booming business, especially now he’s dating Iranian-born former Miss Europe Shermine Shahrivar (condolences to all interested Twihards).
But Samuel shrugs off the idea of being paparazzi fodder.
“It’s a weird thing to be judged on how tight your pants are, not how good an actor you are.”
As for the future, while the lustre of Hollywood beckons, Samuel says he isn’t ready to turn his back on the Australian film industry just yet, and is in negotiations to be involved in another local production.
“I think it’s always important to remain a part of the industry that has supported me in the first place,” he says.
“I guess I’ve been very fortunate in a way, the talent pool in Australia is so deep, and a lot of my actor friends aren’t working, so I have been very lucky that I have had these opportunities come my way.
“I don’t really have any prerequisites or any grand plan – I’d be happy doing shop-front theatre in Melbourne, it doesn’t really bother me as long as I get the opportunity to do what I love and sustain myself, it’s just gravy.”
While it’s unlikely we’ll see him Twilighting again (it’s somewhat difficult to resurrect vampires who have met their untimely death by decapitation), it’s safe to say we will be seeing a lot more of Xavier Samuel on the big screen.
‘It was incredible to be involved in a story of that magnitude that reaches that far and wide, and has a really passionate following.’
The Loved Ones opens on November 4.
via: foforks.
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