Natalie Burn – Awaken

By: Jamie Steinberg

Q) What are the recent projects that you are working on?

A) I’m actually currently in Turkey to shoot a movie called Ghosts of Garip with director Patricio Valladares and producer Loris Curci. This is the second time I’m working with the same director. We worked together before in Chile. Ghosts of Garip is a great, fun little film that is a horror-thriller-action movie. It’s about the real myth about Tavish and the house of Dracula. We are literally shooting in the places where the myth started in the 16th century. The town is supporting our little film so they have literally helped us write the story. We are creating the myth and putting together the story into reality with this movie.

Q) We get to see you currently in the new movie “Awaken.” Please tell us the premise for the film and about your character Billie.

A) This is a movie I produced and starred in that I am really excited to share about it. It is out on VOD and DVD on July 7th. It’s a film that was shot in Los Angeles and Belize. It stars a number of incredible actors and my character Billie has been in search of her sister for five years. She is basically asking everyone where to find her because she is the only one from her family that is left. She ends up asking the wrong people on an island and she is completely by herself. She meets these people on the island and finds out that this group of people are there for a reason, put there to be cleaned up and hunted down for rich people to pay money and buy the peoples’ organs. I don’t stop. Billie thinks that it is rather a coincidence that she is there and later she finds out that her sister is involved with this organization that is run by the character Rich, who is played by Jason London. As soon as the sisters reunite you think everything is going to be great, but the movie then starts some crazy action and the ending is not so happy as Billie hopes for it to be.

Q) As the writer of the film, where did you come up with the concept for it?

A) I actually had watched an old TV show in Russia and it is a true story. It was a woman who took her son to the hospital and he had a problem with breathing. He needed an operation and all of a sudden the doctor came out and said, “We’re having some complications, but nothing major. Don’t worry about it.” Later, she basically found out he had died on the operating table. She couldn’t believe it because it was just a small operation. So, she insisted on an autopsy and they found all of his organs had been taken out prior to the operation. Of course, she tried to find out what happened and none of the doctors knew what happened. Everyone was not being honest and I guess they were looking for that specific boy with those specific organs. As soon as he had come in, his organs were sold to somebody and nobody knew what really happened. She couldn’t get to the bottom of it. When I saw that, it was on the news. I couldn’t believe nowadays stuff like that happens. It doesn’t just happen in Russia, but lots of different places. It’s a shock to me that it still happens these days and so many people don’t know what happens.

Q) There are a number of incredible actors in the film. What was the casting process like for you?

A) The casting process was definitely fun and challenging because when I first wrote Awaken I didn’t see my self as playing the lead girl. I thought I would be a supporting character. Then, we kept re-writing the script and the director came back to me and said, “I wrote it, I helped you put it together and I think Billie should be played by you.” Billie was originally supposed to be played by a guy. I was like, “Really? It would have to be a very strong female character,” and he said, “Yeah, you’ll do fine. You just need to surround yourself with a great cast.” I was just worried because it was a female lead. With movies these days like The Hunger Games and Jennifer Lawrence’s character I felt it was probably a good time to break out strong female characters, especially after I saw Mad Max. I thought this was actually a good time for females to showcase themselves and show that we can be as powerful as men. So, my only chance to get myself out there and not fail completely miserably would be to surround myself with a great cast. It started off with me getting Jason London, then my friend Michael Pare and Robert Davi who is a great friend of mine. Then, I got David Keith, who is also a friend for years. Next came Daryl Hannah and Vinnie Jones. I never stopped and finally Michael Copon was the last to attach. That’s when I knew that no matter what happened I had great actors who would be there basically saving my movie because of their experience.

Q) You wrote, produced, starred in and did all of your own stunts for the film. How did you manage to balance it all?

A) It was tough. The most tough thing about it was producing it while I had to act in it. The pre-production was not difficult because we all chipped in and started creating it. Everyone just came up with everything. The challenging part was definitely producing it and because I was playing the lead I had to be on set first. And as a producer, I had to check everything and be on top of everything. If anything went wrong, I had to come up with a solution. When I had to go in front of the camera, it was having to do one take. I gave myself just one take because I didn’t have enough time. I needed to be someone else producing things and fixing stuff. It was very fast and very challenging when I had to do the fighting sequence. I did every single fighting scene in one take. It wasn’t even a question for me to do a second one because I didn’t have the time. I kept pushing my scenes to the last day or to the last minute of the day. Most of the scenes shot of me I didn’t have anyone in front of me. It was just me faking it that I had someone there.

Q) What were some of your most memorable moments from filming?

A) One of the interesting moments was when we wrapped. It was a pickup day that we had to do and I called in a few actors like Michael Pare and Daz Crawford to come in to finish the scenes that we didn’t have time to do. We’re on a boat and doing some close-ups. So, we had to wear the same clothing and the same makeup as we had before. We’re on a boat the whole day in Los Angeles and by the end of the day Michael came up to me and said, “Natalie, you’re going to get really upset.” I asked him what happened and he said, “We accidentally wore the wrong wardrobe.” I was like, “What?!” It was all close-ups we had to do perfectly so I asked if we could change or cheat what we were going to do. In the end Mark Atkins, the director, said we could not do that. I was like, “Are you kidding? I can’t get the boat again and the guys are all leaving.” I didn’t know what we could do and we literally only had an hour left of daylight. That’s all we had. I told them to put on the right clothes and that we would do all of the scenes we had just did in six or seven hours that we would do in one hour. That’s exactly what we did. We redid everything that we had shot that day in one hour. That was the most memorable because we all rushed so fast! Again, we just had one take. It wasn’t a question of whether it was good or not. It was just it and that’s all we got.

Q) Why will people want to take their time to see the movie?

A) I think when people see the movie they will get reminded of the movies back in the 80’s. It’s one of those real action films. It doesn’t have a lot of CGI effects, but it shows the truth and real raw moments. Billie is so determined to reunite with her family that you feel it in your heart when you watch the movie. With the path she goes through, you really care for the characters and it reminds you of the fun movies you used to watch in the 80’s. If the audience loves 80’s movies, it brings you back there. It’s a lot of crazy stuff, but a real heartfelt and caring film. I think the audience will definitely feel our group, family connection we had on set. We tried to give it to the audience of the movie and I think you can feel it. We all supported each other and cared for each other and you can see that in the film.

Q) You are a part of social media. Are you looking forward to the instant feedback you will receive?

A) Absolutely! I’m always trying to get my film out there more on social media. It’s such an important factor these days. You have to connect with the audience on social media because there are a lot of people that have their own blogs now. It’s a very important point to try and promote yourself online. I am hoping once the movie is out I will hear positive feedback. It’s important because if they support me online I think my movie will do great everywhere else.

Q) What else would you like to be sure to share with fans?

A) You can follow the movie on social media at @AwakenFilm and on Facebook. You can follow me on Twitter at @NatalieBurn01 and on Instagram at @Natalie_Burn. Follow me and get more information about myself, my projects and Awaken.