Tricia Helfer – Creepshow – SDCC 2019

By: Matthew Pepe

Q) How did you end up being attached to “Creepshow?” You have done many things and I am sure have your choice of projects. What attracted you to come here?

Tricia: It was a lovely offer. [laughs] I had not seen it.  I haven’t been big into comics, even though I am at Comic Con,  I wasn’t aware of the history of “Creepshow” or “Creepshow 2” in the 80’s with Stephen king and also the comics, 50’s and 60’s era right I think….I also have always been scared of horror. I don’t mind doing it filming it, but watching i, I don’t like waking up in the middle of the night scared and hiding under my bed, but obviously I know Greg. Greg Nicotero and I have always been amazed by his work and I worked with one of the producers on the show, actually worked with him on something completely different a Hallmark movie of all things. And he called me and said, “Hey, I have this thing for you, a horror vignette that would be perfect for you.” And so I read it, thought it was fantastic and I signed on.

Q) Can you tell us a bit about your story?

Tricia: It is actually modeled a bit…Right before filming Roxanne Benjamin who directed the episode, she sent me “Creepshow 2,” so it is modeled a bit after the hitchhiker story in “Creepshow 2.” It is a different story than that, but at the same time the same kind of thing of a woman…My character, she is kind of high-powered CEO and she makes a decision to not give a promotion. She says she has a promotion to give to one of the people, not necessarily to say it is the wrong choice, but she makes it out of slight elements of a selfish reason for Tom to go away instead of Cecilia, and it comes back to haunt her. So, it is a story of a little bit of guilt, her kind of losing her mind a little bit, her conscience of making this decision and it’s about that. I am alone a lot in this episode, stuck in the elevator, dealing with the demons that come along with it and not know what is real, and what is a manifestation of her guilt.

Q) So, would you say it is based on a Karma issue – she made a decision and came around and bit her?

Tricia: Yeah, a bit of that… I am not convinced that it was the wrong decision, but because there was an element of selfishness…it turns out that the younger protégé is also her lover and the job would have sent the person off to Europe to work. But my lover was expecting the promotion and you could say she was using me more than I made the bad decision to keep her around, who is to say Tom was not the better choice. It’s a little bit of Karma, but it’s also about this woman who is not used to being told no and she is losing her mind in many, many ways. Cecilia keeps coming back to life, she is trapped in an elevator – there is any earthquake – and she is literally trapped in an elevator for hours and hours and hours, she is dehydrated, has claustrophobia, just start to lose your mind. It is a balancing act and she does not know if she is losing her mind or if Cecelia is really coming back to life over and over again and as time goes on the decomposition sets in and that is where (Greg Nicotero’s) special effects team gets involved.

Q) The Creepshow movies are very stylistic. Can you talk about how this show may be more cinematic than many other shows on TV and what opportunities that affords you as an actor?

Tricia: It is a heightened world, but there is also a groundedness to it. I think the heightened part in many ways for my particular episode, the heightened part is much more the graphics and the extreme of what happens with Cecelia coming back to life and what happens when the decomposition starts. So, in terms of performance, I look at it in terms of portraying this character that accidentally kills her lover, is distraught over it…It is a total accident. She is distraught over it, but then makes a wrong decision and this is probably where Karma starts to come back there and bite her in the ass. She makes the wrong decision where I guess a lot of people in an extreme situation might do…like a hit and run the bolt instead of doing the right thing. So, she makes the decision to cover it up because who is going to believe that Cecilia fell over the couch and impaled herself on my “woman of the year” trophy. [laughs] And she make the wrong decision to take care of herself and I think the heightened part of it and the comic part of it…I love that they kept there were you start the episode in a panel and end it in a panel…All of that element is there, but in terms of portraying the character I didn’t heighten it like that. There is a definite camp element to the original “Creepshow.” I mean, there is some may be humorous elements watching it…but the character is not having a good time, not laughing. So portraying that, at least myself as an actor, the character, I feel like if I heightened that it would not be true to the character so I did not play it camp…She laughs at the absurdity of it herself because she cannot believe this is happening. It is a nervous laugh, but is not finding it funny.

Q) I have to ask you about “Van Helsing.” I know they are so happy to have you but that is full on Horror…What has that been like?

Tricia: It is, and I am only introduced this season mid to end of season, so I don’t have a whole lot, but more introduced for next season. Yeah, it is pretty full on. I saw the trailer yesterday because I was not privy to the other scripts and it is such a fun character. I am playing Dracula and it is such a fun character that I am having fun with it…It is so over the top, not camp…but just pure evil that it has been really fun to do

Q) Can you talk about how your Dracula is portrayed and how that will meet with the audiences expectations from different incarnations and how you are differing this one?

Tricia: “Van Helsing” has its own take on the vampire mythology and world and everything, compared to other things like Hugh Jackman and everything. So, it has its own story and with that our Dracula is different. I have not seen a lot of the other movies and things. And I didn’t want to…I wanted to make it my own and didn’t want to watch all these other characters for this role and didn’t want to subconsciously bring that through into my performance. I mean, I am female for one. That is different, but we wanted to make her more enjoying it…and that speaks to all Dracula’s, they are all powerful nothing ruffles their feathers, have a supreme confidence, but there is a little more alien creature-ish quality to her, in her look as well, washed out, dark creature-ish.

Q) You talked some about the special effects on “Creepshow.” Were the special effects more practical or CGI?

Tricia: Everything that we did. Most of them were practical. I have not seen the finished edit, so there may be some CGI additions. But I think all of mine were all practical, which Greg is a master at. There were some CGI in the trailers, but I personally did not have insight into this…maybe a decapitation in my episode…maybe….but that was all practical.