Yvonne Zima – Killing Mommy

By: Lisa Steinberg

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

A) I’m going to be the show “StartUp” with Martin Freeman and Adam Brody and it is on Crackle. Edi Gathegi is in it and it is filled with talented, amazing actors. It’s a crime thriller set in Miami dealing with tech startups. It’s very diverse, lush and seductive. The trailer is online. I think if you watch it you’ll agree. The show will be out this Fall.

Q) What made you want to be a part of the movie Killing Mommy?

A) I had done a film with Pierre David before and he was the producer. He called up every six months after I did that film to say, “Yvonne, I have a project for you. It is great!” You have to wait a certain amount of time in between different Lifetime films because they play so often that they don’t want the same actress playing a murder of this guy and then the killer of this person. Finally, I think two years passed and I got the call that it was on and that I would be playing two people. I was like, “What? Oh God! That’s a lot of work.” I was a little reluctant, but I thought it would be cool to work with my sister. I said I would do it if she could be in it. So, my sister Vanessa and I went to Ottawa to shoot it and she plays the best friend of one of the twins. That made all the difference.

Q) As you mentioned you play twins in the film. What did you learn from portraying two people?

A) This is a relationship that is really strained. I would say that the twins in the movie pretty much hate each other. To kind of work backwards from hate and anger, you have the emotion of hurt that is always covered by hate or anger. That’s because anger is a useful emotion where you can punch a wall or you can go out and get drunk or do something destructive. Hurt is kind of this passive emotion where you just kind of sit around and do nothing and you’re sad. So, you have one twin that is so angry that the other one doesn’t love her and that they don’t have this relationship that is normal. What was fun to explore was how do you make both of these character relatable, vulnerable and human when you are dealing with these emotions that are so one note? For me, it was like what would it be like if I wasn’t friends with my sisters? If they rejected me and how hurt I would feel and how it would turn into anger that would manifest in drinking, sulking and running around being crazy. You wouldn’t feel grounded at all. I really used the love of my sisters as a jumping off point to discover how I could play two people. Because it’s very weird when they do the technology with the camera. You’re pretty much acting with a tennis ball all day long and then playing the other person and talking to a tennis ball. I drew a little happy face on it so it would be like, “Okay, you’re a person now.” You’re pretty much alone in this experience so you have to fill it with colors. Just for my acting process, I always use my real life in any way I can, unless I can play a character close to who I am. I had a lot of fun exploring what it would mean if my sisters stopped talking to me, what it would mean and how it would feel. It was pretty dark and it was not fun to think about.

Q) Was the most challenging aspect of filming working with a tennis ball and disconnecting your feelings?

A) When I was working with Vanessa, she was playing my best friend and the one character who is perky. We have also played sisters in a film called The Automatic Hate and we’ve worked together when we were little. It’s always just easy to work with her because she is an instinctual actress so the process is simple for her. I would say she is an old school actor like James Dean or Marlon Brando. When she is doing it, you are there with her and it’s so easy that there is not much to work on in terms of relationship. That was also another reason why I wanted her to be in it. A lot of times (and God bless them) a lot of local actors they hire are not as good as actors that come in from New York or actually have been training in a big city. So, they hire local actors and nothing throws you out of a relationship more when it isn’t real in a scene. I was happy to bring her out there. But the most challenging thing for me was that I was sick the whole time. It was a physical challenge for me because I had laryngitis and literally lost my voice for most of the film. So, I had to ADR it. When you are sick and the star of a film, but also you are the second lead (because you are playing two people) the pressure is unbearable. They didn’t have to shut down production, but they almost did because I was crossing over. We were filming in Ottawa in winter outside and I was wearing clothes you would see in California. We finally got layers, but that was close to the end. It was just really excruciating process for me. I was really sick. If my sister wasn’t there, I don’t know what I would have done because she was taking care of me. A woman from wardrobe, Kayla Irwin, was helpful, too. When you are sick and there is no maternal energy around it is really hard to be alive. I have never been that sick. I would get better and decide not to go to the doctor. Then, I’d get sick again. I was sick for about a month.

Q) Did you connect to your character at all?

A) There is Deb, who is the prodigal daughter who returns home after a bar fight. Her mom bails her out of jail. She’s more soulful, hurt and is an addict. She’s struggling with alcohol and was on drugs. She smokes and is kind of aggressive. I could relate to her more because that was kind of my Junior High self. It was someone who was more off the rails and wild. I was intrigued by the destructive side of life, but I haven’t been like that many, many years. So, it was kind of reconnecting with my old self. I have a journal from when I was fourteen years old that I have written in every day. The main emotion there is not feeling understood and not being seen. That manifests into almost a violence. So, that character was actually really easy to connect to. The other character is Juliana and she is the more materialistic spoiled rich kid who is always trying to keep up with the Joneses. If her friend has a nicer car then she wants a nicer car. She is very suggestable with advertising where she’d see a commercial and want to go there. To relate to her, I started to give up judgement because I already began to think, “Ew. I would not want to hang out with her. She sucks.” She’s the girl in high school who made my life really hard. What that character actually is was someone who is kind of happy with an empty life. She is kind of content. She really only cares about money and status. There are a lot of people walking this Earth who are like that. To approach her with also love and nonjudgement and playing her going into the headspace of what would I do and how I would act if all I cared about was money, who is standing in my way and how can I get more money – that greed. It’s always how do I connect to my real life. I really didn’t have any experiences like that so the imagination has to be all fired up. Since I was a child actor and my sisters were too, our process is so different because we never lost touch with the initial technique of just really throwing yourself into circumstances. Just reading a script and being like, “Okay! I’m there!” A lot of people lose touch with that and then they have to go to school and class to relearn. I don’t feel like I ever forgot that initial feeling of make believe.

Q) What do you think it is about Lifetime films that make them so popular?

A) People love them so much. It’s really fun to be in them and connect with the fans when they come up. Lifetime is giving people exactly what they want in these movies. They really have a formula and it works. It’s fun to be a part of.

Q) Will you be live tweeting during the movie?

A) I think I will live tweet during the film when it comes on. I’m @YvonneZima on Twitter.

Q) Is there anything else you want to be sure fans know about the film?

A) There is an amazing actress in it named Claire Rankin who plays my mom. She’s the titular mommy and there are a lot of amazing actors in the film. It’s going to be so much fun! I think it’s way better than the other movie I made, which was The Girl He Met Online. So, if anyone saw that then you definitely want to watch this one because it is next level.