Swapping LA For England: An EXCLUSIVE Interview With Najarra Townsend For THE STYLIST Ahead Of Arrow Video FrightFest Premiere
Claire seems to live a normal life as a hair stylist by day, lending a sympathetic ear to the women who visit her chair and encouraging them to unburden themselves as she works her magic. But for an unlucky few, Claire’s interest grows more sinister, and she begins coveting their lifestyles…and sometimes their very lives. Her client Olivia has everything Claire wants: a devoted fiancé, robust friend group, successful career, and confident demeanor. When Olivia makes the well-intentioned mistake of asking Claire to style her hair for her wedding, Claire becomes obsessed, and her unassuming, meek demeanor slowly gives way to her inner demons.
Ahead of the UK premiere of Jill Gevarguzian’s THE STYLIST, lead actress Najarra Townsend talks about being drawn to dark characters, loving film festivals and swapping LA for the English countryside...
In THE STYLIST, you play Claire, a murderous hairstylist who doesn’t just cut hair! It’s a very restrained yet chillingly emotive performance. What research did you do in order to understand the mind of someone who is, essentially, a serial killer?
The majority of my research for Claire was actually building her backstory. I started with our Writer/Director Jill Gervargizian’s backstory notes on the character and then filled in all the blanks. I always approach a role by creating a life history for them. Memories are vital for me to have for every character. Jill also suggested I read “House of Psychotic Women” by Kier-La Janisse, which is about the exploration of female neurosis in horror and exploitation films.
I actually did only a small bit of research on real female serial killers. I looked a few up, read about them and their lives, including the psychology behind why people think they did what they did, but in the end I felt the most valuable research for me was creating a full life for Claire and understanding why she does what she does.
The film is based on director Jill Gevaragizian’s short feature, which played at FrightFest in 2016. How different was your approach to playing Claire then?
Originally I had given Claire a few select memories from her life as well as fleshing out her closest relationships (like with her mom). When it came to making the feature I was able to look back on my notes and take things I thought still applied whilst elaborating on the rest of her life, which really made her a much fuller character. It’s a dream come true as an actor to be able to take this person that I found so fascinating from the short and be able to really sink my teeth into her for the feature.
You became first known to horror fans, and the FrightFest audience, for playing Samantha in the compelling zombie body horror CONTRACTED. The film garnered some notoriety for its sexual slant on the victimology of rape. What was it like playing such a demanding role?
Contracted was an extremely fun experience. It was my first time working with such intense practical effects. I would be in the makeup chair for hours before our shoot day started, having veins painted on my whole body, prosthetics applied and contacts lenses put in. It was demanding emotionally but also physically and really helped me grow as an actor. I trusted myself and my choices a lot more after that role.
THE STYLIST is showing online on Sunday 25 October, 11.45am in the Horror Channel screen, as part of the Arrow Video FrightFest October Digital event.
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