Okay Niki,
why don't you start us off with a visual and
describe the room where you are answering these
questions?
Well, I am sitting in our
office which is a light green room. To the left
of me there are a couple of shelves with horror
icon figurines. There is a huge prop axe made out
of wood hanging on the wall next to a picture of
me as Catwoman. On the opposite wall to my right
there is another shelf with even more and bigger
horror icon sculptures. There is a real axe and
real machete hanging on the wall. (We've used
these in our movies.) Chris's drawing table sits
below these things. On the wall that I'm facing,
there are a bunch of Jim Balent's art works
hanging, as well as a Samurai sword. And then we
have a clutter of boxes filled with comic books,
Chris's art, paints, pens, markers, props, masks,
etc. And in the room we have the newest baby in
the family.... a multi-disk burning tower!! Lots
of creating goes on this room.
So was there
any incident in your childhood that you can now
look back upon and say, "Yeah, that little
girl was destined to grow up to be a scream
queen."
Not a
scream queen necessarily, but definitely an
actress; a SCREEN queen! I used to make my
friends and family make movies with me or put on
a show. I was the director and actress in it. I
can't even recall what they would be about;
ridiculousness... haha... what little kids
imaginations are about. But when I look back on
it, I always knew I was meant to be an actress! I
would even watch commercials and tv shows and
memorize what would be said at certain parts and
feel I could do it better or differently.
Tell me about
your role as Diana in 'Frat House
Massacre' (2007).
It was
soooo much fun to play Diana. She is one of the
main frat brother's girlfiends who gets swept up
in the madness and violence of the frat brothers.
A bit of a bitch! Production-wise... We filmed
FHM in three different installments. It took
place during specific seasons and on a college
campus so the first time I was flown out for 4
days. 6 months later I was flown out for a week,
and 6 months later I was flown out for 2 weeks.
And because I loved every single person on this
project: cast, crews (It was one of the biggest
productions I had worked on), it was like a
family reunion every time I came back. We
recently did ADR (audio dubbing) for some of the
scenes and although I only got to see a few
people from the project, it felt so nice to see
them and work with them again. A couple of months
ago I was a guest with them for FHM at Rock and
Shock Horror Con and it was the same feeling.
Rarely when you film a project do you get to se
everyone again and more than once. You get very
attached to these people because you are creating
together and then it's over. But with FHM, it
kept going. Haha. What's great about my
character, Diana is that when I first went out to
Ohio to film, the role was small. Draven, the
writer, and Alex Pucci, the Director, would
create the film as we'd film. My character ended
up growing into a lead character. You find out
more about the movie here:
http://screamkings.com/cgi-bin/inproduction.cgi?sid=4CON7lJmgyyVqf6u )
Another
interesting new film of yours is 'Methodic'
(2007) about a boy who becomes demonically
possessed by a force known as 'The
Dollman'. Can you tell me a bit
more about the movie and how your fit in as Lana
Matthews?
Methodic
is my first "true" baby! I helped
produce it, co-directed it, and was a lead in it.
Methodic is about bringing back true horror. What
horror was. It's not overly gorey and no real
torture. It's thrilling, and scary. It lets the
viewer's imagination take them on a ride. It
brings back fear as an unknown! Very John
Carpenter-esque, Alfred Hitchcok-esque. As Chris
says, "It's Halloween on steroids".
Methodic is the first Basher movie! All blunt
force traumas and deaths.
Lana
Matthews is more average on the outside, but she
grew up with struggles, just like most people, if
not everybody, including me. Her parents were
killed by her brother when she was a baby. And
though, that didn't happen to me, I can relate in
other circumstances; with the struggle of trying
to understand things that you have and had no
control over. She's just trying to make sense of
it all so she can move on; something she never
was really able to do because this life altering
situation happened at such a young age. Who can't
relate to that?
So if you were
to become possessed - what would be the name of
your demon and what would it make you do?
Hehe...
if I were to become possessed... to be honest, I
have no idea what the name would be of my demon.
I know it would be some ancient Asian warrior and
it would be a chi sucker; an essence sucker.
Depending on spiritual circumstances with
humanity, economy and such, it would rob you of
your essence because you didn't make proper use
of it. I'm sure you can think of many people it
would take. In some ways, this demon would be a
sort of vigilante. Help me think of a name... I
like it!
In 'Last
Rites of the Dead' (2006) you
played a Zombie Girl. As an actress what is the
secret to playing a really convincing zombie?
Allow
absolutely no thoughts to come in. Clear your
mind. In doing so, your eyes will seem blank,
your body will be limp. It wll seem like some
other force is controlling you.
Do you have
any other upcoming projects you would like to let
the www.racksandrazors.com readers know about?
Lots. Cat
and Mouse, a suspense thriller, is our (Blinky
Productions) next big feature. We're looking at a
multi-million dollar budget for that and some
names. We're stlil in the pre-production phase.
We also have a tv pilot we're pitching called
Captain Action, a comedy, based on the old comic
and action figure, Captain Action. And we are in
the phase of getting distribution for Methodic!
Another
really cool thing I'm working on is: I play
Shaundhi in a video game called Saints Row 2, in
which I do the motion capture for! I know a lot
of people have heard of Saints Row 1. Saints Row
2 should be out in 2008 for XBOX and Playstation.
Very excited about this! I have so much fun
working on this video game and it is the first
time I've done something like it. I can't wait to
play myself...
I've also
been working on a self-help relationship series
with Ride 5 Industries. The series deals with
pretty real issues that can and do occur in most
relationships. You can learn about that at www.clipblox.com : modern
relationships. Maybe it will help you...
Tune into
my website for more news and info: www.nikinotarile.com and my myspace
page is another good place to go to: www.myspace.com/nikinotarile Also... for
projects with my production company: www.blinky-productions.com
Congrats on
being names Scream Queen of the Month for
December 2007. Have there been any offers and/or
repercussions from being cited by the SQ website?
Thank
you!! This interview is the first. It was a nice
opening. And I just had this Spanish writer
contact me asking my permission to use me and
some photos in an article he's writing for some
sci-fi website. Apparently he's writing about
Scream Queens.
What's the
best Halloween costume you ever had?
The Best
Halloween Costume I ever had was my Jim Balent
Catwoman costume. I just become her. And it's
sooo sexy!
What was the
first movie you saw that caused you to go to
sleep with the lights on?
The first
movie I recall that really shook me up was, and I
know it's kinda corny now that I'm older, but,
Lerprechaun. There was something really creepy
about that little evil green man running around
and tearing it up. It shook me up so much that
there was a period of time when I was little
where I would not be able to flush the toilet
until the door was wide open, the lights were
off. This way I could flush the toilet and run
right out the door before "anything came up
from the toilet and grabbed me". Don't ask!!
Okay, we're
pulling the car into the Niki Notarile Drive In.
a. What three horror flicks are going to be
featured on the triple bill?
b. What goodies are they going to be serving up
at the concession stand?
c. And what will not be tolerated among the
patrons?
a. -White
Noise (this movie caused me to go crazy for a
bit... do you believe in spirits, because I sure
us hell do.
-Methodic...
of course!
-
Halloween
b.
popcorn *my grandfather was the popcorn man,
nachos, twizzlers, cotton candy, chocolate
candies... things that will just help to make
your movie watching experience that much better!
-
snozages..... what is a snozage anyways. I don't
even know if I spelled it correctly!
c.
stupidity & hostility... there is tooo much
of this in the world! We need more LOVE!!!!
Witches,
zombies, creatures, aliens, Satanists, vampires,
werewolves, psychos, telemarketers -- what horror
icon does it for your Niki and why?
Psychos....
because these exist all around us every day and
they can be right next door to you and you'd have
no idea. It seems like more and more are
sprouting up.
What is
something that scares you in real life?
How more
and more stupid people come to life every day,
That genuine, unconditional love is missing. |