Pop-Culturalist.com

Killer Kate! is a horror comedy that follows two estranged sisters who try to reconnect by escaping to a remote cabin booked on a home sharing app, but their weekend turns into a savage life-or-death struggle that pits family against family and past against present. It’s a film unlike any you’ve ever seen before and one that Alexandra Feld holds near and dear to her heart. It’s her first feature film as the lead actress and one she’s been attached to since the very beginning. Not only is she starring in and producing the project, but she’s also working alongside her husband, who stepped into the director’s chair. Pop Culturalist chatted with Alexandra about all things Killer Kate!.

PC: Tell us about Killer Kate! and your character.
Alexandra: I play Kate, who is the older sister to Angie. Kate’s the one who stays home to work and take care of their father, who’s sick, because their mother passed away. Her younger sister left about five years ago and they haven’t really spoken. Angie is getting married and invites Kate to her bachelorette party just as kind of an outreach to mend their relationship. Kate’s father really pushes her to go that to fix the family. So Kate reluctantly goes off with her sister to this bachelorette weekend away at a cabin that they rented on LA BnB, which is kind of a nod to the Airbnb.

Unbeknownst to them, the people who have rented them this house are actually a family of kind of quirky characters who have a hotel that’s a bit rundown and not doing well, which they think is due to LA BnB taking their business. So they decide to rent out their own LA BnB and bring a bunch of mayhem to the lives of these girls to try and kind of taint the name of LA BnB in order to hopefully bring people back to their hotel, but it kind of doesn’t go so great for them, either. It’s a lot of fun.

PC: What the preparation like when you’re playing a character who’s in all of these extreme situations?
Alexandra: That’s a great question. I had a lot of time to sit with it because I was part of the early development. I was really excited at the opportunity to be in these crazy situations and to learn how to use different weaponry. She uses a baseball bat with barb wire and a rifle. I come from a theatre background, so physicality is really exciting to me, especially being able to play that onscreen. The horror comedy genre kind of allows us to get away with things that are a little bit more heightened, so we could get away with a lot more than you would be able to, maybe, in a calm, slow drama. So I kind of just dove in headfirst. It was a lot of fun and there was a lot of blood. I got to play in that sticky mess half the movie.

Also, I was surrounded by a really great cast that kind of elevated all of us. It really challenged us to be better and try different things. My husband, Elliot, who directed, was really open to that. We got to do a lot of improv and share our ideas with him and the co-writer, Daniel—we had both of them on set. It was fun to kind of rewrite things and give our own input about things in the moment that felt more real or comfortable. That was great.

PC: How much of yourself would you say is in Kate?
Alexandra: I brought, I think, a lot of things, maybe intentionally, but also not, because I’m an older sister. I have a really close relationship with my little sister and it brought me back to high school when you have those moments of butting heads and not getting along. It was really relatable. That was what was so amazing about this; the writing, at its core, is about these sisters. It’s about family. It was so well written that I could really relate to it. The reality of these characters, especially the sisters, was very, very important from the beginning, so I think I really brought that. Also, Kate is…she is a strong person, even from the beginning, because she’s kind of had to work to keep the family together, or at least to take care of her father while her sister’s gone. I think she doesn’t realize how strong she is until she’s put in this heightened situation, though.


PC: You’re both the lead actress and producer on this film. How challenging is it to have dual roles, and what was the biggest lesson you learned from this experience?
Alexandra: This was my first feature film as a lead actress. In a way, I think it was really great for me because I don’t have anything to compare it to. I haven’t had to just be an actress before. So that was really helpful because it was just like this was all I knew. I really enjoyed being busy and creative. I think being able to wear the producer hat was very helpful for me because it gave me something to always to be doing. It allowed me to have a really heavy creative hand in the process, even all the way down to hiring cast and crew. It was a cool experience to be able to be in the casting room and read with literally everyone who auditioned for the roles.

I think that once it came time to shoot, Elliot, who also produced the film, and I both kind of agreed, let’s really step back from the producer role and focus on our roles here on set. I tried as much as possible to just focus on Kate and just being an actor, and he on just being a director because my bother-in-law was also a producer on the film. He’s incredible at what he does, so there was a lot trust there, and we were just be able to say, “You know, David, it’s all you, buddy,” and know that it would all get taken care of. With that being said, of course, it’s hard to fully separate yourself, having been such a part of pre-production.

In a way I think it was actually helpful because if I were just acting, it kind of would’ve let me settle and really focus, maybe, too much on it and get nervous, but having these other kinds of distractions allowed it to be a little more seamless. I just had to do it. I just had to jump in and just be Kate. I know that’s probably not for everyone, but I really loved it. It’ll be hard for me to just be an actress, I think, and not have a say in other things. It’s fun to be a boss. You know? I enjoyed it, and I look forward to doing that again on future projects, for sure.

PC: Like you said earlier, it’s your husband’s debut feature film as a director. What was it like getting to work together and share this milestone with him?
Alexandra: That’s a really great way to put it: it definitely was a milestone for both of us. It was an amazing experience and we work really well together. This actually wasn’t our first time working together. We own Feld Films, a commercial production company, and then we freelance full-time together. We both produce commercials, so we have had some time, three or four years, to really develop that shorthand in communicating with each other and learning how the other works, which was really helpful when we stepped into the feature film world. It worked really well. There’s just a level of trust there that we already have, which, I assume, is something that Tim Burton and Johnny Depp have, because they’ve been working together for years and years.

Then also, living together gave us that extra time to really talk about the characters and about our vision, our goals, and everything else that had to do with the film. By the time we got on set, we only had 10 days to shoot, so we kind of had all that out of the way and were just really focused. It also allowed Elliot to trust me in that character and he knew what I wanted from Kate. It allowed him to really focus and work intimately with the other actors, which was really nice.

PC: Kate is at the center of this story. Which of her relationships was your favorite to explore and why?
Alexandra: Oh, gosh. Working with everyone was amazing, but I have to say my relationship with Danielle Burgess, who plays Angie, was really special. We had the most scenes together, and we probably spent the most time together on set. We had an instant chemistry, even when she came in for her audition. She read for the role and we were immediately like, “Okay. Let’s do a chemistry reading. Get the both of us on camera together.” I just kind of felt like I loved her so much. I really do feel like she is my younger sister. We text and talk every day. That was a really special relationship, both on camera and off.


PC: What do you hope audiences take away?
Alexandra: First and foremost, I hope everyone has fun. It is a horror comedy and it crosses a lot of genre lines. It’s a little bit family drama. It’s comedy. It’s horror. It’s thriller. It’s suspense. I think that there is a little bit for everyone in there. I’d also say to just go in without any specific expectations because it’s such a unique film. Then, I hope they also love the characters. They’re so quirky. At the end of the day, for me, it’s just to recognize the importance of caring about the people in your life. Our time here is short. I love that she and her sister realize that and come together in the end.

Make sure to follow Alexandra on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, and catch Killer Kate! in theaters and on VOD today.