The Australian actress speaks with us about her new film The Darkness, Silent Hill and more.
Den of Geek: Have you ever had a paranormal experience?
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Radha Mitchell: Not really.
So that kind of demonstrates that we can certainly freak ourselves out.
I dont know if youve seen the candle collection?
you might buy all kinds of things, including genitalia that you might use to control your spouse.
Point being, its all about belief.
So if you light that candle…
It could be dangerous.
Its kind of like a voodoo penis.
[laughs]
I read that Greg McLean set this originally in Australia.
Have you ever been to any places back home that remind you of what this family goes through?
[laughs] In that movie he got me eaten by this crocodile.
But while we were up there we went to these secret areas.
And we were taken in by these people that keep the land.
Thats really whats going on.
So Ive had that experience.
Its all about if you believe it, its happening.
Youve done a few horror films.
What is it about them?
Whats fun about horror movies is just the visceral experience.
Its very raw, pared down to just human emotion.
And theres shades of gray in the middle.
In a horror movie you get right into it.
Who knows what energy is in him?
Its hard to define him.
Hes in sort of his own dimension.
He could be schizophrenic.
Maybe hes just autistic.
Maybe he is connected to the dark forces.
You cant define it.
And thats sort of whats creepy in this story.
And all the actors are just naturally quite buoyant and fun.
And yet, we got to attack each other.
Theyre not quite, any of them, aligned with themselves, or theyre repressing something.
The house is her kind of domain and kind of a cage.
And is there such an evil thing?
And all these questions are pretty standard, I guess.
In this case its intensified by the possibility of this supernatural force thats taking them along this trajectory.
How would you describe Greg as a director?
Personally, hes a wonderful leader.
He makes everybody feel really good about themselves.
And he casts really cool people.
So he has a real instinct for casting and for character.
And hes just generally a good person.
Hes a nice guy.
Just the other day I saw that somebody wrote an appreciation ofSilent Hill.
Im wondering, 10 years on, what your thoughts are on the film.
He wasnt messing around.
Everything about it was unusual in terms of gender.
And then the visuals were stunning.
He had the guys who did the music for the video game doing the music for the film.
Whats the film that people ask you about the most when you meet fans?
But then theres all different kinds of movies, likeHigh Art.
Theres an audience specific for that.
So different movies have different audiences.
Were you sad that they killed off Fry inPitch Blackso you couldnt do more movies in that series?
At the time I was really happy about it.
[laughs] I mean it was kind of cool.
But in retrospect, it would have been nice if she was cryo-frozen or something like that.
[laughs]
What are you doing next?
Im going to do a surf movie in Australia.
So Im just learning how to surf.
You are just learning now?
You dont all know how to surf?
[laughs] Finally Im learning how to surf and its great.
You also have a movie coming out calledThe Shack.
Who was on set on the first day and kind of like blessed the set.
Again, a really great cast, like Octavia Spencer will be playing God.
And its a little bit likeIts a Wonderful Life.
Do you remember that movie?
Kind of magic realism, but maybe its real.
Its a really beautiful demonstration of the essence of Christianity.
You dont have to be a Christian to appreciate it, I dont think.
But it will kind of explain what the essence of it is about.
The Darknessis out in theaters now.
