Jordan Galland and Louisa Krause Talk Ava’s Possessions
Drew Tinnin
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After a successful festival run, the inventive horror comedy Ava’s Possessions is finally available On Demand and in select theaters across the country. Director Jordan Galland and company have created their own contained, surreal riff on an L.A. noir blended with a unique horror comedy premise that, surprisingly, had never been explored before. The same way “The Walking Dead” documents what life is like after the zombie apocalypse, Ava’s Possessions investigates what happens after a demonic possession.
Galland and Ava herself, Louisa Krause, sat down with us in New York City recently to talk about their experience on set, their love of the genre, and the score by Sean Lennon that really helps establish the moody atmosphere of Ava’s world.
DC: How did the collaboration with Sean Lennon start out?
JG: So Sean and I, we’re old friends. We met through playing music together in 1996. In 1998, he asked my band to open for him on tour. He was doing a tour for his first solo record, and I was just graduating high school so we became friends on that tour. And then we actually wrote a couple movie scripts together… when I made my first movie, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Undead, it was a very natural choice to have him come and he wanted to do it. We did that movie together and then we did my second movie together. And this one, I don’t even think I asked him; I just showed him the script and said this is the next thing we’re doing.
DC: Do you listen to music when you write?
JG: Occasionally, but usually not music with lyrics, I don’t do the Tarantino thing. That’s too much, but sometimes I’ll listen to film soundtracks that are evocative, often the Basic Instinct soundtrack, which is just weird.
LK: I listened to a lot of Jordan’s music after we wrapped; it was great. I went down a YouTube rabbit hole.
DC: How did you come up with the idea for Ava’s Possessions? Did you know it was kind of a unique idea?
JG: Well, I was hoping it was when I thought of it. These days when I have an idea, I Google. I had been playing around with a possession idea for a long time just because I’m a fan of those types of movies, but I knew if I was going to try and make a possession film, I was going to have to do something new in the genre to make it worthwhile for everybody. I came up with this new idea, which was of this girl recovering from demonic possession, but prior to that I had all these things like Men in Black but with demons!
DC: Were you worried that you wouldn’t be able to play both sides of Ava, the lighter side and the darker side too?
LK: Not really, just because that kind of stuff is so fun; that’s easy for me because I love surrendering to whatever it is to the words and the world of whatever I’m in. I was so comfortable on that set; [Jordan] even brought me slippers one day because I’d be walking around barefoot. You can see a melding of cinema in the movie and it’s so unique and that’s why I was so attracted to the story. That’s never been done before; I want to take a bite out of that.
DC: You thought about your character pretty extensively, right? Didn’t you have a notebook?
LK: I did! For different characters I really need to flesh out a history, and for Ava I had her as like an ex-dancer. In order to ground whatever it is I’m doing, I need to flesh out a history and that was fun. And I felt like I looked really rad.
DC: Talk a little bit about the makeup. The full demonic suit was pretty impressive. And Louisa, you having some demon makeup towards the end, how was that process?
LK: It wasn’t too bad; it really helped honestly. I was looking out of these tiny slits so I really didn’t feel like a human. I felt like I was some kind of being. I felt transformed; so much of that was in the makeup. And also the demon that Jordan wrote… that was all these different animals; that was all very specific.
JG: It was tricky because some of [prosthetics] look like “The Lion King” on Broadway and you don’t want that look and some of them look like something we’ve seen before like “Buffy” and I just wanted it to feel very original and specific for the movie.
DC: You mentioned television… can you see this being a TV show or a comic? Is that something you’d want to explore?
JG: Even though there are so many supernatural shows on TV, there aren’t that many that have a kind of original take. Yeah, I think it would be fun to explore. Certainly there’s been a response from people that have seen it that want to know more about the counselor and the group and the demons that possess these different people. I think it could be a cool show.
Ava’s Possessions is now available On Demand and in select theaters. Also, look for Louisa Krause in Jane Wants a Boyfriend with “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” alumna Eliza Dushku!
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