Exclusive: Emilie Autumn Talks Fight Like a Girl, The Devil’s Carnival Episode 2 and More!
Steve Barton
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Things macabre, Victorian and aurally and visually arresting are in store for fans of American singer, songwriter and Devil’s Carnival actress Emilie Autumn, who sat down recently with us to chat regarding her new single Fight Like a Girl, her new band Platonic Friends, and Episode 2 of Devil’s Carnival.
Read on for the Q&A and more!
With Autumn’s video for Fight Like a Girl having dropped recently (see it below), which was helmed by Devil’s Carnival and Saw series director Darren Lynn Bousman (and based on her autobiographical novel The Asylum for Wayward Victorian Girls), the singer and artist riffed on her collaboration with the filmmaker, her new band with actor Marc Senter (writer’s note and an exclusive: he and fellow actor Noah Segan have signed on to star in writer and director Dennis Widmyer and Kevin Kölsch’s feature Starry Eyes!), and a whole lot more.
Dread Central: What was your collaborative process in producing and shooting the video for Fight Like a Girl with Darren Lynn Bousman?
Emilie Autumn: The characteristic that Darren and I have most in common is our desire to create not mere movies or albums, but whole worlds for people to enter, visit, and, ultimately, occupy and make a significant part of their lives. We don’t just create art, we create realities. I’ve done this with my Asylum world and the mythos that this world is based upon, that mythos being established in my book, The Asylum for Wayward Victorian Girls, and played out in my live shows. Darren has of course done this with The Devil’s Carnival amongst other things. When we first became great friends two years ago, we mutually accepted the privilege of creating within each other’s worlds, and my playing ‘The Painted Doll’ in The Devil’s Carnival was the first example of this. Meanwhile, Darren was reading my book – no easy feat, the thing weighs five pounds, and, while it has independently sold over 20,000 copies to strangers, my closest friends refuse to read it – and listening to my music more than most of my audience ever will. When I told Darren I was developing the book and my music into a full-scale Broadway musical, and I asked him to direct it, he was almost upset. He told me not to insult him by asking him to sign on, because, in his mind, he already had. He’d always assumed that we were making this thing together, and he was right. This music video itself is more than a visual depiction of the title track of my latest album, Fight Like A Girl, and it’s also a trailer for the musical. Because Darren knows so much about the Asylum world: it’s rules, politics, hierarchies, characters, and, most importantly, it’s mission, I was able to do with him what I do with almost no one else, and that was to trust him with my story. For the first time, I could put forth an idea of what I wanted, and then I could let go as I watched somebody not only fulfilling my vision, but actually adding to it and making it better. These are the partnerships that one keeps for a lifetime. I’m Johnny Depp to Darren’s Tim Burton. Wow, I can’t believe I just made that analogy.
Something that I think is most fun for my audience is to see how our two realities are bleeding into each other, almost like easter eggs hidden in software. The ‘Fight Like a Girl’’ video features a number of the cast and crew from The Devil’s Carnival, including the smoldering hot Marc Senter who plays ‘Orderly No. 3,’ my primary antagonist and eventual kissing partner – much as he did in The Devil’s Carnival, come to think of it – and the marvelous Dayton Callie who plays ‘The Warden,’ Veronica Varlow and Captain Maggots – my touring bandmate and ‘Woe Maiden’ in The Devil’s Carnival, and many more. This video is definitely an ensemble cast. Everyone in it is a damn super star, who deserves their own song.
Like Star Wars, The Wizard Of Oz, The Lion King, and nearly all fairy tales, my story is a monomyth, essentially a hero’s journey; an unexpected transformation from victim to victor by a character from whom you’d never expect such greatness. Darren and all of the cast and crew helped me to accomplish that transformation on screen in ‘Fight Like a Girl’ and tell a real story, and I’m forever grateful.
Dread Central: What can we expect of your character’s return in Devil’s Carnival?
Emilie Autumn: Well, for one thing, she talks! I’ve read the script for Episode 2, and it’s truly epic. What is demanded of my character in this film is going to be really quite mind-blowing to say the least, and an incredible challenge to me as an actor. It’s also a hero’s journey in the sense that we learn the unexpected origins of ‘The Painted Doll’ and how and why she transformed into the mysteriously powerful character we see in Hell. Massive surprises are in store for Carnies, Sinners, and Plague Rats alike!
Dread Central: How did Platonic Friends, the band you’ve put together with actor Marc Senter come about, and what can we expect to see musically and live in the near future?
Emilie Autumn: I’m so glad you asked! Platonic Friends is, to be succinct, the biggest band in the world. They are comprised of ‘Sharc’ and ‘The Admiral,’ who are the increasingly dominant alter egos of Marc Senter and me, respectively. Platonic Friends makes chart-topping hits in the dance synthpop genre – think New Order with hardcore bass lines and a lot more sexual tension, eye-patches, goldfish, and break-dancing. In fact, they’ve had chart-topping hits in countries that haven’t even been invented yet. Their legions of rabid fans are called ‘Boyfriends’ and ‘Girlfriends,’ and their signature matching hotel bathrobes are influencing the haute couture collections of fashions’ most legendary designers. They’ve set the trends you’re attempting to follow.
Emilie Autumn: Check out their sweet album cover on here. Their hit single, entitled Platonic Friends, drops shortly – and follow them on Twitter to learn why The Admiral doesn’t get out of bed for less than $10,000, and how Sharc is king of the ocean yet deathly afraid of water. Now, you may be saying to yourself, ‘But I don’t think I’ve ever heard of Platonic Friends.’ Or have you? Exactly.
The video for Fight Like A Girl can be seen on YouTube here:
For more on Emilie Autumn visit her official site here, ‘like’ her on Facebook here, and follow her on Twitter.
To purchase the Fight Like a Girl album go here or at Hot Topic, and to purchase tickets to the upcoming 2013 European Fight Like A Girl Tour go here.
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