Haley Lu Richardson Talks Being One of The Last Survivors
Matt Boiselle
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Now you tell me – who could look at this sweet, angelic face and think for one solitary second that this young woman could be a beacon for some unconstrained ass-kicking? Put a rifle in one mitt and a katana in the other, and back up, Jack! In her latest release, The Last Survivors, Haley Lu Richardson plays a girl pushed to the edge when forced to defend her remaining allies and a very precious element.
She was kind enough to sit with us and discuss her role, among a few other topics, so park yer buns and enjoy!
DC: Can you give us a little description about the film and your character, Kendal?
HLR: Well yes – The Last Survivors really tells the story – there’s only a few people left in this post-apocalyptic, drought-stricken world a few years into the future, and the character that I play (Kendal) – she’s an orphaned girl who lives on this farm with a few other people. She and Dean (Booboo Stewart), who are like brother and sister – Dean is slowly dying of kidney failure, and she has to take care of him, and there are these terrible, greedy bad guys who think they own all the water and kill whomever they feel is using their water. It gets to the point where Kendal really has to rise to the challenge and fight for not only herself, but for those she loves, and she gets pretty bad-ass (laughs) – so it was a lot of fun for me to play.
DC: That would have led me to my next question – how was the shoot? It looked pretty intense!
HLR: Oh yeah! We were – if you watch the movie, you can really see the world, where it appears very foreign, scary and miserable. We were actually filming up towards California City, a few hours north of L.A., that looks just like that – sand dunes, remnants of houses, no greenery, no trees, no water, no clouds in the sky. It was miserable, and that’s where we were actually filming, so that was beneficial to us getting in the world of the movie, but also just so sad to see that Earth actually looks like that in some places to where we all live in L.A. – you can just drive a couple of hours north, and this is what you find. It was a really hard shoot because we were moving so quick – we only had a month to film all the stuff out in the desert, and we were going so quick. It was such a physical movie and an emotional role for me. So as Kendal had to rise to the occasion in the film, I had to as well as an actor, and as a new actor it was definitely a challenge.
DC: Did you have to undergo any specialized training for all of the fight scenes in the film?
HLR: Yeah, I actually worked with the stunt coordinator for three weeks before we went out to the desert to start filming. All we did was work on choreography and sword-work, as well as a gun – how to hold it – and the deep-in-the-fight choreography, just to get it all down so that when we were out there, and the emotions would get the better of us, that we were safe. It was like second nature so we didn’t have to think about the performance and the steps – we knew the steps, and then the performance was added on top. I trained quite a bit, and I think that because I’m a dancer, and comfortable with my body, that it made it easier for me to get the steps down due to the dance background.
DC: You’ve delved into some comedy, drama, and horror roles over your short career so far – now that you’ve played the heroine in the post-apocalyptic thriller, could you see yourself in more roles like this?
HLR: Oh my God, I could SO see myself in more roles like this! This was actually the first movie that I ever did (it was filmed in 2012), and it’s really exciting to us all that it’s finally being released. I was overwhelmed that right out the door I was allowed to play such a powerful, strong female character. I love being able to rise to the occasion and show other young girls the strength that can come when we’re put to the test as a woman – I love roles like that, and I would totally be into playing them more. People ask me all the time if I prefer comedy or drama or movies or TV – I just love a script when it’s a good script and when a character is well rounded and authentic. When you can read a script and connect with the character, I’d pretty much do any script that came my way if I felt that way about the character.
DC: Last one – after this has been released, what’s going to be keeping you busy in the future?
HLR: I also have two more films that are coming out this year, and the first one is The Young Kieslowski, and it’s very different from this movie – it’s a quirky, coming-of-age film about two college kids who lose their virginity to each other, and I end up getting pregnant with twins. I then have one coming out after that called The Bronze, that is a completely bold and shocking comedy – it opened Sundance Film Festival, so that was exciting, and that will be out October 16th.
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