Caity Lotz discusses dancing and stunt work

Directed by Caradog James, Produced by John Giwa-Amu  and starring Toby Stephens (Die Another Day), Caity Lotz (Arrow), Denis Lawson, Sam Hazeldine and Pooneh Hajimohammadi, THE MACHINE is a sci-fi thriller set in the near future with a global war looming. As top MOD scientist Vincent (Stephens) is briefed with developing the ultimate killing machine, he creates the first fully conscious robot, but against orders he makes it in the image of his lost love, plunging him into a battle for his survival.

The Machine had its World Premiere earlier this year at Tribeca Film Festival and has since won the Raindance Award at the recent BIFAs, Best UK Feature at Raindance Film Festival, Best Sci-Fi film atToronto After Dark Film Festival and three BAFTA Cymru Awards for Special Achievement in Film, Best Costume Design for Chrissie Pegg and Best Original Music for Tom Raybould.

Ahead of its home entertainment release, The Fan Carpet‘s Marc Jason Ali had the pleasure of speaking with fantastic actress Caity Lotz about the film, her love of dancing and making her character vulnerable and strong at the same time…

You’ve appeared in various different genres from horror to comedy to drama, what drew you to The Machine?

I loved the fact that I was going to get to play two different characters, the fact that one of them was a machine was even more exciting for me, so I liked that it was going to be such a challenge.

I thought it was such a cool script when I read it, I felt that it didn’t just fit in the box, like it was very unique and had its own life to it.

What was Caradog like to work with and how was it working in London and Wales?

It was a little cold; cold and rainy but it was fun. Working with Caradog was awesome, he’s a really cool director and he has such a strong vision for this film and he would always say ‘you guys are the experts on these characters to me and Toby’ so he was very open to hearing our thoughts and working together to create these characters.

You dance in the film, is that something you learnt for the film, or do you have a keen interest in dance?

I was a dancer before I was an actor, I grew up dancing, I started when I was seven.  I was born a dancer.

When I watched The Machine, it struck me as having shades of The Terminator and a definite air of Blade Runner to it, were these films a starting point for you when creating such memorable and remarkable characters?

No, no, the only thing, and I think it was before, I think Prometheus wasn’t even out, but I remember seeing a video, a trailer for Prometheus and Michael Fassbender’s character in that, but that was the only thing that I watched that kind of inspired me for The Machine.

You’re quite the bad ass in the film, can you talk about your training for the roles?

I had trained in stunts and Martial Arts before the film, and I almost wanted to be a stunt person so I kind of already had the training. Which was good because on set we were in budgetary confinements and didn’t have a lot of time for things.

Usually I didn’t have a stunt double, I was learning the fights on set, while they were setting up the shots and then we’d do it right away. So I think the only training that I really did was to get into physical shape before the film, so very healthy diet and lots of working out.

Is it quite collaborative when working with the stunt coordinators?

Yeah, you know, our stunt guys and stunt coordinator was awesome, he definitely wanted to work with me because he wanted to go around my strengths; what kicks I like to do and how I fight and whatever we could do so that it looked the best and it had to cater to what I was best at.

You share a lot of scenes with Toby’s Vincent, how was he to work with?

I adore Toby! He is amazing, he is such a great actor and he is so open and he’s such a pleasure to work with. And he’s such a cool guy, and a really talented actor.

Yeah, Toby is amazing, and you can tell him I said that!

A key aspect of The Machine is that she is both fearless and vulnerable at the same time, I think that’s incredible and there are few actresses and actors that can pull that off, where did you draw your inspiration for that?

I don’t know where it came from, I guess it just came from, I guess she is vulnerable and she cant help but be vulnerable, and at the same time she has to be strong.

She is what she has to be and I think the vulnerability is an essential part of her character that is just there, and the strength comes from having to be that way.

Your character displays an aversion to spiders and clowns, is that something you have in common?

No. I don’t mind spiders or clowns, I don’t have any fear of those. Caradog put that in there, and do you know why he did that? He read a study, he did so much research for this film, and I remember him telling me that it’s true that girls have a natural and innate fear of spiders, which is interested and I thought it was interesting that he put that in there, since it is a female robot.

What was your most memorable moment or moments whilst making The Machine?

I remember our first make up test, we had to do a make up test for The Machine, and we hadn’t quite figured it out, and I remember the first time we tried the look of The Machine it didn’t go quite as smoothly, those first few make up tests were kind of scary, while we figured out what it was.

What it ended up as, I think it is amazing how The Machine turned out, but it took us some time to get it that way.

I heard that there were a few occasions where you had to play both characters in the same day?

Yeah. I think there was even a day where I had to go Ava, Machine and back to Ava, as I said we were under pressures of time, and with locations it just happened that way.

The story of The Machine is beautiful and moving and is left wide open, I’m keen to see the journey continue, if Caradog wanted to make a sequel would you reprise your role?

Yeah, why not, I had a lot of fun and I love the film, I’m really proud of it, so I’d definitely be happy to do a second one.

I heard in an interview that you have written a few things, specifically a thriller, how’s that going? Is that where you’d like to take your career in the future?

You know what? Writing is so hard. I really respect writers, it’s a difficult thing. I’m still working on that same thriller, but I’ve kinda moved more into a Producer position.

So I wrote a treatment and now I feel like there are so many talented writers and that’s what they do, and I’m kinda having more fun in that space working with a writer.

But I want to have a better understanding of screenwriting so I’m trying to study that.

I’m watching your career with the utmost interest, I cannot wait to see what you play next, what is next for you?

Well right now I’m on a TV show called Arrow, and that’s been pretty much consuming my life. We shoot in Vancouver and I’ve been out here for eight months, so right now it’s just that, and it’s awesome!

After that we’ll see where the wind blows me.

The Pact 2 maybe?

That’s already done, I think that’s out in the UK in March or something.

Going back to genres, you’re currently playing a superhero, is there any genre that you haven’t done that you’d like to?

I want to explore more Drama, you know, pure drama, very simple human drama, is something I’d be very interested in doing. No super powers, no martial arts fighting, pure drama.

I’m interviewing you for The Fan Carpet, and we want to know what you are a fan of?

TV shows right now, I’ve been watching House of Cards, like I think the rest of the world.

We touched on Arrow earlier, and you and Canary were the reason I caught up with the show over a weekend, it’s just been picked up for a third season, can we expect to see more of you and more of Sara/Canary’s journey?

I don’t know, we’ll see! We have to wait to find out, I’m here for the whole season for sure, and then after that we’ll see.

Are you still going script by script for Arrow?

As in story lines, yeah none of us know…

And finally, Caity Lotz Source, your number 1 fansite wants to know how has your life changed since starting on Arrow? Your fame has skyrocketed and turned you into a household name.

Well I think that’s a little bit of a stretch but I appreciate it. You know, my life hasn’t changed that much; the biggest change has been just being in Vancouver, you know, I kind of half live in L.A. and half, well more than half live in Vancouver, I live in Vancouver more than L.A. but other than that I feel the same, I don’t feel like anythings really changed.

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THE MACHINE IS OUT NOW IN CINEMAS AND HITS BLU-RAY AND DVD ON MARCH 31