Helene Donohue
The team behind the awesome upcoming home invasion horror Lake Runs Red continue their unique and inspiring marketing campaign - that will see the release of five different character trailers - with the second instalment in the run. This month sees the release of Gwen's trailer, played by the delightful and talented Helene Donohue.
Helene Donohue is an actress/singer originally from San Francisco, who began her career cutting her teeth on classic horror and science fiction films. Although her main focus was on music, Helene eventually fell in love with theatre and vocal performance.
Some of Helene's television appearances include live concerts on KQED Public TV, with the San Francisco Choral Society and the San Francisco Symphony’s “Evening at the Pops” program. In 1992, she performed Mozart’s Solemn Vespers at Carnegie Hall. Helene dabbled in the movies, too, most notably in James Cameron’s "The Abyss" (1989) and Oliver Stone’s "The Doors" (1991).
"Lake Runs Red" tells the story of two college girlfriends who go to their parent's secluded northern Minnesota lake cabin to prepare for final exams. However, an uninvited visitor stops by and it soon becomes obvious that he isn't there to study. Helene plays GWEN, the cold and aloof mother of Lauren (Kaci Wegleitner), a dispassionate mother desperate to reconnect with her estranged daughter. Throughout the events of the film, she quietly finds herself at odds with Melissa, the main protagonist.
SN: Firstly, I’d like to learn a little something about your early life, and what circumstances lead you into the world of acting.
HELENE: I blame my Mom. No, really, I was very shy and she’d send me out to play with the neighborhood kids. We’d go to movies then come home and act them out. I always picked the most complex character to play too. You know, that character who had a powerful impact but wasn’t on screen that much. That was always the person I wanted to know more about.
Also, Mom and I liked watching old movies together. Saturday nights on the couch with my mom watching Creature Features hosted by Bob Wilkins and later, John Stanley. Classic horror and science fiction movies. Mom and I idolized Vincent Price, Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee, Barbara Steele, Bette Davis, Olivia de Havilland, Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, Lon Chaney, Jr. and so many others. I was fascinated that these incredible characters were simply extraordinary people playing a part. I loved hating them all. Over and over, I would tell my Mother, “I wanna do that, mommy!”
SN: Tell me about your passion for music and what part that has played throughout your life and career.
HELENE: Music relaxes my mind. It’s the ultimate drug and you can’t overdose on it. A form of escape both uniquely personal and universally understood. That’s what’s amazing. Everyone understands music, doesn’t matter what gender, age, race, creed, belief system, sexual orientation, you name it. EVERYBODY gets music. It’s a human equalizer.
I would have to say my passion for music began in infancy. My Mother sang to me. She had a very sweet voice. When I was about two years old, I figured out how the rotary dial worked on the telephone and would sing to whoever answered when I made a connection. Yeah, got into trouble with that. My Father put a lock on the phone so it wouldn’t dial and brought home a piano. Then the fun really began. I could plunk on the piano keys and sing to my heart’s content. Then came lessons, etc.
Throughout my life, whether performing or listening to it, music has been the air I breathe. A friend revisited. A soothing voice to ease a troubled mind or broken heart. A dance partner. My Mom singing me to sleep. Help with homework. I can’t imagine life without it.
SN: You’re due to appear in the forthcoming home invasion horror Lake Runs Red, in which you play Gwen, the mother of Kaci Wegleitner’s character Lauren. What else can you tell us about your character?
HELENE: Gwen is a bitch. She is a driven woman, well-spoken, determined, successful and doesn’t suffer fools gladly. Somehow she ended up marrying Paul, a fun-loving guy, friend to all, a hugger. Gwen and Paul have retired to their lake cabin. The audience will probably ask themselves the same question I did at our first read-through of the script. How did Gwen and Paul end up together? Why are they still together?
Gwen has a strained relationship with her daughter, Lauren, who clearly is Daddy’s Girl. Gwen is not overly affectionate and she obviously has reservations about her daughter’s tendency to be a party girl. There's a disappointment and a distance between them. As the film progresses, however, Lauren is more her mother’s daughter than initially thought. So from the outset, the family dynamic is tested.
Over the course of the film the outer bitch layer peels away and there’s a human underneath. Each horrific event throughout the film reveals more about her. Gwen is vulnerable. She has love within her. She’s made mistakes and difficult choices. She's been hiding dark secrets. She’s a fighter. Don’t mess with Gwen!
SN: What appealed to you the most about Gwen?
HELENE: According to our director, Jason Riesgraf, Gwen was the hardest role to cast. Easy to see why when all the casting notice said was: “55-year-old white woman who is stern and serious, largely because of a rough life. We are looking for someone with "resting bitch face". If you're not sure what that is, Google it.”
I didn’t have to Google it. I’d played a “well-to-do, refined church lady dripping in jewels and disdain” on a previous project and was paid to give everybody the “stink eye” for a week. So, I was up for the challenge of Gwen. What appealed to me most was discovering who Gwen was. Okay, so she’s a bitch. I wanted to know WHY.
And after reading the script, I was filled with questions. How did she and Paul end up together? What was her childhood like? What happened that she became so stern and cross and serious? Gwen is very complicated. She’s one of those characters that sticks with you after the show is over. That voyage of discovery, finding Gwen throughout the film made it exciting to play her.
SN: What are some of the things that Lake Runs Red offers to the audiences? What can they get excited about?
HELENE: "Lake Runs Red" is not your typical slasher flick. It has substance. The audience will love the build up, the anticipation. They will be drawn into the characters and their relationship with each other. Each character has something different to offer and nothing is wasted. There is never the feeling of, “Okay can we just get this over with?”
Thematic elements focus not just on the horror, but also on family, relationships, rejection and choices. There's even a bit of mystery and misdirection in the story. It’s amazing to watch the evolution of these characters.You find out who they really are under intense, horrific, terrorizing circumstances. Something different too, is strong female characters. And, of course, there is the mayhem and death. This film will draw the audience in.
SN: How did it feel to be returning to feature film territory, and what was it about Lake Runs Red that attracted you the most?
HELENE: I loved being back on set! "Lake Runs Red" was an intimate project. We worked together in close quarters. I especially liked that everyone’s input mattered. Jason (our director), J. Dan (co-director), and other producers really fostered a collaborative, safe, and positive platform. A big difference for me was being able to see the film clips immediately afterwards. High Definition, the camera misses nothing. That was daunting and exhilarating.
What attracted me to "Lake Runs Red" was getting to play Gwen. Then we had the setting of a beautiful cabin on a lake in northern Minnesota in summer. Of course, the assemblage of amazing talent from varying backgrounds to play these characters made working together a joy. Add a director and writer with a passion for the story and a cinematographer who raises the mundane to extraordinary, and it’s everything one could hope for on a film project.
We, the cast and crew, quickly developed into a family. There was trust. We looked out for each other. There were difficult scenes, but we made sure everyone was comfortable to shoot them. The level of intensity could be overwhelming and, yet, we felt safe. We laughed, cried, argued, goofed around. I’m very proud to have been part of "Lake Runs Red."
SN: Tell us about some of your theatre work and how it feels to perform in front of a live audience.
HELENE: NERVES! Stage fright. Sometimes I would get violently ill. I can’t remember my lines. Panic. Then … I walk out on stage and that all just disappears. I disappear. My job is not to act but to find the truth in all the moments. When it’s all done, there’s the applause. The adrenaline rush of having given it my all and the audience loved it!
Recently I sang at a benefit for National Vietnam Veterans Day. You could see the pain and horror of war etched in the faces of these vets. To give them joy, to watch them transport back to a better time in their lives, even if only for a little while was magical.
When I was Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz in 1977, a little girl came up to me and said, “Auntie Em and Uncle Henry love you very much. You shouldn’t have run away. But I’m glad you did.” To her, I wasn’t an actress playing a part, I was really Dorothy.
An audience member after a show in April 2015, told me, “So many things in life make me sad, you made me happy.” Doesn’t get much better than that.
SN: Do you ever watch your own performances and if you do, what is it like to see yourself on-screen?
HELENE: Funny you should ask. My last weekend of filming "Lake Runs Red" was difficult. By difficult, I mean requiring a degree of focus beyond just remembering our lines. Challenging might be a better word for it. We were filming the climax of the film. In terms of story, the turn of events leading up to the end of the film is exhaustive and visceral. The process of filming became physically, emotionally and mentally draining. So much so, that I literally couldn’t remember what I did all weekend. I mean I knew what the shots were, but when I’m in character, Helene ceases to exist and I have to rely on other people to tell me how I did.
As it happened, I was watching the clips with our cinematographer and I recoiled when I saw myself. I was genuinely creeped out. Which to me is a good sign on a horror film. I was crying at one point watching the clips and it was so odd and strangely gratifying to be so affected by my performance and that of my cast mates.
Now, watching my vocal performances is completely different. I’m hyper-critical of myself and can hear when I’m off as much as a quarter of a step musically. That absolutely grates.
SN: As an actress, how easy do you find it to break-away from your own personality and take on that of a completely different person to yourself?
HELENE: It’s not a question of breaking away from your own personality, not really. You can’t play a part that’s not in you. No matter the part, you must identify with the character on some level. The difficulty of taking on a completely different character is finding out what you have in common with them, then building on that. Sometimes you discover things you didn’t know about yourself in the process.
I’m reminded of a line from the movie “First Wives Club” where Elise Elliot (Goldie Hawn) says, “You think just because I’m a movie star I don’t have feelings. Well, you’re wrong. I’m an actress. I’ve got all of them!” That’s true about actors. They have to have a storehouse of experiences and emotions on tap. At an audition, you have only minutes to get into character and usually very little to work with, a description or a scene.
As an actress, I have to disappear so only the character is apparent. That goes to backstory. The who, what, why, when and how of a character. I had only an idea of Gwen when I started filming. So I created a backstory that would inform my playing her. It worked.
SN: If you had the chance to go back in time and start your career all over again, is there anything that you would do differently? If so, why?
HELENE: Trust myself more. My Mother supported my acting, but my Father taught us to be practical and sensible. Ultimately he was the greater influence on me. My Father was all about leading a useful and productive life. I should have stuck to my guns and really pursued acting and singing as my passion. I feel at home on stage or in front of the camera. That might have started out as overcoming shyness but looking back… I was a sensitive child. Part of that sensitivity came from a sense of never quite feeling like I fit in. Then, at 22, I found out why. My Father told me I was adopted. And all the things that felt out of place suddenly made sense. I always felt there was something inside me trying to get out and be in the world creatively. Acting and singing nurtured that creativity within. Instead of trying not to disappoint my Father, I should have disappointed myself less.
SN: Can you tell us about any other projects that you have coming up in the near future?
HELENE: I’m currently producing and starring in a theater show called Rat Pack Revival: The Rat Pack and Friends. It’s a full Vegas nightclub act that takes the audience back to the 1960s when Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis, Jr. were performing their nightclub act live on television. What makes our show a standout is the Friends. Naturally we have Frank, Dean and Sammy and that’s where most tribute shows end. We also have Jerry Lewis, Marilyn Monroe, Judy Garland, Ann-Margret and Ethel Merman. I play Ethel Merman.
The premise is that Frank Sinatra is going out of town and leaves Dean Martin in charge of the Copacabana with the admonition that Jerry Lewis is banned from the club. Jerry sneaks in, of course, along with Dean’s guests for the evening, Sammy David Jr. Judy Garland and Ethel Merman. When Frank’s flight is cancelled, he unexpectedly returns with Ann-Margret and all hell breaks loose. Marilyn Monroe shows up unexpectedly and joins the show! Featuring over 25 songs from the Rat Pack era, our show has something for everybody. Check us out on www.TheRatPackRevival.com.
SN: What is your proudest moment so far?
HELENE: You mean I have to pick just one? I’m eagerly anticipating the release of "Lake Runs Red." Gwen was a very complex character and I loved sinking my teeth into her. So I’m proud of the work I, we all, did to bring this story to the screen.
Also, playing Ethel Merman has been a huge challenge. I sing opera and Ethel doesn’t. We both have big voices but becoming Ethel was a tremendous undertaking. So when people come up after the show and say, “You nailed it! You ARE Ethel” that makes me proud.
Actually, this is probably my proudest moment: When my Father came up to me after I sang a concert at Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco and, in his reserved manner, said, “That was pretty good.” Music to my ears coming from him. High praise indeed. I could see it in his eyes, he was proud of me. Even standing ovations at Carnegie Hall, while incredible to experience, don’t hold a candle to those four little word from my Dad. “That was pretty good.”