Rachael Taylor spent 3 ½ months working in Japan on the horror/thriller Shutter and says the experience was incredible. “Tokyo is an amazing city. It’s very contemporary, very urbane. I was very esthetically inspired by Tokyo,” said Taylor. “You know, the architecture and the fashion and the art, that’s all incredible, but at the same time, you know shooting a movie like this in Japan for 3 ½ months – it was difficult. It was a very isolating experience as a Westerner, but it was kind of helpful because that’s kind of the character’s journey as well.”
Taylor plays the new wife of a professional photographer (Joshua Jackson, Dawson’s Creek) who gets involved in spooky events when she travels to Japan with her hubby. Ben’s landed a good gig snapping pics at a fashion shoot, but the trip starts off on the wrong foot when they (literally) run into a Japanese girl standing in the middle of the road. Their story takes it's first Twilight Zone-ish twist when they can’t find the girl’s body. And then within days of the crash, strange images begin showing up in the photos Ben takes at the fashion shoot. Cue the scary music…
Shutter, based on the 2004 Thai film, focuses on the eerie topic of spirit photography. Taylor says the phenomenon is real and she believes it’s very interesting. “There actually are photographs that have inexplicable images in them. Whether or not you want to consider them as supernatural images is up to you, but there are photographs that you can’t explain. Like, this element in the picture is not a watermark or a light mark or a technical problem, so it’s fascinating. I like what it represents, really. It’s more about how a supernatural being, I guess, can articulate something that they really need to, if the emotion is potent and strong enough. It’s about them finding a way to get their message across to us. In this case, it’s using the medium of photography,” explained Taylor.
Taylor believes that even if you’ve never seen or felt something no one else believed was there, you should be able to relate to Shutter. “I think we all sort of can relate to the experience of walking into like a house or a space and feeling like there’s something a bit off, like there’s something creepy or sinister. Or, alternatively, a really warm feeling that you might get in a particular space, you know? And sometimes other people feel it and sometimes they don’t, and I think that’s just dependent on your degree of openness and how much you’re willing to believe,” said Taylor.
Even the sets they used in Shutter left members of the cast feeling a little strange. “There were certainly places that we shot when we filmed this movie that were kind of creepy,” said Taylor. “We shot in an old, abandoned hospital and that was sort of distressing. We shot in old Japanese-style houses that were empty and had been empty for a number of years, so there were certainly creepy components of it.”
Keeping up the level of adrenaline needed to portray a young wife who believes spirits are trying to reach out through photographs required extra work, but Taylor didn’t mind. “Obviously you’re dealing with fairly complex human issues and the spectrum of emotions that you apply are potentially sometimes wider, like you’re dealing with the ideas of revenge and death and deceit and betrayal and all that stuff. But I personally find that kind of pleasurable as an actor,” admitted Taylor. “It gives you more to play with and you’re exploring things that you probably wouldn’t get to explore on a daily basis. You don’t get to explore the idea of the supernatural in your life, you hope, on a day-to-day basis.”
“What’s interesting about this film is that even though there is a supernatural element to it, the rest of the drama is human drama and it’s relationship drama. It asks that question which is how well you really know a person and what life they’ve lead before their life collides with your life. And I think lots of people go through that, and lots of women go through that on a day-to-day basis. A partner that they think is one person turns out to be someone really different. And men, too.”
Taylor revealed that director Masayuki Ochiai, who’s making his English language feature film debut with Shutter, didn’t add much CGI in post-production. Instead, many of the spooky effects were done in-camera. “…In the case of this movie, there was very, very little CGI which was great,” said Taylor. “We used real trickery rather than CGI stuff. There was a little bit of that, but in a way it’s kind of fun too. It’s like being six years old and playing make-believe again. You just have to use your imagination and go with it.”
And while we're on the subject of imagination and special effects, what was it like for Taylor on the set of her first big feature film, Transformers, which helped pump up the Australian actress’ career? “It was really tough, actually,” said Taylor about her experience on the 2007 blockbuster. “It was scary. I had never shot anything anywhere near that scale before. I was literally right off the boat when I shot that movie. Michael Bay is like a drill sergeant on a set. He’s very meticulous. He’s a madman, but he’s incredibly talented. You know, it was a luxury in one way because as a young artist, you want to be in the hands of an experienced filmmaker. But in another way, it was tough because I really want to make… I’m sort of of the opinion that films should be made with as little fuss and as little drama as possible. Since Transformers I’ve shot smaller movies and I’ve got to say I found them a lot more pleasurable.”
Asked if she’s back for more fun in Transformers 2, Taylor replied, “I don’t think so. I would be stunned if they found a way to rework my character back into that story - Australian, blonde, computer data analyst - in the second one. But you know I think it would be wise of them, and they’re very wise people, so I’m sure they’ll make this choice to revitalize it with maybe not a whole next cast, but dropping new characters into it, I think, is probably smart.”
