Emilie de Ravin Explains Her Attraction to “The Hills Have Eyes:” “It really intrigued me because basically this was written back in the day, maybe ’72 I think he wrote it… It was released in ’77. Wes wrote this film after hearing about this story. I guess he was inspired by this true tale of these Scottish people, the Sawney Beane family, who ambushed travelers. Basically it’s the same thing when they come into his village where it was quite isolated and killed them in sort of, I guess, unspeakable ways. Cannibalism and all sorts of things went on there and many, many people were killed. This was discovered after a long time so basically knowing that this was based on true happenings is quite interesting to me and makes it a lot scarier, I think, for anyone who actually knows that this could happen.
Also, just the undertone of it. It’s got kind of a political undertone to it and it’s very interesting the way it deals with these two families who are completely different but the way their lives collide. It’s a survival story ultimately, but who is the bad guy, you know? It’s quite interesting because obviously the hill people are enraged and resorting to killing people and cannibalism and to retaliate to what society has done to them with nuclear testing and ruining their lives, ruining their town. Yet the Carter family directly had no involvement in that. I mean, who knows? Maybe they supported it back in the day or they would have. You don’t know that either. But basically they represent society in this and they’re sorting of wanting revenge. It’s interesting. You’re kind of torn. There’s a lot of interesting elements.
A horror film that focuses just on scaring the crap out of someone and has horrible flaws in the story and doesn’t make you care about any of the characters, or just doesn’t care about the acting – that’s another good point about a lot of horror movies – doesn’t interest me at all. But this seemed very different – and it is.”
The Appeal of Horror Movies: Emilie de Ravin said that horror movies do just as well in her native Australia as they do in America. Asked her opinion on why they continue to be so popular, de Ravin offered, “It’s such an extreme emotion that people don’t feel – I hope – on a daily basis. You know, it’s the same as a roller coaster. People crave that kind of extreme feeling and it’s something that’s very different. You’re not seeing a story about somebody’s life or a comedy that’s a lot more closer to maybe your life or people around you, as opposed to something like this which is quite a strange experience.”
Emilie de Ravin Didn’t Explore the Original Film Before Working on this Remake: “No, [writer/director Alexandre Aja] didn’t want me to watch the original before shooting and I hadn’t seen it so it worked perfectly. I enjoyed that I hadn’t seen it because I sort of came out with this clean slate to shoot it, and not have in the back of my head, ‘Oh, that scene was like that.’ ‘Hang on, should I make it different?’ I mean, the film’s very different anyway but still it’s the same story so you may have that in the back of your head someplace.”
Emilie de Ravin on Sustaining the Tension Scene After Scene: “I don’t really get out of it between takes. There’s a lot of back and forth otherwise. If you keep in that frame of mind it’s a lot easier. It’s taxing, yeah. I was quite drained feeling actually through shooting this.”
Emilie de Ravin on Physically and Emotionally Preparing for “The Hills Have Eyes:” “I’m kind of a physically active person anyway so I didn’t really have to do anything with that. Plus Brenda was caught out of her element. It’s not like I’m playing somebody who was a football player (laughing) or something, you know what I mean? She was caught out of element and basically dealing with situations as they came to her.
As far as preparing emotionally, you just put yourself in this person’s shoes. You create this character and do the best you can as far as creating who she is and how she would be reacting in these circumstances, which are not circumstances I would wish upon anyone.”
Speaking of preparing herself, de Ravin’s character undergoes such brutal treatment in the film that predicting how anyone would react in similar circumstances would be impossible. “You know, it’s hard to say until something actually happens to you. It’s such a horrific experience, the things that she went through, you can’t say. Animal instincts kind of take over, don’t they?”
Page 2: The Script, Bonding on the Set, and a Little "Lost"
