In a new interview on Blazing Minds I got a chance to ask actress Lara Pictet a few questions about her role in the new thriller By Light of Desert Night which is now available online in the UK.
When a camping trip goes horribly wrong, this dark thriller ‘By Light Of Desert Night’ brings together three best friends who head on a road trip into the desert for one final adventure, but twisted secrets are revealed that will change their lives forever.
Swiss Sensation Lara Pictet plays the lead star ‘April’ in this raw and destructive indie film about a school girl who re-unites with her two besties; Suzy (played by Meghan Carrasquillo) and Beth (played by Alexandra Bokova) and embark on a trip to Raven Rock, ahead of April’s small town ‘wedding of the year’ to high school sweetheart Richie (played by Max Grey Wilbur).
Shocking events unfold that expose their seemingly solid friendship as a warped web of jealousy, deceit and betrayal. Does Raven Rock hide a hidden evil within the desert or does the harsh reality behind the girls’ friendship set them on a path of destruction?
PR – How did you first get into acting?
Lara – When I was born (Laughs). It was the first thing that I started doing, I started taking my mom’s high heeled shoes and my mom’s clothing, jewellery and forcing everyone to watch me perform a three person show by myself. It was it was quite a hard time because my parents got divorced when I was born, and my father moved to England. So, I was on a plane every weekend between Geneva and London to go see my father and acting was the only stable thing that I had. It was it was my great way of escaping and just diving myself in fantasy worlds, different stories and different characters and just forgetting for a little bit so that’s what kept me alive and really lively.
PR – So you’ve always had that creative streak
Lara – I have, from a super young age.
PR – And today we are here to talk about your film The Lights of the Desert which is quite a poetic title. How did you get involved in the film?
Lara – I was in Switzerland during the summer that they were holding audition and I happen to fall right on the casting notice for a character in the film, which actually wasn’t April. I reached out and was asked to do a self-tape, I did for the role of April, which was a character I ended up playing. They asked me for a call back when I got back to LA a couple weeks later where I met the two other girls and then got a call a few weeks later saying that I had booked the job
PR – So you didn’t actually audition for the character originally?
Lara – No it was Susie. I don’t know why; in drama school I was always given these challenging and rebellious female roles. and so that is my safety net that I sort of go to. It is great that they saw something different in me and actually it was for the better. There are very similar qualities in the sense of her childhood and when she is injured in her life, so it was actually really heart-warming.
PR -So you drew from your own experiences for the character?
Lara – Yeah, absolutely. I always try to find similar qualities that would connect me to the character just because I want to find something that I can relate to because then other people will also relate to it. As I started getting into the autobiography of my character, I realised, oh, wow, there’s a lot of events that really hits home. And it was good because it really forced me to make it then, close the door on certain things, work on them and move on, which was really nice.
PR – I know you said it’s not your normal comfort net for your style of character. But did you find it easier with the character being similar to yourself to prepare and get into that character
Lara – Easier, No, because there was a lot of things that I didn’t want to have to deal with or I didn’t want to have to go back there emotionally. But thankfully, with the support and the love of Dave (Snell), he made it very easy for me to deal with those things. Being surrounded and feeling safe enough to go there emotionally and then it was it was a very sort of rebirthing process. I realised that by doing that, it was like I was, you know, stepping on it and then saying, thank you, I’ve dealt with it. I’ve resolved that and goodbye I can now move on.
PR – The film is described as a drama / thriller can you tell us what we can expect from the film itself.
Lara – It’s about three childhood best friends who take on a last final adventure together and April’s Bachelorette weekend. There’s already a little bit of banter and tension to begin with because April is the first girl of the group to go to that next step of her life, getting married, setting off and spreading her own wings. During this trip, there’s a lot of tensions that arise a lot of secrets that are revealed, plots twists and turns. They have to come together to realise what kind of person they are, how to stand up for themselves and find their inner voice. What kind of actions they have to take in order to move forward and the kind of the person they’re essentially wanting to be.
PR – And the film itself was shot in the Nevada desert, what was it like filming in that environment?
Lara – It was so great. It was beautiful, but it also had this sense of eeriness to it because those orange red fiery dunes. It was not, you know, it wasn’t a season where there’s all the tourists that come and with their camping vans and their family trips yet so it’s quite deserted. It was quite scary at times, especially when you’re in it, you know, and you’re in the situation and the tensions are high and the emotions are all over the place. Our call times were super early in the morning and it would take us an hour to drive to the shooting location every day and we would drive through the sunrise and the dunes, it was gorgeous.
PR – That’s amazing and it is captured in the film with some of the visuals?
Lara – Yeah. Some of the visuals are great
PR – Did you experience any issues filming heat or in those areas
Lara – No, not really. I mean, it was difficult because of the wind and the heat. So obviously, with sound, you know, the wind in the sand and the dust and things like that. Sometimes it was a bit tricky. But there was all of the right equipment and the people were all doing a great job to try and plough forward. So it was actually it was pretty smooth sailing
PR – And what were some of your favourite moments whilst making the film.
Lara – I have so many. Honestly, it was so great being with the girls in the car. For the first sort of 20 minutes or more of the film, the girls are driving in the car. While we’re filming that whole part we were just having so much fun. When the camera wasn’t rolling we were blasting the music, cracking jokes left and right screaming out the window, it was so great. There was a real sense of friendship and bond which was really nice, because we needed to also portray that on screen. So, the fact that we were having such great banter and great connection as friends off screen it really helped our friendship screen.
PR – It sounds quite a lot of fun on the set and you had that camaraderie on set. Did this lead to you making any changes to the script of the story in how you got on together?
Lara – No, not really. Dave was very adamant from the start that obviously, he’s a male and he wrote a script for leading females. It’s always difficult when you’re writing for the opposite gender, because we don’t necessarily know, but he was super supportive and adamant about the fact that he just wants it to be naturalistic, relatable and believable. So if that means that, you know, we were paraphrasing one or two words, that’s fine so long as the message was still sent across.
PR – And how did you feel his script captured it from a female perspective of the characters?
Lara – Honestly pretty damn good. I’m sure he had some females helping him with little anecdotes and things like that because otherwise how else would he know things? he really knew what to write.
PR – And what you hope people take away after watching the film?
Lara – I hope people will be on the edge of their seat the whole time. And in life no matter how much we want to, you can’t control every aspect of our life, that things happen unexpectedly and it doesn’t matter It’s the actions that you take moving forward that will really define who you are as a person and I hope that will come across
PR – You also have another project which you produced recently called Beast. Can you tell me a little bit about that project?
Lara – I was actually in drama school in the US when I met Ben at Blueprint Motion and I had an opportunity of coming on board the pilot once it had already been finished, and I just fell in love with it. My dad always told me you know, if you want to be successful in your industry, then you at least have to have some kind of knowledge on how every single department works.
It was interesting because I didn’t know much about producing, but every facet of this industry fascinates me. I had been writing I directed a little bit of some plays here and there in drama school and I thought, I can just add this to my set of skills. I absolutely ended up loving the idea of the storyline, the team, the crew, the cast, everybody was so talented and driven. We did a pilot and a bunch of different film festivals where we won a bunch of different awards, and now it’s finally released on Omeleto – YouTube, and then we’re preparing for chapter two. So that’s super exciting.
PR – And we’ve chapter two, which is going to be more involved in the analysis of the production at all. produce. Yes,
Lara – I’m still gonna be part of the production side, but I’m actually also going to involved in the acting side, so I’m very excited about that.
PR – And how did being a producer compared to your normal role as an actress
Lara – It was a different type of rewarding feeling because with acting you read the script, you work on the character, you rehearse, you film and then you wrap. Then you don’t really have much to do until the film is done and in post-production. Then there’s press junkets, promos, go do this festival circuits or the premieres or whatnot.
Production is really amazing because you get to see every single side of how it is to make a project from scratch to the end, with the amount of work and people that takes to make this come together. It was so beautiful because after you wrap on set, there’s like this whole excitement of getting back in in the room, cutting the scenes, putting some colour into it, putting some sound into it and really making it come to life. When you see it’s there on the big screen at the festival, it’s like, Wow! That’s really great to see years and years of hard work from everybody’s side, and now it’s finally done.
It’s also important, I think, as an actor to see how things happen behind the camera. I guess it makes you a stronger performer in front of the camera because there’s so much that goes with it. From like lighting and equipment, sound and props, set decorations, set design and whatnot. And as a producer, you have a little bit more of a vision of the whole package that makes the scene work alongside with the actor. So if you know you have both of those set of skills, then you’re just on point all the time.
PR – And have you ever thought of going behind the camera to direct?
Lara – I would love to. One day. my teachers at drama school is told me that I would make a great director and my friends but I help self-tapes with, they’re always telling me you make such a great director and they always think one day, one day I will. I’ll establish myself first as a as an actor and then hopefully Wouldn’t I gain more trust and respect from people in the industry then I’ll definitely try it out for sure.
PR – Do you think being an actress helps with that directorial side? Because you know how it feels and works and what does or doesn’t work with a director.
Lara – Absolutely. And also, how you how you speak with your actors, how you play around with them, you know, where’s that fine line of asking too much, definitely.
PR – And do you have any other projects you’re working on at the moment?
Lara – Yes, I’m producing, co-wrote and have the leading role in a pilot which I’m doing with some friends from the drama school. It was essentially a feature film that we decided to make it into a pilot for a potential miniseries. That’s a psychological thriller, which is very exciting, but obviously because of COVID everything is at a stop so we’ll see when we’ll be able to go back and work on that.
PR – And one final question for you. What advice would you give to someone who’s looking to get into acting themselves
Lara – Get some training under your belt. The training is so important. It not only teaches you about improvisation, scene study or how to audition or how to break down a script, break down your character, but it is also important because it teaches you about the business itself and what you need to do. How you need to budget around it, get your head-shots, get your show reel, get out, go to showcase, do some little plays, get a camera anything, Just get yourself out there and just have a really strong backbone because you can do it so long as you’re just super motivated. Also, the one thing that I’ve always told myself that is super important. Make rejection your friend. Your best friend as it is the most important thing.
PR – Because you will get a lot over time, you just have to learn and move on from it.
Lara – You know, sometimes it has nothing to do with your capability or your talent, it’s just that you don’t fit that part. I realised that as I was working on the production side when someone writes a story, a script, a screenplay, they have such specific characters in their mind, they know exactly what they want. The person that they’re auditioning, she or he can be the best actor, but in their mind, that is not who they imagined to be playing the character, and it’s just as stupid as that. It’s normal. So, that’s the last time you get yourself bogged down on why didn’t I get the role? Or why didn’t I do this? It doesn’t matter, as long as you’re good, they’ll keep on calling you back. And if it’s not this project, it’ll be another one. They’ll get the right one for you. And that’s so important.
You can find out more about Lara Pictet on the website ww.larapictet.com and follow on Instagram
By Light Of Desert Night is the debut feature from writer/director David Stuart Snell and is available on digital in the UK now.
Published in various websites, Philip is a reviewer who is best known for his interviews and media coverage of independent projects including; films, books, theatre and live events. Always on the lookout for something different to cover!
