Exclusive 1-1 Interview: Shannon Sassamon On One Missed Call

By George 'El Guapo' Roush on July 28, 2007

Shannon Sossamon won the hearts of lonely men when she starred in 40 Days and 40 Nights. But her work has been somewhat under the radar since then. Shannon pops back into the spotlight with the American remake of One Missed Call. Here she talks about the movie and about how cute my smile is. She was totally flirting. I couldn’t keep her off of me. Hazards of the business when you’re El Guapo.

Is this your first time at Comicon?

Sossamon:  Yeah.

Are you fan of all the…

Sossamon:  Genre?

Pop culture and comics? Do you read any comics?

Sossamon:  No. [Laughs]

So this is your 2nd time working with Ed Burns?

Sossamon:  I did a little part in the film called 'The Holiday' and he had a small part in it too.  We didn't have any scenes together.

So you didn't run into him at all then?

Sossamon:  No.

How was it working with him for 'One Missed Call'?

Sossamon:  It was great but the main thing I keep saying that is so true, is that he was making me laugh by just being him.  He is hilarious.  I think he is just hilarious, don't you?

He's a little comedian huh?

Sossamon:  Yeah, he is so funny.  He just really needed to breathe and I was cracking up.

Was he pulling jokes on you? Any good stories?

Sossamon:  No, no stories.  The only thing I guess is just laughing before takes where I am supposed to be in complete terror wasn't too funny.  He would literally have, right before they would say action, have to look away because if I looked in his eyes I would start laughing.

Hopefully that will be in the outtakes.

Sossamon:  Maybe, yeah there was some cracking up.  He's funny, but I don't know why so much.

You said in the panel that you hadn't seen the original.  Have you seen any of the Japanese horror movies?  Like the original 'Grudge' have you seen any of those?

Sossamon:  I saw the original 'Grudge' and the 'The Ring' but that's it.  He (Director Eric Valette) told me not to.  I would have loved to have seen what I was about to go remake but he didn't want me to.  He wanted to treat it like it was just an original screenplay and don't try to, maybe he thought subconsciously I would try to imitate.  Try to recreate moments that were in the original or something. 

Is it tough playing someone who is always paranoid?  The plot of this movie is that your friends are receiving voicemails and it's them screaming their own death, right?

Sossamon:  Yeah.

So, is it tough playing somebody that is always going to be paranoid knowing she is going to get that one missed call on her phone?  How do you get into that mindset?  Especially if someone like Ed is always goofing around?

Sossamon:  The high tension was difficult but the director did want everything to be subtle, so he didn't want a lot of over the top dramatic moments.  He wanted everything internal and subtle. I never felt, unless it was really like in the heat of the action, I never felt like I was always on edge.  In a little bit of a way, but not in like say if it was like 'Texas Chainsaw Massacre', they are always on edge in a way.  It wasn't anything like that.

Did you like those movies?

Sossamon:  I'm not a huge horror film fan, but I like a good one every now and then.  I like to be wrapped up in this twisted world or something.  But I am not always getting them. 

What scares you?  What things are you afraid of?

Sossamon:  Just things that scare everybody.  Really dark, dark, dark people or dark things, or people that are really dark and aren't scared of dieing. 

I don't know why but I put this down, I must have been goofing around when I wrote my questions. I wrote what is your favorite ice cream.

Sossamon:  Hold on, I'll tell you.  I like cookie dough ice cream.  Chocolate Chip cookie dough and I also like butter pecan with chocolate syrup.  Mint chocolate chip.

I'm getting an exclusive here.

Sossamon:  Yeah, totally. Oh, you have vampire teeth.

Do I?

Sossamon:  Yeah, you totally do.

My dog teeth here?

Sossamon:  Yeah, they are cute though.

Aren't you doing a TV show?

Sossamon:  Yeah, I'm doing the first season of Joel Silver's new TV show called 'Moonlight'.

Who do you play in that?

Sossamon:  Her name is Coraline and I'm so excited, I've never played a character like this before.  She is responsible for turning our lead character into a vampire. He's a vampire private detective and he didn't want to be a vampire.  She turned him into a vampire because they fell in love 50 years back.  She was so in love with him, they were madly in love with each other, and she didn't want to lose him.  So, she turned him into a vampire on her wedding night.  He didn't know she was a vampire.  He of course hates her.

That is a surprise isn't it?  Wake up the next day to that surprise?

Sossamon:  Yeah, totally.  It's going to be fun because she's, not evil, but dangerous.  A little nutty, very sexy, very fierce and over the top character, she's like nothing I have every played.  I am excited about that.

That must be a lot of fun to play a vampirella.

Sossamon:  Totally.

You will probably get a big fan base for that too.  You will keep coming to these things now.

Sossamon:  I just want, like I said, I'll just ease into it and we'll see what happens.  I definitely don't, no, I don't want to be a vampire my whole life. 

How many episodes have you shot of that?

Sossamon:  We are shooting the first one.  We are just in the middle of the first one. 

What else do you have coming up?

Sossamon:  Just those two.  'Wristcutters: A Love Story' is a film that is coming out October 19th.  That’s an independent film that was at Sundance two years ago actually, it's finally just getting its release.  It's with Tom Waits and Patrick Fugit, it's amazing.  It is a really beautiful little film.  Then 'Moonlight', 'One Missed Call' is January.  Moonlight is September 28th.  Another film I have is called 'Life is Hot in Cracktown' and that is going to Sundance.

What is that about?

Sossamon:  It's about this crack life in the streets, in the ghetto streets.  It's kind of an undefined town.  It's just the little stories in the lives of people that really live in that intense poverty life style.

I love stories like that, because when you look at a place like New York and you think about so many little cool stories going on everywhere.  Just to be able to tell them is pretty exciting.

Sossamon:  I thin its going to be a cool film.  Mark Webber is in it and… Why am I blanking?

Because it's been a long day.

Sossamon:  Yeah, whatever it's really good.  Oh, Victor Rasuk. 

I am looking forward to 'One Missed Call'.

Sossamon:  Good, I'm glad.  We'll see what happens but I am excited.  I hope it has a good opening weekend and does and helps both of us. 

I’ll contribute to that opening weekend.

Sossamon:  Ok, good, please!  [Laughs]

After the Q&A we made out for about 15 minutes in front of her agent and publicists. Or I got up and left the room. I can’t remember...

george@latinoreview.com

Source:Latino Review

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