Newcomer Aleyse Shannon stars in the new feminist update on the horror classic Black Christmas. Her character, Kris, is a politically engaged college student who joins up with her fellow sorority mates to take on an evil fraternity.

LRM Online sat down with her recently to talk about this being her first feature film role, shooting in New Zealand and the importance of teaching young women to fight back.

Black Christmas is in theaters this Friday December 13th.

LRM Online: I saw the movie last night with my girlfriend, and we both really enjoyed it. We’re big horror fans and fans of the original. I was curious if you were familiar with the original or the remake of Black Christmas before you came onto the project?

Shannon: No, I wasn’t familiar with it and during the shoot I sort of avoided it, myself. I was like, “I don’t want to watch it. I don’t want to watch it.” It was definitely the first thing I watched once we wrapped, and it was really cool to see. I was glad that I didn’t watch it, because I feel it was really cool and I was going to copy some stuff. I think we actually did our own thing without leaning too much on the old one.

LRM Online: Well, there were so many big differences between the original and this one. They took the opportunity to really change it up. I was curious to know, did you come on through just a typical audition process? How did you get the part?

Shannon: I think all of us sort of auditioned for the main character first, Riley. And that was sort of the pilot test of the thing. Just to see what people’s personalities were like, that was the baseline. And then from there they told me to re-audition for certain characters. So that’s where Chris came about. And I think Lily also auditioned for Riley. But I wasn’t in the room with Sophia, I was just off tape. So, I got a phone call after my audition and they were like, “You know, we’d love to work with you.” It was pretty quick actually.

LRM Online: Did you find any similarities between yourself and your character? She’s pretty badass, both politically and later in the film physically. What did you think of the specific character you ended up playing?

Shannon: Yeah, I definitely thought she was similar to me. She’s a straight shooter. She definitely doesn’t bite her tongue very much and she has like a really sick sense of humor. I was excited for that. Yeah, she’s a zinger so I dug it.

LRM Online: It’s cool what happens with the main character where she kind of becomes empowered but your character is like empowered from the get go.

Shannon: Yeah.

LRM Online: I saw with your filmography that you’ve done a lot of TV so far. It looks like this is like the first big studio movie you’ve done. I was curious how you feel about the fact that you’re performance is going to be playing on 3000 screens across the country and then around the world. Are you planning on going to the theaters and seeing yourself like that?

Shannon: Yeah, I’m pretty terrified of seeing myself that big. I know my mom, she has a movie theater right across from her house. So, all my family’s going to come together and go watch it. I have recently been invited to said party, so I’m like, “I don’t know guys.” I definitely don’t want to see my face that big. But it’s a cool movie. I’ve already seen the screener and I’m down with it. I think it was handled very well and it’s like cool and it’s funky. I like it.

LRM Online: I’m really excited to see what general audiences think of it. There was a bit of a controversy with the rating, at least among horror fans, because it was PG13 as opposed to the previous ones that were rated R. I saw the director talking about how she wanted young women to be able to see it, and I think that’ll be great. I was just wondering what you think young women will take away from it, if they get a chance to go out and see it?

Shannon: Well, I think we’re talking about one of the biggest differences is the women fighting back. I think that’s the message for young women is to fight back. If ever you’re uncomfortable or things don’t work with you, you have the space to speak up, You have the space to sort of ignite your agency and do something about it. I think that message is timeless and ageless and, I agree with her about the rating being reflected that way. There’s no bad age to start teaching that, as young as possible. To be empowered and strong and use their voice. So yeah, I think it was right.

LRM Online: That’s very cool. My girlfriend has two young daughters, and she’s already raising them watching horror movies. She’s really excited to take them to see it, so that they can have that sort of takeaway from the movie. About fighting back and being empowered, like you said.

So, with the other actors, did you have a bonding experience making the movie? I don’t know where you guys filmed, but were you of you were kind of off somewhere, that there wasn’t much to do? Did you all kind of come together as a group through the making of the movie?

Shannon: So catch this, we were in New Zealand, and I think for most of us it was our first time ever in New Zealand. We were definitely a bit out of our element, in one of the most beautiful places on earth. But yeah, we had a week to prep and get to know each other and do some exercises. I think the real bonding sort of came in like the schedule when you’re shooting a film. A lot of times it’s all engines go, and the people you have to lean on are the people that are in the process with you. So, we all got super close, we got to know each other inside and out. And even the guys came in and didn’t have such rigorous shooting schedules as the girls. I think we all became a little bit of a family.

LRM Online: That’s very cool. I would not have guessed New Zealand. I was assuming it was just somewhere up in Canada that you shot.

Shannon: I know New Zealand, New Zea Zea. The place to be.

LRM Online: So, is all the snow just set dressing or do they actually get snow down there? I’m not too familiar with it.

Shannon: So, apparently it’s winter on the Southern hemisphere when it’s summer in the Northern hemisphere. It should’ve been like common knowledge, but for me, it just wasn’t. It was a the temperate winter, though. There wasn’t a lot of snow on the ground where we were at. So, definitely there was set dressing and foam, some potato flakes. I think there are all different types of snow throughout the film. The foam would stick to our feet, and we would have to wipe it off in between takes.

LRM Online: The potato flakes I always find funny. They’ve been doing that for like decades in movies. As a last question, I was curious how it was working with Sophia? I had seen her previous film at this film festival here in LA, Always Shine. I was wondering how she was as a director, and were you familiar with any of her work as an actress or director before working with her?

Shannon: I went to acting school and came out to do film. I tried to verse myself on some cool directors I wanted to work with. Directors that have cool takes on stuff. So, I had seen Always Shine, and it had a similar premise, a group of girls, the horror thing. Other than that, I wasn’t too familiar with her style or her personality. I’d never seen her talk or anything. So, getting to know her was super cool, and Sophia is just a really dope chick. I think one of the best things about her is that she’s not fresh out of college, but she’s similar in age and feel to us. So, she was like in the trenches with us. She was figuring things out with us, she was questioning things with us. She was rewriting things earlier in the process. We were definitely a team, and there was no sort of weird authoritarian vibe to set. It just felt like such a collaborative process with her.

LRM Online: Very cool. Yeah, I think she’s on to really big things after this. And I think you as well, you’re kind of the breakthrough performance in the movie that people will take notice of.

Shannon: Thank you.

Black Christmas hits theaters this Friday the 13th of December!

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