There are many cool aspects about shooting a film: from the people you work with and the story being told to the location you’re shooting at. The latter was certainly the case for the film Heartlock, which takes place in a prison. Our own Nancy Tapia had a chance to sit down with star Alexander Dreymon,a nd in their discussions, he revealed a bit about what it was like shooting the film at a prison.

Below is the official synopsis for Heartlock:

“Heartlock is a rogue love story centered on a female prison guard whose life is turned upside down by the fleeting affections of her lover — a male convict whose charm is only as genuine as his desire to be free.”

LRM: Can you tell me a bit about where the filming was done? Was it actually a jail location?

Dreymon: Oh yeah the locations were so interesting and impressive because we visited a couple of prisons before we started shooting just for research purposes and I was lucky to be able to meet quite a few inmates in different locations in Michigan, and I … it was almost like a life-changing experience, to see what their life was like and what their outlook on life was like.

And we shot … everything that you see in the sort of, those open inner courtyard scenes were shot in a part of a prison that was still active. Obviously not that part, that part has been shut down because it’s a huge hall with I can’t remember how many cells, but on five different levels. And they had to shut that part down because of the sound of the noise. Because it was such a big space, there was so much echo that any noise was amplified and if anything was happening the guards wouldn’t hear because there was just so much noise.

So people … there were beatings, there were murders going on in that space and nobody would find out about it until it was too late, because you could scream all you wanted it would just get drowned by the general noise, and that location was pretty impressive. There was one of the inmates, there was an ex-inmate actually who ended up being one of our supporting artists, and he had been imprisoned, incarcerated in that particular location and he was kind enough to take me through his first day when he arrived, and he talked me through his emotions and he led me to learn about his cell.

That first day he told me that after they did all the paperwork he was led to a cell and then just before he stepped into the cell he looked back, and there was this five different levels of just cell, upon cell, upon cell. And they’re obviously all open so you can look inside and he looked back and he told me he could see one guy who was on the toilet, one guy was masturbating. You know he was just so … such a shock to his system and he told me when he looked back and saw that, that’s when it hit him that he was there and that he was gonna have to go through hell basically.

LRM: Wow, that’s pretty intense. So this was during the filming, or before the filming?

Dreymon: This was during the filming, that is like your experience. But before the filming we went into a couple of different prisons and we had a … yeah I in particular had a round table experience with just couple of inmates that had agreed to talk to me and you know, answer questions that I had.

LRM: What was one main question that you pretty much had, you wondered, for these inmates?

Dreymon: Yeah to be honest, you know we shot this in April 2014 so it’s a long time ago and I can’t remember what particular questions I had but from that round table one thing that will always stick with me was this one young guy, he was much younger than I was, very early twenties. And he told me that his release date was supposed to be in six months from then, and he said “Who knows if I would get out in six months or not?” And I said, well why? Because your release date is … why would you not be released in six months? That’s what’s predetermined.

And he said, “Well, what the problem is once you’re in here you have no choice but to fight, because you will get attacked and if you do not fight back then you become that persons bitch. You become their slave, you will be asked to do sexual favors. So you have to fight back, and if you fight back then obviously you run the danger of being caught doing it, so that would add extra time. You never know what happens in a fight, what if you kill a person by accident? Then you might end up being in there for life.”

Now so, he literally did not know if he was going to get released in six months because all of the things that could happen to him inside, that he just was not in control of. So he could have the best intentions in the world but, you know, he might just end up staying in there.

LRM: So that’s a little bit of what we saw in Lee’s character. It was pretty much he did what he felt he had to do for survival, in a way.

Dreymon: Exactly, yeah. He just … writing his girlfriend really on the outside was what got him through the day, the only thing that kept him going, the only thing that made him want to get up in the morning and keep the faith. Stay strong and even when he realized that was gone then the only thing that kept him going was Tera and then I think he needed, he just got to the point where he realized how much damage he was doing around him, and that he just couldn’t live with that.

LRM: Well, what can you tell us about a certain scene, and I’m sure you may have an idea of which one I’m speaking of, the one that takes place in the chapel. How long did it … was it intense? And what was the challenge of that scene?

Dreymon: Shooting that particular scene?

LRM: Yes, the one in the chapel? The main scene, not trying to give too much away.

Dreymon: The challenge? Yeah, the challenge with that is … was that to make the blood rig work the way we wanted it to work. Because we had limited amount of time to shoot that scene and we could only reset the blood rig once. And the first time we shot it the hiccup was initially it didn’t properly work but it still painted the carpet underneath, and the costume, and the blood rig itself it had to be removed and put back on, you know on the mannequin, all of that takes a hell of a lot of time. So we … it was the last scene of the whole shoot and we went into overtime and we got it done literally on the minute.

LRM: Yeah that was a really long part, where it’s just the blood. So yes, I could how that was challenging but it was good it really got … it really will get the watchers, like it got me watching the film.

Dreymon: Good, good. Thanks for that.

LRM: So I know we need to wrap it up shortly, I do want to say congratulations on the success of The Last Kingdom on Netflix, I did not want to say it first right away because we are discussing Heartlock. But congratulations, and if not mistaken it was announced, as you mentioned earlier, for a fourth season.

Dreymon: That is so kind of you, thank you so much. I’m so grateful to be able to be a part of that project.

LRM: Anything you can tell us? I know mentioned earlier before starting you’re starting in April.

Dreymon: Yeah, well actually I’m not allowed, I am trusted for it. I’d talk to you if I was allowed to speak about it yet and I’m not sure that I can tell you anything. But I’m really excited about it.

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