Guilty Pleasures of a B-Film Actress

by Steven McNaughton (March 1999)

Since her feature film debut in 1995 with the vampire film ADDICTED TO MURDER, which made her visible on the shelves of Blockbuster here in the United States, thousands of video stores in England and Germany, and a presence in nearly every major horror magazine in the world (Check out her photo in the recent issue of FANGORIA) actress Sasha Graham has worked on nearly a dozen genre and mainstream projects. They range from Joe Zaso's GUILTY PLEASURES to the film festival bound ONE TAKE, which she recently toured with to Houston, Texas, to Salt City Home Video's critically acclaimed VICIOUS SWEET. Yet with all this acclaim she is someone you will never see in SCREAM QUEENS ILLUSTRATED or FEMME FATALE magazine. In fact, she outrightly declined a feature article in the latter, much to the chagrin of that magazine's editor. "She is the only actress to ever decline an article in the magazine," he stated.

When asked about the term "Scream Queen", Ms. Graham had to say this: "Well, I don't see my self as a Scream Queen. Yes, I've done some horror genre films. I've also been in over fifteen plays produced in New York City, worked on Soaps, on Comedy Central, done interactive dinner theater, and was the spokesgirl for an anti-smoking CD-Rom. I'm an actress. I don't want to be labeled as anything except as someone who does good work. The title of "Scream Queen" brings to mind, at least to me, the image of a busty babe running away from some psycho on a tight we little t-shirt and mini skirt. That's definitely not like anything I have done. I have sat at conventions and signed autographs as a "Scream Queen" of sorts. I told myself I was promoting my film, while making a little pocket change. Truth is, I felt more like a prostitute. The attitude from the men I was selling photos to seemed so sleazy. They didn't want to talk about the movie. They just wanted a photo and a pinch or tickle me. The less clothes you wear the more photos you sell. That isn't me. I think it would be great to do a convention if I was involved in something people really were crazy about. Like an X-FILES or TWIN PEAKS convention. To sit and talk on a panel, about a character you played on a show or film they really enjoyed, would be fantastic."

Ironically, Sasha portrayed a Scream Queen in Ron Bonk's THE VICIOUS SWEET. It is the story of Tyler Phenix, who is kidnapped by an overzealous fan and is forced to go through some psychological torture. She is basically a B Movie Scream Queen who doesn't like what she's doing professionally but it afraid to move ahead and become successful. "Her being a Scream Queen," says Sasha, "Didn't have anything to do with the appeal of the character-it was the transition she goes through. There's such a change in herself as a person, that's what I really liked." In the film, Tyler is afraid that her dark, seedy past will catch up with her, something which Sasha thinks is symbolic for a lot of women who have low self esteem and are afraid to be successful because they feel they don't deserve it. She says, "They feel in the inside like they're crap, whether they're actresses or not." On the flip side, she admits it is a story that will appeal to men. "Definitely-kidnapping a woman and holding her hostage! Ha ha. But seriously, the beauty of it is that's it's deeper than that-there's a lot of cool fantasy sequences. Some are funny, some are disturbing. I think fans will enjoy it."

Other roles that Ms.Graham has recently portrayed are the mentally unstable RoseMarie in GUILTY PLEASURES, released two years ago, a brief cameo in Pete Jacelone's notorious remake of PSYCHO SISTERS, portrayed a lesbian videostore owner in BLOODLETTING and Joe LaPenna's special effects feature GARGOYLE GIRLS, which cast her as an ancient creature freed from a supernatural imprisonment. In the role of Gwendolyn this is the first time she wore extensive prosthetic makeup. She also dyed her hair blonde. "Sasha was a great asset to this production," says LaPenna. "Her sensitivity, charm and professionalism are unparalleled. And as a B-Movie veteran her skills as an actress were honed perfectly for this role." But Sasha's favorite movies are those involving aliens.

"Alien movies are my favorite genre," she enthuses. "ET, CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND, and of course the STAR WARS trilogy, were movies I saw as a child and they had a tremendous impact on me. With the last ten years of slasher flicks and serial killer movies an alien film is so welcome." The movies in which she had a part are J. Bookwalter's POLYMORPH and Kevin Lindenmuth's ALIEN AGENDA: OUT OF THE DARKNESS (of which she recently has the cover photo of the UK magazine SCARY DREAMS to promote the film's UK release). Sasha maintains she had the greatest time working on these movies, which she was basically working on at the same time in the Summer of '96. ALIEN AGENDA was shot in New York City and the other in Ohio and in both films she goes from human to alien. "My character Tarper (in POLYMORPH) is a crazed, coke addicted chick with Mafia connections. She is a strong character and I had so much fun with the action sequences." In fact, this part was originally written for a man and Mick McCleery, who starred opposite Sasha in ADDICTED TO MURDER, was considered for the same role! The character in ALIEN AGENDA was quite different, she explains. "The transformation of Rebecca in ALIEN AGENDA is much more disturbing, more about the metamorphosis of the character as she slowly turns alien." In the movie, the character SAM (portrayed by SHATTER DEAD director Scooter McCrae), a renegade for the hell of a future earth, goes back in time to live his life. But he isn't quite normal-he is referred to as a "worm", contaminated with an alien infection and unknowingly doing the "Grey Alien's" bidding. When he encounters the homeless Rebecca he takes her under his wing and slowly changes her into something resembling himself. Why? Because he wants company! When asked about some of the "live" special effects, Sasha says this: "Holding a handful of meal worms was as weird and disgusting an experience I do not wish to repeat".

Nevertheless Sasha is a big supporter of independent filmmaking. "Low budget movies are great," she says, "In the fact that everyone is involved for the love of the film. Trust me, you can't get a crew member or actor to give up their weekend and spend ten hours on a set for little or no pay if they don't absolutely love the fact that they are making a great movie. I think I'll always be happy working on low budget productions providing there's a good script." An example of this is THE VICIOUS SWEET. "The most demanding day of that shoot was the first day," Sasha explains. "This was the zombie scene. I'm running around all day long and it was still hot outside-but I was really excited to do a good job and we shot all day and all night, a sixteen hour day. I've never been so tired in my life but it was a good tired."

Since that time Sasha has completed work on ADVERSE POSSESSION, a 16mm drama about young squatters living on the Lower East Side of New York City, Jerry O'Sullivan's GUT-PILE, CREATUREALM: FROM THE DEAD where she acted opposite Grant Kramer (SANTA CLAWS, NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD 30th ANNIVERSARY EDITION) and last but not least a reprisal of the role of the evil vampire Angie in ADDICTED TO MURDER 2: TAINTED BLOOD. In this prequel the story revolves around several different vampires and those who want to be vampires. "Angie is a controlling force here," reveals Sasha, "Definitely making things happen." There's a vampire who was created in the 70's, a woman dying of cancer who was newly indoctrinated and several older characters such as "the Hunter". Although this movie does feature the return of Mick McCleery in the role of Joel Winter the story does not focus on serial killers this time around. Says Kevin Lindenmuth, the film's director "It's a slice of unlife movie. I wanted to expand on the Angie character, as she didn't appear until halfway through the first movie, and I wanted to show her interacting with others of her own kind. In terms of performances and story, I think it's stronger than the first installment." That movie recently was released nationwide, priced for rental. In March of 1999 she will portray a different sort of vampire in Marotta Production's RAGE OF THE WEREWOLF.

When asked about her future plans, Sasha has this to say. "First off, I like to keep busy. I'm always trying to stay busy working on one project or another. Plays or films. I'm dying to make big films, too. I'd love to reach a wider audience, shot in exotic locations, and of course get a BIG paycheck. I think the pressures are a lot different in a low budget film compared to a regular Hollywood movie. Usually it's the director's money at stake, not someone else's. Artistically the only person the director must answer to is himself. I think there is much more room to take chances, break the rules, and create a really fabulous film when you're doing an independent."

Originally published in GC Magazine - Edited by Jon Keeyes.