But back to that ass kicking. Her early days found her dancing and swimming – a real pro athelete growing up. Then the acting bug hit and she began to use her physicality in films like the aforementioned Step Up sequel and Blue Crush 2 until the horror genre came a-knockin’. Now, with both Bait 3D and You’re Next under her belt, Vinson is moving on to the Patrick remake, expected to roll cameras this fall.
Shock spoke with Vinson about her “fun” time on Bait 3D, the “sharks in a supermarket” thriller hitting DVD/Blu-ray September 18th. Head inside for our chat!
Shock Till You Drop: When the logline was thrown at you for this film, what made you give the script a chance?
Sharni Vinson: Well, the script was written by Russell Mulcahy and you take that seriously, I love him. And then you read it and you think, wow, I wonder if he dreamt this? This is out there for anybody’s mind. There’s a robbery happening in the movie, then a tsunami and then a shark. Read the script, I thought about what it would be like to shoot it, to be on this set, to be with these people? Would I have a good time? I’ve said the day that I quit this business is the day that I stop having fun. I look for the work that is literally going to bring me enjoyment in life and I knew this project was going to be fun. It was also going to bring me back home. I’ve been living in L.A. for four and a half years now and I’m always looking for a reason to go home and re-connect with family. There were many elements that brought me to this and I just knew it was going to be fun even if the storyline was whack. Wow. This is out there. Inevitably, we wound up with these torrential storms while we were shooting, flood half of Queensland and wash bull sharks into the streets. It was almost like, while we were shooting, here we were talking about how ridiculous the storyline was, it 90% happened as we looked at the paper and there on the front page is the shot of a fin in a flooded street and there’s this woman standing on her porch. [laughs] Never say never. It’s bizarre, but it can happen.
Shock: Those damn sharks…
Vinson: Damn sharks! [laughs]
Shock: You mentioned sitting on the shelf for a good chunk of the shoot, how did you keep things exciting on set?
Vinson: [laughs] It was so much fun. We shot the movie in order, firstly, so that was interesting. We did that for continuity purposes. So we were actually living the storyline. We ended up entertaining ourselves – we all had our own spot on the shelf, and we’d be on two shelves, split across from one another. And there were all of these props, cans of fake beans floating around, so we’d pick up things and throw them across to the other shelf. Kimble would bring in his playlist and blast music through these loudspeakers and I would do water ballet in the set. One of my outstanding moments is when he played a remix of “Time of My Life” from Dirty Dancing. I picked up the floating dead mannequin that had half of its face chopped off and just had all of this fake blood, so I pretended I was dancing with it. They filmed it so I know it’ll go somewhere. [laughs] We would just do things like that. It was a big playground with friends.
Shock: Did you have nicknames for the animatronic sharks?
Vinson: Yeah, the main shark was “Rick James.” We would come onto set and Rick James would be sleeping, then he’d come alive with animatronics. To swim around it, it felt like you were swimming with a sedated shark because it looked quite convincing, just a bit slow.
Vinson: Well, I took the roles for very different reasons. The reason I was drawn to You’re Next was really different to the reason I was drawn to Bait. My actual role in Bait is…there’s not much for me to do. It’s an ensemble cast, so I’m splitting my screen time with 10 other people and, in doing so, you’re sitting on the shelf, looking worried and then the shark is coming back. It doesn’t have as much meat as an actress, but it had all of these other elements that I loved. You’re Next was a small indie movie and when I got the script, I just pictured myself doing that role and I just thought, what an awesome acting role. Get the stunt training and stuff, it’s more of a festival movie. I can’t wait for that movie to come out. Adam Wingard is an exceptional director and Joe Swanberg, who’s in the movie, I cannot say enough good things about that guy. He kept that set alive at 3am when we were so tired. [laughs]
Shock: Well, I dug both films, so you’re on a roll, Sharni…
Vinson: [laughs] Awesome. Hopefully, you’ll like my next one, Patrick, we’ll start shooting that November 12th. It has Rachel Griffiths, who I love, and Charles Dance. I’m excited.
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