ComingSoon Editor-in-Chief Tyler Treese spoke with actress Kate Hudson and writer/director Ana Lily Amirpour about their sci-fi thriller Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon. The film is out today in theaters and available digitally and through video-on-demand.
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“When a struggling single mother (Hudson) befriends a mysterious mental institute escapee with supernatural powers (Jong Seo), she sees a lucrative opportunity to make some fast cash,” reads the film’s synopsis. “But when they draw the attention of a detective (Craig Robinson), their luck starts to run out as the cops close in on their crime spree.”
Tyler Treese: Kate, you give such a great performance in this, and Bonnie is shown as being quite manipulative, but she’s also been hardened by her environment and dealing with raising a son on her own. There’s a lot of complexity there, but how do you view your character?
Kate Hudson: I see Bonnie Bell as a survivor. I mean, she’s a survivor through and through. She’s been through the wringer and she takes the opportunities that come to her as they come to her. She’s out for the money and that money is, gets her what she needs and she just stays, I think, very present. I think that’s, to me, who Bonnie is in essence. Then obviously there are a lot of details that I went into before just to understand for myself, her backstory and where all her tats came from and how she ended up in New Orleans, and all of those little nuances. But really, she’s just there to survive. I think Bonnie really likes who she is. I think she feels good about that she’s survived so far and that she’s proud of what she’s been able to accomplish, which is an unlikely person to think that would be like that, which is why she was very fun to play.
Lily, the film almost has a rave-like quality to it, and the city of New Orleans feels truly like a character throughout it. How important was it to shoot in Louisiana to really incorporate that distinct atmosphere?
Ana Lily Amirpour: Yeah, I mean, it was another character, and the whole idea of it was born and birthed from New Orleans — from the swamp. The primordial … I mean, I haven’t even really talked about the moon in all of this.
Hudson: My God. That’s right, the moon!
Amirpour: Because the idea that this girl with these big powers is generated from the moon and the swamp. Something, when I went there … it just clicked to me. It’s this primordial … like the deep juices –kind of like a werewolf, but not a hairy one — coming to life inside of this girl. She’s like a hairless werewolf. So yeah, New Orleans ends up just becoming the shape of the whole thing, and it is. It’s a bananas, colorful, electric place.
