Die Alone star Carrie-Anne Moss discussed with ComingSoon her complex character and the appeal of doing the newly released zombie movie. Distributed by Quiver Distribution, Die Alone is now available in theaters, on digital, and on demand. Directed and written by Lowell Dean, it also stars Douglas Smith, Kimberly-Sue Murray, and Frank Grillo.
“Lost in a world reclaimed by nature and overrun by mysterious creatures, a young man with amnesia teams up with an eccentric survivalist to find his missing girlfriend,” says the Die Alone synopsis.
Tyler Treese: Carrie-Anne, congrats on Die Alone. This was such a pleasant surprise. I really enjoyed the film. You have this great line, “Nature is a powerful b—-.” That just sums up the setup of this so well, as there’s this virus going on that is morphing people into zombies and eradicating humanity. What about that setup really appealed to you?
Carrie-Anne Moss: Yeah, I, I really loved the story when I read it. Um, uh, I’m, I have to be honest and say that I’m not like really into zombie movies or apocalyptic movies. Like it’s not really my thing. Um, but I just thought that the story that he wrote was really interesting and I loved the character of May and I instantly wanted to play her like right away. I was like, I’d really like to, to have to be in that world and, you know, be surviving and figuring that out. And she goes to such great lengths to continue continuing on, and she does it so, um, kind of effortlessly, but, you know, she’s exhausted. I mean, it’s, it’s, I thought it was fascinating.
Beyond zombies, it’s also just a really great character study for you as well. This isn’t the first movie that you’ve done that deals with a character with amnesia and there’s an amazing twist at the end. When you were filming this, were you thinking of Memento any? Because the parallels after I watched it were kind of wild.
Not really, but when I first read it, there were a couple of lines that were very similar, and I was actually not sure if I wanted to do it because of that. I was like, “Ooh, I don’t know.” But then, when I looked at the whole script, it’s so different than Memento. I mean, you’re talking parallels, but mentally, I was like, “This is so different, and really, I’m not gonna do it because it’s a little similar?” Lots of things are similar in different ways, and I wanted to do it [so I did].
This has great practical effects too. Did you get a kick out of this stuff being done very naturally rather than CGI?
Yeah, they did, they did such a great job. All those, special effects guys and women that were just making those characters and all of the plants coming out of the people, like I was pretty impressed by their artistry. Really, really talented people.
Your co-star Douglas Smith. I haven’t seen him in a lot, but I was really impressed by his performance as well. How is he as a scene partner?
Great. He’s a very talented actor, and you really have to believe him, right? Like for that movie to work. What he’s doing is really not that easy. I thought he did a great job, you know? He’s a pleasure to work with.
This year is The Matrix’s 25th anniversary, which is, is wild. I saw it in a packed theater. The fan base is still so passionate. How does it feel to see Trinity still being embraced just as much now as when it first came out?
It’s cool. I mean, what a great movie.I loved making it. I had wanted to actually see it in my local theater because they did have it here, but I had some plans that day I couldn’t go, it’s pretty crazy to think 25 years have passed. It’s crazy.
I thought you were great in The Acolyte as well recently. Your character’s story was wrapped unless there were more flashbacks, but were you surprised by the cancellation? I thought it was unfortunate that the series got caught up in some weird discourse that dominated the headlines around it.
You know, I don’t really invest too much time wondering if a show’s gonna get picked up or not. Just because they often don’t. So I don’t really spend much time thinking about any of that. Yeah. It’s just sort of how it is. Like when Jessica Jones got canceled, I was really disappointed and really shocked. So, you go through that enough times, you just sort of don’t really pay much attention to it. You can’t.
Thanks to Carrie-Anne Moss for taking the time to talk about Die Alone.
