after having starred in “Bait 3D,” actress Phoebe Tonkin has come to the conclusion that you can never really be completely safe – regardless of your setting.
“I grew up by the beach so I have always been conscious of the danger of sharks in the water,” Tonkin said during a recent interview with Examiner.com. “There were several reported shark sightings reported and one or two shark attacks where I grew up. But to put that fear in a supermarket really forces to you ask yourself, ‘Well, then where am I safe?’”
In “Bait 3D,” which will be available beginning tomorrow on Blu-ray and DVD at retail stores and rental outlets throughout the Valley, supermarket shoppers battle man-eating sharks when a tsunami plunges a coastal resort under water and the perfect predator gets a whole new stalking ground.
“I read the script and loved how it was a throwback to a lot of the old school 80’s horror films that were set in these extreme situations but with really different dynamic characters,” Tonkin explained. “I loved that it was both terrifying and had this dark sense of humor to it. It was so almost ridiculous but still terrifying. I really liked its out there concept.”
Tonkin especially appreciated that her character went through a very clear arc throughout the film. The actress explained that said character starts out in a place where she takes her life for granted as a result of her mother passing away a few years earlier – an event for which she blames her father and uses as an excuse to disappear from the world.
“But when faced with the reality of physically disappearing from the world – faced with death – she really kind of reevaluates her life and her living parent,” Tonkin added. “She grows up a little bit throughout the film. She has been an angry teenager for so long and now has to put that anger into becoming a fighter – fighting her way out of a bad situation and fighting for her life.”
Tonkin noted that she did not have to work too hard to reflect the fear that her character experiences in “Bait 3D.” After all, the set – which was essentially a supermarket built inside of a gigantic swimming pool – provided enough real-life uneasiness to get her to a psychological place in which she could easily make the leap to fear.
“We were on that set for like 5 weeks,” Tonkin said. “By the end of the shoot, the water was so dark that it was kind of scary – like when you swim in a pool at night and you think, ‘Oooh, what is under the water?’ because it is so dark. It was not hard to imagine that there could be something under there. It was easy to immerse yourself in the situation.”
Needless to say, Tonkin worked through the fear, though, and is grateful for the opportunity to participate in the project. The actress said that she was especially intrigued by the 3D technology, noting that the cameras picked up every last detail – including something as small as a piece of lint on someone’s face during a closeup.
“If you are watching it with those glasses, that tiny speck that normal cameras would not even pick up, is suddenly in 3D,” Tonkin explained. “And I also loved all of the action. I love doing stunts. There is a scene in the film where I have to swim really fast, jump over a shelf and kind of bang around in the water. I love doing all of that physical stuff.”
Published September 17, 2012
by Joseph Airdo
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