An up-and-coming name in the British indie scene, actress Annie Knox has emerged with several stand-out credits in the scene as she works her way to be a potential scream queen in the near future. Now, in honor of Women in Horror Month, I talk with her about her acting process, her career so far and several intriguing upcoming projects.
Me: Hello and thank you for taking the time to do this. First off, where did you get the urge to get into the genre?
Annie Knox: Thank you for giving me the opportunity! That’s a great first question- and one I have no real good answer for. I have always had a thing for darker genres- horror, thriller, crime, psychologically dark stories. I loved writing ghost stories when I was younger and reading scary stories before bed. When I hit twelve or thirteen I found Stephen King, which then became a huge influence on me and my novellas, which in the last few years have evolved into scripts. I just find that such stories really hook into me and my imagination runs wild with them. It’s almost like it was meant to be, haha!
Me: Were you always into genre films growing up? What films specifically got you into watching horror movies?
AK: Okay so I have two specific examples for my first memorable horror film experiences- one is ‘What Lies Beneath’ and one is ‘Halloween’ (the original). When I rewatch them now I just wind up enjoying the jump scares and appreciating the film making behind them, but as a child, these movies TERRIFIED me. I think ‘What Lies Beneath’ was so scary because it really confronted the idea of not being able to trust/know the people around you, which is not a concept I’d ever appreciated before, and ‘Halloween’- well, it was just terrifying. I cried at the end after (spoiler) his body disappeared and I couldn’t sleep without the lights being on because I was convinced he was coming for me! And yet as soon as I was over it I wanted to go ahead and scare myself with more. Throughout the years, several others stuck with me; the first Saw, Seven, The Transfiguration, Signs, The Lost Boys, Silence of the Lambs, Gingersnaps, The Craft, to list a few. And recently the TV series of Hannibal really got me as well, actually. I watched the whole second season in about two days.
Me: When did you realize you wanted to be an actress?
AK: When I was twenty! I’d just moved to London and managed to get a full-time job in a museum- the idea was to progress to a management position whilst writing horror books until the writing was making money for me to live off of. But I did a day as an extra on a Bollywood film for money and just fell in love with being on set. I’ve only fallen in love with a person once before and I would actually describe the first time I saw them as being really similar to my first time on set, hahahaha! I met a lovely lot of actors there, all of whom encouraged me to try and do some student's films to see how I felt. It was so weird, like suddenly I realized what I wanted. Like a missing puzzle piece, I don’t know. Deciding to go into acting has taught me a million things about myself- including how strong I can be when I want- and it’s definitely helped shape me into a much better version of myself. It’s been really tough to be honest but that’s part of the journey and I’m incredibly glad I found acting as I don’t like to think who/where I would be now without it.
Me: Is there any specific type of character you prefer playing?
AK: Argh there are so many- not really! Anything that has substance and is a challenge. I do love playing weird creatures. I did a bit of filming recently that involved crawling around a dusty attic covered in blood which was huge fun.
Me: Having worked on plenty of short films early in your career, what tools and skills do you acquire working on those that transferred to future film-projects?
AK: You learn so much, I think every film is a learning experience. Every time I tackle any role it always requires a new approach and a new way of thinking. I guess that’s one of the things I learnt very early on, that you have to be open to always learning! I once got told by someone on set that a key was just to do what I needed to do to get the performance, which is what I keep in my heart. You can apply whatever learnt technique you have but if it isn’t working, ditch it and try something else- what worked for someone else won’t necessarily get the performance for you.
Me: Who are some of your favorite actresses to study? What have you learned from observing them?
AK: Oh man, there are so many I admire massively. I think Anya Taylor-Joy is a stand out personally, and Chloe Levine. But there are thousands of super talented actors and actresses. I’m a bit of a bad one in terms of I don’t always actively study how people perform in films. But that shows how good their performance is because I just watch the character’s journey and it isn’t until afterwards that I’m like wow, that was great acting,! Which is the best you can hope for as an actor I suppose.
Me: You've also moved into writing several shorts with Bye Bye Blackbird and Cat + Mouse. What was the inspiration to start writing them?
AK: I wish I knew to be honest. Ideas just seem to whack out of no-where. Someone will say something like oh, that’s a nice plant, and my brain will just go ‘yeah, imagine if the plant was coming alive at night and planting seeds in you all and you all get sick and think you have food poisoning but actually you have tonnes of mini plants growing out of you and then they burst out of you at night and that’s how the human race goes out’ and then I’m like woah what did I just think of?! And I write it down. Cat + Mouse started because I sat down to write my friend a showreel scene and then like an hour later I sat back like oops, it’s a bit too long.
Me: Cat + Mouse was also a directorial effort. What was the inspiration to direct that short?
AK: It honestly just kind of happened! The same as writing it. After I wrote it I thought yeah that’s quite a cool story, I may as well make it. So I did. I mean it was a lot harder than I expected, to be honest, I didn’t sleep for weeks leading up to filming. I’d never studied filmmaking before so I went a bit crazy planning it to try and make sure it worked out using what I’d learnt being on various sets. But also I was so so proud of myself afterwards, like genuinely shocked I’d managed it.
Me: As well, you directed and acted in the short Days After: The Boy. Was balancing the two tasks at once easier or more difficult than you imagined?
AK: GOD YES. I knew it would be tough but I was like ‘Yeah, I got it’. Then on set I had quite a few moments of oh, oops, maybe I don’t. I got so stressed I started hysterically crying on the tube on the way to set at one point, sat over my bucket of fake blood with all this filming equipment piled up around me, haha! I don’t know why I freaked out though because it came together well in the end.
Me: You also have a role in the upcoming effort Pandamonium. What can you tell us about your role in that film?
AK: AHHHHH I actually don’t know how much I can say. The film premiered at Horror-On-Sea this year, which is absolutely amazing. I was super excited because two films I did were at the festival- a short called ‘Bleed’ I played the lead in showed there as well. It seemed like a major milestone in my horror career but then I couldn’t go because of a film schedule haha! Pandamonium was amazing because I’d wanted to work with Mycho Entertainment for so long- I think I applied for quite a few roles in the film but schedule-wise we didn’t make it work until I was able to play Snowy Winters. The film is incredibly fun- it’s coming out on DVD this year, on the 2nd March. I’m really happy that I finally got a chance to work with the Mycho team, and I hope to work with them again in the future- Anna Dixon, if anyone is looking for a fab example of Women in Horror, is one to definitely look at. She’s like this multi-talented producer/filmmaker/actress and the company Mycho works a lot of their stories with very strong female characters.
Me: Beyond these projects, what else do you have upcoming that you’d like to share with our readers?
AK: I’m currently working on getting my first novella published! I had my first official published piece of writing out just a few weeks ago- a segment in a horror anthology called ‘Deranged’, and I’m hoping to start pushing out my novellas and novels as published pieces now. I have quite a few short horror/thriller films that I’ll be acting in over February and March, which is really exciting. I just wrapped a surreal horror last week so I’m actually feeling really good about this year so far haha! I think my biggest focus this year is to wrap up my first feature script and start looking at pre-production for it- I’ll be directing and acting in a short at the end of February, and then I’ll bring out the big guns on my feature.
Me: Lastly, being that this is Women in Horror Month, what special message do you have for any women out there looking to join in the industry in any capacity as you are one yourself? Thank you again for your time!
AK: I guess the best message is just not to be afraid to be yourself, as corny as it is!! When you get into creative industries you have a million and one people instantly ready to tell you how you should be, what you should be doing, how much you should be earning, what you’re doing wrong, what to change, how you aren’t good enough, how tough the industry is, and so on. If you are serious about being in the industry, be serious, be resilient, and be yourself! I have been told countless times that I’m not this enough, that I’m not that enough, that my chances are incredibly slim, blah blah. It honestly gets boring. It’s upsetting, but a boring upsetting haaha! So if you decide it’s for you, give it your all and don’t half-ass it. And thank you so much for having me! :)
This interview ran as part of our month-long Women in Horror Month celebration. Click the banner below to check out all of our interviews and reviews we conducted for the event:
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