Sarah Hagan on Pushing Herself and Diving Into the Intensity of ‘Sun Choke’

Patrick Regan

Actress Sarah Hagan is best known for “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “Freaks and Geeks.” In “Sun Choke,” however, she dives into a deeply disturbed mind as the troubled Janie. She recently sat down with Entertainment Voice to talk about the difficulties of playing such a role.

What attracted you to taking on such a difficult role?

Just continuing to challenge myself as an actor. I like the mystery of Janie.  In the script and on film, you’re not given a lot of Janie’s backstory. I had to go in and work with (writer-director Ben Crecisman) to create that backstory for Janie as well as I could.  You do that for every character you’re given, but a lot of the time we’re given a lot more.

Also the physicality of the issues that Janie is going through.  Studying seizures and pulling that off in a realistic way, which is something I’ve never done before.  It was just the challenge of it all.  It was a risk, because Janie carries the film.  You’ve got to do the best you can to keep people interested in watching the movie and watch you as the character.

You mentioned prep work, can you talk about what research you did into mental illness?

I wasn’t given a lot of time.  I found out I was doing the role and we were shooting a week and a half later, so I didn’t have enough time to go deep into the mental illness.  I watched a lot of films that Ben used as inspiration and research for himself. I watched a lot of seizure videos and went through the script scene by scene with Ben over the course of two days.

It was pretty fast the whole thing. We shot over the course of eighteen days, so very run and gun.

This was a very intense role.  What was it like making sure it didn’t come home with you at night?

I guess I’m pretty good at turning it off when it’s done. It does take me a minute before we start every scene to get my head into it, that mentality and that vibe.  I always feel like I’m super serious on set, but Ben always says I was goofing off in between takes.  I don’t remember that part very much at all! But that might have helped bring me back into reality and not take this character home with me.

You kind of have to do that when you’re going so fast from scene to scene and every scene’s different.  The same character, but in a different emotional state. You have to be able to make that switch anyway. It was fine, I didn’t go home crazy.  I guess I should ask my boyfriend, but he didn’t mention anything, so I think I’m fine!

What was your on-set relationship with Barbara Crampton like?

I don’t know if you’ve ever talked to Barbara before, but she’s the most amazing, friendly, and warm person. She takes on this caretaker roll so easily, maybe because she has children and has been doing it for so long now.  I met her a couple days before we started shooting.  We didn’t spend a whole lot of time together, we just walked through the set, and then we jumped right in!

She [really] took on this role, even in person to me.  This was my first venture into the horror world, although I think this film is more of a psychological thriller with horror aspects. She’s a scream queen, as they say, so she took my hand and made sure I was okay and feeling comfortable.  It actually mirrored Irma’s relationship with Janie, although that was more manipulative.

On top of that, Barbara ended up living at the house for the duration of filming.  She lives in San Francisco and this house was humungous. We’re not a large crew, so she just took one of the bedrooms downstairs.  I’m sure it was super crazy for her, everyone would go home and she’d be left alone in this huge house we’re shooting this terrifying movie in. I’m sure it helped her get into the role.  She made meals there, she got into the country, she was living it.  It was awesome, because I would come to set and this would feel like Barbara’s home.

We were able to shoot in chronological order.  So the first day, we shot a lot of Janie and Irma doing their daily routine and Janie being on the upswing and being well.  It helped Barbra and I to set those characters of this mentality, this atmosphere, and this environment before things got really intense.  You don’t always get that.

“Sun Choke” opens Aug. 5.