Rising Actress Ella Ballentine Drinks in Role as Teen Daughter of Alcoholic in ‘The Monster’

Sandra Miska

Just going by its indie status, it might look like “The Monster” is a low-budget creature feature. But it is so much more than that. Yes, there is the title’s terrifying beast, but “The Monster” is also a compelling story about an alcoholic mother, Kathy (Zoe Kazan), and her young teen daughter, Lizzy (Ella Ballentine). Ballentine, a rising actress from Canada, spoke with “Entertainment Voice” about her experience making the film. “It’s not just a horror film,” Ballentine said. “It’s also a drama because of the intense backstory of the mother and daughter and their relationship.”

The “monster” can also refer to the alcoholism that Kathy battles and its collateral damage to Lizzie. The two embark on a road trip designed to have Kathy get Lizzy to her father, but Mom surprises her daughter with the news that this stay will be longer than a visit. The audience gets caught up with this troubled scenario through compelling flashbacks.

Ballentine and Kazan are excellent together, especially in the film’s most intense and emotional scenes. The actors shared chemistry on and off set. Unlike her fictional character, Kazan was a role model to her onscreen daughter.

“It was such a great experience working with Zoe,” Ballentine said. “She was so nice. She really is a role model to me, because of her personality. She has something that I don’t see in a lot of people. She’s very quirky, but she’s also so, so intelligent. And she’s also this really great actress. Being a young actor and still wanting to pursue the education plan, it was really cool to have her around. She went to Yale, and that’s really intense.”

For some of the darker, more forceful scenes, Ballentine was well served by her co-star, crew and her own careful preparation. “The crew knew as well that I needed time. I’d have to be screaming and bawling my eyes out. Everybody was very respectful. They’d set up lighting as quick as they could and try and be quiet so I could stay focused. It was hard to keep falling back into scenes, but working with Zoe made it much easier. Playing off of her was so great, because she’s so talented, and see her screaming and crying, I just mirrored what she was doing.”

And then there is, of course, the actual physical monster, which only appears after much build-up. Director Bryan Bertino set the tone for the fateful meet-up between girl and beast by having the majority of the story take place in the middle of the night in the rain on an abandoned road.

“It was really fun filming with the monster,” Ballentine said. “But definitely sometimes it was scary for me, just because it was either really late at night or really early in the morning, 2 or 3 a.m., and sometimes the monster, it might be on top of me or looking me dead in the eye, and inside the costume it was this guy and he’s over 6 feet tall and he’s very sweet. He would always talk to me to make sure I’m feeling OK and I was safe, and I did because everybody was around, but in the moment when there’s this monster head with teeth right in your face with its glowing eyes, my heart sped up a little bit.”

Ballentine said that going so far out of her comfort zone proved to be an invaluable experience. “I really loved filming something so intense and so far from my lifestyle, because characters that I normally play I can relate to in some way, in some capacity, but this I had no relation to whatsoever, so it was definitely a challenge.”

Next, Ballentine will be showing off her lighter side in a trilogy of Canadian television films based on the classic novel “Anne of Green Gables.” She will play the title role of Anne Shirley, appearing alongside Martin Sheen. “It’s nice because it’s the total opposite of ‘The Monster,” she said. “It’s just a really sweet family movie and it’s really cute and great for younger audiences. I just finished filming the second and third movie, and that was a really fun experience too. The first one will be airing on PBS on American Thanksgiving.”

“The Monster” is in theaters and On Demand Nov. 11.