INTERVIEW: Naomi Grossman, star of ‘American Horror Story,’ on her new horror comedy
Photo: Naomi Grossman stars in the horror comedy Bite Me. Photo courtesy of Blue Firefly Films / Provided by October Coast with permission.
Naomi Grossman is a well-known presence to horror fans. She has played the character of Pepper over multiple seasons of American Horror Story, and she continues the horror streak in her latest film, Bite Me, a vampire comedy from writer and star Naomi MacDougall Jones. In the movie, Jones plays the character of Sarah, a real-life vampire who gets audited by the IRS. Bet you didn’t see that plot twist coming!
While she goes through the tax process, Sarah and the IRS agent assigned to her case start to fall in love. That could prove problematic because of that whole undead thing. Joining Jones and Grossman are Christian Coulson and Annie Golden in the cast. Fans can check out the flick on digital platforms courtesy of Adventure Kid and Blue Firefly Films.
Recently Grossman talked with Hollywood Soapbox about Bite Me and her time in the American Horror Story franchise. Here’s what she had to say …
On what attracted her to Bite Me …
Naomi MacDougall Jones, who wrote the movie and also stars as Sarah, wrote this with me in mind, and that was awfully flattering. No one had even written a Post-It with me in mind prior, so I was pretty psyched about that. Of course, I read the role and read the script and thought, boy, it’s really well done. It’s really well written.
I often equate it to architectural plans. I’m an architect’s daughter, so I always say, if the blueprints don’t hold, the house is not going to stand. And this house stood. I could tell that they had a movie here, and I absolutely wanted to be a part of it. Besides, I come from a comedy background, so this was a chance for me to kind of marry my two loves, my own personal affinity for comedy but also the fact that it’s a bunch of vampires, there’s that element of horror. Horror has become my bread and butter.
On how horror has become her bread and butter …
I just fell down this horror hole. I misstepped, I guess. When the audition for American Horror Story came around, I just wanted to work. My agent at the time was sending me anything and everything, and this just happened to be the hot new show that they were casting at the time. It’s funny, a friend of mine from acting class from Boston University busted me. He said, ‘I heard you on an interview say you’ve never done drama before, and that’s just not true. We did Chekhov. We did Ibsen,’ and he’s right. I was classically trained in theater, so I’ve done all the greats. But the fact is I really had my sights set on SNL. I really had all my focus on the Groundlings theater down on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles where a ton of big, big name comedians come out of, and so that was really my focus, really big characters like they do there.
Let’s face it, Pepper was a really big character. She had very little on the page, but she was kind of over the top and takes up the space. And that’s kind of what I do, so in a way I think it was a perfect opportunity for someone like me. They needed a no-name actor because, let’s face it, if you’re going to cast Lady Gaga, you’re not going to cover her face with aesthetics. You’re paying a lot of money for that face, you know, but by that same token, they needed someone like me who has a comedic background, maybe not comedic so much as improv background. … Because so little was actually on the page, a lot of what I was doing was improv. So yeah they needed me, and I needed them. And we found each other.
On her acceptance into the horror family …
I now know horror fans. They are a whole other breed of people. … I don’t have tattoos. I don’t own the black t-shirt. That’s not my wardrobe, but it’s nothing against it. I’m not about to bite the hand that feeds me, if you’ll pardon the vampire humor. I am a fan of good work, so there are horror movies that I absolutely love. I love Midsommar. I love Hereditary. I love Rosemary’s Baby and A Clockwork Orange and The Shining. I could go on and on. There are also a bunch of horror movies I really don’t like. I don’t enjoy slasher porn. I don’t like to see gratuitous blood and gore, so at the end of the day, I think if there’s a good story there, and it’s well made and crafted, I don’t care about the genre per say. I just like good work, and sometimes it comes in the shape of horror.
On having her director be her co-star as well …
It was interesting particularly because she had written this with me in mind. That put the pressure on me. Wow, she has this idea of whatever Naomi Grossman will bring to the role. What if I don’t? Who is going to do Naomi Grossman better than Naomi Grossman? Particularly because apparently they did a bunch of table reads before bringing me on, and the … role just wasn’t working. And people kept giving her notes what to do to make it better. She was like, ‘No, no, no. It’s because Naomi Grossman isn’t playing it yet.’ So again flattering, but yikes what if I don’t perform up to snuff. Anytime you’re doing lower budget stuff, there’s that added pressure because time is money, and you don’t have money.
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Bite Me, starring Naomi Grossman, is now available to stream. Click here for more information.
