After a terrible car accident, Lilly, a young girl loses her sight but gains the ability to hear the dead. As she grows older and builds a good life with her husband, when she becomes pregnant the voices become louder, wanting their souls to be chosen to become her baby’s. That’s the premise of award-winning filmmaker Nathaniel Nuon’s The Voices starring actress Valerie Jane Parker (Wrong Turn 2021) in the role of Lilly (as an adult). I sat down with Valarie to discuss her role in the film.
Horror Fuel: “How difficult was it to play someone who has lost their sight?”
Valarie Jane Parker: “It was a challenge but I enjoyed the challenge. The main thing for me was I wanted to make sure that I made the portrait authentic. I didn’t want it to be cheap or fake in any way, so I spent about a month preparing for it. I watched a bunch of documentaries on how people live their day-to-day lives, especially about people who had sight but lost it. I got a cane and I got blackout glasses, and I started practicing around my house. It was difficult. You think you know your space and then you doing something like this. The main thing I did was I have a friend who is blind and he was super gracious and let me sit down with him several times and ask questions. He gave me advice and showed me a trick with using my cane. Then he let me shadow him for a few days. I went to his job with him, to go get coffee, things like that. I learned a lot about the challenges of living your life without vision. It was really eye-opening and interesting. It gave me a lot of empathy for anyone in that situation. It helped me have a dialogue with people about you want to be treated. You don’t want to be treated disabled, but that you are a fully capable person.”
HorrorFuel: “HorrorFuel: “I really appreciate that you went the extra mile to make it come across as authentic.”
Valerie Jane Parker: “You have to let your eyes kind of just glaze over. You don’t look at anything in particular. How focused in you are generally depends on how long you’ve been blind. You’re eyes don’t unlearn that muscle movement. She lost her eyesight as a child her eye muscles would have developed a lot of that memory. I tried not to make it overdramatic.”
HorrorFuel: “Going blind is my biggest fear. I’m already blind in my left eye and legally blind in my right without contacts. It’s scary. So I think the movie got under my skin for that reason. On top of blindness, your character also has to face that element of the supernatural world, that had to be something spooky.”
Valerie Jane Parker: “It was. I’m a big believer in what we don’t know. I enjoyed playing with the idea of that. That was a fun element.”
Horror Fuel: “There’s a scene where you were underwater and you’re not alone, how was that done? It looked really good.”
Valerie Jane Parker: “That was very cool. Those were actors in makeup. There’s an underwater tank in Mobile, Alabama, that’s where we filmed that. It looks like we were outside but we were actually in an enclosed pool. It’s the first time that filmed anything like that there. It’s where people practice scuba diving. It was an interesting experience.”
Horror Fuel: “That’s cool. I’ve heard about that place.”
Valerie Jane Parker: “It turned out to be a beautiful scene.”
HorrorFuel: “It really looked like you were in a lake. It really looked good.”
Valerie Jane Parker: “Some of that was done in post, but yeah. When I read the script I assumed that the people would be fake, created on a computer, but no, they were real people.
Horror Fuel: “I’m surprised the makeup held up under the water. But that’s not a creepy scene, the creepiest was the scene with the old man.”
Valerie Jane Parker: “Oh, yeah [laughter]. We are still friends to this day. When somebody has to spend several hours crawling in and out naked between your legs [laughter] you really get to know them fast.”
HorrorFuel: “Oh, I bet [laughter]. Talk about getting up close and personal.”
Valerie Jane Parker: “His name is Dave, so shout out to Dave. He’s the sweetest guy [laughter].”
HorrorFuel: “That’s great [laughter]. Besides the challenge of having a blind character, what was the toughest part of filming?”
Valerie Jane Parker: “It’s definitely the emotional challenges. When you’re acting in intense scenes like in this movie, it drains you, like in the torture scenes in the basement where I was chained up. That would definitely be the other biggest challenge. Part of why I think I like horror is because I’m a little bit of a Tomboy, I like the difficult challenges. If you’re having to be running around or chained up, screaming, and covered in goo, I love all of it.”
HorrorFuel: ” What in the movie do you think the audience will most respon to?”
Valerie Jane Parker: “Hopefully, they will just love me [laughter]. I think they will be super entertained by the whole thing. I hope that they walk away feeling a little uplifted. It is a psychological horror, there are chills and when you get to the end of it there’s a sense of hope that isn’t there in most horror films. I think after the year we all just had that we all need a little bit of an uplift. I feel like this film does a great job of both entertaining you and hopefully, at the end of it you won’t feel drained.”
HorrorFuel: “What is it like to have co-stars who are kids on the set of a horror movie?
Valerie Jane Parker: “Oh, I love it! We had so much fun. Claire Burton who played Madison is so intelligent. She was delight. The little boy with the head injury, we had a blast too. He kept saying like, ‘Should I say this in a dead voice?’ and then we played voices back and forth, like ‘I can sound more dead than you.’ Kids are delightful. They are able to act so well because they are there in that moment. They are just enjoying the time.”
HorrorFuel: “They have such creativity. They don’t care what critics say or anything like that. They are just in the moment.
You were recently in another horror movie, Wrong Turn, which I really enjoyed.”
Valerie Jane Parker: “Yes. Most people don’t know but Mike, the original director, gave it his approval.”
Horror Fuel: “That’s awesome. I really like the route it took.”
Valerie Jane Parker: “Yeah, it was fun. They could have just done a campy reboot, but they made something really clever.”
HorrorFuel: “It’s definitely smarter.”
Valerie Jane Parker, who was an absolute pleasure to talk with. She really put her heart into her role as Lilly in The Voices, which is now out on VOD from Vertical Entertainment. Wrong Turn is out as well. I recommend that you check them both out, while they have every different vibe, they are both very entertaining.
To stay up to date on what Valerie is working on and more, be sure to follow her on Instagram.
