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Crave Online: What was your reaction when you first heard about this story?

Mena Suvari: I remember I was reading this script up the street from my agent at my agency. I felt like my jaw literally hit the floor so many times. I was shocked. I couldn’t believe that somebody would be in a situation like this and it just seemed to get worse and worse and worse. I guess that really appealed to me. It was very interesting. And I ran into his office afterwards saying that I had to do this. I really, really wanted to do it. I had worked with Stuart before on a film called Edmond so I was hoping that relationship would help me sneak my way in and that he would be able to see me in doing something like this. At the time I didn’t know that it was based on a true story. I didn’t know that this had happened at all. I just couldn’t believe what I was reading. I thought that it was a really out there story. I was reading a book at the time called Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach. Have you read this? I think it’s an awesome book. Not that many people know about it, but it’s fascinating to me. In the book she mentions this incident and then it was even more of a shock to me that this had happened. I guess I was even more on board. I had to be a part of it.

Crave Online: Had you ever seen any of Stuart’s earlier films like “Re-Animator” or “From Beyond”?

Mena Suvari: I hadn’t when I had worked with him. No.

Crave Online: Do you sympathize or have to justify your character, Brandi?

Mena Suvari: In real life the woman’s name was Chante Mallard and I believe that Chante and Brandi are inherently good people. I’ve always been really interested in psychology and criminal psychology in particular and what makes people do the things that they do. I feel like, number one, Brandi and Chante, they weren’t in the right mind set when this happened. I don’t feel that they set out to be put in this situation. Brandi doesn’t aim for the man that she hits. I think if she were given the choice she wouldn’t have wanted to go through any of it or be put in that situation. So that was what was so interesting to me, really dissecting what makes somebody snap and really go to that extreme. I feel that Brandi is somewhat ignorant about the system and she’s afraid. I think she is afraid to lose everything that she has worked so hard for which isn’t much, but she has her small little world and she has this job that she’s not so crazy about but I think there are a lot of people in a situation like that where she’s faced with possibly losing her own life. And what is that? That’s survival of the fittest. You know, primal instinct. Do we all have that within us that if we’re really put into that situation? What will we do to save ourselves? So that was really what was so interesting and fascinating to me. She ultimately snaps and just starts reacting. I think she loses all ability to have any consciousness of the situation and she has to justify it for herself. My favorite line in the movie is when she says “Why are you doing this to me?” I mean that’s just so sick and twisted to me the way that I look at it. But she has to do that because otherwise she wouldn’t be able to handle the situation.

Crave Online: Do you have any issues with the sight of blood, real or movie blood?

Mena Suvari: No. My parents worked in the medical field. My father was a psychiatrist and my mom worked as a nurse. I’ve always been really interested in science and biology and nanophysiology. I’m all for it. I’ve played with cadavers. I’ve done a lot, you know. It’s something that’s fascinating to me.