Interview: Rachelle Lefevre Talks 'The Caller'

Read Shockya's exclusive interview with actress Rachelle Lefevre ('Twilight,' 'New Moon'), who plays troubled divorcee Mary Kee in the upcoming mystery thriller ‘The Caller.’ The film, which was directed by Matthew Parkhill and hits theaters on August 26, 2011, follows Mary as she receives a series of threatening phone calls from a mysterious woman named Rose, played by Lorna Raver, after she moves into a new apartment. Mary learns the hard way that Rose doesn’t like to be ignored, and she seeks her revenge in a terrifying way. Lefevre discusses with us, among other things, what attracted her to the role of Mary, and what her real-life relationship with Lorna was like.

Written by: Karen Benardello


Shockya (SY): ‘The Caller’ tells the story of your character, Mary Kee, who is tormented by a series of phone calls from a stranger, Rose, who reveals she’s calling from the past. Why does Mary almost readily accept the fact that Rose really is calling from 25 years ago?

Rachelle Lefevre (RL): She doesn’t readily accept it, she doesn’t actually accept it at all, and that’s when the problems start. Mary is being harassed by the phone calls. In the beginning, it doesn’t really start out that way. She thinks it’s a wrong number. Then Rose says something that catches her attention, about Mary’s own problems. They sort of start to bond over life and their own difficulties. They have these conversations with a complete stranger, and start this bizarre relationship, based on Mary’s need to connect with someone after her abusive relationship (with her ex-husband Steven, played by Ed Quinn). It’s only when Rose says that she’s calling from the past that Mary really, really wants her to stop calling, and that’s when the harassment begins, because Mary doesn’t believe her.

SY: What was it about Mary’s personality and background that attracted you to the role?

RL: Everyone has something in their life that is a difficulty or has something from their past that is haunting. It certainly is for Mary. I think everyone has something in their life that gets inside their head that’s disturbing. We all have something that when we’re left alone, we think about it, and it gives us a hard time. In Mary’s case, it’s extreme, and it’s an abusive relationship. It keeps coming back to haunt her. That’s what I really love about Mary, and that’s what I love about the film, that it plays on something that I think is very real. It plays on the possibility that something can be happening inside your head, and maybe not in reality, and it sort of plays with that. There are parts where Mary thinks she’s going crazy, because obviously she’s not going to believe that someone can be calling her from the past. She thinks that she’s going insane, and that starts to torture her. Obviously, we don’t all have those extremes. But certainly I think everyone has something in their life that gets inside your head and starts to play with your head, if you’re left alone with it. I think it’s a psychological thriller that plays on tricks of the mind that we all have.

SY: What kind of research did you do before you began filming ‘The Caller?’ Did you do any kind of research into the possibility of time travel?

RL: No, no I didn’t do that, I just accepted the premise for what it was. The real work for me was just finding out who Mary was, and why she would handle it the way she did. Everyone handles the situation differently, so for me, it was just the way she handled it, and finally getting the courage to tell someone. She tells Stephen Moyer’s character (John Guidi). She finally gets the courage to tell someone and asks for help. She basically tries to take care of herself. She doesn’t get protection from her abusive husband, she just hopes it’s going to go away. All the choices she made, those were the things that I tried to dig deep and figure out why she would be the way she was. As far as the time travel goes, I just believed that the film works on the premise that there are certain things that we don’t understand in the universe, which is true. Sometimes wires get crossed, and I just took that as a possibility.


To continue reading this interview, please visit Shockya.