Interview with Fear Street 1978 Alumni and The Surprise Visit Lead, Jacqi Vene

Known for her recent role as Shadyside Camp Nightwing Counsellor, Joan, Jacqi Vene has slashed her way through the horror genre in a big way over the last few years. Not only has Jacqi starred in one of the horror worlds most beloved Netflix movies; she has also had regular roles on horror television shows including: “The Wrong Valentine (2021)”, “Ghost in the Graveyard (2019)”. Her latest role as Annabelle in The Surprise Visit (2022) has shown the depth and dedication that Jacqi has to her art.

Continue reading for an interview with Jacqi Vene:

Cat: Before we making your way into feature films, you started out in theater and I'm going to absolutely butcher this Commedia. Dell'arte contribute to your performance style?

Jacqi: I definitely learned how to improv with Commedia dell'arte so whenever I do film, I always test the waters for improvisation. So that definitely contributes to my acting style. Also living in the moment, kind of drawing from the comedy side of everything sometimes. Those are probably the main things I picked up from it.

Cat: You recently starred in Fear Street 1978. What was your experience on set live for that feature? 

Jacqi: It was really cool. It was big. It was the biggest production that I've worked on thus far, thus far. It was really cool though. The environment was really friendly, very kid friendly. There's a lot of children because of the camp. So, um, it was cool. It kind of felt like a real summer camp.

It looked exactly like it looked on screen, honestly, because it wasn't a set. It was a literal camp that they went to and filmed at. So you have like the inside of a big barn, cafeteria area and all the kids looking up at you and people running around out on the grass, they painted a very real scene for the film, but it was because it was kind of just like how it looks.

Cat: That's so crazy, it being a horror film and they feel like talking about this beautiful ideal place. 

Jacqi: I know! It also had a house. I had the creepy vibes cause it was like old in the woods. So, kids are kind of creepy. I know kids can always bring out the creeps and, and things like if you want to make it creepy, just make the kid be like haunting with creepy eyes.

Cat: Your latest film, The Surprise Visit recently launched. Congratulations! Tell us a little bit about the film and your character. 

 Jacqi: The film is about two impoverished young people that are living in a trailer and kind of at their last resort. They don't have any money, they're both heavily into meth at this point and they find out they're pregnant.

So they decide that they need to get some money to start a new life. The guy in the relationship comes up with this great idea to rob the estate that his dad works at. He has an inside scoop that the people aren't going to be there. So, everything horrible that you could imagine kind of transpires from that event.

Cat: What about your character Annabel? I really like her because she's not as far in as what Casey is in this whole situation. 

Jacqi: I made her this very, uneducated, poor girl that never really finished school, and she has an innocence about her, even though she's had things handed to her pretty rough.

But she kind of has just a light essence to her. She's not as dark as her partner. She's kind of just along for the ride at some point and not really thinking for herself at all, at least for the first half, I would say, she doesn't really know what's going on and I think she's, she's really fearful. And she's young. 

Cat: Definitely young and not too sure what to do about things. I liked the turn. I was like, yes, you get out of here. 

 Jacqi: Yeah. It was a nice, satisfying ending compared to my other endings in Fear Street and in other horror movies. If you know what I'm saying?

Cat: COVID has thrown our entire world into a bit of a Twilight zone situation for the last few years. How was filming The Surprise Visit throughout the pandemic? Because one of the characters actually even mentioned COVID though. I was like, wow, that's the first time I've even heard it mentioned in a movie, everyone has seemed to dance around it 

Jacqi: I know it's like the elephant in the room! For nearly every film I’ve watched that's been made recently, I'm asking why aren’t they wearing masks? I'm like, that's really inappropriate and rude. but it was cool. I was so blessed to be working during that time because, um, you know, A lot of people did not have a job. I was one of them for a while. So, I was really blessed to get that job and we just had to be super safe. So we took as many COVID tests as possible before shooting. Then we weren't allowed to go out to restaurants or bars or anything like that during shooting. So it was kind of like you're with the people that you're with throughout the shoot. We would limit as much outer activity as we could. We also shot outside as much as we possibly could see in the film, there's not a lot of inside shooting. So it was just a lot of precautions doing things differently, and it was a skeleton crew and a skeleton cast. We didn't have more than. You know, 20 people on set, which is not a lot. 

Cat: There are some really dark things explored throughout the film, addiction, poverty, a little bit of abuse on Casey's part, more psychological, if anything, how do you prepare yourself for a role like that? And, and to explore those themes personally?

Jacqi: It was definitely really fun for me. I was kinda like talking to Rob and I was like, you should go for it. Like anything you think of, do anything, throw it at me, like get crazy. There is a one point at the end of the film where I let out this scream and I fell, and that was completely unscripted.

He'd actually just scared the crap out of me, like bad. I love diving into it. For prep work. I watched a lot of like real life interviews with drug addicts and just saw kind of the real tendencies, but it was based on a true story, but not like a real historical figure. So I had a lot of wiggle room to create my own person. We actually ended up morphing Annabel into someone that was very different from what she was when I first got the script to what we ended up doing. I think it's just because of how I was playing Annabel. I played her like a lot more uneducated and not as violent because I just kind of felt like I wanted someone to root for.

You don't really want to root for like the violent, evil person. I mean, you probably could, if you're really talented, like Daniel Day Lewis, He can do it. I guess I just wasn't, we weren't really feeling that for Annabel, I kinda brought this like lighter, almost funny. Like when I watch it, I think it's funny. Like she says things and I'm like, she's such a fucking idiot.

Cat: There's a really dare I say, a tender moment between Annabel and Eric Robert's character. What was it like working alongside him for this?

Jacqi: It was cool. He's very, very experienced with a classic vibe to him. He does this very well and demands that attention and that space and that time for himself when he's on set, which was kind of startling for me, because I always feel like I'm doing something wrong. 

Be taking up too much time or see just like. I sometimes like that I'm still getting comfortable in the idea that I'm getting paid to be here, that I have a talent that is offered, you know, just like that imposter syndrome. And, he's the exact opposite, not cocky, but just, I am getting paid to be here. This is my time. You can kind of tell on screen, he just demands this attention and slows the moment down. I really liked watching that and seeing that about him and just zoning into yourself. So that was cool to pick up on. 

Cat: If you could be in any horror film, remake or original, what would you choose and why?

Jacqi: That is a really good one. Probably like a cool remake of Jaws, but like a really cool remake. My biggest fear is the ocean and sharks. So that would be really cool. Or maybe just something with the ocean, like Blake Lively did an amazing movie. It’s thrilling though, that movie's good. It's just her on that rock, she did a fantastic job and it just looked gruelling and so hard. So, I don't know if that's a horror movie. 

Cat: Last question. What are your plans and goals for 2020? 

Jacqi: For 2022, I am super excited to dive into more of my writing and directing stuff. I had my first writing, directing debut with a short film that I did called Glitter and you can find it through my Instagram or my website jackie.com on YouTube.

I'm excited to hopefully share more of my own artistry with the world. And yeah, I think that this is going to be a good year for our stuff coming up!  

Cat: It was really awesome to talk to you and hopefully I will get to talk to you soon. 

Jacqi: Yes. Sounds good. Thank you so much!