Maria Bello

I just got a chance to see Lights Out, a new thriller starring Maria Bello, Billy Burke, and Teresa Palmer, and to talk to the stars, director, producers and writer after the screening. I liked the movie a lot, but actually the story about the movie is almost as interesting as the movie.

Back in 2013, a Swedish couple–director David F. Sandberg and his wife, actress Lotta Losten, made a short film called Lights Out, about a woman who finds herself haunted by a mysterious figure every time she turns off the lights. It caught the attention of a lot of producers in Hollywood, but David and Lotta felt that Lawrence Grey was the one they would really like to work with, and within a year–which is super-fast by Hollywood standards–Grey had placed it with James Wan’s production company, and they completed this feature-length version, directed by Sandberg and starring some well-respected American actors.

Alexander DiPersa and Teresa Palmer

The actors talked about their own personal connections to the story: Maria Bello’s own struggles with mental illness, and Teresa Palmer’s experience with her mother’s mental issues as well. It was a connection the actors weren’t even aware of until they were on set, but it made the work even more meaningful to them. I also asked Maria Bello, who has been involved in a lot of special projects, if she was interested in actually directing, and I talked with was interested in directing, since she’s involved in many women’s projects, and I asked Alexander DiPersia, who appears as Palmer’s boyfriend, if he thought he’d be working with Gabriel Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna again soon, as it was good to see Billy Burke, at least at the beginning of the film (he plays Bello’s husband). And both the writer Eric Heisserer and producer Grey if there were any weird (or funny) occurrences on the set of this very spooky movie, and what scared them now or when they were young.

Director David F. Sandberg and Lotta Losten

Lights Out

Listen to my conversation with Bello, DiPersia and Palmer, and Grey and Heisserer, and Sandberg and Losten, and see if you don’t agree: the story behind Lights Out is almost as interesting as Lights out itself! — A.O.

Photos: ©2016 Angela María Ortíz S.

Maria Bello

Grey & Heisserer

Sandberg & Losten