Exclusive Interview with Sadie Katz
Interview by Jamie Ruby
Written by Jamie Ruby

Fans might recognize Sadie Katz from the indie comedy Nipples & Palm Trees, which made Amazon's top 100 download list, or from the recently released Chavez: Cage of Glory. The actress is busy these days with multiple projects on the horizon, including her lead role in the upcoming paranormal thriller House of Bad, which will be released December 3rd and has already won an award. But that's not all: among other acting roles, Katz also co-wrote the upcoming film Scorned with Mark Jones. The actress recently sat down with Jamie Ruby of SciFi Vision for an exclusive interview to talk about her recent work.

Before Katz started working in film, it was all about theater. "I always loved theater; that was always my first love. Then right after I had my son I decided to move to LA from Orange County and pursue it as much as I could. I think it's been difficult in some ways, but I made a commitment that I just wasn't going to give up. And that's my continued commitment. I took classes; I studied; I directed plays. It's always been my passion; it's always been something I've been around."

She described her new film, Chavez: Cage of Glory. "It's like a Mexican Rocky; it's about a Mexican cage fighter (Hector, played by Hector Echavarria) who is down on his luck. You know, he's not twenty; he's been trying to launch for a long time, but he's an internet sensation and he's married to my character, Gia Chavez. They are currently out of work and they're really having a hard time because their son is also in need of a heart operation. So my character's not happy about this, but [Hector] gets a fight to fight with the baddest, most awesome cage fighter, Cage Fury. My character is worried about her husband, and she's worried about her son, and it's a story of family and relationships and cage fighting. And the fight scenes are very awesome and it's just a very sweet, great family story."

The actress did do a bit of research to prepare for the role. "I had watched MMA fighting and things like that before. Hector and I actually went to a fight, which was really insane. One thing I learned is fighters have a lot of heart. But my character doesn't really come to Hector's fights, she watches them on TV and when she's at the hospital. So I think a lot of the research for me had more to do with my character's love for Hector. I was definitely not playing a typical L.A. wife [wanting] money and fame and things like that. I was playing the sweet, supportive wife of a Latino. So I think that was sort of interesting to me, and that was my storyline, my process for that."

Before they got into the roles, Katz and Echavarria discussed their characters and their backstories together. "Hector and I sat down and we got together and figured out – because obviously you know I'm blond-haired, blue-eyed and he's Mexican – the [big] accents and everything, how did we end up together? So we really sat down for like an hour and talked about it and made up a story of how we met. I thought that maybe I was a ring girl years ago and I met him and he was saving me from one of these seedy clubs. We fell in love and got married very quickly and then had our son. So that was kind of fun about it. But I think really because of the way the character was, how sweet she was written and without a lot of aggressive energies, I really tried to think of what she would be like. In the Latino culture I think women are much more respectful and nurturing of their relationship."

Katz had fun working with the cast. "I really just enjoyed working with all these journeymen actors like Danny Trejos and Ed and Steven Bauer and James Russo and Hector himself and Patrick Kilpatrick. To kind of be in the company of people who have been working actors for twenty years was really, really exciting because it forces you to up your game."

The film has already been released in theaters and there will be a DVD release in the future. "It came out and it's kind of a slow rollout, because it's supposed to do a regional spread very slowly. Here we had a big rollout for I think nine days. It's playing at a couple of theaters still and then it's going to go to Texas and all different sorts of places. Because of the nature of this film, we're on pins and needles finding out what's happening with the further release of it. And then there will be a big DVD release obviously."

Katz also will be appearing in the paranormal horror film House of Bad. "House of Bad is a horror-thriller-heist film. It's about three sisters. My character, Sirah, steals her boyfriend's suitcase of heroin and then goes to hide in the mountains at their parents' old house until things kind of simmer down, and then they're going to try to sell the drugs. But of course when they go to this cabin in the middle of nowhere in the woods, that's when some real mayhem ensues, because that's where their parents died. It goes through a ghost story, and then also the threat of her boyfriend coming back to get the drugs.

"And then really the crux of the story is really about sisterhood because it's my older sister and my younger half-sister, and we're finding about what it is to be sisters and why this house brings us all together and there are some really spooky fun parts in it. But it's not your typical female slasher; the fear is different and I think it's also a little empowering to women, the story itself.

"...I don't want to give anything away but what comes out is there's a reason this house is bad. My character is a stripper with a heart of gold, she wants to stop stripping. My younger sister is a junkie [and] she's trying to kick the heroin...And then my older sister just got out of prison. So we all have our demons to contend with and then we're stuck being in this house together."

The actress doesn't have any siblings in real life. "I'm an only child so for that film I really did do some research on the middle child syndrome. And I hope viewers will see that. That was a big thing for me, about birth order and how you're always trying to please everyone. So that was really fun.

"...That was my biggest thing: is I was like, "How do I play [a sister]?" I know what it is to be friends, but I think being a sister, you always have that feeling. And it's funny because Heather [Tyler] and Cheryl [Sands], the other actors I was working with, I definitely felt – I think as an only child you either feel like you're really in charge or you feel like you don't fit in. I get like that sometimes. And I think people who have sisters kind of know how to deal with groups a lot and blend in. That was a really interesting thing to get to do"

For the film she took part in some fight scenes, which meant blood and special effects makeup. "We did some fight scenes. There're some good girl-fight scenes in it. We did the blood packs."

Fight scenes also meant stunts. "The first time we did some of the fight scenes they were much shorter. So we came back to do you know, pick up shots. And we had a stunt coordinator, and they were much more specific. And the other character that I had the fight scenes with, she already was a personal fitness trainer, whereas I am not! So there was a lot of work involved, a lot of running though the forest and a lot of actual hand-to-hand combat. It was really fun, and it's so surprising, the magic of the camera, of how far away you are from someone and then seeing how close it looks; it's just amazing.

"...I definitely had bruises; we were rolling down hills together in this huge struggle. I was so sore from holding the gun, I think just weird muscles that you don't normally use. I was lucky though, because it's not like my character had to be great at holding a gun. I'm definitely girly in this. I didn't have to be tough."

Most of the special effects were added in post production. "They added a lot of it after the fact, which I think makes it look better because you're actually looking at someone."

Katz also has the film Scorned coming out, which she co-wrote. "I wrote that with my writing partner, Mark Jones, who's actually the creator and director of Leprechaun...Scorned stars Billy Zane from Titanic and AnnaLynne McCord from 90210, and it's about a girl – who's actually named Sadie - whose boyfriend cheats on her with her best friend. She is on a lot of medication and she has stopped taking her meds, and when she finds out she really flips out. It's sort of like a Misery for young people and a little bit of Saw in there. And not only is it bloody, it's just a really fun, sassy, silly script. I'm really proud of it. And that will come out on Valentine's Day. It's very tongue-in-cheek - I think we've seen a lot of the gore, it's more like if your boyfriend cheated on you with your best friend, your fantasy of what you'd love to do."

The actress also has a small part in the film. "It's a very small, fun cameo. I can't say what I do but it's a little nod to everything. It's fun. We wrote it in later on down the line and I think it just gives a nice little button to the whole script. Mark Jones, the director, also did a little cameo for [it] where he plays a cop, which is really funny. When we wrote it we said, oh, let's end it like this. And I said if I don't end up acting in the actual piece that would be a fun thing to put on the director's commentary. So that was very fun to do."

Another film the actress has coming out in the future is Bad-Ass Bugs. "I did do another film that I don't know the release date, but it's called Bad-Ass Bugs. In that, I dealt with worms being poured all over me and tarantulas and fake blood. To me, nothing's worse than working with fake blood or worms, or any combination of those things, because they're normally very cold and sticky at some point.

"...And we had to shoot it again after that. So we did it, it was done, it was in the can, and they decided that we didn't get enough coverage so I had to come back and just shoot worms being dumped on me, which was crazy. And they were mealworms, so they bite. And they were everywhere. They really do, and you have like a thousand of them on you, or just tons, and when they're under distress they do a little nibble which you probably wouldn't be able to feel but when you have so many on you...yeah. They were in my mouth, in my nose. I was really traumatized by it."

Until these projects are released, Katz has some films available now. "Nipples and Palm Trees is available right now for download on Amazon. That's a sexy romp; it's kind of dirty L.A. It's a comedy and that's a lot of fun and that's available now."

In the future, Katz knows what type of roles she is interested to play. "I think anything where I got to get really dirty and play a very authentic female character. I would have loved to do Blue Jasmine. It's a Woody Allen movie; it's so good, I would love to do that. And I just saw Before Midnight. I love relationship stories. I'd love to do an updated Sid and Nancy; I think that would be great."

There are of course also people that Katz would love to get to work with that she hasn't yet. "I would love to work with Meryl Streep; I think that that would be amazing. I don't know if I would be so nervous, but I think that she's so gracious; she would be great to work with. And I think that there some directors I would love to work with – like Tarantino or something. Orange is the New Black is one of my favorite shows; I would really love to work with them. The writer for that, [Jenji Kohan], I think she's amazing. Working with great writers to me is just as important as working with other great actors or even great directors."