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For years, Katharine Isabelle has steadily built up an impressive curriculum vitae of horror television and film projects — from starring in the gleefully gruesome Ginger Snaps to playing a prominent role in the Netflix original horror series The Order. Isabelle’s latest horror project has her take on a different iconic horror role as Barbra in Night of the Animated Dead, an animated feature adaptation of George Romero’s classic 1968 zombie movie Night of the Living Dead.
In an exclusive interview with CBR, Isabelle discussed the unique challenges and approach to taking on the role of Barbra, explained why Night of the Living Dead endures over fifty years later, and reflected on her past, fan-favorite work in the horror genre.
“They’re coming to get you, Barbra” is as iconic as it gets for zombie movies. How did the opportunity to play Barbra in this project come about for you?
Katharine Isabelle: I really have no idea how anything happens. The universe just drops things into my lap after a while.
I had worked with the producer Michael Luisi before on several situations and I worked with the lovely Dulé Hill and almost as lovely James Roday [Rodriguez] and we’re all good friends. [laughs] When it landed in my lap, I was like, “I would love to do this!” And I was terrified to try to recreate such an iconic character in such an iconic film but there was no way I was going to turn that down. I get to be in my sweatpants in a studio five minutes away from my house! [laughs]
So you actually got studio time? Some people I was talking to recorded their lines remotely.
Yeah, I got some studio time in one of the sound stages by my house. I was happy with that because I’m not technologically advanced enough to deal with anything else. [laughs]
For most of the 1968 film, Barbra is catatonic. How was it going deeper and with more agency for your performance?
I think we were really trying to be fairly true to the original and I really studied Judith O’Dea’s performance. I watched the film several times and it was also magically on TV over breakfast the morning that I was going into the studio. It was really helpful to see that and she is catatonic for most of it.
We did a whole hour of just breathwork and different hyperventilation techniques because so much of her story in the animated version is told through the breath. We really understand each other through changes in our breathing — you can tell when people are tense or their mood changes. With Barbra, we recorded the sound long before the animation so I recorded an hour of hyperventilation in different ways they had to pick and choose where to build that intensity through various, weird breathing techniques. [laughs]
In revisiting the film multiple times, was there anything about Judith’s performance that you really concentrated on to bring to your performance?
A lot of my focus was on that she has this sort of transatlantic accent that we don’t hear a lot anymore but is very strong. The intonation and just the pattern of speech are so different from how we’re speaking these days: a lot of the focus for me was trying to be true to that. I was really looking forward to the speech where she freaks out and goes, “We’ve got to go back and get Johnny.” Because this whole movie she’s just freaking out quietly and, by the end, she’s just starting to process what happened at the beginning of the movie. [laughs]
She’s like, “We’ve got to go back and get Johnny!” And everyone else is like, “That was an hour and a half ago! We’ve moved on and got much bigger problems right now than Johnny!” [laughs]
With you just having your voice as the sole tool in your toolbox, do you find the booth liberating or intimidating, especially with an established role?
It was very different because I was stripped of all my general props and crutches. My hour and a half in hair and makeup, putting on my wardrobe and getting to set and seeing all the gore and zombies and having all that energy is stripped away from you. It was a different experience and we didn’t know what the animation was going to look like, there were all these unknowns and variables so you just sort of go in and do your best and hope they know what they’re doing because I sure don’t. [laughs] It was interesting and there is definitely something to be said for getting to a sound stage in your sweatpants with your coffee but also be stripped of all your normal processes in how you get to be in that person’s skin.
While you’ve certainly worked in other genres, you’ve done a lot of horror projects. What do you personally and creatively find fulfilling about the heightened nature of the genre and performance in horror?
I think what horror really does, at its best, is reflect humanity back to itself. The human experience itself is so traumatic and horrific, with the existential terror of being a human being. We’ve gotten placated over the last couple hundred years as our developments and modern comforts encompass that and I think there’s a lot of ignoring what these very base, pure human horrors are. To be able to reflect that back and see what a horrific experience this is, I think that’s why this movie is still relevant. Once you strip away all of their societal conventions and politeness in a time of crisis, how do people react? Some people get super-proactive, like Ben nailing up boards and thinking about what could be next and some of us are just having a nap on the couch. [laughs].
I think the true horror is about ourselves and what we can do to each other. I think that’s what horror, more than any other genre, is able to tap into. That’s why it’s still so captivating and relevant because you’re touching on something rooted deep, deep into our DNA and fight-or-flight experience that we, on a daily basis, are not exposed to as much anymore. Those of us that are lucky enough to live somewhere where our existence isn’t under threat every single moment of every single day.
As one of the few people that has had the experience of facing off against Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees in the same movie, I was wondering if you could speak about your experience working on that monster mash.
That was a crazy experience!
I had never actually seen either of those franchises’ films. I watched my very first Nightmare on Elm Street movie in my trailer on the set of Freddy vs. Jason. [laughs] It was sort of like anything else for me: you go to an audition and get a job or you don’t but I grew up on an island without a lot of access to pop culture and the media. I just watched the same three movies over and over again so I think I would’ve been a lot more nervous and trepidatious going into it if I had known the iconic factoring behind it but I didn’t. I was more or less unaware. [laughs]
You also got to be on the Netflix original series The Order. How was your experience on that project?
I loved it but I almost didn’t audition for it because I thought [my role] belonged to a Michelle Obama-type character. I didn’t think anybody would take me seriously as the headmaster of a university. [laughs] I went for this thinking there was no way I was going to get the part and I did and [then] I realized there are werewolves in this and I got it and the werewolf vibe. It turned out to be this magical production, all the cast are such good friends and there was no ego or drama and I really fell in love with these characters and the whole idea of it and how the characters developed.
Season 2 is where we really got our footing. In [a first season] nobody really knows what show they’re making. Everyone is sort of blind and doesn’t know what the vibe is. Season 2 is when you know what you’re making and ramp-up and we would’ve loved to have seen a Season 3 follow and wrap everything since we left it all on a big cliffhanger. I’m just as sad as all the fans but I’m still incredibly grateful to have stepped into Vera Stone’s very pointy high heels. It was one of my favorite jobs, getting to be dressed in business bondage all day and be a complete bitch to teenagers. I could do this forever, give me 25 seasons of this. [laughs]
Now that the movie is done, what are you most excited about getting to share Night of the Animated Dead with the world?
I’m excited to see people’s reaction to the difference between the original’s vibe and this one. You would think that animation would strip all the terror and gore out of it but it really doesn’t. It’s just as intense, I find. When you love something so much, it’s very scary to see someone take it and try to do something different with it, and hopefully, everyone really enjoys this: I really did.
I find the original to be truly grabbing at me and whenever I find it on TV, I can’t not watch the rest of it. I know what’s going to happen and how it ends. I’ve seen it so many times, but it still so completely captivates me. It’s a fun, new experience to see it in a different medium and, of course, people are going to have feelings about it because they love it but why wouldn’t you want to try a different flavor of something because it’s still horror? [laughs]
Directed by Jason Axinn, Night of the Animated Dead is available now on Digital HD and Blu-ray.
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