NEWSSarah Butler 'Spits' & Becomes a Star
Oct. 14 2010, Published 5:39 a.m. ET
Sarah Butler has made a name for herself in Hollywood by spitting on graves. The 25-year-old actress stars in horror film, I Spit on Your Grave, which hit theaters Oct. 8. So what do you know about this new star besides the fact that she's hot? Well, in a recent interview with USA Weekend, Sarah shares what it was like working on her new film and what she's really afraid of!
Sarah was nervous about taking on the lead role in a horror film and that may be due to the fact that her previous work include playing Belle from Beauty and the Beast at Disneyland and guest starring on CSI: NY and CSI: Miami.
I Spit on Your Grave is an unrated remake of the 1878 cult movie, with Sarah playing Jennifer, a novelist who is attacked and sexually assaulted by a group of guys when she is at a cabin trying to finish writing a book. Jennifer seeks vengeance on her attackers by going on a killing rampage.
Not exactly Disneyland friendly. So how did Sarah deal with playing such a terrifying part?
"Actually, at the end of every day of shooting I would go and try to release all of it, try to let it all go, and clear my head of it," Sarah told USA Weekend. "Every day was so intense. I had no more energy left – I felt completely and emotionally dry at the end of every day. It was necessary for me to get a clean slate for the next day so I could bring my best again day after day. That goes more for the beginning of the film, where I’m the one who’s the victim. When I was the avenger in the second half of the film, I did find myself retaining the headspace a little bit more when I was away from set: spending a little more time alone and not really enjoying the camaraderie as I had in previous weeks of shooting."
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How does the remake compare to the original film?
"As far as the plotline goes, it’s almost completely identical," she said. "There’s one new character, so that changes up a bit, but other than that, it feels pretty true"
"There has been some major updating," Sarah added. "One of the biggest updates we’ve done to it is that instead of approaching her revenge by using her sexuality as a weapon, in our version I don’t do that at all. I use my cunning and my brute force to capture and torture and kill these men. That’s a big difference. And a big reason why the original was classified as exploitation was an abundance of nudity in the film."
"Mind you, there is nudity in ours, but it’s definitely less gratuitous," she explained. "There’s enough in there to give you the idea of what’s happening and to evoke a sense of pity for Jennifer. That was something that was brilliant on Steven’s part. I felt really safe in his hands saying, “Let’s go ahead and do another nude shot here. It would have more impact if we did this right here,” knowing that he wouldn’t exploit those shots and he would only put what’s necessary in."
But Sarah did take advantage of any free time she had to relax after filming.
"At our hotel, there was hot dinner every night after we were done shooting. We’d always hit it up. That was the funny part after this long day of them attacking me and me being completely terrified and hating them, they became my friends again once we got back to the hotel," Sarah said. "We’d hang out after – we’d go in the hotel and have a beer and have dinner together. That was how we blew off some steam.
"The guys would play some poker games – I wasn’t really into that," she laughed. "When I started doing my revenge, there was definitely a lot less of that. I would go into my room and I actually had a puzzle I was working on. I finished this big, huge 2,000-piece puzzle with a bunch of dogs that last week. That kept me inward, kept me feeling a sense of solitude, which was something Jennifer had gone through in the time between her attack and her premeditated revenge on these guys."
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And even though she's stars in a horror film, she doesn't actually like them!
"You know, I’m actually not a huge horror fan. I’m just kind of a wuss," Sarah admitted. "There was a time in my life where I would watch nonstop CSI marathons, and I would get so scared afterwards."
"One time, I was watching them and I was going to get ready for bed and brush my teeth, but the bathroom was way at the other end of the house and I felt so secluded. I was literally too scared to go into the bathroom and brush my teeth. I was like, “This is ridiculous. I can’t do this to myself anymore,” she laughed. "I had to censor my viewing, and I just can’t watch things that are too scary because I will never sleep."
Check out Sarah in the trailer below for I Spit on Your Grave below!
Have you seen the film yet? What do you think?
