Marie Avgeropoulos is all too familiar with the idea of keeping audiences on the edge of their seats thanks to the four seasons she’s spent playing Octavia Blake on The 100. Even so, the actress’ latest endeavor offers viewers a different kind of suspense altogether.
In director Shane Dax Taylor’s Isolation, Avgeropoulos plays an unsuspecting predator named Nina who has a huge hand in a deathly plan.
Inspired by true events, the action thriller tells the story of a married couple named Creighton (Luke Mably) and Lydia (Tricia Helfer), whose romantic getaway to the Bahamas takes a drastic turn for the worst.
While on the remote island, Creighton and Lydia meet and befriend two other couples named William (Stephen Lang) and Mary (Claudia Church), and Nina (Avgeropoulos) and Max (Prison Break’s Dominic Purcell). The strangers seem to have Creighton and Lydia’s best interest at heart, but it turns out to be one big, dangerous ruse.
In many ways, the events of Isolation read like a cautionary tale. It’d be easy for all of us to walk away from the film thinking nothing like this could ever happen to us. As Marie Avgeropoulos explains however, that’s exactly the kind of mindset that could lead to a dangerous situation.
“It just goes to show you, never let your guard down– even on vacation,” Avgeropoulos told Hypable when we caught up with her just last week. “You never have any idea who people really are. It all comes down to trust, and trust can be very dangerous.”
Read on to find out what else Avgeropoulos had to say about getting into character for Isolation, what we can expect from Octavia when The 100 returns to television, and more!
Hypable: I read somewhere that this movie was actually inspired by true events. Was that something that drew you in as an actress looking to tell this particular story?
Marie Avgeropoulos: This movie was inspired by true events. What I thought was pretty alluring about the film when I first started approaching the project was that whole aspect of trust. Especially when you’re in a another country, or you’re traveling. It shows that trust could turn into a dangerous thing if you don’t have your feelers out.
Did you do anything special to prepare for getting into the mindset of your character?
I kind of created Nina through my own process and in my own work. She’s somebody that you’d want to open up to, that you’d want to trust. You meet this welcoming couple– Nina and Max that welcome you over, that feed you, and offer you a cell phone charge, and do all the things. We wanted to warm them up, and that’s exactly what a lot of predators do. They lure you in, they make you feel comfortable, and exactly when I got Tricia [Helfer’s] character alone, we started to sort of crawl into her psyche and reel her in. You don’t really know what [Nina’s] up to, and that’s part of the mystery and allure that I enjoyed while I was playing her.
There’s so many incredible actors in this film — especially for fans of the sci-fi genre. Was there anyone in particular you were incredibly excited to work with?
I was excited to work with Dominic Purcell — we ended up hitting it off so well. We’re still very good friends, and I lived with him in his Woodland Hills house after that movie was filmed for an entire summer and we just became great friends. Of course, I was really excited to work with Stephen Lang — always a big fan of his, he’s a classic. Tricia [Helfer] and Luke [Mably] were wonderful. The conditions were pretty harsh over there shooting on the island, but everybody took it like a champ, and we made this independent film. We’re really happy with the way it turned out.
This movie’s been out for a bit, but for fans who’ll be checking it out for the first time after reading this, what would you say would be the one scene you’re most excited for them to experience?
The scene that we had the most fun with was with Tricia, who plays Lydia. There was a night when we were on a boat ride and Nina and Max have their plan to kind of lure them in individually — I’ll handle the woman, you go ahead and handle the man.
There was nothing necessarily action about the scene in particular, but it’s exactly how a predator lures in its prey. Nina was really trying to psychologically tap into her to make her feel uncomfortable, to test her almost. I really enjoyed toying with her mind at that point and putting her — even as an actress — at the edge of her seat. As soon as they said cut, we would laugh about it. But it just goes to show you, never let your guard down — even on vacation — because you never have any idea who people really are. It all comes down to trust, and trust can be very dangerous.
That’s a very good point. And unfortunately it seems as though traveling alone can be especially dangerous for young women. Have you ever had bad experience while traveling alone?
When I was 20 years old, and totally broke staying in a hostel in Amsterdam, it turned out to be one of the biggest gay festivals in the world. I hand’t known that when I arrived. Everything was booked throughout the whole city, and this was before cell phones or maps or anything. I stumbled into this hostel, and there were like a million bunk beds in this gymnasium style room.
I remember putting a double knot on my pajama pants because I just had — you know when your female intuition tells you something? I remember tying my pajama pants super, super tight that night, and I woke up in the middle of the night to flashes, because some weird male travelers were taking pictures of me while I was sleeping. And then they went for the double knot. So I kneed the one guy in the face, and the other man sleeping underneath me heard all this commotion and scared them away.
I grabbed my backpack, and my bongo drum and I ran out of there as fast as I could down the streets of Amsterdam. Hostels, again, you have to be careful — especially if you’re traveling alone as a woman. You never know.
And it’s funny you mention that because I think as women, sometimes we put more trust in other woman to kind of stand with us in solidarity– especially if we’re in a strange new place. In a lot of ways, that probably makes Nina the best sort of predator because Lydia would never have guessed she shouldn’t be trusted.
Nina looks very unassuming, but the more and more you see the character bloom, you realize how incredibly dangerous she is and that all comes from just trying to please Max. She wants to do all these dangerous things in order to please her man even though it’s morally incorrect.
Nina plays a psychological game, but there was also a fair bit of action in this film as well — did you have to do any special training before shooting began?
There’s a lot of physical parts in it for sure, but that’s the stuff I find that I really excel in athletically. Playing Octavia Blake in The 100 as a warrior who’s sword fighting on horseback frequently, I thought that this one was a piece of cake in the action department.
Speaking of Octavia, this season of The 100 has been a pretty big one for your character — what’s been your favorite part so far about Octavia’s arc in season 4?
This has been my most favorite season for Octavia’s growth. In the history of The 100, from my perspective, the next episode coming on May 3, is the episode I am the most proud of. It’s called “Die All, Die Merrily.” I know we’re on a bit of a hiatus right now, but I cannot wait for the audience to see what Octavia is up to in that episode. It’s been such a wild ride, but I feel like it really culminates everything that I’ve wanted Octavia to be, and what the fans have wanted Octavia to be, in one episode.
Would you perhaps be talking about the big battle that’s looming on the horizon?
That’s the one! Yup! That’s the one!
I know you can’t say much, but can you tease a bit about what we can expect going into the episode? Will we be left jaws agape by the end of it?
Everybody is going to be rooting for Octavia, and everything the fans have ever wanted for her to cumulate to be, this is it. And you will see some characters rise, and you will see some characters fall.
That sounds intense! Did you have to do any extra training to pull this particular episode off?
I trained really hard in the sword fighting department for this. All that stuff, definitely was left bruised and beaten after that but it was worth it.
As exciting as it’s been to see Octavia develop this season, I think one of the questions a lot of fans have is whether or not we’re ever going to see some sort of reconciliation between Octavia and Bellamy. So much has happened between those two, but is there any hope for them to eventually patch things up?
That’s such a dangerous risk that Octavia takes, and she also takes one for the entire people as a group, and Bellamy is terrified that he’ll never see her again. She’s been pushing him away, and pushing him away, In this episode you’ll definitely see Bellamy’s support for Octavia, and he really understands how far she’s grown and come along as a woman, and finally has his acceptance moment for that, too. The fans see that moment.
The writers obviously hold the fate of your character in their hands, but if you had the power, how would you like to see Octavia’s story arc end?
I’d like to see Octavia have peace with the Lincoln pain for sure — with the death of her one and only first love– and move on, and experience some emotional freedom. I feel like she’s held back with her heartache, which is such a relatable thing to have. We’ve all experienced heartache, and the moment you can let it go is really when you can take the inhalation of life in, and exhale the past, and keep walking forward.
I think the fans are with you on that front.
It’s easier said than done, but it would be nice.
We’re almost out of time, but before we let you go, we’d love to hear what you’ve got coming up. Can you tell us a bit about any projects you’ve got coming down the pipeline?
I’m really looking forward to my next film that I will be doing, it’s called Butterfly in the Typewriter. It’s a book about the troubled author of John Kennedy Toole who struggled to bring his masterpiece, A Confederacy of Dunces, to print. It’s a period piece I’m really excited to work on because I get the opportunity to work with one of my mentors and heroes, Susan Sarandon. It’s a great cast — Diane Kreuger, Nick Offerman, so many others — it’s going to be really, really amazing.
And I just finished shooting a six part documentary series for my charity Food for Life Vrindavan, which is raising awareness to end the big threat for young girls in rural India, which is child marriage. So by sending these girls to school, getting the word out there, getting sponsors, because a lot of these schools that are completely empty, but with tons of girls waiting on the waitlist, but we need the sponsors. I shot a six part documentary to tell that story, hopefully get more sponsors to end their biggest threat on child marriage.