by Dov Kornits
“I haven’t started with Home and Away…” laughs young actress Meg Fraser when we tell her that it’s unusual to make your screen debut in a feature film. That film, Bloody Hell, is the highly accomplished new horror thriller from director Alister Grierson (Kokoda, Sanctum), in which Meg plays the only sensible person in a demented Finnish family. When she meets American Rex (Ben O’Toole) hanging in the basement, she sees an opportunity to escape her crazy family life.
Brought up in Brisbane, and completing the Fine Arts degree at QUT straight out of high school, it was only a few months after graduation that Meg was offered the role of Alia in Bloody Hell.
“I got just two scenes sent to me from my agents. They were out of context and I was like, ‘Oh my goodness. What is this movie? She’s Finnish?? What’s going on?’
“I got a full script towards the chemistry read call-back with Ben and then understood exactly what was happening.”
How was her Finnish accent for the audition? “I just went on YouTube. My grandpa loved cars, and so the only Finnish person I’d ever heard of was the Flying Finn, so I was just watching footage of this race car driver and just pausing, stopping, copying his accent.”
Luckily, there was an accent coach on set once she got the role. The set itself was also of assistance for the first timer. “So many days I would walk on set and there would just be these crazy things appearing. It would give me a fright every single time, because I’m terrified of horror movies, so I think that my first film being a horror film was a good experience to kick it in the butt and know that how these movies get made.
“The art department on this movie did such a fantastic job, especially the Finnish family’s home,” continues Meg about the Molendinar warehouses that became a Finnish house for the film. “When you stepped into this world, it just made acting so much easier, because everything around you was gnarly, crazy.”
And how was it possible to maintain character when walking in from a beachside suburb to snowy Finland? “Our accent coach was pretty strict for us to stay in our accents,” admits Meg, going on to say that they were also encouraged to hang out together as a family when off camera.
But, as the moral compass in this warped universe, did she ever feel like being apart from them, as she is for much of the film? “They actually asked me, ‘do you want to be around your parents?’, because obviously there’s a bit of a difference between Alia and her family. I think I was more just like, ‘Hell yeah, I want to be around these actors and talk to them.’ Which was good because I feel like us actually having a really good rapport off set made it enjoyable and easy for us to come onto set and have these crazy interactions. And being able to blunder off set made it easier for us to hate each other on set.”
Playing the rest of the family were experienced thesps Caroline Craig (Anzac Girls, Underbelly, Blue Heelers) as Mother, Matthew Sunderland (Wanted) as Father, Jack Finsterer (Kokoda, Neighbours) as Uncle and Travis Jeffery (Spin Out, The Heights) as Gael and Gideon.
Giving her further support and confidence were co-star Ben O’Toole – “I met Ben really early on, he was particularly supportive, knowing that it was my first film and showing me the ropes a little bit” – and director Alister Grierson.
“I didn’t shoot for the first three weeks, so I went to set every day and sat in a little chair and just watched how Alister worked and all of the things that he would talk about. He was really good at keeping me aware of the story being told at the same time as all of the crazy things going on around us. He really honed-in on that. And same with our DOP, Brad Shield [Swinging Safari], he’s got an amazing eye and would see someone doing something, even if it was just in the background of the shot and going ‘That needs to be filmed’,” says the actress, who also tells us that Grierson encouraged her and the rest of the cast to feel free to suggest script enhancements.
Off the back of the movie and with her agent’s encouragement, Meg Fraser has now moved to Sydney. “Obviously this year’s been tough for everyone, but I’ve got a lot of high hopes for this film and I definitely think it will do well in the American market.
“I was hoping to travel this year on the back of the movie over to the US, but obviously that’s been delayed. But I’m still here auditioning a lot for US stuff, excited for people to see it. I just want to make more movies really. Once you get the bug, you get the bug.”
Blood Hell is in cinemas October 8, 2020
