By Dov Kornits
“My mum and dad named me after two actresses, Lauren Bacall and Jayne Mansfield, so I feel like I was fated to this thing from the start,” Lauren Grimson tells FilmInk. After dabbling with acting all through her childhood and adolescence, the young Australian performer has now embraced the profession with a fiery sense of commitment and passion. This has manifested itself with a variety of fascinating roles. After some minor TV work, Grimson booked a small role in the local sci-fi thriller Osiris Child before stepping it up a notch with considerably more screen time in the 2017 mini-epic bushranger tale The Legend Of Ben Hall. Since then, Grimson has been firming as a potential Australian scream queen with three homegrown horror flicks, playing a paranormal investigator in Water Horse; a survivor of a zombie dystopia in Wyrmwood: Apocalypse; and a young woman with special gifts in the supernaturally themed The Possessed.
What’s your story Lauren? Where you grew up? Where you are now based?
“I grew up in the beautiful Blue Mountains, an hour west of Sydney, but have lived in Sydney’s Inner West for the last six years, which I love. They’re very similar in many ways – both are pretty laidback, artistic communities.”
When did the acting bug bite?
“I appeared in my first commercial when I was six-years-old, and since then acting always just found its way back to me. I had a blast with drama in high school, and spent a lot of weekends making home movies with friends. I left acting behind for a while to pursue a career in media, which I did for a time, but I always felt like something was missing. It wasn’t until my partner (at the time) decided to audition for a local play and asked me to go with him for moral support, that I somehow got roped into auditioning and then booked the lead role. From the minute I stepped out on stage on opening night, I knew that this was what had been missing. I knew that acting was what I was meant to do.”
How did you find the challenge of playing a lead role in The Possessed?
“I’d cut my teeth on a pretty meaty lead role in Water Horse just prior, and learned a lot about myself as a person and a performer, which helped a lot. The biggest things for this project were learning and nailing the stunts that I had to perform, as I’d never done anything like that before, as well as playing a character who was so vastly different to the character I’d just played in Water Horse.”
Were you brought up with religion, and what do you make of the whole exorcism aspect of The Possessed?
“My family are not religious. They’re agnostic if anything, but I went to a very Christian high school so I have a pretty firm grasp on that branch of religion. I’m also agnostic; I’m open to the idea that there are many things beyond our basic scope of human understanding. Just look at the universe, or the deepest parts of the ocean – they’re pretty fantastical and magical. So I’m remiss to say that, in the same universe, things like exorcisms or possessions don’t happen. I’m open-minded. The Possessed is also based on the life of a real-life ‘accidental exorcist’ who we got to meet and spend time with, so it was really interesting to see his work and hear his first-hand accounts of these things happening.”
Have you considered taking the plunge of going to the US yet, or are you happy trying to build a career in Australia?
“Watch this space!”
How do you find the whole rejection/uncertainty of being an actor?
“It’s never easy, but you learn to adapt. It’s just part and parcel of the gig. You’ve got to become really comfortable with some – objectively – pretty uncomfortable things. Acting asks a lot of you, but gives back in spades.”
With all of this horror that you are featured in, how do you sleep at night?
“I love horror and watch a lot of it. I’m naturally drawn to darker subject matter for whatever reason that may be. As a child, I was always obsessed with monsters and vampires and stories about things that go bump in the night. Those tastes are still there; they’ve just morphed into a slightly more refined version of the same. I do think that there’s something bizarrely comforting about being able to compartmentalise and control something fearful that’s being presented to you on a screen or in a book, though. You can turn it off or on whenever you want and it has no real power to actually hurt you. In a world where we have very little agency over what happens to us, being in a position to control fear by the click of a button or turn of a page is a pretty powerful thing. To answer your question – I sleep very well at night! Ha ha!”
Where do you hope things go for you next/long term?
“I’d love to continue working regularly on projects that I’m passionate about and to tackle some more serious dramatic roles.”
Wyrmwood: Apocalypse will be released on February 7. The Possessed was released earlier this year. Water Horse will be released in 2022. The Legend Of Ben Hall is available now on DVD.
Well crafted article.