by Anthony Frajman
A graduate of the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts, De Margheriti was raised in Canberra, before moving to Sydney. Producing the film is her father John De Margheriti, an entrepreneur who founded the Academy of Interactive Entertainment, which has been at the forefront of gaming and special effects training in this country for many years.
Based between Sydney and the US, Emily’s other credits include Ladies in Black and I Hate Kids with Tom Everett Scott and Tituss Burgess.
The actor spoke to FilmInk about the film.
You were raised in Canberra but you’ve also spent time in Sydney, Perth and LA. Tell us more.
“I was born in Sydney, and I moved to Canberra when I was three. I went to the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts [WAAPA] in 2012. I finished in 2016 and then after that I went to Sydney and then moved to LA.
“WAAPA is one the best performance schools in Australia. I was really happy to get into that. I still have really good friends from there that I work with.”
Sissy was made in Canberra. How did that come about?
“We wanted to film it in Australia, mainly because of the producer offset, and we have people that we wanted to employ over here. We wanted to take advantage of what Canberra had to offer. It was a very Australian film. Canberra’s whole environment is kind of eerie and works well with the film. It felt beautiful and isolated.”
How did Americans react to the film?
“They got all the jokes, which is nice. Because it is a satirical horror story, they were having a chuckle and there are a few things in there like kangaroos, the typical Australian things, but they reacted well to it. Austin [SXSW] is the only film festival that I’ve watched it at, they would cheer throughout my scenes. But it would be interesting to see how the rest of the US react to it.”
What was it that made you want to be part of this film?
“Honestly, it was the start of the pandemic. I liked that it’s all about social media and being behind the little screen. I just felt like I loved it to begin with, because everyone is addicted to social media in some way. And because it was about a social influencer, I just found that very interesting because you can kind of pretend to be someone else, living in this false reality of yourself. It’s very fascinating because of the time that we live in; more than ever, everybody’s just always putting out their own perception of themselves.”
Did you enjoy working in this genre?
“I love this genre, but I think of Final Destination and it freaks me out. As much as I like horror, I don’t like being scared. I like the satirical horror aspect, it’s dark but you can laugh at it because it’s kind of silly.
“Sissy is definitely a very satirical horror. I feel like we’re all craving this genre. We’ve seen too much gore and stuff that we just kind of hide behind our hands all the time. And this is something people can really lean into and have fun with.”
What was the biggest challenge on Sissy?
“Doing a film during Covid. There are so many different things that I didn’t even think about that made it cost a lot more, but somehow we managed to do it and get everybody together. I’m impressed that we were able to make the film regardless of those obstacles.
“I feel like it was just a lot of an amazing people that were really, really excited and passionate about the project and we managed to pull it off. it was just a good group of people that wanted to create a really fun story and talk about this”.
Sissy is in cinemas now
