Shock Interview: Najarra Townsend of Contracted

Enter actress Najarra Townsend who is holds the screen in this revisionist zombie tale and commands you to take this journey with her. Shock Till You Drop brings you an in depth look at Contracted from the eye of the zombie.

Shock Till You Drop: You read the script. What was your first reaction?

Najarra Townsend: When I read the script, I was actually eating dinner in my bedroom and I had to stop. Just reading it literally made me queasy. So I felt like that was a really good sign. If I’m reading it and it’s making me feel queasy, what’s it going to do when it’s actually on screen? So that made me excited and I felt that it was a new take on something that we’ve been seeing a lot of, and that’s refreshing.

Shock:  Did you audition?

Townsend:  I did! Matt Mercer Facebooked me and said that he was producing a film and sent me the synopsis and the sides and asked me if I would come in for it. I loved working with him previously and the character description was something that I instantly felt connected to. It was just cool. They called me back and that’s when I read the script, and I’m a weirdo, so I read it and was like “I have to have this!” Like a week later I went to coffee with Matt and the other two producers and they offered me the role.

Shock:  What were your audition scenes?

Townsend:  I did the party scene. So the beginning where I’m talking to Alice, Riley and B.J. so that whole section. That was it for the audition, and for the call back, I had to do the scene where I’m at my drug dealers house and Alice comes in and is like; “What are you doing?” I have that confrontation and then I had to do the final scene where I’m in the car and I’m all; “Mom, you’re right. Something’s wrong with me.” So for the initial audition it was like casual, drunk, and for the call back they obviously wanted to see a more emotional side like the anger and the tears.

Shock:  I felt that she was already dying, metaphorically, how did you approach her life as we start off the film?

Townsend:  Eric (England) and I had discussions and we had a few rehearsals, really though, it was a lot of my own work, just giving her a back story and a place to be grounded from. She is a painful character in a way. She’s had a lot of demons and every time she has some sort of hope, something crushes it, which is rough. But she’s also in such denial and she has so many walls up and she doesn’t want to admit what’s going on. That’s kind of a reoccurrence in her life so for her to do it with this is just something she would do.

Shock:  As far as filming, what was the hardest scene for you to film?

Townsend:  There’s a scene towards the end when I’m in the car and I call my mom finally and I’m like “Mom, you’re right. Something’s wrong with me. That was the day that I could get all my Sam problems out because I’m just really broken in that car and it was kind of therapeutic and much needed for her.

Townsend:  Every time I approach a role, I try to take anything I’ve been through in life and apply it to the character. Even though her problems are different that mine, thank god, it was all very much coming from a place of pain. It was a sad time in my life but we had so much fun, thank god.

Shock:  Do you feel that the character of Sam knew she was on a fatal downward spiral or did she actually believe she was going to make it out of this?

Townsend:  I definitely think that she thinks that if she can pretend that this is not happening long enough, it will solve itself. I have a small case of that. When I have a cold or the Flu, I will avoid going to the Doctor. My body will fix this for me if I just lay in bed and take Vitamin C and drink tea. But in her case, it’s so drastic. She needs to go to the hospital. Sometimes you just don’t want to face your problems. It will be easier if you just wait it out and let it go away by itself.

Shock: Did you find it harder to deal emotionally or physically with the stuff happening to Sam with her body or to deal with others like ex –girlfriend Nikki? Those scenes felt really rough.

Townsend: It was such a mixture of both emotional and physical exhaustion. Cause the body stuff is never ending. Just when you think nothing worse can happen, her hair falls out; her teeth fall out, her eye. It’s just nonstop. That panic I had to create was exhausting.

Shock:  Let’s talk about the eyeball…

Townsend:  My eye doctor gave me contacts when I was 15. I never used them cause I hated putting contacts in my eyes. So when we had our first make up test, I was so scared that I was not gonna be able to do these things that were so necessary.  But luckily with the contacts, I got used to that and we had eye blood and I got pretty used to that. However, when it came down to the sclera lense, I had two make up test and couldn’t get it in. I would freak out every time. Then day one of shooting came, and when we wrapped, our make-up artist, May, she was like; I have an idea. We’re gonna lay you down, have someone hold your eye open, and I’m gonna put it in. I was like ok. I was so scared. I don’t like people touching my eyes. She got it in. I ran down the hall screaming “Eric! She got it in!” It was so important and I didn’t know what we were gonna do if we couldn’t do it. So that was a challenge but with her help, we got that sucker in.

Townsend:  We had a little tub of maggots. I don’t think they were actually maggots, but something interchangeable. For the bathroom scene, only one falls, it was kinda technical because the camera was at an angle where they didn’t want to look directly between my legs. So I had one leg covering and as I sat up, I would have to put my leg like over and around the camera and have someone’s hand come in and drop it. So it worked perfectly. It was a little weird. For the sex scene, we did the top portion of it but I actually stepped out for the maggot part and just Matt was standing there doing the motion and was like; “Does that look good?” Eric’s like “Yeah, put more in!” People are like squirting things and pouring more maggots. We all just got dirty and into it.

Shock:  What do you think happens at the end of the film?

Townsend:  I think Sam goes after her mom and they stop her. But she has spread this and it doesn’t end with her.