View gallery
Mena Suvari stars within the harrowing new Lifetime film Home of Chains. Whereas Laura and Tye appear to have the proper household, they’ve darkish secrets and techniques that stay hidden for years. Following their very own set of strict spiritual beliefs, Laura and Tye’s authoritarian methods with their children develop stronger and lead them down a path of kid abuse, neglect, and imprisonment. HollywoodLife spoke EXCLUSIVELY with Mena about tackling such a troublesome function.
“To be trustworthy, I felt like there have been features of Laura and her character and her story that I personally recognized with, and I believe that’s a part of why I used to be so fascinated along with her,” Mena mentioned. “The story total is about how somebody can actually get caught up in one other and utterly lose themselves and utterly flip their very own model of their worst nightmare. I don’t suppose that Laura ever thought that this may be part of her story. I felt like going into it, I had a number of the emotional connection to it, nevertheless it was actually simply such a present having the ability to work with Stephen [Tonkin], our writer-director. I simply felt like every part was there. We actually had the time to actually work collectively, rehearse, and have conversations. That was the largest reward for me, actually having the time to have the conversations on actually moving into that area.”
Mena admitted that moving into the mindset of Laura on daily basis all through filming wasn’t straightforward. “It was intense. It was nerve-racking. It was exhausting,” she revealed. “I felt like I needed to actually decompress. We have been filming up in Canada, and each single one in every of our solid, our writer-director, our producers, have been essentially the most great individuals. If we didn’t have any of that, I don’t know the way I’d have gotten by way of it. All of those unimaginable kids, a few of them it was their first movie that they’d ever labored on, and the professionalism, the dedication, the care and consideration for this story and the telling of the story, I used to be so impressed. It was such an exquisite setting to be part of that it was actually bizarre that we needed to then carry out and placed on digicam. I couldn’t have carried out it with out all of them.”
Because of the intense material, Mena was “nervous” concerning the younger actors who play Laura and Tye’s children within the Lifetime film. “I’m a brand new mother. My son’s nearly 17 months outdated, so I’ve all these new mother nervous vibes round all of this. All I cared about was them,” Mena informed HollywoodLife. “I mentioned [to writer-director Stephen Tonkin], ‘If there’s something that you just want me to do with out them there, I’m greater than in a position to do it.’ I used to be so nervous to point out some sides to myself that have been so imply and abusive and violent, and the way they have been going to take that. I cared a lot about that. However once more, I’m telling you, the quantity of professionalism… I used to be blown away by the dedication and the understanding of the subject material. It was superior for me to see. I’m simply so grateful for every part that I work on as a result of I really feel prefer it offers me the chance to find out about myself. I simply discovered a lot about my very own life and the way I work by way of these children.”
Home of Chains bears similarities to the Turpin household. Laura and Tye’s relationship evolves right into a chaotic mess of abuse and management as they imprison their 6 kids of their house. Tye is unquestionably the ringleader, and Laura falls in line. Mena mentioned how she feels about her character and whether or not she views Laura as a sufferer in any respect.
“I believe that’s actually what attracted me to it’s because I don’t suppose that something is simply black and white. There are such a lot of shades to it,” Mena mentioned. “I used to be actually fascinated by how to start with of the movie whenever you first meet Laura, she’s so down on her luck. I really feel that she’s so finally satisfied that nobody actually cares about her. Nobody’s going to save lots of her, and she or he’s simply desperately attempting and on the lookout for something to cling to. She’s simply within the flawed place on the flawed time in assembly Tye.”
She continued, “Sure, I want to consider that she is a sufferer. I really feel like we’re all a sufferer in some respect, proper? I really feel like we might discuss her story without end, however I don’t suppose that she ever actually wished any of these issues for herself. I believe that Laura is so misplaced. I’d wish to say that it’s like a chipping away. It’s a conditioning. I do know that for myself in my very own life and the issues that I’ve skilled a number of years in, you type of really feel like there aren’t any lifelines. There’s like a relent that occurs. For me, once I skilled these issues, I didn’t have kids. So I can solely assume too that there’s one thing that binds you. I believe that Laura actually felt like there was nowhere to go, and also you’re so caught up within the manipulation. You see that within the movie. I don’t need to give an excessive amount of away, however I really feel like there’s a strategy to view Laura as a sufferer, particularly in direction of the tip, as a result of she tries to not less than make a greater transfer than she ever has in her life by the tip. She’s attempting. I’d wish to consider that there’s some hope for her in a roundabout way.” Home of Chains premieres September 10 on Lifetime.