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In VAMPIRES OF THE VELVET LOUNGE, directed and written by Adam Sherman, legendary bloodsucking Countess Elisabeth Bathory, played by Mena Suvari, has been around for centuries but is adapting well to modern times. She and her flock of vampires are now operating out of a Deep South absinthe bar and luring victims in via online dating.

There is, however, a well-trained group of vampire hunters on Elisabeth’s trail. Chief among these is former soldier Cora, played by Dichen Lachman. Cora is heavily burdened by guilt over her past actions. Although she is frequently counseled by tech assistant/roommate Alexis (Rosa Salazar) that happy thoughts are needed to keep vampires from reading one’s mind, Cora can’t seem to latch onto one cheerful idea.

Lachman, born in Katmandu, Nepal and raised in Australia, has played all sorts of characters, starting with a resident of Melbourne in the long-running Australian soap NEIGHBOURS. Since then, Lachman has played a multi-persona character in the series DOLLHOUSE and Ms. Casey in the acclaimed series SEVERANCE, as well as the romantic lead in the indie feature LUST FOR LOVE, which Lachman also produced.

However, Lachman is perhaps best known for action/genre roles, including the powerful Jiang on AGENTS OF SHIELD, Suren in the U.S. version of BEING HUMAN, the homicidal (and many-cloned) Reileen Kawahara in the series ALTERED CARBON, the mercenary Soyona Santos in JURASSIC WORLD: DOMINION, and the human warrior Karina in KINGDOM OF THE PLANET OF THE APES.

So, when Lachman gets on a Zoom call to discuss VAMPIRES OF THE VELVET LOUNGE, it seems appropriate to ask whether she is attracted to roles as darker, violent characters, or if this is simply how she often winds up being cast.

“I promise you, I’m not a serial killer and living out some dark fantasy,” Lachman laughs. “It’s definitely not intentional, I haven’t gone out to seek these particular roles, it’s just sometimes I feel like, when you look a certain way, people just see you in that role, and then you keep getting cast in those roles. Hollywood sometimes tends to see something working, and then they’re like, ‘Okay, well, that works, that makes sense for that actor.’ They fall into that archetype.”

That said, “I do enjoy playing strong female characters in terms of their physicality and getting very physically involved in my roles and learning stunt choreography. I find that really empowering. In terms of how it plays in the story, I think it’s very interesting to explore that ability for women to be quite violent, because it hasn’t always been the case, and obviously, we’ve had a wonderful run of seeing women really kicking ass. So, yeah. It’s sort of accidental, but I enjoy doing it.”

Shooting VAMPIRES OF THE VELVET LOUNGE brought Lachman to Savannah, Georgia, a city she had not visited before. “I think Savannah is the perfect place to make a movie like this. I was really blown away by how beautiful it was, and the history of the place and the food is just extraordinary. If you’re an American and you’ve never been to Savannah, I would definitely put it on your list.”

Prior to portraying a vampire slayer, Lachman had an arc as a vampire on the U.S. version of the series BEING HUMAN. “I really loved working on that show, and I loved playing that character. It was a wonderful show with a really talented cast and writers, and we filmed that in Montreal, which is another extraordinary city – not dissimilar in terms of the architecture of the Old Town to Savannah, because they started up around the same century – but I loved exploring that world [of vampires], and I’m so glad that I got to do it again.”

Lachman finds vampire mythology intriguing, noting that she’s a “massive BUFFY and ANGEL fan. I think what’s always drawn me to vampires is more the psychological idea of the shadow self. Carl Jung used to talk about that. There’s something sensual about it, there’s something sensuous about the whole idea of the vampire, and just that relationship to being human – not the show BEING HUMAN,” she laughs, “it’s a complicated thing for all of us, and we’re always fighting the bad wolf and trying to travel that line.

“Obviously, we all try to live our lives most of the time to do good, but the interesting characters, I think, in our lives and in movies or TV shows or books, are the ones who are struggling with both. There’s a duality and there is no perfect person. We’re always aiming to be good, but that darkness comes in and out of our lives, and I’d be lying if I said I never struggle with those things. And I think the vampire is like living out that fantasy of the darkness.

Lachman says she was especially pleased to find herself working with BLADE alumni Stephen Dorff. “To have been a fan of BLADE and have Stephen Dorff in another vampire movie was really exciting. He’s a very, very good actor and I’ve loved his work over the years. So, yeah, it was wonderful to be back in vampire land.”

Dorff aside, most of Lachman’s scenes in VAMPIRES OF THE VELVET LOUNGE are opposite other women, primarily Suvari and Salazar.

“They’re extraordinary women and I’m so glad that I got the opportunity and grateful to work with them. All of us very much are cut from the same cloth, just really hard-working, collaborative. Rosa and Mena are such wonderful senses of humor and just really committed to doing the best that we could. We got really, really lucky with the cast.”

Given her aversion to positive thinking, is Cora the most depressed character Lachman has ever played?

“Yes. I didn’t imagine her that low but working with Adam, he had in his mind a very clear vision of the film. It’s very difficult sometimes as an actor to jump into the mind of [a filmmaker] and see what they’re seeing. So, I took on board his notes and trusted the process. Because sometimes it did feel quite low and down but, for some reason, on this ride of a movie that’s so intense, it feels like people are responding to it in the way he wanted them to.”

Was Cora’s depression hard to live with during the shoot, or was Lachman able to set that aside when the cameras weren’t rolling?

“You know, I think the fact that we were actually kind of living like vampires, in the sense that these were all night shoots, and we were sleeping during the day, working all through the night until the sun came up, and the atmosphere in Savannah, with the humidity and the energy of that place, all of those elements helped the character and the process. It wasn’t hard to walk away from so much, because of the exhaustion of months just working all night and sleeping during the day. It all helped, just the creative process blended into the actual logistics and the circumstances of it all.”

In ALTERED CARBON, it looked like Lachman performed every stunt move known to action choreography. Was there anything left for her to learn for VAMPIRES OF THE VELVET LOUNGE?

Lachman laughs again. “Working on [ALTERED CARBON] really set me up to be prepared for very action-centric roles. I got to train for so many months with such extraordinarily talented stunt people that it really feels like something that’s not unfamiliar for me. I have a lot of flexibility, and I can learn choreography relatively quickly now, I have it in my body, and I really enjoy it, because there’s something athletic about it. And when you’re playing a character and you’re also having to be athletic, it’s really liberating and it feels very cohesive. They both help each other.”

On VAMPIRES, “I will say the gunplay was interesting, because we had to believably [react to] the recoil of the bullet projecting out. It obviously kicks the gun back a little bit and, because we’re not working with live ammunition, and rightly so, you have to fake that, but not too much, and when you’re thinking about a bunch of different [moves that have to be done nearly simultaneously], it’s difficult to just get that right. It sounds like something so simple, but faking the gun going off is tricky, and then you don’t have the sound. Obviously, we all do our best.”

What does Lachman most hope viewers get out of VAMPIRES OF THE VELVET LOUNGE?

“I think that if you go and see this movie, and you have a great time, and you laugh and you get some jump scares, that’s the best thing, right? Movies are supposed to be fun, and they can sometimes make you walk away and ask a lot of questions and sometimes they can make you cry. Sometimes they can fill you with gratitude for your life.

“I think with this movie, if you want to get into the nuts and bolts of the shadow self and the psychological elements, amazing. If you just walk out, and you’re like, ‘That was a really fun ride, and I had a good time,’ then that’s also great.

“For me, it’s all art, no matter what people feel walking away from it, a bunch of creative people got together, and the fact that anything gets made at all is a miracle when you think about all the elements that need to go into making something for the screen, whether it’s big or small screen. And in the independent world, there’s another layer of, it’s a miracle, because we’re always fighting the clock and resources. So, yeah, I hope people just enjoy it, and if they walk out asking questions about their lives or considering things they hadn’t considered before, then that’s a bonus.”

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