Zone 414 star Matilda Lutz sits down for an exclusive interview with EJ Moreno…
Matilda Lutz stuns when she’s on-screen, whether it’s a horrifying revenge film or a deep sci-fi entry. In speaking with the actress, you can see she has a real passion for making extreme films and putting her soul into them. Matilda sat down with me to speak about her new movie, Zone 414, while also diving into her history with sci-fi and what it’s like making a modern sci-fi movie.
I’ve been a fan since Revenge, which is a brutal bad-ass movie. It turns out that Zone 414 has the same extreme kind of edge. Do you find yourself liking these movies on your own time?
I love doing these types of films. I love the action and the physical part of it. And I think what I really found very different in the two films was that Revenge didn’t have any words. And this one has a lot of words. So it was like tapping into a completely different way of doing it.
And we didn’t have time to rehearse like we never rehearsed anything. So, we did a read-through, and we talked about things with the director, but we didn’t really have time. So that was the hard part when we had to come on set and do seven to ten pages without rehearsing.
It was great to have Guy because he’s amazing. And it was great to have someone with that experience that I admire. And, and I also think for Andrew, the director, it was a blessing because it was his first film. So he had to get used to also navigating a lot of things. I can only imagine the pressure if this is your first film, so Guy was helping a lot.
Absolutely. I love to hear. Moving to Zone 414, it’s a pretty heavy sci-fi film. Are you a fan of sci-fi films? Was that something you watched growing up?
I was never a huge fan. No one in my family is like in film, and I didn’t have that influence of going to the movies or watching classical films. Started discovering when I was already out of high school because I went to a scientific high school. I was doing completely different things and studying all the time. And both of my parents are in fashion, basically in the creative world. And so when I got out. What am I going to do now? You know, like I don’t want to do fashion that for sure.
So I went to New York, and I started doing a bit of everything. I did some acting, some singing. I was working, doing like part-time jobs and I was very shy, and I still am very shy. And when I started acting, I realized that I could be free and do whatever I wanted. That felt very liberating. So, that’s the first thing that brought me to acting. From there, I started watching movies; I started watching classical movies, every type of genre film.
How would you describe the Jane character? She’s so interesting because she’s so human and so not human at the same time.
When I first read the script, I started talking with Andrew, the director, and Brian, the writer. Andrew told me that he wanted a human quality to her. Like he didn’t want an android robotic feel to it.
And so that’s when I started thinking, ‘okay, if he’s going to want a human quality, then I need to find something that will feel fake. That’s when I started thinking about the look and wigs, actually looking like wigs that weren’t real hair and the colors that felt shiny and strong.
Your parent’s fashion background seeps into a little of your acting choices.
Yes, exactly. And then you know, I obviously worked with Susan, the amazing costume designer, and worked with Pam, the makeup artist.
We started creating and doing fittings. I love that part, you know, creating the physical aspects of the character. And then, as I was researching, I found out that there are actual influencers that are like androids. They have a real account and a real agent, like big agents representing them, and they make real money. If you look at their accounts, you’re always not sure if you’re looking at it an android or you’re looking at a real person because now you’ve got all these girls that put filters on use Photoshop and it looks almost like they’re androids too.
And then you look at these accounts, and you’re like, wow, they look human. Like they can sing, and they can go shopping. And, and so to me, that brought up a whole different perspective of what I wanted to do.
So, I love sci-fi, but it’s known for its green screen, all the visual effects. Were there any sets you actually got to play with, and does that help you get into the mood?
The thing that impressed me was obviously like the zone, like the city of robots. They recreated that in a studio, and that was really cool. I remember when I first entered, going on set through the big doors of the stage. I was like, wow, that’s amazing.
It was all really, really cool. That was the fun part about the zone. You imagine it in your head, and then you’re not really sure if you’re ever going to see it because they’re going to do it in post-production. So, that was fun to see. And then the arm scene where I cut my arm to see if I’m human or not; that was an arm with real like wires—little things like that made for a cool thing to see behind the scenes.
Thank you to Matilda Lutz for taking the time to speak with us.
Zone 414 is available on digital download now.
EJ Moreno
