Tracey Birdsall – Rogue Warrior : Robot Fighter
Award-winning actress Tracey Birdsall dons the mega-guns and butt-kicking boots for her latest film, Rogue Warrior : Robot Fighter.
What credentials did you need to get the gig as a Robot Fighter? And how does one apply?
Right?! I would say it was luck, but it was training, studying, working my a$$ off for over a year… a guarantee on my part of meticulous preparation.
Inspiration. While most would probably suppose that the film was inspired by ‘Star Wars,’ I’m thinking you and Neil Johnson might also be fans of George Miller’s films. How correct is that?
We definitely talked about Mad Max a lot – having to do with the “feel” of the film – especially the original one with Mel Gibson. If you notice in the beginning of Rogue Warrior: Robot Fighter, Sienna doesn’t speak for the first 7 minutes of the film, very much the feel as the opening of Mad Max. Besides the feel and the inspiration behind the beginning of the film, I would say it’s a good cross between Mad Max and Star Wars. That said, we tried to make something unique – something that other films would be compared to some day. It’s more fun that way!
Those classic science-fiction movies of the ‘70s and ‘80s might have left an impression too. Am I right?
Both the director (Neil Johnson) and myself are HUGE sci-fi fans back to our childhood, so we definitely have an appreciation of both old sci-fi and new. I’m sure that shows based upon the reviews we’ve had. We are all inspired by a conglomeration of everything we’ve lived and everything we’ve watched, so it would be hard to identify specifically which films inspired us – but yes ☺
How cool was it working with some of the folks involved in some of those classic sci-fi franchises on this film?
I enjoy working with good actors, no matter what their background is. We specifically didn’t look for sci-fi actors, as it’s a science fiction film based upon human characters – so we just chose the best actors. Of course working with William Kircher (The Hobbit), Stephen Manley (Star Trek 3), and Daz Crawford (Blade II) – was particularly enjoyable. Probably one of the things I’ve noticed when working with well established actors versus those that are just really good (fewer credits – less seasoned) is that on the days you shoot with the seasoned actors, they’ve carefully identified their characters and are ready to shoot (no scripts in hand). It drives me nuts when an actor is at early stages of preparation in the makeup chair – unfortunately however, very common.
Is it hard to get folks to take sci-fi movies seriously after what the Asylum does each and every week?
All we can do is make the best film that we can. We are going to be compared with other people, criticized by non-sci-fi fans, judged by everything. At the end of the day, we made the best movie that we could with old-fashioned blood, sweat and tears. We are quite proud of what we created. It’s really a very serious character driven film. The problem lies where people judge or criticize the film without having seen it. We’ve even had critics do this from large outlets. We can’t think about it, as we are now focused on The Time War – which should be completed by the end of the summer!
How would you describe the mix of tones in the film?
The tones are all very carefully (and skillfully) directed by Neil Johnson. Since it’s a character-driven journey of self-discovery wrapped into a science fiction film, I had to actually color-code my character’s journey so that I was hyper aware of what she knew at the time. The film starts out very post-apocalyptic, later unfolding this much deeper storyline.
Can you tell us about some of the different titles you were flirting with for the film or was it always Rogue Warrior : Robot Fighter?
Our working title was Robot Armageddon, which morphed into Robot Fighter. Rogue Warrior was actually part of the description in the synopsis that our sales agent recommended as a better title. We left the Robot Fighter part in the title, as there was already so much press about it.
We’d be remiss to ask you about your next film, The Time War.
Well stated! The Time War finished principle photography prior to Rogue Warrior actually. It’s a film Neil Johnson has been developing for over 15 years (thus the inclusion of the narration he had already recorded for the film by the late Sir Christopher Lee). Once Rogue Warrior was delivered, we got back to work on the film – and have probably shot close to 80 additional days on pick-up shots and additional scenes (including three weeks in England.) It’s an epic twisted masterpiece, in my opinion – a true pinnacle point in Neil’s career. A science fiction film set partially (remember it’s a time travel film) during the 2nd World War depicting Hitler traveling through time in order to re-write history and fulfill his Messiah complex. Although the shooting has been exhaustive, and the emotional journey almost depleting to film, it’s a wonderful and completely different sci-fi to follow Rogue Warrior.
Rogue Warrior : Robot Fighter is now available on Blu-ray and in theaters.
