One of the very neat things about the world of Slasher, and now, Hell Motel, is the recurring use of Canadian talent. The series has its own lovely repertory company of actors who return again and again for ALL THE DRAMA. Paula Brancati has appeared in every season so far, and as we saw in tonight’s penultimate episode, it’s the second consecutive go round where she’s made it to the season finale – even though she had to throw down not once, but twice, to get there.
This week, I chatted with Brancati about this season’s wild ride as her character, Paige, a former slasher queen now relegated to the sidelines, who came to the motel’s preview weekend for a secretly paid appearance and then found it quickly devolving into an actual slasher film. In the first part of our conversation, she talks about the uniquely meta opportunity series creators Aaron Martin and Ian Carpenter gave her to play a take on a Jamie Lee Curtis or Neve Campbell-type role, especially given her own history with the series.
“All those amazing icons were in my head. And I think in Paige’s wildest dreams, she would’ve loved to have been a Jamie Lee Curtis or Neve Campbell. But I think what was most interesting to me about her was that she was this young woman who got into this industry, very young, needed to work, needed the money, and never quite hit her fullest potential, her sparkliest self, in her career,” she shares.
“So she was always wanting for more. I think she was on her way and had her heyday years prior, but she never quite reached it. When Aaron and Ian pitched it to me, two summers ago now, I had a really good sense of her. And I think having worked together for so many years, they often know how to push me in ways that I don’t even know I can go as an actor.”
“That’s [been a] really textured and wild and joyful creative experience for me over the last many seasons.”
Brancati shares that there was a specific kind of vulnerability in playing Paige, who herself is at a particularly vulnerable place in her life. “It was scary for me because some of it is close, and I think the meta means there are less places to hide. I was intrigued and excited when they pitched it, nervous, all the things. And she certainly has my hair and my voice and my wardrobe with all those elements,” she explains.
“We had her looking pretty pedestrian and sometimes that’s harder to hide behind. We were also interested in crafting somebody who I think was not super happy when we meet her. And I think when somebody’s very low, you don’t know how far they’ll go to get what they want.”
“She’s someone who is very … pathetic is the word I thought of a lot, or she feels that way, at least. I was very judicious about how and when she smiled. I thought it was important that we sort of arced this for her over the course of the eight episodes.”
“So it was an interesting thing to sort of try and play because she’s in an industry that feels front-facing. I can speak as a woman who’s been acting almost 30 years.”
“There is a sense of when you’re smiling and leading with affection and you’re effusive, which comes naturally to me, I think people receive it warmly. But when you’re at a place like Paige is, her mask is way off. She’s not doing a great job of hiding her distaste. And from my recollection in the pilot episode, there were some great little clues about that in the script from Aaron.”
“We talked about how she doesn’t feel great in her skin, down to the clothes she picks when she comes in. And we worked on that with Monika Onoszko, our costume designer, and Mel Quigg, who does our makeup. She’s not at her glowiest, and she’s not trying to be, either.”
“She’s a bit of an Eeyore. She’s not the life of the party and she’s not cackling and throwing back glasses to make everyone feel better. She’s doing what she has to do. And then I think you have somebody who you also can’t trust because you maybe feel like she’s an eye, then, for the audience. And then when we discover she’s being paid, it’s like, ‘Oh, we can’t even trust her.’ We might have been judging these other characters, but we also have to put her in the mix.”
Speaking of those other characters, Brancati loved that first scene where they all introduce themselves to each other (and us), and how Paige purposely keeps her distance at the outset. “I think that’s what’s interesting about a lot of the characters this year. When you meet them, they all come with sort of a real desire and ardor for true crime, but she really, really needs the money. And so I think she becomes a bit of a target on her back for a potential killer pretty early, because we don’t know how far she’ll go.”
“Everybody in that limo scene where we meet everybody, before we get to the motel, I loved doing that scene because you get this host of eclectic characters in the story.”
“It’s so voicey on the page, which Aaron and Ian do so well. Every voice is so clear and you wanna follow each of these threads. We have such an incredible cast, and I can’t say enough about what a special group it is, and a lot of returning Slasher cast members … Jim Watson, who was one of my major scene partners in this, who I love so much. And then you have Gray Powell and Yanna Macintosh, who were spectacular.”
“They brought everything to life in a way that I couldn’t even imagine on the page. I always find the first few weeks of shooting really exciting because you can only prepare so much until you hear what everyone’s doing with their character. And it’s very thrilling to be in those big group scenes before people start getting killed off because it’s five pages of everyone ping ponging.”
“And actually Paige is kind of at the center of the hurricane in a way. She doesn’t speak as much as everybody out of the gate, which Ian and I talked a lot about on the day. She’s an observer, which for me, personally, who loves to chat as a chatty Italian girly, is more challenging to not talk and just sit back and observe. That was my biggest challenge in those first episodes, to watch those amazing performances.”
The season finale of Hell Motel airs Tuesday at 9 pm ET on Hollywood Suite in Canada and will be available to stream on Hollywood Suite On Demand, where you can also find the first seven episodes. In the US, the season finale will drop Tuesday on Shudder and AMC+.
As a reminder, you can catch Slasher: Ripper and Slasher: Flesh and Blood on Hollywood Suite and Shudder. The first three seasons of Slasher are still on Netflix. And all our coverage of previous seasons is here. Check back this weekend for Brancati’s take on episode seven, and next week for our season finale conversations with Brancati, Martin, and Carpenter.
Photos courtesy of Anthony Fascione for Shaftesbury TV/Shudder.
