Amber, The Character - Q & A with actress Anna Walton

You may still know her best as Princess Nuria in Hellboy 2: The Golden Army, but this year we'll see Anna Walton explode on to our screens as Amber in Deviation.

Conceived as an "antidote" to all those sappy female characters who *deserve* to die in thrillers and horrors by writer/director JK Amalou, Amber is a real woman with real problems (not just the fact she's been kidnapped, either!). Anna dropped by for a quick chat with Team Devmov about what drew her to the character of Amber...

If you had to describe Amber in just three words, what would they be and why?

Able, Dogged and Resilient: because she is surprisingly resourceful even in the worst possible situation, has an animalistic determination to get back to her family and refuses to be beaten.

Do you have a favourite moment for Amber in the movie?

I have lots! I feel very proud to represent Amber as a character. I hope I would behave in the same way in the same situation, but you just never know until it happens to you. I like the physical moments, the fights... She's not a fighter, but she does a damn good job when she needs to. I think you can surprise yourself in a life and death situation. She finds a strength she never knew she possessed.

In real life you're a young mum like Amber. How did this help inform Amber's plight for you?

I believe parenthood is not something you can ever truly know until you are in it. The strength of love and the need to exist for somebody else, this is what makes Amber do whatever it takes to get away from Frankie.

Thanks Anna!

Get a flavour of Amber as a character and her plight in the movie via some of our "script snippets" we posted during Deviation's main shoot at the end of last year - read them all here.

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All In A Day's Work

If you follow Deviation via Twitter or Facebook, you'll already know the edit has been coming along nicely, with several cuts done already.

However one of the big appeals of Deviation is the fact it's essentially a road movie/thriller in London - and writer/director JK Amalou has always wanted to create a script and subsequent movie that really does our fabulous Capital City justice, as do the rest of Team Deviation.

With that in mind then, everyone was out yesterday filming "cutaways" (that's film speak for extra shots), looking for vistas and shots. There were also some weather inconsistencies thanks to the snow back in November/December (ouch!), so there was part of a scene to film as well, though this time Anna and Danny (Danna? haha) were not needed.

Did it go well?

"We had some driving POV (point of view) shots to film, but the rain made sure that didn't happen," says producer Lara Greenway, "But I got to double as Anna and our fab graphic designer James Simmons doubled as Danny though in the car, so it's all good."

Anything else?

"Well, I got to bring out my SFX make up skills!" Lara smiles, "Though I thought I was still wearing it this morning, only to discover lots of REAL bruises! Never a dull moment."

Team Dev are out again in force filming again this weekend, so wish them luck!

Results Are In!

First off, thanks SO MUCH to everyone who entered the contest and voted in the poll - over 500 individual votes, with 1000+ votes total was an AMAZING response and beyond our wildest expectations!

Of the Deviant-generated taglines then, Stecyc Lukes wins with "Red, Amber, Dead" (377 votes) and ALSO occupies second place in the poll with "A journey with no red lights... only Amber" (371 votes).

Steyc operated a tireless one-woman assault across Facebook for her taglines (check out her pic, above!), so she's a much deserved winner. Steyc wins a subscription to Moviescope Magazine courtesy of the fabulous Rinaldo, plus a Screenwriters' Pocketbook, thanks to The London Screenwriters Festival.

Of the nine runners-up, there were further duplications (probably should have thought of that in advance, haha!) so in the interests of fairness we've taken each runners up FIRST, most-voted for tagline, then looked to the next new name in the poll. Results are as follows*:

- Maggie Thompson, "London's burning... rubber" (146 votes)
- Rifaht Aktar, "One survivor, two journeys" (142 votes)
- Sammi Lukes, "One long drive, two can't survive" (140 votes)
- Derek Wright, "Being of sound mind & body can be hard in London" (139 votes)
- Hummy Ackles, "Nursing is a deadly profession" (136 votes)
- Johnny Griffith, "She's used to saving other people's lives... tonight she must save her own" (59 votes)
- Nicky Weller, "Face your fear before your fear faces you!" (18 votes)
- Chrissy Brizzle, "His escape route is her ride home. Only one will make it alive"(16 votes)
- Harriet Barbir, "Snatched, latched, dispatched. It can be murder getting home." (13 votes)

All the runners up receive a Screenwriters' Pocketbook.

*IMPORTANT NOTE: Could all Deviants listed here please send an email (Bang2writeATaolDOTcom) or Facebook message detailing their postal address to associate producer Lucy V Hay by the end of this week (Friday Feb 11th) so we can co-ordinate the sending out of the pocketbooks ASAP. Thanks!