Hana Mae Lee Interview: Fashion, horror and Freddy Krueger

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The Babysitter, image courtesy Netflix /

1428 Elm: So, I have to tell you, I love The Babysitter. Any success that movie has had probably came strictly from me, because I told everyone I know about it. And I’m not going to talk any spoilers at all, but I did get to watch The Babysitter: Killer Queen, and I loved it too. As someone who loved the original, I am very pleased with the sequel and hopefully everybody else will be as well.

Hana Mae Lee: Oh, yay, I’m so glad!

1428 Elm: Sonya is a completely different character from Lilly. She’s…well, a little psycho. How did you prepare for that intensity? I just interviewed McG, and he was saying how you did such a great job getting into character, down to the way you dressed and everything, how do you go about that?

Hana Mae Lee: The horror genre’s always been my favorite. I love the victims, because they always scream before they die, and I love the villain, because you get to chase them around by just walking. And you have this kind of confidence as a villain.

Because I love horror so much, I really wanted to give it a good run, even from the first one to the second one, and I liked how everyone is in on it for the purpose of what they can get later, but Sonya’s really into the dark arts. I wanted to make that more real than just based on a caricature of something, although some of the actions are kind of like a caricature because of the story.

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But I just wanted to make sure that people who love horror or are into the dark arts would just really be like, “Oh, cool, I can see that she’s not just faking it.” I mean, I didn’t call any dark spirits to do Sonya!

I just really channeled the horror nostalgia that horror kind of made me feel as a kid, and how I loved it so much, and I wanted to bring that into Sonya as a horror – not just fanatic – but a connoisseur. I just really, really loved playing her, and her fashion I loved too, because it’s always put together, very Saint Laurent-y, and very much like a blogger, with all the nails, and it had a kind of juxtaposition, instead of just doing the satanic star, or always wearing black or something. I kind of feel like satanism had a glam situation in the past five years.

1428 Elm: And killer eyeliner too, by the way!

Hana Mae Lee: Thank you! I love all the crazy eye shadow this year, it’s like slanted, rectangular eyeliner. It was really cool, I loved it.

1428 Elm: Unfortunately, I think in general…I think maybe things are changing a little bit for horror now, but for so long it just didn’t get any credibility at all, and actors were ashamed if they were involved in it. It’s my favorite genre.

Hana Mae Lee: Me too. I mean, I love 1428 Elm, that’s freakin’ awesome, it’s so great.

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