'Devil Inside' - Fact or Fiction?
The Devil Inside shocked box office prognosticators by scaring up an impressive, and totally unexpected, $35 million debut!
The exorcism shocker revolves around one woman who becomes involved in a series of unauthorized exorcisms in hopes of discovering what happened to her mother, who allegedly murdered three people during her own exorcism. I caught up with star Fernanda Andrade to find out what attracted her to the role and why she thinks people are digging the film so much!
Insider.com: What intrigued you about The Devil Inside?
Fernanda Andrade: The script was just so great. But in general, I think the whole search for the truth is a fascinating one. Especially this, which treads the line between science and religion. I think everybody can relate to questioning at some point in their life. When you're a child, you just accept what's told to you. But as you get older and start questioning, everyone develops this resistance towards what they’ve been told. I love that this film looked at that from a place of faith and hope.
Insider: The film says it's based on a true story. Is that true?
Fernanda: It's inspired by several real accounts of possessions. Matt [Peterman, co-writer] read an article about Rome offering exorcism classes at universities. That's totally true. We went there and talked to the doctors and professors. All of that went into the story and our experience. We talked about this movie and its meaning so much. We were all trying to figure it out the entire time.
Insider: After all that research, do you believe in possession?
Fernanda: That's the million dollar question [laughs]. I think there are different ways to approach that. I think in a way, it's whatever you think it is. I don't want to push my beliefs onto someone else. Any experiences like that are a testament to the power of the human psyche. I think that the more people go there, the more they end up experiencing that. Do I think that its real or not? It depends on my concept of reality, I guess.
Insider: What do you think separates your movie from all the other exorcism films?
Fernanda: Our movie is more about Isabella's journey and the way we approach that is completely new. It's the story of a woman who has been affected by this one big event; her mother murdering two people kind of dictated the rest of Isabella's life. To all of a sudden have hope that her mother could come back to her, or at least understand what happened, to me, that's the new thing. At the same time, it's a great fun, horror experience that will scare the crap out of everybody [laughs]. But it also gives you something to think about.
Insider: Do you like horror movies or is starring in one the closest you want to get to them?
Fernanda: Option B, really [laughs]. My mother is terrified of horror movies. She never let us watch anything scary, so I didn't grow up watching them – but for this film, the director told me I had to watch three movies: Bloody Sunday, The Exorcism of Emily Rose and The Exorcism. I almost couldn't bring myself to do that [laughs]. But I watched them and I think that's when I started to really get interested in those movies. All of a sudden, I realized there was this element to all of them that was part of that universal question that we will keep asking forever, which is the reason we love these kinds of movies so much. Signing on for this movie was the closest I'd ever really been to a horror movie but now I can't get enough!
The Devil Inside is now playing.
