Actress Chloe Farnworth has been racking up a number of impressive acting credits over the past decade, with one of her first major opportunities being as a background artist in Thor: The Dark World, though she managed to secure herself a few lines with star Chris Hemsworth. While her scene might not have ultimately made the theatrical cut, the actress has gone on to star in a number of movies and TV series, allowing her to explore a variety of different genres and types of stories. One of her most exciting projects is the upcoming thriller 12 Hour Shift, which will hit select theaters, drive-ins, and VOD on October 2nd.
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12 Hour Shift is set in 1998 and follows Mandy (Angela Bettis), a nurse at an Arkansas hospital, who is desperate to make it through her double shift without incident while also being involved in a black-market organ-trading scheme. When her hapless but dangerous cousin Regina (Farnworth) messes up a kidney delivery, chaos descends on the hospital as the cousins frantically try to secure a replacement organ through any means necessary.
ComicBook.com recently caught up with Farnworth to talk her new film, her diverse career, and the kindness of Chris Hemsworth.
ComicBook.com: First of all, congratulations not only on the new film, but the fact that you secured a spot on the cover of the new issue of Fangoria. Obviously that magazine is a big staple for American horror fans, but was it a magazine you were aware of growing up in England?
Chloe Farnworth: Actually, I hadn’t heard of the magazine before, but my friend saw it and she was like, “Oh, my God, you’re on the cover, your picture’s on the cover,” because she is a super big horror fan. I didn’t know the magazine. She was like, “It’s on the cover, Google it now,” I had a look and I was like, “Oh my God, that’s amazing.” And then Brea Grant, the director was like, “It’s so big, it’s the biggest horror magazine out there. Awesome.” I’m really happy to be on it. It’s really awesome.
Even though it’s not the main image, I saw a woman covered in blood and when I looked closer, I realized it was you.
Yeah, it’s awesome. It’s really amazing. I was like, I had no idea it was happening until someone sent it to me and I was like, that’s so cool. And I’m all covered in blood, too.
And not only was it a surprise to know you were on the cover, I’m sure you were surprised that people are still making magazines.
Yes. I mean, do they? Magazines seem to have disappeared. I loved that there are still actual magazines. It’s not all just online and digital now.
While we’re here to talk about 12 Hour Shift, we have to start at the beginning of your career, which looks like it was an uncredited role in Thor: The Dark World?
Yes. Oh, my God. Yes, so I guess this is going back many, oh gosh, how long? That’s probably what like…
Eight years or so?
Eight years? Yeah. I was doing background work on this film. It shot just outside of London. They had built this ginormous set. It was probably one of the biggest sets I think I’ve still been on to date. And I actually booked this one day as a background performer. It was probably one of my first experiences, I guess, being on a set. And they upgraded me to this waitress, who basically talks to Thor. I had like two lines with Chris Hemsworth and Jaimie Alexander.
And then they were like, “Oh, we need you for seven days and six days are going to be rehearsals with Chris Hemsworth. And then we’re going to shoot you for one day.” So I was like, “Oh, my God, this is amazing.” And I met Chris and he actually made me a cup of tea one morning. He was like, “Oh, here’s a cup of tea I made it for you.” And I was like, “Well, thanks Chris.” I was like, “Oh, he’s really cool.” And then it never made it into the movie, my scene, but it was a few lines with Jaimie Alexander and Chris Hemsworth. A long, long time ago.
Since that was such a massive production and you’ve starred in a number of smaller productions in the years since, where the actors don’t make tea for fun, they do it because no one makes it for them, how do you look back on that experience now after being on so many more intimate sets?
I feel like I’ve done a number of different kinds of projects over, I guess the last six, seven years, of actually really pursuing it and booking jobs. I feel like now it does feel like a completely different kind of … not platform I’m on, but a different, how do you explain it? I guess two very different worlds from how it was six, seven years ago to how it is now.
Your character in 12 Hour Shift has a pretty terrible job where you’re selling organs on the black market, so looking back on your own careers, do you remember the worst job you’ve had?
When I lived back in England, I had a number of different side jobs, like many actors do, we all have our like little side hustle. I was in this … it was a waffle factory, making waffles. And I basically wore my hair in a hairnet, a cap, apron, it was really, really gruffy and I got covered in oil pretty much every day, I smelt of pancakes and waffles. I can still smell it now if I think about it. And I was basically in this factory, making these waffles, when I was about, I think, gosh, I must’ve been 18, 19, maybe. Yeah, that job, it wasn’t fun.
And it’s funny to come from being covered in oil and hating it to being covered in blood for the movie and loving it.
I would say a complete, full circle. Blood, oil.
While this film might be one of your biggest genre opportunities, you’re no stranger to horror or sci-fi or thriller or fantasy genres. What is so appealing about being involved in these exaggerated worlds?
I guess it really depends on each project, it’s the parts and the script and who’s making it and directing it. First of all, I guess the character really needs to speak to me. When I get an audition and read through some of them, I’m like, “Oh, my gosh, this is so up my street. This is exactly what I want to play.” And then other times I’m like, “This would be cool, but I don’t like it as much as the one I auditioned for recently, per se.” I think it really depends on each project.
With horror and fantasy, they’re just normally a whole lot of fun and you get to run around a lot and get covered in blood and kill people and do all this crazy stuff, which is so out there from real life. I guess, I don’t go around trying to take people’s organs in real life or I would probably be in prison by now or something. I think they’re really fun films to work in, thrillers and horrors and action films, but they’re always a lot of fun and have action and you get to do stuff more. I love that.
You mentioned Brea Grant earlier, and this is her first directing feature in a while, and the cast is mostly women, with horror fans loving you co-star Angela Bettis for her genre projects, so I wondered how it felt being on a set with so many other talented women as opposed to other projects where there might have been more male-dominated sets?
I definitely, definitely would love to see more female filmmakers on set and making films. And same goes for writers. I think there needs to be more females in the room and more females creating and on set. Definitely, on 12 Hour, it was great because it was a female-led cast, mostly women, and I thought it was really good because I feel like, in a lot of thrillers, the females get killed off halfway through and they don’t normally make it to the end.
And what I loved about this film and Brea’s writing is that the females go from start to finish all the way through. So I thought that was really great. And I think there needs to be more of that. And then with Brea, she’s amazing, she’s really good to work with. She’s a great director and she knows the characters inside-out because she wrote it. So she just gives really good direction on set and she lets us do a lot of improvised takes. We could really take the character and go way further than what was written on the page, which was really fun. And there was definitely a good feeling on set and it was really nice and refreshing to have more females like on the crew side and cast wise. It was really lovely.
I liked the timelessness of the film. It was set in the late ’90s but it could have easily been 2020 or the ’50s, with the wardrobe largely dating it. You also have a Southern accent and this ’90s outfit, I wondered how much those elements informed your character or were those elements just extensions of what you created on your own?
I think the accent, for sure, the accent really … I wouldn’t say defined the character, but definitely added a lot to her in the way I played her and the way she would walk in the film. I think the wardrobe did help and the setting helped, the hospital we shot in was very dated. I think when you work in a space with a very, I would say very ’90s kind of feel to it. It definitely helps with the character and the characterization and bringing that person to life. I would say the accent was one of the biggest things and it was really great to actually work in an accent I haven’t worked in before, crafting that to bring it to life and everything.
Well despite knowing you were in the movie and knowing I was interviewing you, I didn’t immediately know which character you were as I was watching, which is a testament to your convincing accent.
Oh, good, thank you. I worked with an accent coach for a few weeks beforehand, who helped me a lot. I basically was in it 24-7 leading up to shooting. So I’m glad I fooled you and you didn’t know.
You mentioned the hospital you shot in was sort of old and dated, was it a functioning hospital? Or an old hospital you were able to revive?
No, it was a working hospital. We basically had it, I think it was two floors were together. The bottom floor was a working hospital, so they have patients and it was functioning and stuff was going on downstairs. And then the whole of the upstairs was empty. It wasn’t used, so we were shooting upstairs and I think it used to be working, as well, upstairs, but then I guess they didn’t need it, so they only used the downstairs part and then we shot upstairs. It was great because we’re actually shooting in a real hospital, not like they made one for the movie.
And there were actual patients downstairs having operations and stuff happening. So it was really awesome to do it that way.
Plus, if you needed some extra props or organs, you could just grab them from the working hospital.
Yeah, just go down there and grab one. Then you get some real experience. If someone’s having an operation, just go in there and grab it out.
And looking back at the experience, did you have a particular favorite day on set or scene to shoot?
Favorite scene to shoot and day was we did make this montage scene and I go meet my friends and I have like a Cheetos fight, I pee in the car park, that whole montage scene and the filming of it was so much fun. That was my favorite.
Getting to pee in a parking lot is surely going to be a highlight of anyone’s filming experience.
Yeah, they were like “just go over there” and I was like, “Okay, let’s do this.”
*****
12 Hour Shift lands in select theaters, drive-ins, and VOD on October 2nd.
PHOTO CREDITS:
- Photographer: David Higgs
- Hair + Make-up: Alexandria Storm
- Styling: Aaron Gomez at Ivan Bitton Style House
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