  Laura Harris is "Severence."
|
TORONTO - You can tell Laura Harris has been away from Canada for an extended period of time when she pauses to remember what long weekend falls near the end of May.
Fresh off a flight from Los Angeles to Toronto, it's obvious Harris is enjoying the ride of a jet-setting actress south of the border.
The 30-year-old Surrey, B.C., native has been living in L.A. for 11 years. Harris is best known for her role on Fox's smash hit "24," where she played a slippery terrorist named Marie Warner during the show's second season. She appeared in 14 episodes before finally being apprehended, shot and killed by none other than Jack Bauer, played by fellow Canuck Kiefer Sutherland.
In her latest movie "Severance," she reverses roles and is forced to fight for her life trying to escape a batch of unruly Eastern European terrorists deep in the Hungarian wilderness.
Judging from audience reactions to scenes in the film, it's no wonder Harris stumbles when trying to classify her latest movie.
"Is it a slasher picture?" the actress wonders aloud, "maybe a comedy horror flick?"
"Severance" was pitched to director Christopher Smith as "The Office" meets "Deliverance" and hearing that sales pitch made Harris' ears perk up.
Harris stars as Maggie an employee of a London based military arms manufacturer who is sent, along with her office co-workers, on a "team-building weekend."
There aren't many moments in the movie when the viewer knows if the next scene will lead to a gruesome murder or a delightfully raunchy comedic punch line.
"There were moments of extremeness," says Harris about the emotional rollercoaster she put herself on to prepare for the physical scenes in the movie. "You have to keep your body in a constant state of flight or fight which is really taxing on the adrenal system."
Working with highly trained British actors, Harris felt she needed to apply her own unique methods when tackling her physical scenes.
To set the mood Harris created a playlist on her MP3 player.
"I listened to an extraordinarily loud screaming Marilyn Mason on my iPod. I was jumping up and down and running up and down stairs, and did push-ups before every take."
Harris had no problem getting dirty and putting up with heavy makeup saying, "I love being messy! You get touched up so much as a girl with people trying to make you pretty. But when you don't have to worry about that stuff it can be pretty freeing."
All of the over exertion came with a price as Harris suffered injuries while shooting the movie. It has been a year and half since she finished work on "Severance," but she is still plagued by wrist injuries and a nagging kidney infection.
"It was nothing a strong 29-year-old couldn't overcome, but now that I'm 30 I don't know if I could hack it."
Harris' rise to stardom had a pinnacle moment shortly after she arrived in California when she landed a role in the 1997 movie "Suicide Kings."
"On one of the first scenes I shot in L.A. I had Christopher Walken holding a gun to my head. It was cool because that was my first job when I came to Hollywood."
After more then ten years in the business, Harris is still turned on by seeing a live audience react to her movies. Last year she was fortunate enough to catch a screening of "Severance" at the Locarno International Film Festival.
"The first time I saw Severance was in Switzerland where they show outdoor screenings in a city square. They showed the movie in front of at least 10 thousand people, under a full moon, on a huge screen... it was unbelievable."
And how did 10 thousand Swiss film fans react to the movie's goriest scene?
"People flipped out. They were really freaking out."
Despite missing out on the party of last month's long weekend, Harris offers her own fireworks as a reason for moviegoers to check out "Severance."
The actress said a major reason she chose this project was the opportunity to be involved in an escort rescue mission.
"Thank God for hookers, Harris says, "It's all I ever wanted was to be saved by two hookers... two topless hookers."
"Severance" opens in theatres today.
More Artists
