Katherine Isabelle is more than just a scream queen, though she may have wormed herself firmly into our hearts with her iconic performance in 2000’s Ginger Snaps. It was not just any Canadian movie – it morphed into a trilogy due to its originality and fearlessness. Such things could be said of its title actress, who has starred in a collection of originals, like American Mary and Supernatural.
With her friendly nature and eloquent speech, Katherine manages to easily tread middle ground between social and intellectual. When we sat down to speak with her at the Edmonton Expo she was upbeat, friendly, and impressively loquacious. In our chat we discussed her experience at conventions, the fortitude required to film in Canada in the middle of February, and how abnormal roles have turned her into a very normal person.
GC: So how’s the Expo so far?
KI: The Expo’s amazing! I was just saying that these things are fun because no one comes here to wait in line to tell you that you suck and are awful. They all come to tell you how great you are and how much they enjoy your work. And it makes you feel very good about yourself at the end of the day. So that’s always really fun. It’s fun to meet the people that we make these movies for and really appreciate it, and it helps when you’re out freezing to death in Fort Edmonton in the middle of February to think about how much all the fans really appreciate it. It helps you get through your days.
GC: It’s much tougher to film in Canada than in the States.
KI: It is! We have a lot of American actors come up and they are just terrified of what happens to them. And we’re like "Oh come on, it’s only twenty-five below and there’s hardly even any wind, what are you whining about?"
GC: You’ve been in quite a few Canadian pieces, one of the best known being Ginger Snaps. What’s it like being in a trilogy of very iconic movies that were filmed in Canada, and are very Canadian as well as being very genre specific?
KI: When we did the first Ginger Snaps, we shot it in Toronto and we had no idea what we were doing. We weren’t sure – this was before werewolves and vampires and that was like, cool? Yeah, we did it before it was cool! But we were like, we might never work again. This is a weird Canadian movie about werewolf teenagers, menstruation... we were just like, this could be really, really awesome, or everyone will hate us. And thankfully it turned out to be awesome, which we thought and hoped it would, but you never know when you’re making something like that. You’re all, I think it’s cool, but maybe I’m weird... To work in Canada, the Canadian film industry is important to me. They raised me, this is how I grew up. This is my life. And I really want to see interesting, smart things come out of Canada that are powerful for a wider audience.
GC: Do you think that the Ginger Snaps movie set you off for being in the supernatural genres?
KI: Ginger Snaps definitely put me on the map of genre people. You know, they knew what that was. And that led to yeah, a lot of genre things. I mean I’ve been working forever, and I’ve done a million different things. But the genre fans, the horror movie fans, are so enthusiastic. You don’t get conventions for family dramas set in the prairies about farming, you know what I mean? And family issues and fights between siblings. You just don’t. It’s like horror movies, and comics, stuff, that’s where the most enthusiastic, absolutely rabid fans are. ... Shooting horror movies is really, really fun. It’s hilarious. You get to scream and cry and murder people, and I think it makes me a more normal person when I go into daily life, because I don’t think I’ve ever yelled at anyone - because every couple months I get to scream and bawl and basically bludgeon people to death. And I go, ah, I feel so much better!
