— Brittany Messina is screaming her way to acting fame.
The kinesiology junior will soon film her third horror film of the year, and people in the film industry are calling her the next “scream queen.”
“I got invited to go to Fangoria, which is the biggest horror [movie] convention in the world,” Messina said. “They’re going to introduce me as the future scream queen.”
The convention will be in September in New Jersey, Messina said.
“She has a great set of lungs on her, and she’s not afraid to use them,” said Charles Bodenheimer, director of “Shadow Grove,” the film Messina is currently filming.
Messina said she knew she always wanted to be in the spotlight.
“Whenever I was a little girl, I looked up to Reba McEntire and I used to lip sync to her,” Messina said. “Then I decided I couldn’t sing – and decided that I wanted to act.”
Messina said she began working with acting agencies when she was 12 years old but never found success with them.
“I decided that I was going to do it on my own,” Messina said. “I got more work by myself.”
Messina said she auditioned in November for “Hoodoo for Voodoo,” a horror film but did not get her role as Candi, the film’s flirt, until March.
“We casted her as a different character [originally], but we liked her so much that we moved her up,” said Steven Shea, director of “Hoodoo for Voodoo.”
She flew to Orlando, Fla. the day her finals ended to begin filming the movie.
Her work on “Hoodoo for Voodoo” led her to other roles, Messina said. Jason Liquori, co-producer of “Hoodoo for Voodoo,” asked Messina to be the main character of his short film “My Stalker, Death,” after he saw her work in her first film.
“My Stalker, Death” is the “meat of the set” of shorts Liquori is putting together for a film called “Death Plots: Four Tales of the Grimm Reaper,” Liquori said. The film will be available in stores August 31.
“It all started connecting after a while,” Messina said. “And it was exciting meeting a lot of people and getting the contacts I wanted.” Messina recently was listed on www.imbd.com, a movie database Web site.
“You go on IMDB and you see all these celebrities – you see Kate Hudson, you see all these people – and I’m like wait, I’m on the same database as them,” Messina said.
“She’s incredible; we’ve actually written her into a part for our next film,” Bodenheimer said. “I enjoy working with actors who inspire me, and she absolutely does that.”
Liquori said directors enjoy working with Messina because she is pleasant to work with – she has no “actresstude.”
“Right now, people want to meet her because of her looks,” Liquori said. “But then, they’ll meet her and want to brag about her talent.”
Contact Julie Chance at [email protected]
Student to act in third horror flick
September 18, 2005