Ben Loyd Holmes says ‘Im a bit of horror fan’ in exclusive interview

28 Jul Ben Loyd Holmes says ‘Im a bit of horror fan’ in exclusive interview

Best Actor Nominee, Ben Loyd-Holmes is a Professional Actor with a range of credits in Feature Film, TV, Video Game and Theatre. We had a little chat with him about his future projects and his latest role in horror flick Carnivore.

Q. Tell our readers who is Ben Loyd-Holmes ?
BLH: I have been acting for around 15 years now. Being based in South London there’s so many great things to do here, I’ve been lucky to be exposed to such a wide range of sports, activities and experiences it’s helped develop me into who I am. I split my time between acting and the businesses and spending time enjoying it all.

Q. Starring in He Who Dares, I Am Hooligan and various other action flicks, how do you prepare for such hard-man roles ?
BLH: I get cast as the tough guy type quite a lot. We were talking about that last night actually, myself and Craig McGinlay were taking some time out from filming Knightfall here in Prague. The experiences I have had on an off set have both been helpful in giving me a solid foundation for these kinds of roles. I have studied kickboxing and other martial arts and boxing for the last 20 years or so, as well as horsemanship for about the same time and undergone so much weapons training over the years, it’s a great place to start from.  Then for each role you get there’s often a bootcamp or a training regime to go through to get you ready. It’s a really important part of the character.  If you can’t move in the right way, fight, ride, shoot… it ruins it for the audience. It’s less important if you don’t get cast for these kinds of roles of course.

Q. You also produce, how is the UK production scene getting along at the moment ?
It’s an interesting time in the film industry full stop, but certainly in the UK and US. I’ve seen a huge change in the last few years, but it’s not a bad thing. There’s a lot of content being produced and not all of it will ever see the light of day, aside from eventually being given away on youtube or sold on some small distribution platform. Now, it’s easier than ever to make a film, but the new barrier to entry is whether someone can sell a film, get it distributed. It’s an exciting time if you understand the process, there’s so much demand for content so as long as producers understand what the business end wants there’s so much opportunity as the moment. It’s going to keep growing, more so as all these emerging business and release models are developed. It’s still a little unknown and a lot of testing is going on by the distributors IP owners. There’s a little uncertainty over this EU thing, which has had an impact, I’ve seen some cancellations of projects already but we don’t know whats happening with that. So fingers crossed one way or another it will work out.

Q. How was the working relationship with Simon Wells on Carnivore ?
Simon is a great guy, through and through. He really is. He’s passionate, creative and knowledgeable and really hard working. We work well because we don’t always agree and we are able to argue over a point and come to a good resolution. When you are creating something you need someone to tell you your idea is terrible because that’s how you make it better. If someone agrees all the time… it’s not going to work out. Simon and I listen to each others points and work together to get to the best creative and commercial result.

Q. As a horror flick, did you do any research for your role in Carnivore ?
I am a bit of a horror fan, I like anything that grips you and a good horror can do that! For Carnivore the research was mostly Simon, as he knew what he wanted. Simon wanted my character to be as normal as possible and if anything a little on the weak side, however in his re writes he’d come back and say things like “would you mind doing a few scenes with your shirt off…” before long there was the Conan the Barbarian shot as it was known. He wanted to show some arc between what would be a very normal man and woman forced into a very strange situation and to see what they were capable of. I focused a lot on playing to a weaker side, hopefully it works well in the film.

Q. What’s on the horizon for you this year ?

I am currently in Prague filming Knightfall, then when I am back we have a little break and move onto our next film Knights of the Damned. After that on a personal note we are getting ready for the launch of HUSCARA and there’s another movie or two. Just waiting to lock it all in.