Dana Namerode will be debuting her first lead role in the upcoming Tribeca Film Festival with Calvin Lee Reeder’s THE A FRAME, starring alongside Johnny Whitworth and Nik Dodani. In addition to THE A FRAME, Dana is also starring in the upcoming release of KEEP QUIET, where she takes on another leading role opposite Lou Diamond Phillips. Born to an Israeli-American family, Dana brings a unique blend of cultural perspectives to her performances. Dana can be seen in her previous roles, in WHAT JOSIAH SAW (alongside Robert Patrick, Nick Stahl, Tony Hale, and Jake Weber), ADAM THE FIRST (alongside David Duchovny and Oakes Fegley), and the upcoming BANG BANG with Tim Blake Nelson, which will also be premiering in the upcoming Tribeca Film Festival. In addition to her acting, Dana is an entrepreneur, the founder and the president of Goalden View, a startup which focuses on mathematically measuring the popularity of athletes. She is also a black belt in Tae Kwon Do and a passionate salsa dancer.
Dana stopped by to chat with us about her new film The A-Frame.
Hi Dana, thank you for taking the time to chat with me today.
Yeah, of course. Happy to be here.
I watched The A-Frame at the weekend, and frankly, I’m still a little scarred from it. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it. What was it that appealed to you about the film that made you want to sign on?
I think it’s a very layered film. At the root of it, at the base of it sits this sort of eternal question of what do you do when your backs against the wall? You’re so desperate. You have nothing to lose and everything to lose all at once. And then you get this really lucrative, interesting, wacky offer. And what do you do in a situation like that? And then on top of that, it’s layered with fascinating relationships, crazy, different things that kind of happened. It’s wrapped in a lot of cool effects and a very fast pace and great humor. I thought that it was a really interesting story.
Those were all practical effects, weren’t they? I think it always works better.
I agree profoundly. They were practical effects and there was a lot of them. They were really gross.
Was there one scene whenever you read the script when you’re like, “I have to be in this film just so I can see this being brought to life”?
A hundred percent. I think you know already what I’m talking about.
I know exactly what scene (laughs).
Whenever someone comes out of The A-Frame, I think it’s definitely a shocker moment. And it’s crazy to be there. I loved reading them and I loved filming them and I thought they were fantastic.
How did you find working with director Calvin Lee Reeder?
Calvin is fantastic. I think it’s great in these specific cases where the writer of the film is also the director. So, they really have this wholesome vision of the story that they’re trying to tell and the way that they wish to tell it. And the way that they envision it being seen on screen. I worked with Calvin a lot. I was lucky enough to do a couple of sessions with him before ever going into set to really make sure that I understand what it is that he wants and what he has in mind specifically for Donna’s character. Calvin is just great to work with. He’s got a great sense of humor. He’s incredibly creative and I think that this translates a lot in the film. I think you can see the sort of person that he is through his art.
Was there any moment that was improvised or did you stick stringently to the script?
I don’t remember particularly improvising anything. I think it was pretty much sticking to the script. I mean, it was a very well-written script.
With all of the science talk and discussing the creation of The A-Frame, did Calvin say how much of that was actually based on reality or was it all just made-up stuff for the movie?
I think it’s a mix. I think it’s fair to say that it’s a mix of some reality and some perhaps imagination or creativity.
How do you prepare for the role of Donna and is there any part of her personality that you relate to the most?
Yeah, I think first of all a role like Donna’s is other than the fact that this film is this wacky roller coaster ride; at the end of the day this character is dealing with something that a lot of people deal with in real life. It’s not this exciting story; it’s quite devastating and it’s that she has cancer and for me the most important thing when I read the script and laid out what is the essence of this character was to do justice and to be authentic to cancer patients who are undergoing this or have undergone this sort of thing. So, my first and main research was to speak with cancer patients or former cancer survivors that I know in my personal life; people that I could have these lengthy deep conversations with and to really dig into what is the experience that you go through when you’re told that you have cancer, especially when you’re at an age where it’s just not as expected.
Donna is in her 20s, it’s not like she’s in her later period in life where it’s something that’s more common; she’s this young woman. She’s a pianist and suddenly she gets this spanner in the works and I personally just know some women who have had the same experience so I spoke with them about it got a lot of perspective about it. I can share one of the interesting details that really helps sort of understand the frame of mind that a person goes through when they’re told they have cancer. At one point Donna gets this incredible news and Donna intuitively thought “oh my god, great” jump for joy kind of thing and then I spoke with someone who had cancer growing up and she told me how when you are nearly in a car crash, you’re not happy, you’re just relieved. You almost kind of catch your breath and go “that’s close” and I think that’s the difference that you have to mentally make. That shift, that little detail. This might sound minuscule to some for me that was a huge key in understanding “oh wait a minute, this is a completely different ball game. This is its own little universe that you have to do justice to and that was mainly the preparation that went into it.
Did you learn anything about yourself from playing this role?
This might sound silly but I learned that I can really scream (laughs). It’s funny to think about; you think well, everyone can scream and then you try screaming. Have you tried just being in a room by yourself and belting out a screeching scream? It’s one of those things that you physically just assume that you can do and then you’re faced with doing it and you think to yourself “huh, I don’t know if I can” and it’s funny but I actually I think learned just the physicality that requires and the exhaustion. What it takes out of you and how it feels in your body, it’s like feeling an experience in your body that you kind of just assume that you know you have in there and it’s stored somewhere. Then it gets to just experience that; I suppose I felt I experienced myself in a different way; it might sound simple but that’s a very memorable experience for me.
There are times whenever I want to scream but I live in an apartment building so I better not otherwise someone will call the cops (laughs).
(laughs) That’s what it was like for me because Calvin said just “so, we can make sure that you can scream, can you like record yourself screaming?” and I was like “yeah” and then I found myself thinking I don’t want to get the cops called on me. When you get a chance to be so alone that you could do this you have to go into the middle of nowhere but that was a fun experience as well.
How was working with Johnny as Sam?
I think Johnny is such a phenomenal actor. I think he really is so nuanced. You see it I think in the film, his ability to catch these incredible very nuanced, very little moments that for me make the character like his delivery of certain lines in certain moments. It could be a twitch of an eye; it could be just a raise of an eyebrow or the way he leans on a broom. As he’s sweeping all these little details that he infuses into the character and the way that he delivers his lines I think he’s fantastic. I think it’s an incredible performance of his this film and he definitely showed up on this one.
Yeah, it’s hard to describe his character because I wouldn’t say he’s entirely a villain; I think he is genuinely trying to do good and that’s normally where most evil comes from a lot of the time. Do you think that’s true?
It’s funny, I was watching the film again today to prepare and I found myself asking at the very end “he has to do something, right?” He has to do something and then before we get the result of this action, I caught myself going “what do we think is going to happen?”
If you think that he’s going to come out of it in one piece then you think that Sam’s a good guy or you have faith in him or you have enough faith in him that he has in himself. If you think that there’s no way then you have a different perception of this character. I think Sam is incredibly dedicated to one thing which is the science. I think his intention is good in a very particular way; he’s insensitive but he’s dedicated. He doesn’t care about these patients; they’re lab rats to him, I think. He also really wants this genuinely to work as a scientist, as a man who’s looking for proof, for creation for this sort of achievement. He’s genuine in his faith that this could work; he doesn’t want to harm anyone, I think he’s just more committed to the science than the human aspect. I think that’s such an interesting thing to explore and in that split second when he goes in and that split second when something is about to happen, I think that’s really the most dramatic point of the film.
I thought about this today and I hadn’t before, this feeling when you go “what do I think is going to happen?” That tells you so much about this character because of all the things that he’s shown us and told us throughout this film your thought about what’s going to come out of that machine is a product of the way that you perceived Sam throughout the entire film.
What would you like audiences to take away from the film?
There are many takeaways that it really depends on the mood and general vibe that you go into watching this film. You can take it as a very wacky, crazy, unexpected twist and turn gooey horror story and that’s a great takeaway from this film because it’s a fun one. Then you can also take it as a really deep core question of the human experience and what does a human being do? What choices lead them to behave the way that they do? What circumstances really push a person to the edge to be able to go and do these insane crazy things and make them justifiable? I think just even like the psychological focus is so interesting in this film and it could be observed through Sam. It could be observed through Rishi, through Donna or through Linda. From all these different character angles; you get so many different angles and nuances and niches of the story, super interesting in general. I think whatever you want to take out of it you probably can, it all depends on the atmosphere and the attitude that you go in to see it with.
Thank you so much for taking the time to chat and all the best with the film.
Thank you very much; bye-bye.