Melissa Bolona

Movie The Neighbor

FB: How was your experience working on The Neighbour?

MB: It was one of my favourite films to work on, because it was a smaller cast of actors and we were really, really lucky to have a group of people who fit together so well. Being on set every day there was really seamless and efficient, everyone was there for the "greater good" of the movie. It was just overall such a good experience.

FB: Your character, Sarah, goes through quite an ordeal and seems a quite physical role …

MB: It was very hard for me and my biggest challenge as an actor so far, because I had to really get into character and keep up the hysteria and the sadness, and constantly being afraid, so it was a huge challenge to stay there. Especially when you're surrounded by such nice people who you really want to talk to! But it was a really rewarding experience, and thanks to Marcus Dunstan because he really helped me to stay (in character) and get the best work out of me. So yeah it ended up being a great experience as an actress.

FB: Lets talk about the videotape scene, where the kidnappers are making their ransom demand - how challenging was that to film?

MB: Well, I did have real handcuffs on me, tying me to the chair but they always had someone on set whose job it was to get me untied quickly. It was so funny though because there was one take where I had a rubber tube in my mouth as a gag, and during the first take of that I had a horrible gag reflex so during that take it must have looked very realistic because I was like choking - but not actually choking, it was my horrible gag reflex - and the whole crew were looking at each other going "do we step in?!" and I'm thinking to myself I hope they don't step in! Because it looked so good and so natural. So I think we got some good footage from that!