Exclusive Interview: Actress Alexa Vega on The Devil’s Carnival and More

Alexa Vega: It was super last minute; he actually came to me like three days ago, and it just sort of happened. He had a couple of characters that he was trying to nail down and work them into one role because one of the actresses dropped out. From there, we just started playing around with Wick’s character and the role so what started out a pretty small, minor character ended up being one that pops up a lot throughout The Devil’s Carnival in quite a few scenes.

Dread Central: Tell us more about Wick and how she plays into this world of The Devil’s Carnival.

Alexa Vega: Wick’s only in two songs, but she’s kind of all over the place; secretly, I think she feels like she could run this place much better than anyone else so I’ve given her that kind of attitude. She’s this crazy clown that loves to torment people, and she rules over her Woe-Maidens, who kind of do Wick’s bidding. She loves to find the joke within someone’s torment- whether it’s a father looking for his son or a girl being whipped in front of an audience. That’s the kind of girl Wick is.

Dread Central: How much fun is it reuniting with a bunch of your Repo! family members on this, especially since it’s a completely different world for all of you to play in this time around?

Alexa Vega: It’s so great to be reuniting with the Repo! family for this project because we all bonded together so closely making that movie, and it was something really unique and incredible, so to get to make another unique project with this ‘family’ just feels so awesome, and I think we all enjoy this and we all enjoy working together. I think The Devil’s Carnival definitely has its own vibe outside of Repo!, which is cool, but I can definitely see why there are those comparisons.

Yes, we’re actors and we go where the work is, but in general there aren’t movies like Repo! and there aren’t movies like The Devil’s Carnival really being made very often these days. Darren truly loves creating these wacky and inventive projects, and while we’re making these for a smaller audience, I think it fulfills all of us creatively because we don’t really have outlets like this out there for us to continue doing.

Dread Central: Since you’re an actress that so many people have watched grow up throughout your career so far, would you say that Wick is definitely a big transitional moment for you? She’s certainly nothing like Shiloh was in Repo!.

Alexa Vega: This character is so unlike anything I’ve ever played and definitely a 180 from Shiloh. Shiloh was a sweet, innocent girl, and Wick is just nuts. I really love the challenge of completely transforming myself like this because it’s so different than what fans are expecting me to look like and that’s pretty cool. Keep people guessing- it makes things way more interesting.

Dread Central: I know that The Devil’s Carnival is a perfect example of truly indie filmmaking, which is never an easy feat for anyone on board; does Darren’s enthusiasm for Terrance’s material help keep you motivated when you’re dealing with things like frigid temperatures, wind storms and shooting long hours overnight?

Alexa Vega: His enthusiasm, his creativity for sure were big factors, but also what the project entailed was a huge draw for me and makes all the late nights in the cold worth it. There’s also who’s involved with The Devil’s Carnival that made me really want to be a part of it, too. This isn’t just some weekend project that Darren or Terrance slapped together at the last minute; there is a well-oiled machine of filmmaking going on within all this chaos, and while this is a low-budget project, it is well-orchestrated, and a lot of thought went into every tiny detail inside this carnival. When things work out like they have on The Devil’s Carnival, you just learn to move along quickly to keep up with everyone and just jump right in.

The best part about a project like this is that there are no egos; we’re all doing this project because we genuinely love it, we believe in Darren and we’re all excited to be part of something different and to get to be truly creative in a business that doesn’t always let you be creative.