Natalie Brown Talks CHANNEL ZERO: CANDLE COVE and THE STRAIN

As both a creature of the night with an appetite for human blood and an endearing hard worker living in rural America, Natalie Brown plays two very different types of mothers on The Strain and Channel Zero: Candle Cove, but she excels at bringing out the pure love for her children in both characters (in very different ways, as fans of The Strain can attest to). Following another powerful performance as Jessica Yolan in this week's episode of Syfy's Candle Cove, Daily Dead, along with other journalists, had the opportunity to speak with the actress about her key role in the creepypasta adaptation. [Spoiler warning for those who haven't watched the first four episodes of Candle Cove and the entire third season of The Strain.]

Natalie Brown discusses the irony of not liking to watch horror shows even though she's been a part of so many:

Natalie Brown: Yes, I was plagued by nightmares as a child. I had a recurring nightmare for years and so I've never been a fan of the horror genre only because I don't think that feeling scared is an enjoyable feeling. So I've often shunned horror and shied away from scary movies, scary shows. So it's really interesting that I'm now part of so many of them. And this one, even though I read the script, I know what happens, after watching the second episode, I had a recurring nightmare all that week thanks in no small part to The Tooth Child.

And it's interesting, because they'll say that dreaming about death doesn't necessarily indicate death. It's when you dream of teeth that you're in trouble. So The Tooth Child seems to be a manifestation of every dream of death I've ever had. So it's an appropriate week for Jessica to die. At least it's a week where everyone is feeling festive with their fears and what better way to die than All Souls' Day?

On how she got the role of Jessica:

Natalie Brown: I auditioned for it. I put myself on tape in Toronto and I found out a month and a half later once they put the cast together that I had been cast and when speaking to Craig Macneill, our director, he told me that I actually was cast in his mind from the time that he saw my first audition tape. I didn't know that, but I was thrilled to know that he saw me as Jessica and once we put the cast together, it just got more exciting by the day, and being able to work with Shaun Benson, who plays Gary Yolen, the sheriff—we have played husband and wife in, I think this was our fifth time playing husband and wife. So it was great, because we already have that backstory and relationship down, but having the pleasure of meeting and working with Fiona Shaw and Paul Schneider was the greatest thrill on the project.

On playing two very different types of mothers on The Strain and Candle Cove:

Natalie Brown: On The Strain, Kelly is sort of a Stepford strigoi wife and mother. And in Channel Zero, Jessica is a much more nurturing person, and I'm also allowed to express myself in ways that I can't as Kelly. Any instincts I had as a woman and as a human I had to keep a lid on in The Strain, because she doesn't have access to as much of an emotional palette. Although, with Jessica Yolen, there certainly weren't any opportunities for laughter or smiling. Every day was just a new iteration of every mother's nightmare. So although I had definitely more to play with, it was still sort of a limited palette of terror on both these shows.

On her initial reaction to reading her death scene for Candle Cove:

Natalie Brown: I was traumatized reading it. When I first saw it in the script, I had gotten an email before I had read to episode 4 saying, "We need to talk about your death scene in the kiddie pool." And I thought, "Do I drown in a small amount of water after having too much wine?" I had no idea. Nothing prepared me for how I was going to come to perish in a kiddie pool. [It was] the most horrifying thing I had read. I actually spoke to the first assistant director to see what we could do to have me not be present, because I wasn't sure if I would be able to survive the day.

And yet, as always in the filmmaking process, you're working with really talented, wonderful children, who, for them, this was a day of make believe. They relished in the stabbing. They thought it was great fun.

Although we did use stunt doubles. They actually said to make me feel better they were thinking of just subbing in a watermelon and giving them plastic forks and letting them have at the watermelon, so they wouldn't be as dialed into the gruesome thing that they were taking part in. But kids are resilient and have imaginations that are stronger than mine. So when we actually did it, it was less horrifying than I thought it would be. Although I think the decompression has yet to come after surviving the airing of tonight's episode. Haven't quite decompressed yet.

We finished filming in end of July. So I sort of swept some of those emotions under the carpet and they're all about to come back and haunt me this evening. So yes, I don't think I'll be watching anything scary after Halloween for a long, long time.

I had a friend give me a book on the psychology of fable, so I was better able to understand the importance of a fable and how kids are unable to process certain unconscious feelings. And a lot of the Grimm's Fairy Tales that we grew up with are a way of exercising unconscious feelings. So, clearly, I've got some dark emotions I have yet to deal with.

On working with one director (Craig Macneill) over multiple episodes on Candle Cove:

Natalie Brown: I had done it in the past. I filmed a series called Sophie in Quebec, where the one director saw us through the first through the 13th episode, and it's great to have that kind of creative continuity for the duration of a story. And because we shot Candle Cove, we block shot all six episodes like a six-hour feature, and it's a real gift to be able to approach a story from beginning to end with one consistent creator.

And there's nobody better than Craig Macneill, who had such a vision and it felt like we were making an independent feature the whole time—the way it was shot, the way he approached themes. He also brings a certain amount of levity to a very dark story. He can seem like the happiest person asking you to do the darkest deeds, and you want nothing more than to please him and his vision. And also, once I saw The Boy, the feature that he had written and directed, I knew I was in very capable hands. So there was complete trust on set.

On being stunned by Jessica's death:

Natalie Brown: Shocked. When I auditioned for the project, I had only been given the first script and I found it to be very intriguing. I knew it was only a six-episode miniseries anthology, so I was looking forward to six episodes. And it's fine to be a part of four of them, but Jessica's demise came as a huge shock, but wasn't nearly as bad to film. And again, it was such a collaboration of just really shooting the scene in an iconic way. So much of the horror is implied as opposed to shown, so filming the scene was handled expertly and delicately and I thankfully got to check out before the stabbing began. And I went home and nursed myself with a goblet of wine and just prayed for no nightmares to come.

On why Jessica was a target of the killer kids in Candle Cove:

Natalie Brown: We still have to understand more of the backstory in flashbacks, and we see that all of this is the doing of Eddie and things are coming full circle. Eddie had a lot of unfinished business and we do find out that there was jealousy on Eddie's part over the relationship that Mike and Jessica shared. And I think if Eddie had his way, he would have carried this out back when they were 12. And I know that this isn't something that Jessica picked up on at the time, but I think it's something that Mike innately knew when he was a boy, and it's one of the reasons that he did what he had to do to Eddie to protect Jessica and the others.

On how Jessica's death will affect Mike and Gary in the final two episodes:

Natalie Brown: I'm hoping profoundly. I haven't seen the episodes that follow, so I'll be anxious to see. I haven't seen tonight's episode either, so I'm as anxious as the rest of you, but I have been told that my death will not be without consequence and as the last interviewer said, the death of my character will definitely have a ripple effect for the duration of the series.

On why Jessica trusted Mike when almost no one else would:

Natalie Brown: I think that Jessica needs to believe Mike. She trusts him and knows him better than anyone else, and I'm sure she would like not to believe the horrors that are happening, but she needs to put faith in the one person that stands the best chance of putting an end to the horrors that she's experienced as a mother and also the horrors that happened to them in childhood. She knows and trusts that Mike is the key to understanding and hopefully solving the situation.

She knows that there was more at play. There's something more sinister at play, and she also trusts him professionally. She knows that he has insights into child psychology and understands children, and the shared history they have, the trauma they've experienced together. She has no choice but to trust Mike. He can protect her in ways that her sheriff husband can't.

On the romantic undertones to Mike and Jessica's relationship:

Natalie Brown: For sure, and we get to see that a little bit in tonight's episode. It was something that the both of them wondered "what if?" or "what could have been?" But they've both gone on to live their lives in different ways and it's a classic tale of unrequited love. And who knows if things hadn't gone the way they go in this evening's episode, who knows what could have happened? There's just an unbreakable bond between them that is better left undefined.

On embracing the unique roles and stories that the horror genre offers:

Natalie Brown: Yes, that which you resist persists, and I resisted horror for so long and it's definitely been persistent in the latter part of my career. And I learned so much from not shying away from that which fears us. There's something about it that resonates with audiences. People like to be scared. It also opens up so many more creative doors as an actor. The roles are that much more challenging, as are the storylines. So I feel very fortunate at the age and stage I am at in my career that I've been able to play such unique characters that pose such incredible challenges that the horror genre has provided me. So I should be grateful, not fearful, for these opportunities.

I also am involved in the first all-female horror anthology called XX that is coming out soon and it's an all-female cast, all-female creators, directors, writers, and lead actors, and that's soon to come out. And I learned so much from working with women in that genre, too. So yes, [I'm] very grateful.

Natalie talks about how she discovered that she had been cast on Channel Zero while filming her final scene on The Strain:

Natalie Brown: Well, because vampires have an aversion to sunlight, we always shoot The Strain in the winter months where we have the longest hours of night. And so we always wrap The Strain in the spring. So I was done May 1st, and because Channel Zero was a six-episode miniseries anthology, we were able to shoot all six episodes between May and July.

And it's funny, as I was filming my last-ever scene on The Strain, the last take of the last scene of my last season of The Strain, before that one door closed, my phone went off and I got the email that I had been cast in Channel Zero. So I feel very fortunate that as one door closed, another one opened.

On shooting the scene at the jail cell with Jessica's husband, Gary (Shaun Benson):

Natalie Brown: I loved shooting that scene. It was one of the first scenes that I shot on my first day, and it was a really emotional scene with Gary's character. And we are fortunate, as I said, we have played husband and wife many times before. It rarely goes well for the two of us, actually, and the irony of having the one man who was supposed to keep her and her family safe behind bars only reiterates just how important Mike is to her and the safety of her family.

On being interested in playing different characters in future seasons of Channel Zero:

Natalie Brown: I would love that. If [showrunner] Nick [Antosca] will have me, I'm more than willing. A little redemption for Jessica. Back from the dead.

Which is just great, because that's how it differs from other anthology series is that this one is unique, in that each season is not beholden to the one prior. They're completely distinct stories and it would be great to have the opportunity to play different characters.

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The next episode of Channel Zero: Candle Cove airs Tuesday, November 8th on Syfy. Stay tuned to Daily Dead for more conference call highlights and updates, and in case you missed it, check out our conference call highlights and exclusive interview with showrunner Nick Antosca.