Barbara Hershey delivers powerful performance in ‘Left to Die’
Exclusive Interview by Michael Aaron Gallagher of StayFamous.Net
Barbara Hershey
Based on the true story of Sandra Chase, a woman searched at the border and falsely accused of drug smuggling, the Lifetime original movie Left to Die premiered on November 4.
With a powerful and emotional performance by Emmy award-winning actress Barbara Hershey (Black Swan, Once Upon a Time), the movie follows her struggle to survive, while imprisoned in Ecuador.
Co-star actress Rachael Leigh Cook (Broken Kingdom), is also superb in her role as Sandra’s daughter Tammi, capturing the hope and perseverance of a woman desperate to save her mother’s life.
In a recent interview with StayFamous.Net, Barbara talked about her co-star and how she made such a dramatic transformation on screen.
Michael Aaron Gallagher: “What do you think Rachael Leigh Cook brings to her role as your daughter and how would you describe her performance?”
Barbara Hershey: “I love what she did…. I think she’s a beautiful actress. She’s a beautiful human being. She’s physically beautiful. She’s naturalistic, intelligent, vulnerable, tough. I mean she just sort of has all these fantastic qualities as an actor and as a person. And she brought all that to this role, which was a hard role, because it’s always reacting to this circumstance that her mother was going through… How to give that variety and depth – I was really impressed with her, obviously.”
Barbara Hershey and Vincent Irizarry star in the Lifetime Original Movie “Left to Die.”
Michael Aaron Gallagher: “How did you as an actress make the physical transition from looking so healthy and happy to eventually portraying a woman who has physically and emotionally given up hope?”
Barbara Hershey: “I don’t think ultimately she gave up hope. Strangely enough I think she found her strength, but what she went through to get to that point was – yeah, there was hopelessness. And I kind of went through the five stages of grief, you know, the ones that they have for people with cancer and facing death.
How I did it physically, because she also has this disease, scleroderma, and all these physical things happening to her, I had to chart it very carefully… We were shooting wildly out of order, so within a day, one minute I was in a dungeon with rats and the next minute we were dancing in the streets of Quito before any of it happened. So I had to really graph it and make it really clear as to where we were at every moment for all departments, including myself.”
Produced by SONY Pictures Television, Left to Die airs at 9 p.m. ET/PT November 4 on Lifetime.
Barbara Hershey delivers powerful performance in ‘Left to Die’
Copyright 2012 by Michael Aaron Gallagher
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