A hit last year at the Fantasia Film Festival and the After Dark Horrorfest, Mulberry Street is finally arriving on DVD this month.  We were fortunate enough to chat with one of the stars of this allegorical and deeply felt horror film in which New York is once again ravaged, this time by an enemy from within…

Make no mistake, when you meet Bo Corre she does not exude a B-movie vibe.  Yes, she is outgoing and down-to-earth, but her theater-trained background and literary sensibility lend her observations on Mulberry Street an interesting and perhaps atypical perspective.  Her character, Kay, is at the center of a neighborhood-scale apocalypse that does not skimp on nihilistic bloodletting.  Yet when I spoke with her, it occurred to me that in addition to looking for the obvious zombie movie antecedents to the film, one would do well to connect part of its power all the way back to classical tragedy.

Firefox News:  These days a lot of actors and filmmakers try to distance themselves from the label of “horror.”  Which means that even when they make and promote such films, they often try to describe them as something else, as thrillers, fantasies, and so on.  When you signed on for Mulberry Street did you have any qualms about being linked to the horror genre as a result?

Bo Corre:  No, I didn't, because I never saw Mulberry Street as a typical horror movie.  The beauty of the film is that it transcends its genre.  To me, it's more like a futuristic nightmare.  After reading the script, I could see that Nick [Damici] and Jim [Mickle] had something serious to say, politically and socially, about our changing times.  And yet, as serious as the subject matter is, we also had a lot of fun playing rat people.

Meeting over a sink:  actors Antone Pagan and Bo Corre have molds taken of their teeth during the production of Mulberry Street.  (photo courtesy of Bo Corre)

That's interesting. Yes, the film has science fiction and thriller elements, but it's telling that you don't see Mulberry Street as a “typical” horror movie.  I certainly agree with that, but sometimes this notion can imply that when a horror movie gets too good, it's somehow no longer horror—people have such low expectations for the genre these days.  In a general way, what fears about contemporary society or politics would you say the film addresses?

Since the '70s, New York City has seen incredible changes in its neighborhoods.  More and more landlords and developers are evicting the poor, the working class, artists and the elderly, because they know they can make more money with "professional" people.  This has created a class struggle in a city that was built by working class people, people who looked out for each other—just like the characters in Mulberry Street.  I think that's a central theme in the film, that we're losing our souls and our dignity, our humanness.  You can also see this in the way we treat our soldiers, with their physical and emotional scars.  You can see that same indifference when the epidemic breaks out in the film, and the response is pathetic, just like it was in New Orleans.

Do you think that such themes help account for the positive audience response to Mulberry Street?  In New York, where I saw it, the crowd was really into its characters, whom I think they recognized from their own neighborhoods. You were at that screening, too, so I'm wondering about your take on how audiences react to the film, particularly its downbeat tone?

Mulberry Street is a film that people relate to on a lot of levels. The fact that some of the themes are downbeat only makes it more realistic. It's a very bold film in that sense, and I think people are surprised at how powerful it is. I loved the different reactions during the screening;people got the humor, they were disgusted, they were scared. They were emotionally taken by the fate of some of the characters. It's a film that stays with you.

I think you hit on something by mentioning the film's realism.  None of the sets look like sets—they look like apartments you've actually been in.  None of the actors look like celebrities—they look like people you'd meet in a supermarket or a bar.  Please describe the shoot a bit and how that realism was achieved.  I know it was in New York in August and the heat must have been…

...hotter than July! A lot of the shooting was done in the kitchen of one apartment, which, by the way, we had to repaint three times to make it look like three different sets.  But we couldn’t use the AC because it made too much noise when we shot.  The heat was so unbearable that in one of my scenes with Javier Picayo, who played my teenaged son, he actually fell asleep.  Which worked beautifully, because in the scene I was supposed to wake him up!  During the day the heat affected everyone; it was almost like a character itself.  Fortunately, the night shoots when the real rats came out were a lot cooler.  Going home in the morning after some of my bloodier scenes, I got some worried looks from people on their way to work—they noticed the dried ratzoid blood on my legs.  Obviously I had missed cleaning off a couple of spots.  And I was more wary of the rats on the train tracks than I’ve ever been as a New Yorker. [laughs] Considering that it was August, and we were on a tight schedule, and people were exhausted at the end, I was amazed by the teamwork.

My sense is that a lot of the cast and crew are also New Yorkers. Did that help during rehearsals or the shoot itself—the fact that many of you have similar life experiences relative to the setting?  That you're used to seeing rats on the subway, for example. Or is that the sort of thing that professional actors don't need to rely on?  That is, it wouldn't have mattered much whether the story was set in, say, L.A. or Toronto instead.

I think that a good actor with a vivid imagination can come from anywhere, and react to most situations. But you guessed right—most of our cast and crew were native New Yorkers, or they’ve lived here for many years, like me.  And that definitely gives the film its grittiness. We know in our bones what it means to struggle in a tough place like New York, and what it takes to survive.  I mean, it’s pretty amazing how so many regular people and eccentric people and artists and radicals and beggars and the homeless manage to live, side by side, and shape this city.Being actors who live here, we’re always affected by our surroundings and the energies around us.  I seriously don’t think this story—or the film—could have played out anywhere else but here.

Although the reviews of Mulberry Street have been positive from all quarters, I'm concerned that that the film’s "New Yorkness" may work against it in terms of finding a mass audience on DVD.  Or maybe not.  The virus-zombie sub-subgenre has been increasingly popular, and using rats is both a horror staple and historically resonant (i.e., the Black Death). So let's talk about the ratzoids for a moment.  Was the film shot in script-sequence so that you got to see other actors before you made the transition to rat-creature?  Is it fun working on a set like that, or in your case was this aspect a bit more somber given how heartrending Kay's transformation is?

I think the “New Yorkness” works both ways—the upside is, there’s no place like New York.  Watching films like Martin Scorsese’s After Hours, and Carlito’s Way with Al Pacino made me pack my bags and move here.  People all over the world have their own relationship to the city through the movies, whether they’ve been here or not.  Those who have will get a kick out of where the story is set, in NoLita, which is the northern part of Little Italy, in lower Manhattan.  Sure, there are nuances that might be unfamiliar to people who aren’t familiar with the city. I mean, I’m not Italian but I love The Sopranos.  I don’t get all of the inside jokes, but I still enjoy where it takes me.  About being a ratzoid—most of the film was shot in sequence. I know that Kay’s [part] was, so I did see some of the rat-creatures come alive before I became one myself.

The full horror of transformation:  Kay (Bo Corre) goes from being one of us to one of them in Mulberry Street.  (photo courtesy of Bo Corre)

Which reminds me that as the makeup team was putting hair on my ears and rat teeth in my mouth and pale bluish color to my face, there was horror on the set because everyone thought I looked too cute!  ‘You look like an elf,’ they laughed.  But when I started dripping blood... [laughs] Dipping my feet in pools of blood, I felt like I was five years old, so that was lots of fun. You stay in the moment and let your adrenaline go.  As for Kay’s character, it’s sad that she never fully received the love she wanted from Clutch, which he wanted too.  The infected blood came between them.

Yes, as I mentioned in the review, part of the oddball, bittersweet charm of the movie is that you and Nick seem like you're acting in romantic comedy that never quite gets off the ground.  Which tells me that both of you are hardly limited to horror movies in terms of range.  So what's next for you personally?  Are you returning to the screen anytime soon, or should folks be looking for you elsewhere?

I really enjoyed working with Nick, he’s a terrific actor.  I’m glad you liked our chemistry.  Acting with him felt very natural.  There are so many terrific directors I’d love to work with—Steven Soderbergh, Guillermo del Toro, the Coen brothers, the Coppolas, Julian Schnabel, Martin Scorsese.  But my heart is also in the theater and I’m in the process of starting a theater company called A STO’NY BRIDGE that will bring actors, directors and playwrights from New York and Stockholm together.  The idea was born a year ago when I performed with my colleagues from The Actors Studio in Stockholm.  In the meantime I’m very excited about the voice of Lars Noren, who is Sweden’s most provocative playwright.  The power of his plays and their messages—their existential questions—are changing the theater landscape in Europe.  I just performed two different readings of Noren’s plays at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater with David Margulies, Lee Grant, Mary Stuart Masterson and Robert LaVelle.  Hopefully, his work will find its American audience.  For me, it’s all part of the actor’s process—keeping the flame alive, doing the work that speaks to you, constantly developing your craft.  It’s all a part of the journey.

Wow, sounds like you’re busy these days—which is why I appreciate all the more your taking some time to talk with us.  Thanks very much.