‘Nightmare Cinema’ Actress Sarah Withers Shares How Acting In Horror Isn’t That Scary

From the Bay Area to rising up in Hollywood, actress Sarah Elizabeth Withers knew acting was for her from an early age. Like most of us, growing up watching The Disney Channel was the norm, but for Withers seeing That’s So Raven and Lizzie McGuire sparked the acting bug that led her to take classes at A.C.T in San Francisco then later studying at USC (University of Southern California) in the BFA (Bachelor of Fine Arts) program. Still going strong pursing her acting career, Sarah Withers graciously took the time to chat with Glambergirlblog about her big on-screen break, working in horror, and balancing her career with her personal life.

This summer Sarah starred in one of the segments from the highly acclaimed anthology horror film “Nightmare Cinema” featuring Mickey Rourke as The Projectionist and many famed horror directors. Praise for the Alejandro Brugués directed segment “The Thing in the Woods” was unanimous with Withers as the lead protagonist Samantha in the short bringing all your favorite slasher film clichés with a twist. “Alejandro, who directed it, is such a funny guy and when we were filming it I had no idea that it was going to be so comedic,” the actress said further explaining why she feels her segment was an automatic fan fav.

“I think why people resonate with it so much is because it’s really an homage to ’80’s slasher films, so it plays on all of the troupes in terms of what happens and character types. My character Samantha is…..literally in the audition I noticed it was for ‘former Homecoming queen type’ so I’m sort of the girl next door,” the actress shared. “In the short we start in the last third of the film. Alejandro was explaining that everybody knows what happens in the first two-thirds of a slasher film, cabin in the woods type thing, so he wanted to start with me already drenched in blood running through the woods and we’re just sort of exploring the last part of the film. I’m running through the woods from a Welder who is burning everybody.”

Photo: Cranked Up Films/ ‘The Thing in the Woods’ still of Sarah Withers

A masked killer chasing you seems pretty terrifying right? But it doesn’t play that way of set; at least for Sarah. “Acting in a horror film is so different from watching one. First of all it’s you in it so…obviously you’re taking the role seriously, but in terms of the stakes you know you’re playing.”

Yet Sarah found herself getting lost in the fear. “I haven’t done a lot of horror auditions or worked on a lot of scary stuff until this point and what I realized is when you pretend as though it’s absolutely real you start to feel that energy kick in. I never screamed at the top of my lungs, thank God I never had a reason to, so when you hear yourself you’re like holy sh*t. That’s kind of freaky. So it’s kind of like just doing it like it’s real and it starts to feel different.”

A different experience Sarah did have working on “Nightmare Cinema” was on the back-end in production and seeing the visual effects before they came to life on screen. “Not to give away any spoilers, but they did have to do a mold of my head. Seeing how they did all that stuff was super cool. It’s so artistic. Then the other thing that I really loved was everyone on set was so kind. I only have experience really on a few major sets, but everyone I talked to on set was talking about how ‘oh yeah I’ve been in horror for a really long time and we’re really well-known for just being super agreeable and light-hearted because we get out all of our darkness through horror films and working on them.” She agreed with that sentiment.

Photo: Leire Baztarrica 

Balancing work and play is always a conundrum despite whatever field you work in. Sarah gave insight on how she stays sane while developing her career. “That’s something that I think about all the time. When focusing on your career you need to be in a certain head space and have that momentum going. For me I find what’s really helpful is finding routines, things that sort of ground me so I can have better focus, Withers said.”

“I really enjoy meditating. I wouldn’t use “enjoy” necessarily [laugh], but I really do love the rewards of meditating because I have more clarity and focus. I definitely feel more grounded and that helps me so much to be fully present with whatever I’m doing, so I’m so much more productive.”

Moving forward; Sarah is always auditioning and meeting with casting directors to build up her brand in the industry. She also has a recurring role as Heather in the 90’s inspired coming of age series Play by Play which Withers is hoping will find a streaming service home this year.

Keep up with Sarah on social media for updates on projects she’s working on @SarahEWithers on Instagram and Twitter. Also be sure to check out her official website SarahElizabethWithers.com for everything Sarah.

Watch Sarah Withers in the trailer for “Nightmare Cinema,” now available on video on demand, in the clip below. Share your thoughts in the comments.

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Cover Photo: Leire Baztarrica