"Flower #6 from the Powder Room segment of FLOWERS, actress Makaria Tsapatoris.

 

Ronnie Sortor:  What’s your favorite movie?

Makaria Tsapatoris:  Well, I have a vast plethora of favorite movies so I'll just name a few.. Labyrinth and Dark Crystal, Natural Born Killers, Day of the Dead, Pitch Black.  My fav tv series is Peter Chungs Aeon Flux (not the movie,the actual series and shorts) on Liquid Television and MTV...

 

R.S.  How did you get involved with FLOWERS?

M.T.  I got involved with FLOWERS thru Phil.  We had been cyber pals for a couple years and would chat about making films.  He posted about making a horror movie so we got into talking about it and everything kinda just went from there.  It fell into place rather easily once things got going, we are fortunate for that.

 

R.S.  Have you worked on any other movies before or since?

M.T.  I've been a part of helping make and appeared in few other horror films.. "The Unholy Sideshow" director: Matt Broomfield from the Squidling Brothers  (I played a zombie and helped build sets)..'I.B.S' director Mike O'Mahony of Maniac Films.  I have a very gruesome and epic death scene, it's also naughty.  You can actually pick that up at Best Buy now, won some awards..  I had a bit part in Kat Lehmer's soon to be released vampire film 'Mortal"  And lastly but not leastly I spent a year in pre-production as Micheil Knapp's Assistant Director for his movie' The Barbecue'...we have yet to film that flick but it was a helluva lot of work being A.D.  Managing actors and having rehearsals, auditions, fundraisers and meetings, and a helluva lot of fun. That movie will hopefully still get made one day (holds a candle up)....FLOWERS was the last real movie I've worked on but I have starred in a couple small indie art shorts by Brandon Lord Ross and his crew.

 

R.S.  Phil said he was pretty sick during the Powder Room shoot.  That was one explanation for how so many of the takes went on for a such a LOOONNNNG time!  You have the longest shot in the movie: 2 and 1/2 minutes! ..which is almost unheard of in any movie!  Did you run-through and rehearse a lot before shooting?

M.T.  I practiced it a bunch by myself before my audition, and then again before we shot it.  (Phil had videoed my audition so I had that to fall back on when it was time to shoot as it was at least 6 or 7 months later) Also because half of my scene had to be a one shot take due to the nature, we spent a while on the lead up so as to get as much footage as possible.

 

R.S.  I always comment to people, "Makaria, the Powder Room girl has the most amazing face! Every moment, it almost morphs, changing from one frame to the next. She's AMAZING!" Do you have formal training in acting or are you just a very talented natural?

M.T.  Wow, thank you!  I appreciate that compliment very much ..I do have experience in the world of Theater and acting as well as live Haunting for Halloween attractions..

 

R.S.  On many low-budget movies, actors also work behind the scenes. I know that's very much the case with FLOWERS. You're credited with costuming and wardrobe. You made those awesome dresses, correct?  Did you design them or work from something Phil sketched?

M.T.  The dress designs were definitely Phil's idea but he gave me creative freedom on them and that was awesome.  I loved creating their look.  He bought them and I deconstructed and re-purposed them with fire, tea staining and a whole lot of hand-sewing.  I became very attached to them and to the Flowers who wore them.. each one was unique.

 

R.S.  What other behind-the-scenes work did you contribute?

M.T.  Well, there was quite a lot that went into it that.  I was dedicated and happy to devote my time to it.  Aside from acting and wardrobe, I acted as a sort of conceptual support person and sounding board for the Writer/Director Phil Stevens as he worked through his ideas for the film during pre-production. I also know a lot of talented peeps and asked my very dear friend Kara Christiansen as well as Tanya Paoli (whom I worked with on the film project "The Barbecue" I mentioned prior) to audition and they nailed it amazingly.  I also asked my incredible friend Anastasia to come in as our main SFX artist (whom I think is one of THE absolute best in Philly)  And when she decided to also audition she blew us away.  It was her first time acting but she was straight up wicked at it...  I helped paint and dress some of the sets, held the lighting for certain scenes and shots as well as some grunt work like hauling piles and piles of muddy dirt out of Phils' house.  And of course a helluva lot of promoting! lol

 

R.S.  Your character is the only one without a backstory flashback. Where did you draw your inspiration/motivation for your character? If you were to fill in the blank, how would you imagine what happened to put your character in the killer's house?

M.T.  Actually I had came up with a background story for my Flower.. The basic idea was that she was maybe a run-away, living on the streets doing what she could for money and had attempted suicide.  I imagined her murder happening under some bridge after she got out of the hospital. She wished for death and got it.  Full of regrets. Fuckin' sad.  lol

 

R.S.  You still keep in touch with the other FLOWERS girls, right?

M.T.  Very much.  Me and the girls are hella tight, mad respect and love to them always.  I'm blessed to have met Krystal Fitch on the set cuz she's the best and of course my girls whom I brought into the project are my dear hearts as well. Flower Power! Pahah! I'm a dork ;P

 

R.S.  Do you have any stories from the FLOWERS set that the readers may be interested in?

M.T.  There's a funny memory i can share,, The night of Kystal's shoot under the floorboards we gathered up this water bug that was crawling about the outside of the house and must have spent 40 minutes just trying to shoot this bug creeping along the pipe properly with the lighting and everything.  It just wouldn't cooperate!  So when I saw the film and saw that that little bugger had made the final cut I was like, "All right! Go li'l water bug, you did it!"

 

R.S.  Last questions: What's next for you? Are there any other movies that you're working on?

M.T.  Actually just today I got a call from Micheil Knapp, the director of 'The Barbecue' telling me we maaay be starting back production on that flick very soon!  Movies can take a while to make, here's hopin'!  Other than that I'll just see what comes my way. I still have an Army of Puppets to build on the back burner, too.  And I'd like to have a band again at some point...