Whenever I see a young actor bringing a performance beyond their years, I get chills and recognize that a young star is born. Ali Skovbye brings an outstanding and very impressive performance to her character in The Corruption of Divine Providence. She plays a young teen that experiences stigmata (markings of the crucifix on head and wrists) and really carries this film till the end. It’s a very dramatic and sometimes over the top role but she handles like a pro with years of training/experience. I found out through our interview, that Ali has indeed been acting for years, hence the outstanding performance in this film. Certainly, it takes an entire team to make a film and award winning director Jeremy Torrie brings a plethora of talent together to support Ali’s greatest performance. Corey Sevier (preacher), the amazing Tantoo Cardinal (spiritual guide – Juniper Fairweather), the very talented Elyse Levesque (mother) and the incredible David La Haye (father).
Ali Skovbye has been dedicated to the craft of acting for a number of years and it’s definitely garnered much interest. You can catch her in Firefly Lane in the near future, as well as her past performances in His Perfect Obsession and Breakthrough.
I had an incredible talk with the multi-talented Ali Skovebye over Zoom and I was extremely impressed by her poise and professionalism. Without further ado, this is how the discussion went…
HNM “I understand that you enjoy playing complicated characters that are multi-layered?”
ALI “I do, ever since I started acting, I skipped the whole Barbie/commercial phase and went straight to the darker stuff. I’ve always been drawn to complex characters that have a lot of different aspects that you can work with. It’s a lot more fun when you’re open to different things.”
HNM “Is it safe to say that you’re not intimidated by action, mystery or horror films and its more about discovering the character for you?”
ALI “Yes, it’s definitely about the character. I think an actor’s job is to bring the character to life and the director’s job is to bring the story to life. I love to be able to inhabit and completely encompass another character.”
HNM “Your older sister (Tiera Skovbye) is also an actress. Did she inspire you to try it?”
ALI “Oh 100%, I was a very shy kid – someone that would hide behind their parent’s legs and didn’t want to talk to anyone or do anything. Because my sister was already into acting, my parents had asked me if I wanted to give it a try and I said no immediately, but as I got older I started seeing my sister doing more of it and I wanted to be just like my older sister, so I started doing it and started enjoying it myself.”
HNM “Because you enjoy playing multi-layered complicated characters, did you seek out this role or was it a happy accident?”
ALI “I think it was a happy accident, we filmed it about 3 years ago. When I got the request for a self-tape, I had the opportunity to read it and loved the fact that this character could not catch a break; there were so many aspects of the character that I loved and in the story that I loved. Ultimately, I adored the cast and are still friends with them till this day. After I booked it, I flew to Winnipeg a week later and we started filming.”
HNM “Given this film was your first lead role, did you feel added pressure coming into the project?”
ALI “A little bit, I think I was mainly excited and grateful to be part of it… but definitely there was an added pressure of wanting to do the show justice and wanting to do it well, but mostly I was excited for it.”
HNM “In this film, you play a teenage girl, Jeanne Seraphin that is struck with stigmata and is often bleeding from her wrists and head in many scenes. Is this the first film where you’ve had to be covered in blood?”
ALI “It’s definitely the most blood that I’ve ever done. I had to redo my hair twice or 3 times a day and pretty much every day. By the end of the shoot, my hair was so dry, damaged and dead because we washed it so much and had to restyle it/re-curl it because it would literally be everywhere. There’s also a scene where I’m covered in mud, and they kept applying it and reapplying it – we ended up having to book a hotel room 20 minutes from the set and they sent the hair stylist with me to stand in the shower for an hour and a half to get all of the mud out. It was literally 1 ½ hours and the drain was so full of… we just left.”
HNM “This is a dark film that deals with both violence and religion. How did you prepare for the role?”
ALI “It all happened very quickly, so I didn’t have as much time as I would’ve liked. The director Jeremy Torrie was very open to collaboration, so with 1 ½ weeks of pre-production – Elyse Levesque, me and Jeremy would sit in a conference room at the hotel and we went through the entire script twice. We went through every scene, every line, blocked everything out and worked out the things that weren’t working. We created something that we all loved and felt was true and natural to ourselves and we had put in the time to make it our own. I also did some research on the religious beliefs and aspects of it, because I wasn’t very aware of the religious teachings/ beliefs.”
HNM “What did you enjoy most about your character?”
ALI “How strong and resilient she is. She can’t catch a break and after she’s gone through so much, something else always happens. Even at the end of the film you can see that she’s still strong and not giving up. She keeps fighting, she does what she thinks is right and tells the truth. She’s much stronger than I think I could be in that situation.”
HNM “There are some emotionally charged scenes in this film. How would you unwind after a gruelling day?”
ALI “It’s hard and I think I try really hard to distinguish my working life from my personal life. I think you just need to remember that it’s just another day at work, you’re fine, go home and drink a coffee and relax. No matter what time I get home, I always need an hour to unwind, so I’ll sit and put on a happy show and drink some tea. We usually have an hour drive to the set and back, so it helps to forget about everything.”
HNM “How was the food?”
ALI “The food was good but I’m a picky eater. When we shot it I was only 15 and was set in my ways of very plain bland eating and feel like I didn’t try a lot of stuff and instead stuck with the basics of what I knew… but it was good.”
HNM “Do you have any great stories from the film set?”
ALI “The shower story is something I’ll always remember because we had that 20-minute drive to the hotel and they’d lay down a tarp inside the car for me to sit on. They used a mud face mask mixture, so it wasn’t dirty mud but when it dries, it gets really crunchy. It was cold, so in between scenes I would
stand between the heaters and warm up. It would literally dry and infuse with my skin and when I was in the car heading to the hotel, it was crunching and peeling. I remember thinking that it was the most uncomfortable feeling ever. However, the day in itself was really great, because after we were done filming that scene, the director had surprised me with flowers and a card – so it was really sweet and it made it my favourite day.”
HNM “If you had to compete in a dance competition against someone from the film, who would it be?”
ALI “I feel like it would be Elyse, because we spent the most time together and had gotten so close throughout the course of the film, so I feel like it would be so much fun and we could go over the top with it. I don’t know if she’s a dancer but I feel like she could be very agile and do anything.”
HNM “You float in this film. Were you attached to wires or was it special effects?”
ALI “For the church scene, they created this white box for me to stand on that would rise up. The camera went up a little, so it looked like I went higher. For the bedroom stuff, they had made a box and put a green screen over it and they also had a green screen in the back. I would lay on top of it on my back and they added Visual Effects to it.”
HNM “Have you played the lead in other films since finishing this one?”
ALI “I was a lead in another film before this one when I was about 12, that also shot in Winnipeg. I shot in Winnipeg three times, so I guess they love me. I also starred in His Perfect Obsession and the TV series I’m working on now (Firefly Lane).”
HNM “Do you have any special talents that most people are not aware of?”
ALI “Not that I can think of… but I was in singing lessons and dance, up until grade 11 and I’ve also been horseback riding since I was little. I was on a club volleyball team too, so I’ve always had a lot going on and rarely had a day off. Although my parents knew I loved acting, they also wanted me to try a lot of other different things.”
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