Mercedes McNab

To most fans, Mercedes McNab is best known for playing inept vampire Harmony Kendall on both Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel. After appearing on Boston Public and posing for Playboy in 2006, McNab landed a major role in Hatchet, which is gaining huge momentum within the fan community. As the film gets set to slice its way to box-office glory, we tracked down Mercedes to get the goods on this throwback to old school horror, working with Robert Englund and Tony Todd, and her thoughts on the film’s initial NC-17 rating.

UGO: So what else do you have on the go today?

MERCEDES MCNAB: Well, I just finished working on a project last week up in Vancouver, so I’m taking a little break.

UGO: Aren’t you from there originally?

MERCEDES: Yeah, I’m usually there mostly for work, but I have an aunt, an uncle, and a cousin that live there, so I get back to see them every now and then.

UGO: Judging by the festival reaction, it looks like you guys have a real hit on your hands with Hatchet.

MERCEDES: [laughs] I hope so.

UGO: Well, the film is killing everything on the festival circuit.

MERCEDES: Yeah, we’ve had a good run so far and I hope it continues.

UGO: The timeline of when the film was shot has me a bit confused. Was the film made in 2006?

MERCEDES: Yeah, no wait... it was in the Tribeca Film Festival in 2006, so it was made in 2005. Now it’s finally coming out on September 7, 2007.

UGO: Now that film crews are finally returning to New Orleans, what was it like to film there?

MERCEDES: Actually, we filmed most of it in California and then we have a small portion in New Orleans. I didn’t go to New Orleans, unfortunately, so I’ve never been. They made us a big swamp in California instead.

UGO: What was it like to work with Adam Green on his second film as a director?

MERCEDES: He’s awesome. He’s a really talented writer and director, and he’s really inspiring and passionate about his work. He’s got a childlike enthusiasm that helps to get people inspired and excited to work with him, and the conditions we worked in weren’t the greatest. Without him, I don’t think we would have made it.

UGO: Did Adam give you a lot of direction or did you have a lot more freedom to do your own thing?

MERCEDES: Well, the characters were written pretty self explanatory and he’s a really talented writer, so we didn’t have a lot of questions. He pretty much cast the film with people he knew would do it as he had imagined. As a director, he really helped us. He wouldn’t let us see Victor Crowley until he actually saw him for the first time on film as well. So all of our reactions when we first see him are real and Adam kept planting the seeds about how scary he was.

UGO: Well, the cast looks like a who’s who of horror franchises. What was it like to work with Robert Englund and Tony Todd?

MERCEDES: They’re awesome. They’re totally down to earth and great veterans of horror. They’re just great gentlemen and they really know what they’re doing. We also have Kane Hodder and he got to do two characters. Robert Englund and Tony Todd weren’t playing villains, so they all liked those parts because it was something different from playing Freddy or Candyman.

UGO: Hatchet is being described as old school American horror. From your view, what does that mean?

MERCEDES: It’s about when horror films used to be fun. Now we have all of these weird torture films that when you leave and go home, you’re afraid to be alone. It’s more of a fun roller coaster ride where the audience can get into it; cheering and laughing.

UGO: What did you think about the MPAA initially giving the movie an NC-17 rating?

MERCEDES: I don’t really know how the ratings system works all that well, but I have seen the uncut version of the film and it definitely didn’t warrant an NC-17 as far as I’m concerned. I’ve watched R rated films that were way more graphic than Hatchet. But like I said, I don’t know how the MPAA works so it’s not my place to say. I should say that our death scenes are very gory, but they’re funny. It’s not something that could ever happen, so it’s more of the shock from all of the blood, as opposed to really grossing you out.

UGO: What can you tell us about your character?

MERCEDES: I play Misty, an opportunistic social climbing girl from L.A. She wants to be an actress and gets hooked up with this guy who is a so-called producer and along with another girl they go on a haunted tour to talk about working together. So that’s how all of the characters come together on this haunted Bayou tour. We get stranded in a bad part of the swamp and are attacked by Victor Crowley [Kane Hodder].

UGO: Is there a scene that you think will really shock us?

MERCEDES: Someone gets a sandblaster to their lower jaw. It’s a pretty incredible death scene, I must say.

UGO: Wow, I am shocked. So what do you think of the Hatchet Army?

MERCEDES: It’s awesome. It’s really great that people got on board and some of them have seen the movie and some haven’t. But they’re just big fans of the genre and in some way want to save it. There are so many horror films being made right now that the genre is sort of going crazy. There’s not a lot of quality out there, so there’s this cool group of people that want to go see the movie. They’re hugely supportive of us and it’s really flattering.