It’s cool to be talking about From Dusk Till Dawn again, because I get to remind people of that one line Juliette Lewis said in the movie. I even asked Lewis what she thought of a new actress saying it.
Now I got to talk to Madison Davenport, who plays Kate Fuller on “From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series.” So far the series has only gotten to the point where the Fullers arrive at the motel. They haven’t met the Gecko Brothers (D.J. Cotrona and Zane Holtz on the show) yet. And judging from Davenport’s reaction, I think that I wasn’t the first person to ask her about Kate’s imfamous line from the movie.
CraveOnline: So the big question everyone is wondering is, will you eventually say that famous line, “Richie, would you eat my…,” you know?
Madison Davenport: Well, there was lots of debate on whether or not I would say the infamous line, but alas, we do not say it because it’s so the movie. There’s only so many little nods we can do to the movie, but I do, however, say a few other things that are a bit shocking.
Had you seen the movie From Dusk Till Dawn on your own?
Yes, yes, I did. I’ve seen it a few times on my own. I actually saw it before I auditioned and ever knew that I was going to be a part of it and I just loved that it was a completely different movie the first half of the movie than it was the second half of the movie. It was such an out of left field turn that just happened and suddenly, boom, there were vampires.
Is the show like that too where what we’ve seen so far is completely different than how it will end up?
Here’s what I love about the show and what Robert and Carlos and everyone really wants the show to be. They want there to be more of the supernatural element within the show. So you’re going to get to know more about the mythology and more about the supernatural element than you did in the movie. In the movie it was just sort of like whoa, where did that come from? Now you’re going to get to know why everything happens and it’s almost like a domino effect. I keep learning more and more about this other world. It’s so interesting. I love reading the scripts because I learn more and more every time.
We’ve already seen that Wilmer Valderrama’s character is already a vampire.
Mm-hmm, major vampire. I don’t know if you saw his teeth, but he ain’t no Edward.
Kate was maybe the most innocent character in the movie. Is she not so innocent on the show?
I think she’s still very innocent and I think she’s very good. I think it’s just in her, it’s innate for her. She’s good. She’s a good person and she’s genuinely sweet, but she’s not stupid. She knows that something’s up with her dad just suddenly pulling her and her brother out of school and she wants to get to the bottom of it.
She’s not going to just stand by and watch as her dad uproots their entire life. I do think that even though she is a bit sassy and she wants to know things, I do think she’s still very sweet. Of course when you have Richie being crazy Richie and Seth who’s a murderous bank robber, by comparison she’s squeaky clean.
If you could meet Juliette Lewis, what would you ask her?
I don’t know what I would ask her. I love her in everything she’s in. I loved her in Whip It. I loved her in this movie, in From Dusk Till Dawn. I’d probably ask her, “Would you go to lunch with me so I can talk to you forever and be your best friend?”
What if you could meet Quentin Tarantino? What would you ask him about Kate?
Oh my gosh, I’d probably asked him, “Was it terribly awkward listening to Juliette Lewis say that to you a million times?” Because I’m sure they had to get a bunch of different takes. If I could meet Quentin Tarantino, I don’t know if I’d just ask him one question. I’d probably milk it into like 500 questions. I adore Quentin Tarantino. The Kill Bill series is my favorite. I love Reservoir Dogs. I love the Grindhouse movies. Those were what really made me fall in love with both him and Robert.
Were you looking forward to fighting vampires at the end of the season?
Oh my gosh, we’ve already filmed all the way up to the last episode and those were the episodes that we were looking forward to, the ones where we get to the bar and we finally get to meet the other world. It was so much fun filming those scenes. I can’t say exactly how I vanquish some monsters but it was so much fun. I felt super kickass.
Did you have to do any training for the physical parts of “From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series?”
No, because that’s what’s so great about the show. We’re not trained assassins or trained killers. We’re the Fuller family. We’re so regular, it’s like throwing your all American family in the middle of a gladiator ring and saying, “Good luck!” We didn’t have any training, we didn’t have anything. They just pretty much hand us the weapons and say, “Do what you will.” Which I think works for the show because that’s exactly what happens.
We know the border crossing is coming up and that was such a great scene in the movie. On the series, how does Kate help them cross the border?
It’s a hard question without giving away too much, but obviously we are being held captive and I think there’s a lot of tension going on in that part of the series and I think you’re going to see the tensions definitely rise during that. The border crossing and all the tension in the RV between the Gecko Brothers and my family kind of comes to a head at that point. You’ll see the different ways that all of our family members react, like my dad reacts one way. I react another way. My brother acts a totally different way. You kind of see what our characters are going to become if you look really closely at the way that we handle that.
When they finally get to the Titty Twister, does it look exactly the same as it did in the movie?
I have to tell you, it’s incredible. They built the outside of the Twister on a rock quarry in Texas and it’s amazing. It’s like a theme park. We went up to it during the daytime so you couldn’t see all the lights and the wonderfulness that was The Titty Twister, but once it got dark and we were filming at night outside, it was amazing. The lights came on and it really did look like a theme park. It was wonderful. I’ll tell you this, we were three days away from filming in the inside of the Twister and I walked in because D.J. was showing me. I was like, “I haven’t seen it yet.”
So he took me into the set and it’s built on a soundstage. He takes me in and he goes, “So this is the Twister.” It was not painted, it was not furnished. It was still white and there were carvings and everything but it was not painted, not anything. I walked in three days later when we were about to film and it was incredible, I mean breathtaking, to see that transformation that happens in three days, it was indescribable. Robert Rodriguez walks in and he was taken aback because he’s like, “It looks the same.”
Having seen the movie, was it surreal to be in it?
Oh my God, yes. I can’t even describe it with words. It was like being in your favorite video game. It’s like getting to live out a video game. It was so much fun. Getting to see the creatures was the best.
Did doing The Possession prepare you for being in a horror series?
Well, I didn’t really get a lot of action in The Possession. I was kind of the one who kept telling people, “There’s something wrong with my sister. Why is no one believing me?” This one, it’s a whole different monster, a little bit of pun intended there. It’s so different from anything I’ve ever done.
The Possession was still creepy for everyone involved, wasn’t it?
Definitely. I think anything with children involved is scary beyond belief.
