British actress Juno Temple stars via flashback sequences as Merrin Williams, the murdered girlfriend of Daniel Radcliffe’s tormented Ig Perrish in Alexandre Aja’s supernatural thriller, Horns.
Based on Joe Hill’s novel, Ig wakes after a night of heavy drinking to learn Merrin has been brutally assaulted and murdered. He’s being blamed as her killer. And for some reason, goatlike horns are popping from his forehead.
Temple is a busy actress who has taken on varied roles since her first small part in 2000 period drama Pandaemonium, directed by her father, Julien Temple. She’s done studio dramas including The Other Boleyn Girl and The Three Musketeers as well as edgy indies including Afternoon Delight, where she played a manipulative stripper.
Horns premiered at TIFF 2013, which is when Temple talked to the Star. Horns screens in Cineplex theatres for one night, Oct. 27, then goes to video on demand Oct. 28.
This is her first time working with Radcliffe, although she auditioned for a Harry Potter film: “I don’t remember what the character was (various online sources claim it was Luna Lovegood in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix). It was way back when. I’m glad I waited until now. I really didn’t know him from Harry Potter, I wasn’t a diehard Harry Potter fan. I saw him in (the play) Equus, and I thought that was such a brave performance.”
She and Radcliffe are both 25: “Exactly the same age,” she says, adding she is two days older. “Two days wiser.”
On her character in Horns: “She has a supernatural goodness. I’m playing Ig’s memory of my character. I’m not playing Merrin proper. I’m playing this perfect memory of her, or heartbreaking memory and I love the way they shot me because I do look like a kind of memory.”
On doing onscreen nudity, including a love scene with Radcliffe in Horns: “It’s an interesting thing. There is a moment where that’s scary and then it becomes kind of liberating. It’s just what this character is doing. It’s not my body anymore. It’s other characters’ bodies. I’m very European about that. I grew up with the female body is a beautiful thing and what I love so much about acting is if you have insecurities in your real life about your body, you have to forget them. This is not about you anymore … no one’s going to judge me because I am being somebody else.”
On CGI (she played a computer-generated fairy in Maleficent) versus real-life work: “I absolutely love your real sweat being caught on camera and your hair being caught in your face and if you cry your snot all over yourself, just keep going with it. But it was interesting to learn (to work with CGI).”
On Radcliffe: “It’s so great that (Alexandre Aja) cast Daniel because Daniel is such a hungry actor who is so ready to play amazing roles. The performance he gives is extraordinary.”
Marilyn Monroe is her muse: “My room at home was covered in posters of Marilyn Monroe. She has been a huge inspiration for me. The thing that I find so absolutely bewitching about her was her beauty and animalism and sexuality … and this crazy innocent vulnerability and sometimes deep-rooted sadness on camera. And I’ve always loved her for that. And she was so funny.”
posted by Ana 
posted on Apr 25, 2015 
