Meet Terrifier Star Lauren LaVera, the Heart and Soul of the Franchise

Michael Myers and Ghostface met their match with Laurie Strode and Sidney Prescott, respectively, and now Art the Clown has met his courtesy of Lauren LaVera’s Sienna Shaw in the Terrifier franchise.

For every larger-than-life slasher villain, there’s usually a determined final girl there to stop them. If Terrifier (2016) was Art’s (David Howard Thornton) introduction, then Terrifier 2 (2022) was Sienna’s origin story, establishing her as the co-lead of the indie franchise thanks to LaVera’s equally emotional and physical performance. Terrifier mastermind Damien Leone recently told THR that LaVera’s Sienna is not only his favorite character, but that she’s also the “heart and soul” of his successful franchise.

“It’s just as much her franchise as it is Art the Clown’s at this point,” Leone told The Hollywood Reporter in a recent interview ahead of Oct. 11th’s theatrical release of Terrifier 3.

LaVera has long been an accomplished martial artist, boxer and kickboxer, with proficiency in a number of different techniques and styles, and Leone was immediately blown away by her various reels in 2019. To help matters even more, she actually resembled the teenage angel-warrior character he’d designed for an early Terrifier 2 poster before casting got underway. The two Philadelphia natives then met for a reading with two other eventual castmates, and Leone basically cast LaVera in the room, calling the decision a “no-brainer.”

“There was never a runner-up,” Leone adds.

LaVera actually got her start as a body double on the set of M. Night Shyamalan’s Split (2016). She doubled for Anya Taylor-Joy, Haley Lu Richardson and Jessica Sula, and the experience whet her appetite to become a full-fledged actor, especially since Shyamalan, like any great teacher, recognized her curiosity and tapped into it on set. Shyamalan is notorious for treating his sets like film school, and LaVera is now part of a long list of collaborators who credit his creative environments as a launchpad for their greater ambitions. 

“I worked very closely with M. Night on set, and he was so supportive. He could tell that I was so interested in his job as the director and in everything,” LaVera recalls. “He would call me over to sit next to him and look at the monitor. It was unreal. We joked around, and he even recommended books for me.”

Below, during a recent conversation with THR, LaVera also discusses the budgetary glow-up between Terrifier 2 and Terrifier 3, Sienna’s mental state in the five years between films and the franchise’s endgame.

Last year, Damien told me that you journaled as Sienna on Terrifier 2, and as soon as I saw that Sienna’s journal was a story point in Terrifier 3, I assumed that Damien was inspired by that character work you did in your own time. But he didn’t seem to realize it until I said something, so what’s your perspective on your Sienna journal versus Sienna’s journal in Terrifier 3? 

Well, there are similarities with my Sienna journal, but it was more about trying to understand who she is. I would ask myself arguably silly questions, like, “What’s Sienna’s favorite color? What’s her favorite movie? What’s her favorite song?” That helped me understand better who she is as a whole human being. Of course, I would also put a lot of notes, subtextually, in my script to understand what she was thinking when she was saying the lines. When I deliver lines, I always like to keep secrets of what she’s really thinking. But it’s very similar to Sienna’s journal in the third movie in that she’s trying to understand her own experience. She’s trying to reason with it, and she’s probably trying to figure out who she is again. She’s probably lost a lot of who she is because she lost so much in Terrifier 2. So there are definitely similarities between my real-life journal and Sienna’s Journal, and I was really happy to see that. That’s a good catch, as well. 

You had a proper crew and a bigger budget on Terrifier 3, so how did this experience differ from the last one? Was it pretty night and day? 

Oh my gosh, it was so night and day. It was so much more organized. I was so psyched to have so many more talented hands on set. I loved our skeleton crew from Terrifier 2, don’t get me wrong, but we had one-person departments. Sometimes, one person would be the head of two or three different departments, and I don’t know how they functioned. And Damien, when you would try to have his attention as an actor, he would have to run and do something else, which was totally understandable. But for Terrifier 3, I really got to have his undivided attention. I am the type of actor that has so many questions about my character and my scenes, and we joke about that often. I’m constantly picking his brain and thinking of ideas and scenarios for our characters, and it was just so much nicer. It went so much more smoothly, thank God, and we had shorter days, which was great. So it was just so nice to meet so many new talented artists, and I’m so excited for the world to see their hard work. 

Sienna has spent the last five years going in and out of a psychiatric hospital, and I thought your finest scene in the movie is when she gives a reality check to Mia, the true crime podcaster, from her brother’s college. She tells her what her life has really been like since the events of Terrifier 2. Is that a scene you circled ahead of time? 

Thank you for that. It was one of the first scenes I filmed. It was the second day on set, and I have my own opinions of how people can be insensitive to survivors, especially if you watch a lot of true crime. I’ve seen my fair share of people blaming survivors or making them into stars when that’s not really what they want to be. They’re just trying to move on with their lives. So I have very strong opinions about that, and I think that helped me get through that scene. That’s the wonderful thing about being an actor; you can have an opinion in your mind and the camera will pick it up in the scene that you’re doing. 

So that was definitely a fun scene for me, because I really loved working with Alexa [Blair] and Mason [Mecartea], who plays Mia’s boyfriend. And, of course, I always love working with Elliot [Fullam], who plays Sienna’s brother Jonathan. We just all had so much fun on set, and we would improvise here and there. We would step on each other’s lines and pick up the slack in places where we needed to. It was just so much fun working with these young actors, and they really killed it in that scene, as well. 

Art the Clown wouldn’t stand a chance against you in real life. You’re a skilled martial artist, boxer and kickboxer. Has Damien ever had to ask you to look less capable in fights?

(Laughs.) Not Damien directly, but definitely our incredible stunt coordinator Drew Leary. We first worked with him on Terrifier 2 and again in Terrifier 3. So Damien really let Drew take care of that part, and Drew, who has a martial arts background, would constantly tell me to mess it up. “Lauren, you’ve got to dirty it up. You look too clean, too pristine.” And it’s because I’m used to holding stances. I’m used to having sharp movements, and he’s like, “You’ve got to look messier.” So that was a bit of a learning curve, but it was so fun to be in a messy fight and do my stunts for that. 

David Howard Thornton told me that Damien included something toward the end of Terrifier 3 that made him as nauseated as he’s ever been, but he pushed through it anyway. It involved someone’s neck, I believe. Was there anything that caused you to take a brief timeout?

Yes, I don’t want to give too many spoilers, but you’re absolutely right about that. It’s actually the moment before that, and while it’s so quick, it probably took a long time on set. You obviously don’t see everything that we witness on the day, so, luckily, I was either not there that day or I was in another room. So I didn’t witness it. The great thing about being Sienna, even though she goes through a lot, is that she doesn’t witness a lot of the kills. So, as an actor, I don’t see a lot of the practical effects. I’m usually just beaten to a pulp, and so there hasn’t really been anything that has nauseated me. However, if I was on set the same day as Dave, I would’ve 100 percent gotten ill because we both have this same trigger. Most people, when they see or hear that, they immediately have the same kind of reaction, so I was very lucky that I wasn’t on set that day. 

Damien and David both compared Terrifier 3’s ending to Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. Those characters really hit rock bottom, as do the Terrifier characters yet again. Were you pretty destroyed when you read a certain reveal that I won’t specify? 

Yeah, I was really sad. There are so many moments in Terrifier 2 and 3 where I got very emotional when I read them for the first time. You get so attached to these characters. The bedroom scene [in Terrifier 2] was one of them when I first read it. There was a moment in there that really wrecked me, and I had to go back and read it three more times. And it’s the same for Terrifier 3. I was so attached to the character you’re talking about, and I’m so excited to see where they go with that character and how that gets resolved, if it gets resolved. But, absolutely, I get emotionally attached to these fictional characters, and they’re real to me in the moment.  

In the trailer, we see pieces of Sienna’s bizarre dream sequence with Mother Mary and this masked figure who’s potentially forging a weapon. Has Damien explained what he’s setting up there? 

Yes …. (Laughs.) 

Damien also told me that this is your franchise as much as it is Art’s, so are you ready to get back in the game as quickly as possible for Terrifier 4?

I guess I can say yes to that [without spoiling]. I’ve told Damien and Dave that I would literally, and on film, follow them through hell. So I do have a very good idea of where the journey of these characters will end, and I’m excited for people to see it, eventually. 

I recently spoke to James McAvoy about Split, and working as Anya Taylor-Joy’s double is apparently what got the ball rolling on your acting career. So I’d love to hear your version of that story. Also, is that closeup of the knife on the Marcia character’s stomach actually you as well?

Yeah, that was me! I doubled all three of them, so Anya and the two other leads, Haley Lu Richardson and Jessica Sula [Marcia]. People think I was the stunt double, but I was actually their body double for closeups of their bodies and stuff like that. That was my first background experience. I just wanted to see what it was like to be on a set and dip my toes into it. 

One day, M. Night passed me and we connected eyes. My mom was with me on set that day and she was like, “Oh, that was weird. Did he recognize you?” And I was like, “I’ve never met him before in my life.” And the day after, I got a call from the casting director asking me if I could be the double for Anya. So I wondered if he saw some resemblance between Anya and I in that moment the day before. We both had darker hair, and we were probably closer in physical appearance at that time.

So I worked very closely with M. Night on set, and he was so supportive. He could tell that I was so interested in his job as the director and in everything. He would call me over to sit next to him and look at the monitor. It was unreal. We joked around, and he even recommended books for me. 

But I will say something very embarrassing. When I was on set for one of my first days, James McAvoy was right there, but I was so interested in meeting M. Night that I didn’t even see James McAvoy. My mom told me that I started walking in his direction, and while he was ready to shake my hand like that lovely man that he is, I walked right past him like an idiot. I went right behind him to M. Night, and I was like, “I’m such a huge fan!” So James McAvoy was just left hanging there. (Laughs.) So, hopefully, if I meet him one day, I’ll be able to tell him how much of a fan I am. He’s brilliant, and I’m really excited to see his performance in Speak. No Evil. I’m hearing nothing but rave reviews. 

When you go on to other jobs now, be it Law and Order: Organized Crime, The Life of Chuck or whatever, do you get a lot of Terrifier questions from inquisitive cast members and crew?

I do get a lot of questions, but not so much on set. I hung out with Mike Flanagan and his wife Kate Siegel recently, and because they’re filmmakers, they’re curious about how things work. But that was during leisure time. So, as much as people might want to ask those questions when I’m on set, we’re all so focused and excited on making a project together. But it definitely happens off set; I get questions constantly. It’s a part of my life now, and it probably will be for my entire life, which is not something to complain about.

Decades from now, when you’re reminiscing about the making of Terrifier 2 or Terrifier 3, what day will you likely recall first?

One of my favorite moments was during one of our last days on set for Terrifier 2. So I was fully in my [angel-warrior] costume. I was soaking wet. I was covered in blood and mud, and I was very uncomfortable. And it was freezing. We shot in Philadelphia in the middle of February without heat, and everybody was exhausted. We were on hour 20 of filming, and everybody looked miserable. Damien and I then caught eyes, and while he looked tired, I remember smiling at him, knowing that we were making something special. I was exhausted but excited in that moment. So he smiled back, and he’s since told me how much that meant to him because he knew how uncomfortable I was and how uncomfortable everyone was. In that moment, he could feel that I was mentally telling him, “This is going to be good and I’m proud to be here.” So it was just one of those bonding moments between us that we’ll never forget. It was a harrowing experience, but we did it together. We’re now just so proud of each other and what we have each achieved.

Damien likely has a greater plan in mind, but from what you just said, it sounds like you didn’t miss Sienna’s angel-warrior attire in Terrifier 3. 

(LaVera smiles and points at the camera.) That’s it! 

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Terrifier 3 releases in movie theaters nationwide on Oct. 11.