Jane Levy doesn't necessarily consider herself the biggest musical fan out there. Community theatre productions of "Annie," "Annie Get Your Gun" and the "Wizard of Oz" may have given the "Evil Dead" and "Suburgatory" star her first acting experiences, but as far as Levy was concerned, they were the only way a twelve-year-old student could get on stage.
“Basically the only drama that's available is musical theatre when you're a kid," Levy, in town for the Toronto International Film Festival, tells the Huffington Post Canada. She enjoyed her time onstage (and even shows off a few photos of her younger self in Oklahoma that she recently rediscovered) but she didn't really consider singing in front of audience again until last year.
That was when Canadian director Jeffrey St. Jules reached out to Levy's people about starring in a sci-fi musical feature he was making. The filmmaker, who had been inspired by to write "Bang Bang Baby" after watching Ann-Margaret's increasingly unhinged performance in "Viva Las Vegas," was looking for an actress who could encapsulate both the vivaciousness and increasing darkness of his sixties camp-meets-Cronenberg vision. When he caught the then-redheaded actress (she's since gone back to her natural blonde) on an episode of "Suburgatory," he was convinced that he’d found his leading lady.
"I'd like to think that it means that I'm a sexpot vixen,” Levy laughs. "But I also really think it's just the red hair."
"The Bang Bang Baby" team sent Levy a look book to help her envision the specific visual style and the vibe they were going for. "I just remember the one image I saw in the look book, it was a picture of Ann-Margaret on a hot pink phone and, like, purple smoke behind her, her hair flipped over and she had a smirk on her face."
They also sent her the script, which details the struggles of Stepphy, a sweet and slightly naive small town girl whose dreams of making it as a singer start to come true when her favourite singer, Bobby Shore (Justin Chatwin from Shameless fame)... and whose nightmares start to come true when a leak at the local chemical plant starts making mutants of her neighbours.
"I thought it was really funny," Levy recalls. "I thought it was really complex, and I loved the good-hearted heroine at the centre and I was really interested in playing her."
Excited about the role, and about the chance to rediscover singing, Levy signed on. She had time to take one whole singing lesson before it was time to jump on a plane and come to Canada for a four-week shoot in the middle of winter.
With limited time and and even more limited budget, Levy and the rest of the cast were thrown into a very brief bootcamp to learn all of their songs and choreography before it was time to start shooting. It was a lot to take in at all once, but not nearly as shocking as the worst Toronto winter in a very long time. Which was also the worst winter of Levy's young Californian life.
"I was so unprepared,” she admits. "I came without a down coat. I had to express order one. I didn't have any boots, so I was falling all over the sidewalk. I was a ridiculous California girl who all of a sudden popped down in Toronto wearing a sweater and clogs."
Her love of the film and the cast and crew kept her going. So did her love of Toronto itself. "I really liked the city, so I had a great time. Everyone we worked with: the producers, the crew the actors the director, were all super nice, so it was pleasant. It was hard but it was really, really nice."
That said, she's even happier that she gets to enjoy some more civil Toronto weather now that she's back in town to celebrate "Bang Bang Baby's" world premiere at TIFF.
And she's also happy to show off the finished film. "I'm proud of the work," she beams.
Even so, she's not actively seeking out any other musical roles. She would, however, love to be cast in a music video at some point. "I want to be in a music video. I want to be a music video girl. Really bad. But I've got to wait for the right one, and the right artist,” she says."I love it so much. I love dancing and I love music videos, so maybe I need someone to choreograph me a dance like Sia."
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