Samantha Mathis and Harrison Thomas star in “12 Desperate Hours” a new, original movie premiering Saturday, February 25 at 8/7c on Lifetime. We at Survived The Shows had the pleasure of chatting with Tina Alexis Allen, who plays Francine, about her experience in the making of the movie and what fans can expect. Check out the full interview in the video below!
What’s the main element in Francine’s character and the movie in general that fascinates you the most and drew you to join 12 Desperate Hours?
TINA ALEXIS ALLEN: Well, I’m a big fan of the director’s work, Gina Gershon, both as an actor and producer and this movie was her directorial debut, so it was very exciting for me to work with her. So that was one reason. But Francine was such a fascinating read when I got the script because, first of all, she’s a mother. So she operates very much out of a kind of Mama bear. She wants to protect her daughter from the lead character who’s bit unstable and obsessed with her.
And so Francine, unlike most people in the movie, is one of the few people that is absolutely not afraid of this unstable guy. In fact, he brings a gun to her home – I won’t spoil too much – and that still doesn’t stop her from giving him a piece of her mind and a few other things. So I think her courage and her motherly quality to protect her daughter and her just her fierceness I think was exciting. And also anytime I can get to put on a West Virginia accent, I love it.
To all the fans looking forward to watching the movie, how would you describe 12 Desperate Hours in just 3 words?
Big, Crime, Drama
What can you tease about Francine’s journey throughout the movie?
Well, I’ll tease that she starts out wearing curlers in her bathrobe and ends up in a very, very precarious situation. So she’s really taken off guard. She lives alone, but she’s home alone, sort of in her own little bubble of rollers and coffee and cigarettes and getting ready to watch her soap opera and her whole world turns upside down.
What’s been the biggest challenge, acting-wise, for you in portraying Francine?
Her experience of the world really is through the television. I think her understanding of how the world works is really through television and not the first-hand experience. So I think just getting rid of any of my ideas about what Tina thinks the world is like or any strong opinions about things that it’s like just getting into the passion of living through characters on the TV.
If you could choose any other character from 12 Desperate Hours, apart from Francine, that you would have loved to play, which one would it be and why?
I would have loved to play the male lead, actually the character that Harrison Thomas plays, the one I mentioned was a bit unstable and obsessed. In all seriousness, mental illness is a very, very big issue across the globe, but certainly in America and as is gun violence and for someone to feel so desperate to do the kinds of things that character does, it’s very profound. I think that to explore that level of pain and of confusion would have been a great challenge and Harrison did an amazing job. Obviously I’m not a man, so I didn’t get get the chance to play that. Plus he’s a lot younger. But if I could have, as a woman, I would have loved to explore the complexity and difficulty of that character.
Among all the projects you’ve had the chance to work on throughout your career, is there any particular one you’re mostly fond of?
Wow. There have been a lot. I’d say two: one would be my TV series Outsiders. I played a character called Shern. It’s on Hulu, and it’s actually another character who’s Southern Appalachian and she lives on the mountain. So her whole life has been like just living off the earth and it was part of a big clan. David Morse is the lead of the show and it was very much an ensemble piece. That character was very also gritty and very much somebody who just lived and believed that everything was supplied by the Earth. Good. Bad, evil, everything was really delivered to her off this mountain that she lived on. So that was really cool.
Then I played my father, believe it or not, in a solo show that I wrote called Secrets of the Holy Father, which then became a memoir I wrote – that is out now called Hiding out -, but playing my dad was really transformative.
The interview with Tina Alexis Allen has been edited and condensed for length and clarity. Get a look at the full interview in the video at the top of the article!
12 Desperate Hours, starring Tina Alexis Allen, premieres February 25 on Lifetime. Get a preview below!
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