'Terrifier 3' star Lauren LaVera has revealed it was her grandmother's death that inspired her to pursue her dream of becoming an actress.
The 30-year-old actress has earned rave reviews for her performance as 'Final Girl' Sienna Shaw in Damien Leone's gory sequel, which sees her heroic character take on the murderous Art the Clown - played by David Howard Thornton - once again.
Before becoming horror's latest 'Scream Queen', Lauren had been working as an optician but it was the passing of her grandmother, who had
told her she had always dreamt of being a dancer and actress, that made Lauren quit her job and try and make it as a big screen star.
In an interview with SwaggerMagazine.com, she said: "I'd say the moment I'm most proud of would be when I first started acting because prior, I had a really great white collar job. I was an optician in the city and was making really good money. But I was really close to my grandmother, and she always wanted to be a dancer and an actor. She never even got a chance to try. And when she was on her deathbed, I remember being with her and thinking, 'She didn’t even get to attempt her dream.' So shortly after she passed, I decided I needed to try for her, and I quit my job. I took my first acting class the same night I quit my job, which is so stupid, but I did it, and luckily that was at a casting office. They held classes there, and got to know me, and even before I had an agent, they would bring me in for auditions.
"I'm really grateful to myself for just taking that leap, even though it was a really irresponsible one. I don't recommend people do it the same way I did it, but I'm proud of the fact that I believed in myself and cared enough about my relationship with my grandmother to try."
Lauren is proud to have been dubbed a 'Scream Queen' but she is unsure if her alter ego Sienna can be considered to be on the same level as original 'Scream Queen' Jamie Lee Curtis, who battled psychopath Michael Myers as babysitter Laurie Strode in John Carpenter's 1978 slasher classic 'Halloween' and numerous sequels.
She said: "When people call me that, I do often wonder if I deserve the title because I feel like I haven't really been doing horror for that long. Of course, I'm so grateful when people refer to me as these wonderful titles, like 'Final Girl' or 'Scream Queen', and I'm very humbled by it. However, there is always this imposter syndrome - 'have I done enough?' Do I deserve this? But the fact that people resonate with Sienna’s character is so incredible. That’s why I started acting - so that people could feel less alone or feel represented."
Before first playing Sienna in 2022's 'Terrifier 2', Lauren was told by director Leone to watch Curtis in 'Halloween' as well as watch 'Alien' and 'Scream' so she could study 'Final Girl' trio Laurie, Ellen Ripley and Sidney Prescott from the respective movies.
She spilled: "Damien gave me great 'homework', like watching 'Alien' and 'Halloween' to study final girls. He saw Sienna as a mix of Ripley ('Alien'), Laurie ('Halloween'), and Sydney ('Scream'), so I watched those films and took notes on characteristics I thought aligned with my character Sienna."
'Terrifier 3' is in cinemas now.
