KaDee Strickland seems justifiably excited to be talking about her blossoming film career. For starters, it’s given her the opportunity to see a fair slab of the world. “It’s been my year”, the beautiful actress says from L.A. “Every day has been a new experience. It’s been so interesting and such a fantastic process to be involved in”.
Considering she only moved to Los Angeles a few months back, it’s been an express traverse to the peak for the Georgia native. Following small roles in films like “The Sixth Sense”, “Something’s Gotta Give”, “Girl Interrupted” and Woody Allen’s “Anything Else”, Tinseltown recognized her palpable talent and soon enough Strickland was nabbing much larger – read: plum – parts in a slew of large-scale projects. Most recently, she appeared opposite Nicole Kidman and Bette Midler in Frank Oz’s remake of “The Stepford Wives” and next she appears in two uber-budget studio pics, “Anacondas : The Hunt for the Blood Orchid” and “The Grudge”.
“In [Anacondas] I’m playing Sam, this top-notch research scientist…the best of the best as it is”, she tells “We actually had an Aussie crew on that movie. They were great. The way they work is marvellous. There’s no hierarchy like they tend to have here. Everyone’s simply making a movie as far as they’re concerned.
“It was such a fun, bizarre, wonderful experience all in one. When I first heard I’d be going to Fiji, I thought ‘Oh Great!’ but wow, this was not at all like I pictured. We were filming on this Island which less than a hundred years before had been run by Cannibals. And it would just rain for hours and then for like ten minutes the sun would come out. It was hot, then it was freezing….we were really affected by the elements, which was probably the filmmakers plan.
“One thing I did get to do on the film was conquer my fear of heights. They had me strung up on a Harness at 4am hanging 30 foot above the ground some days. It was great though. And the cast were wonderful. When we first got there we watched the first movie (Anaconda) and all the greats, like Alien. So we’d watch movies and work….great!”
From one side of the world to the other, Strickland also jetted to Japan to star in a remake of the Japanese horror film “The Grudge” opposite Sarah Michelle Gellar, Bill Pullman and Jason Behr.
“What a year hey?” laughs Strickland. “If you’d have told me last year that I’d be going from Woody Allen to running from Snakes in Fiji to Japan I would’ve thought it was crazy.”
Parallel to what she experienced with the Australian crew on “Anacondas”, she witnessed an entirely new work ethic from working with the Japanese. “It was extraordinary. The Director and the crew were non-English speaking. I hadn’t seen Lost in Translation, I didn’t want to see it before I left, so I didn’t know what to expect. It was an interesting challenge because we couldn’t communicate as we do here. They would really let you know. And they work so differently too – usually on two takes for a scene.
“My character is based in Japan but her family lives in America. No way to really research that until I got here. It was funny, I once pinched the director’s cheeks and everyone swung around with amazed looks on their faces like ‘No Way’. You just don’t do that there, they’re not very touchy”, she laughs.
Strickland says she didn’t share any scenes with her co-stars Gellar or Behr, but they didn’t become the best of friends merely because they were all aliens in a far-off land. “They had a completely different plot line but I spent nearly every day with them. I love them both more than buttered toast. Sarah would call me everyday and ask how my day was and what I did that day and vice versa. She’s so sweet. And then there’s Clea DuVal, Bill Pullman – who are just wonderful – and Grace Zabriskie, all wonderful people. Especially Grace, who I loved from Twin Peaks and everything, she plays my mother in the film. Grace and Bill came up the ladder in a time when it was really different. There was none of this 15 minutes of fame or overnight success stuff, they all had to build up their careers. It shows too, I learned so much from both. Grace gave me some fantastic advice. For instance, in this one scene I had to do this one thing and Grace helped me excise all the cheesy elements out of my performance with the addition of a simple hand gesture. It was just what the scene needed; she always knew what worked and what wouldn’t”.
On her days off in Japan, Strickland says she’d sometimes even just watch TV with her co-stars Gellar and Behr. “I’d never seen Roswell (the show that Behr starred in) so I made him watch it with me when it was on there. Sarah also found Buffy airing in Japanese, and it was the episode that she and Jason did together, so we all watched that too. It was a blast”.
At the time of the interview Strickland’s co-star Jason Behr was testing for the role of “Superman” and she was right behind him to be the next Man of Steel. “I so hope he gets it”, she says. “He’s that rare combination…he’s like a Johnny Depp. He’s a gorgeous character actor trapped inside the body of a gorgeous man. He works so hard”.
So what about Strickland, with her stunning good looks, couldn’t she be a Superhero too? “What have you heard?” she demurely asks.
Glancing at the picture that adorns his bio, one immediately seems the resemblance between her and The Fantastic Four’s Susan Storm. “Maybe”, she whispers. “We’re talking about it”.
Strickland, who says she’s good friends with the Film’s director, is unable to comment on the film anymore than that, but does recognize the fact that it’s a difficult position for the studio to be in when it comes to deciding whether to cast someone not as recognizable in such a high-profile film role. Still “If you’ve got someone like an Uma Thurman, that’s big money, money that could be used for say, the special effects”, she confesses. “We’ll see…”
It’s been a whirlwind year for Kadee Strickland – who said “Around the World in 80 Days” was a fictional story? And who knew it was based upon one of the loveliest, most gracious actresses to adorn our screens?
- CLINT MORRIS
