Breach is an alien invasion thriller directed by John Suits, and which stars Bruce Willis, Rachel Nichols, Cody Kearsley, and Timothy V. Murphy as the crew aboard a spaceship carrying precious cargo, which they must protect from a malevolent cosmic force intent on their destruction. Ahead of the movie’s releases on December 18th, STARBURST spoke with genre icon Rachel Nichols (Continuum, G.I. Joe, Star Trek) about her turn as ship medic Chambers.
STARBURST: As always, it’s great to see you in an action sci-fi role! What attracted you to this film, and more specifically to the character of Chambers?
Rachel Nichols: The first thing that attracted me to the film was John Suits. He directed it, and I had done a movie with him a couple years ago – I say a couple, I think it was about five years – called Pandemic. We did it on a tiny budget, but the cast was great, we had Missi Pyle, Mekhi Phifer, and Alfie Allen, and John had such a vision for it. The whole experience was very special and different, and interesting. It’s a movie that I’m very proud of. And so John was the reason that I wanted to do Breach, I saw his name on the script and I went, “Oh my gosh, of course I want to work with him!”. And I sent him a text saying, “Hey dude, I just saw your script, I’m so excited” and he went, “I’ve been trying to text you, you weren’t responding!”. And I asked like, “What number do you have for me?” and it turns out he had my old Canadian number. I don’t know who this person was that was at the receiving end of his texts, but we got it all straightened out. And it was also an interesting character who was a doctor, it was sci-fi, Bruce Willis and Timothy V. Murphy were going to be in it, it all just came together.
That sounds really lucky though, because had you not then seen the script you might not have heard from him again!
Oh, 100%. I actually texted him yesterday because I’m filming in the depths of Mississippi right now, and we were having such issues with the connection here. And I texted him, like, “John, I don’t want you to think I’m not doing interviews for Breach, I’m having a really hard time getting connected and wanted to reach out to you specifically, because I didn’t want to lose connection with you!”. And he was just laughing via text, like “I know, they told me things may or may not work!” but I needed to make sure that the misconnection didn’t happen again.
Of course. And you mentioned working on Pandemic, which was another end-of-the-world apocalyptic movie just like Breach. What do you like most about this kind of sci-fi sub-genre?
You know, I love sci-fi because it’s a genre that you can have fun with, and it allows you to escape reality. But also, there are a lot of rules and regulations that go along with sci-fi and how it works; whether you’re talking about time travel, or whether you’re talking about New Earth, or a zombie apocalypse, you’ve got to abide by a certain set of guidelines for sci-fi fans, because they’re very particular. And if you do something right, they love you; if you do something wrong, they’ll come for you. And I’ve always been drawn to that because, like I said, you can have fun with it or you can think about it and pick it apart. And you know, I shot a movie called Pandemic and look where we are now! And now we have Breach where we’re shipping people off to a different planet because we’ve ruined Earth – and I don’t think that’s so far out of the realm of possibility. There’s a part of me that believes that could happen, and that’s what’s super interesting about the genre.
As well as sci-fi roles, you tend to pick ones like GI Joe and Continuum that are also very action-heavy. What keeps you coming back to these?
I love them. I love action. I mean, first fight scene I ever did in my entire career was on Alias, and I was playing a Russian hooker. I had a red wig, a very short Dolce Gabbana dress, and I loved it. It was just so cool, and there was such a great team of people. Funnily enough, Zoë Bell was in that fight scene doubling Amy Acker in my coverage, and I ducked a punch but came up too soon. And Zoë clocked me, and she felt terrible! She’d never hit anyone ever before, and it was totally my fault but she felt so bad. And years later we did a film together called Raze and we have a massive fight scene in which she totally kicks my ass. But we were laughing because I’m the only person she’s ever hit and she still felt bad about it after all these years! I love action stuff. I will do fight scenes until I’m too old and my body starts breaking down.
Zoë Bell is of course a huge action star, but you also work with Bruce Willis in this one, and he’s pretty much synonymous with the action movie genre. What was it like working with him?
He’s such a badass, but he’s also kind of a teddy bear. He’s super nice to everyone, and everyone on set. And I asked him questions about the films he’d made, and I also told him I had watched the Comedy Central Roast of Bruce Willis before I came to do the movie, and I was more excited to meet Bruce in person than I was to meet Bruce, the actor. And he totally lived up to expectations. He’s a goof, he’s funny. He tells these amazing stories, hilarious stories about when he was doing Tears of the Sun. Or one of my favourite movies of all time is Moonrise Kingdom, so I got to ask questions about that. And he’s very open and very honest, and just fun to be around. He’s amazing.
Sounds like a great atmosphere on set.
It really was, between him and John, and all the other people involved. It was a really great experience, even though we were in a small town in Georgia where I also got no service! We made it work and had a great time.
They’re just picking these shoot locations to keep you focused.
I think so. Like no internet, no cell service, no Netflix. Sorry!
The film is being called Breach or Anti-Life, depending on territories. Which do you think best represents the movie?
I definitely prefer Breach. It makes more sense to me given the plot-line of the film.
What was your favourite scene to shoot?
The cafeteria scene was certainly one of my favourites. We just laughed a ton! And I think Johnny Messner ate his weight in pancakes that day.
So what is it that you’re filming in Mississippi right now?
It’s a sci-fi, thriller type movie called Demigod. There is a character in this movie that reminds me of the Crone from Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves.
Do you have other upcoming projects you’d like to share with us?
I also have two films, Climbing Life and Night at the Carriage House which are slated for next year. They are all very different kinds of roles and stories, so I am very excited. It is really nice just to be back at work!
And lastly, what do you think your odds are of surviving an alien attack?
I think I stand a pretty good chance. I would grab my husband, my pup Lolo and go into hiding at my dad’s secluded cabin in northern Maine. Aliens would never find us!
BREACH releases in select theatres, on demand and digital on December 18th.
