In director Jim Mickle's atypical vampire apocalypse thriller Stake Land, Danielle Harris plays a most atypical role. Casting aside the scream queen persona for which she's best know, this time Harris does very little screaming. In fact, she conveys most of her thoughts through body language and, in one scene, song. I sat down to chat with the always busy actress last week about her experience working on the film. Check out our full conversation after the jump.

How did you first enter the world of Glass Eye Pix and get involved with Stake Land?

I love those guys. They're like family. It was kind of like how other work has come my way. I just got a script, and a call that said, "They want you to do this vampire movie. It's called Stake Land." I had the script sent to me. I read it and loved it, and thought, "Jim Mickle, that name sounds so familiar." A couple of weeks prior to that I was doing Fangoria radio, and Larry Fessenden and Jim were online with me, with Debbie. I guess Jim had gone out to a couple of other actresses for Belle, and couldn't really get anyone tied down; and my name popped into his head after doing that. Then somehow he came to me with it, and I read it and thought, "God, this is such a great script." But knowing that I would have to take August through December to do it, because we had a two-month hiatus in between, because we had to wait for the weather to change (because they started the film in August in Pennsylvania)and then we went back from the end of October through the month of November to upstate New York)…  I couldn't take any other job, so I was like, "Alright, let me think about this for a while."

Because Belle was sort of… Once you meet her, I'm in every scene but I don't really have much to do. I think there's maybe six or seven scenes where I actually have dialogue. As an actor, if you don't have anything to do you're just sort of standing around; and the hardest thing for us to do is just sort of be there. So I talked to Jim on the phone, and he said, "We're gonna kind of create as we go." Then I asked to see Mulberry Street, which I hadn't seen before. And I loved it. I thought it was awesome. I thought it was great. They shot that movie for like fifty thousand dollars, and one of my main concerns was who the DP was gonna be. Because I felt like the scenery and what the movie looks like is going to be such a big deal. And if it's not shot well, that's kind of the whole story. I feel like the scenery  is sort of a storyline. He said, "The guy who shot Mulberry Street's gonna be our DP." I said, "You know what? I'm in." He said, "No other actor has called me and asked who the DP is gonna be. That's awesome." He said that while he knew me from the Halloween movies he really thought of me for this based on the TV stuff that I'd done, like Rosanne and the episodic stuff. Because Belle's nothing like any character that I've ever played before. Because I usually play bad-ass, horror, feisty girls. And Belle's sort of a breath of fresh air. Really soft and kind, and sort of the caretaker and the mother of the group.

I had never really been pregnant in a movie, and hadn't played my age in a movie before. So that was some of the deciding factors. And I just thought that the story was really moving. It's not often you read scripts in the genre where it's a coming-of-age story and it's about relationships. That's so apparent. We shot kind of in order, waiting for the seasons to change. When you see it as an audience member, you get to see our relationship building as the movie goes on. Because that's sort of what we were doing in real life, becoming a family. And I think that it's clear when you watch the movie. So I'm really proud of this movie actually.

The film is fairly quiet for a supernatural thriller. Of course it's part drama, part love story. Did that affect your performance in some way? Did you find yourself calling on skills you don't usually call on?

I just had to leave myself alone. [Laughs.] It's one of the hardest things for an actor to do. Just let it go and not feel like you have to do something. Belle's kind of the most like me. I think that the sort of tough-girl bravado that I always sort of go to on film – it's easy for me. Because I can be sassy and feisty and kind of a ball-buster in real life. But there's also another side of me that… As I've gotten older, I think I've softened a little bit. I don't know if I want to admit that, but… [Laughs.] I've softened a bit as a woman and I think that was sort of what was coming across in the movie.

Originally Belle was supposed to be Mister's love interest. And when I got to set and I met Nick [Damici], Nick looked at me and I said, "Nice to meet you." He said, "You must be our scamp." Which is the little girl vampire they find in the attic. I said, "Noooo…" Jim was there and he cracked up and said, "She's Belle, Nick." "Oh!" he said. "How old are you, you look so young." I think I was thirty-two at that time. I said, "I'm thirty-two." He said, "Oh my God, I thought you were sixteen!" So I think the idea of me being his love interest kind of went out the window in that moment. Which is fine, because I don't think that the story really needed that.  I don't think it was about that. It was a love story about all of them and our family, us as a unit, which is what the whole point of the movie is. So we were able to sort of scrap that from the very beginning and just go from there pretty much.

Was there any one scene that was especially difficult to shoot?

You know, it was freezing cold the entire time. There were a couple of scenes that were really challenging. There's the party scene, where we get to the town and I buy the new dress with Mister. That actually was done in one take. From me coming out the door to us running up the stairs looking at the helicopters dropping the vampires and the whole town going awry and everything happening. That was done with literally one take. We rehearsed it all day long so it was like a dance. And we just shot it over and over and over again until we got it right. It was below zero and we had tons of extras; and lots of things had to happen, lots of stunts had to happen, vampires. I mean there was so much going on, and it was like a dance – you've got your boom operator, your steadicam operator, the director – everyone is literally dancing around one another. And it's fast and furious. It's gotta be perfect. You've gotta get it in one. So that was probably the most challenging, because it was over and over and over again. And I was wearing a little silk dress and a jacket. I just couldn't feel my feet or anything anymore at that point. I think physically that was pretty bad. And the ending, having my feet tied up, and covered in blood in this freezing little shack. That was my last scene that I actually shot. And not knowing how I wanted to go, and if I wanted to turn into a vampire first, if I wanted to sort of come out, or if I wanted it to be left alone… It sort of leaves it open for you as an actor to see where it goes. It's such a beautiful moment. I think physically and emotionally that was a bit trying.  But I think my favorite scene in the movie is the scene where I'm on the rock, and I just can't go anymore; and I say, "You guys go. I can't go. I can't go." I sit for a while and Mister comes and picks me up and carries me, and I have that line – "My daddy used to carry me like this when I was a little girl." And he says, "I'm not your daddy, kid." I say, "You know, you're not such a hard-ass" or whatever I say. I didn't know going into it how I wanted to be or how I felt about it, and I don't really like to rehearse stuff. Because then it's rehearsed, it's not real. He picked me up, and as soon as I looked at him and said those words, I just started crying. Then I looked at him and he just welled up with tears and tried to hold it together. I thought, "Oh my God, that was such an organic moment, about my relationship with him as a person, and that trust and that love." Because we had fun with each other the entire time, and in that moment I saw a side of him I'd never seen before. And it's on film! I was like, "Oh my God, we got that moment on film! It's so awesome!" That's like an actor's dream. Then every single time we did it again – we kept going in for different coverage – I would just cry harder and harder and harder. I couldn't hold it in, and he as well. So I love that little moment.