If watching the physical turmoil Liv Tyler’s character endures in The Strangers seems all too real, that’s because some of it is.
Described as one of her most challenging roles to date, the 30-year-old actress had to jump out of windows, crawl outdoors in the dark and run barefoot amid a movie set staged for terror.
“My whole body was kind of covered in bruises. I had burns on my feet from sliding against the floor and crawling against the floor that were still there after a year,” explains Tyler, who plays Kristen, one part of a couple who gets terrorized by three masked strangers in a remote vacation home.
Well-known for her role as Arwen in the Lord of the Rings trilogy and appearances in father Steven Tyler’s Aerosmith videos, Tyler says she’s always been a horror flick fan. “I’m a shallow jerk and I grew up obsessed with horror movies and loved them,” she recalls, adding she used to watch Creepshow, Tales From the Crypt and The Twilight Zone with her mom.
Yet, Tyler doesn’t consider The Strangers a “straight up horror movie.”
She says what attracted her to the role was the relationship between the two main characters.
“The depth of the character (motivated me to take the role) … You feel for these characters and connect with them and understand them in a way that you wouldn’t normally if that layer wasn’t there.
“(Director Bryan Bertino) always says that this film is really just a drama, someone just happened to knock at the door.”
So what scares her in real life?
“I grew up in Maine in my aunt’s big house and I was always scared of the dark and scared of what’s under my bed. I still to this day when I go into a hotel, I don’t know why, I always look under the bed and I’m nervous to touch my feet down onto the ground … Am I weird?!”
