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Actress Kerry Knuppe Stars In Solver |
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The feature film Solver will
be in theaters early in 2018, which means once again one of Riveting
Riffs Magazine’s favorite actresses Kerry Knuppe will also be on the big
screen. Knuppe is one of the most versatile and gifted actresses in film
today with other film credits including a major role in
Like A Country Song and
Nicole Conn’s A Perfect Ending,
where she played the daughter of Barbara Niven’s and the late John
Heard’s characters.
“Solver
was a really fun
project that we did and we filmed it in upstate New York.
It is a mystery adventure and it has Antonio Jaramillo who was in
Shades of Blue and me. He
played the bad guy and he was really fun to work with. The people that
we worked with were so wonderful. It was so fun to be in a small town
where they were appreciative of us being there. It was a different
feeling.
It is a fun story and a “what’s going” on mystery kind of a thing. It
was a really fun project,” says Knuppe.
Solver
directed by Xandy Smith and also starring John Ruby and Jesiree Dizon,
also had some interesting moments before filming began.
Kerry Knuppe shares one of those moments, while laughing, “When I was
cast they said you have a week to prepare and I said I would like to
come out a couple of days before we start shooting and shadow a mechanic
(her character is a mechanic),
so they said that was fine. They spoke to the person who owned the
mechanic shop where we were going to be filming and he also said that
would be fine. He was really great and he showed me how to change the
oil and all of that kind of stuff. I was fiddling around with what he
had been showing me on this car and a customer came and he asked the
owner if he had a new assistant. He said no, no there is a film they are
going to be shooting and she is here to shadow me for the day. (The
customer) called me over and he said he tells me you are an actress from
LA. Then he said you guys are full of it. Then the guy said, no (way). I
thought you really wanted to be a mechanic and I thought it was cool
that a girl wanted to be a mechanic. I said (she
is still laughing) well I play one. They were all really great
people.
I got a really nice email from one of the guys who had put some money
into the film and he said I really liked your acting and I really
believed that you were a mechanic. That is the best compliment that you
can get as an actor that somebody believed you knew something and that
you weren’t just saying your lines.”
If the trailer is any indication,
Solver
written and produced by Jack Kelley and billed as a mystery adventure
for all ages, should be a box office success.
Kerry Knuppe grew up on her parents’ ranch on the Red Shirt Reservation
(Pine Ridge) and the ranch was used as the location to shoot a couple of
films, which influenced Knuppe’s career choice.
“There was a movie called Crazy
Horse and that was when I was first introduced to the idea that I
could be an actor for a (career). I was twelve (at the time). We got to
watch a lot of the filming that took place on my parents’ ranch and at a
neighbor’s place. We were invited to watch the actors and to watch some
of the filming. We got to eat with them too and I just thought it was
the greatest thing that could happen. It registered with me that this
was their careers and they were getting paid to do it. That was when it
really started to resonate with me. I remember you would go over the
ridge and there were all of the teepees that they had recreated and all
of the actors had these costumes on. It was just this idea that you
could recreate something and you didn’t have to use your imagination as
much as you do when you are a kid, but you could really recreate these
stories and live in this moment that is no longer, that isn’t in the
present day. I thought that was very exciting and what I wanted to do. I
remember being able to see all of the costumes and being transported to
another place.
In addition to the films that were shot on her parents’ ranch Kerry
Knuppe harbored a desire to live in a city and she sheds some light on
why that was the case.
“The school that I (attended) from kindergarten to seventh grade was a
two room school house and there were two people in my class. We moved
because my older sister had reached eighth grade and the school only
went to the eighth grade. My mom got a house in town and we went to
school there. This whole time I wanted to have more of a city life even
though the small town seemed to me to be very big at the time.
I went to college in Brookings (South Dakota) and it was a little
bigger, but it wasn’t enough and then I really convinced my parents that
I needed to go to Denver to pursue the arts. That was when I realized
that Denver had a much bigger theater program and I would have much more
access to theater, to dance and to voice.
LA was in my mind,
but I still wasn’t sure if I could do it and I didn’t want to go to LA
without any kind of an idea of what it was like to live in a city.
Denver was when I got used to things like parking (she laughs), which
seems so silly, but it blew my mind when I realized you had to pay to
park somewhere. Locking
things, you don’t even realize in going from a small town (to a city).
That was the biggest culture shock or city shock from Brookings to
Denver and that was a hard transition. From Denver to LA wasn’t so bad,
because Denver is a pretty big city. It was big enough that you get used
to things like traffic. I remember taking the bus to class, because I
was afraid to drive.
I had a very strong need for the arts and I think that is what drove me
to the city. From then on it evolved to which art I wanted to take to
the full extension (and making it) a career.”
It seems safe to say that Kerry Knuppe grew up in somewhat of a
sheltered environment, at least from the perspective of not knowing what
a big city was all about, so it prompted us to ask her what her parents
were thinking, while she was going through all of these changes in her
life.
She says, “There were four of us kids and my mom and dad were always
active in our lives, but they never said you have to do this or anything.
All of the creative and artistic characteristics went straight to me.
None of the other kids are artistic at all. They appreciate art, but
none of them are (artistic). I think my parents were very confused with
me, because I felt so strongly about it.
I did all of the research that I could. I found a place to stay in
Denver and I made the big transition into Denver.
I made sure that I had a place to stay and that I could afford
the tuition. I really did a lot of research, so there wasn’t too much
that my mom could argue. She did take me to Denver and she made sure the
housing was a safe place. We looked at the school together and we went
to the art museum. It became one of my favorite days with my mom. When
you have four kids and we are all within four years, (plus) I am a
middle child, so you never feel that you really get one parent’s
attention. It is always shared. I remember that being a really special
day, because it was just my mom and me and we got to go out for tea, we
got to go out for lunch and we got to go to the art museum. She said
okay, this is what you want to do.
I really loved Denver and I ate up everything that Denver had. I did
voice lessons, acting lessons and dance lessons. I was really big with
swing dancing. Those were just little things that you could do to keep
going and keep being interested in the arts.
It is swing dancing as in the
thirties and forties big bands. I really got into Jazz in Denver, as an
interest not (thinking about) it career wise. It helped, because it made
me work on my voice.
Dancing is also a great tool to have and being familiar with your body
and how it moves and stuff. I just love
that time period and their music. When I came to LA I had that. It is a
small community, so you are able to meet people and the city doesn’t
seem so overwhelming. It is a little thing that helps you to meet people
with whom you have a shared interest.
(We
talk about how it could potentially open up other roles)
You have to keep on those things. It will come back to you, but when you
audition a lot of times you have a day or two to prepare, so you have to
be somewhat prepared for anything.”
The conversation segues back to her film roles and this time to her
character Becca in the 2014 movie
Like a Country Song.
“I always feel like those are the most comfortable characters for me,
because they are very close to me. I would like to do even more of those
kinds, because I think they are just great people in those towns. I love
those kinds of people, both the characters and where we filmed in
Tennessee. It is a slower pace of life versus LA living.
When I do go home or I am fortunate to film something like this it is a
good feeling and it is very nostalgic. It is very comforting and it is
not too much of a stretch for my imagination. Could I be this kind of a
person? Yeah, I could be this kind of a person. It is effortless to go
into that headspace,” says Knuppe.
It seemed to make sense to ask Kerry Knuppe about whether or not Country
music played a role in her life given the role that she had as Becca.
Knuppe says when she was growing up she listened to, “A lot of Country
and my dad listened to the Oldies a bit. Again, it was very odd, because
they weren’t big music people. We really lived in the middle of nowhere.
When I say the middle of nowhere it is thirty miles east of the
middle of nowhere (she laughs).
It is way, way out there.
We didn’t have very good reception and we didn’t have the equipment to
play much music, so it was always kind of a mystery to me as far as
other kinds of music.”
As for her role in Like a Country
Song and the film she says, “Like
a Country Song takes place in Nashville. It is about a young Country
musician played by Joe Smallbone who is a pretty big Christian singer
and he is quite well-known in the Christian community’s music. He played
the lead in that. He is a Country music musician who is living the high
life, but he is going down quickly. He is very popular, but he drinks a
lot and he gets into fights. His mother is a single mother and she
discovers that his real father
(played by Billy Ray Cyrus as Bo Reeson) who had left has come back
home to try and make amends. He had been an alcoholic also. Joel’s
character (Jake Reeson) does not want to have anything to do with this,
Joel’s character. I play an ex of Joel’s character and I help him to
realize there are other things in life (besides) big parties, stardom
and being famous. He has a good
idea of what else is out there. This is a film about finding a greater
truth about yourself. It doesn’t have to be all fast cars and Rock and
Roll, but there is also appreciation of the smaller things.”
There was also a second film that was released in 2014 in which Kerry
Knuppe appeared.
“Martin’s
Pink Pickle
was filmed in Vancouver. That was a great film and one that I really
enjoyed. It was very slow paced in many ways, but that is the director’s
style. The whole premise of it is I have an affair with my husband’s
friend and I (decide) that I am going to go have an abortion in the
city, because we are in a small town, Hope, Canada. We are going into
Vancouver to get it taken care of and the guy I had an affair with comes
with me. We miss the
appointment and we are forced to stay in Vancouver for an extra night.
We realize that we like each other and the film goes on and you aren’t
really sure what happens in the end. There were things going on in my
character’s life that made me make the choices that I did and things in
his life that caused him to make the things in his life that he did. We
slowly figure them out,” Knuppe explains.
We would be remiss in not mentioning Kerry Knuppe’s role in the 2012
Nicole Conn film A Perfect Ending
and her excellent performance. Once again it demonstrates her
versatility as an actress. For those who are not familiar with the movie
a brief synopsis of the film is Barbara Niven’s character Rebecca
Westridge who is in a loveless marriage with John Heard’s character
Mason Westridge goes looking outside of the marriage for attention and
she does so on a dare from friends. She falls in love with another woman
named Paris played by Jessica Clark. Kerry Knuppe is Jessica Westridge
the daughter of Rebecca and Mason.
Knuppe talks about the film, “What drew me to the role was at the time
it was a unique film and it was such a different story than I had ever
read before. I thought it was
interesting and for my role I was attracted to this extremely wealthy
family. I found that lifestyle interesting. What are the problems that
these people could possibly have, because they had everything? They do
and there are lots of problems that they can have.
It is also quite dramatic. There were a lot of good scenes that I
knew would be challenging. There was also the chance to work with
Barbara Niven and John Heard who played my father. That was really cool
to be able to work with him. One of the things that I struggled with was
not being able to understand why my mother wouldn’t have left him after
what he did to me. I talked to
Nicole about it and we would rehearse and I remember going on set and
thinking I just don’t get this, until I met John and I had a scene with
him. Then it all made sense and sometimes you just have to trust that
and the other actor will make you understand why your mother wouldn’t
leave this man and why you are put into the situation that you are.
Why didn’t I rebel against it?
John Heard was really something to work with, because it is really
fascinating when somebody can say these words when you are not really
sure that you believe someone would say it and then they make them sound
totally legit. It was really fun to work with him and I am glad that I
had the chance.”
Although, the independent film
The Black That Follows never had a theatrical
release, the futuristic and often moody film was one that Kerry Knuppe
says really challenged her.
“It was the most challenging film (so far) that I had to do. I played
one woman who lives in three different worlds, so we really had to work.
We rehearsed a lot. How can we make these three different people, one is
the voice, the accents or where you speak from your voice. The other was
movement. How do you have a different walk? I was really paying
attention to how people walked and what shift really makes somebody
different than another person when they do something as simple as walk?
We both did a lot of observing of things and trying of things and there
was clothing. There were all of these things that went into making three
different worlds.
Pretty well in each different world I have a mental breakdown. We shot
it quite fast. I think it was three weeks. Every day I was going to set
and preparing to have a mental breakdown (her character) or very high
emotion. In a normal story you have the beginning, the climax and the
ending whereas this was just the climax of each story. It was the first
time that I said whoa. Acting reaches these other levels and your body
doesn’t quite understand that you are faking it. With take after take
and you are crying and crying and your body is saying whoa, something is
wrong. You need to stop doing this. It
is like a survival technique. It was the first time that I realized that
I had completely tricked my body into thinking that I was having a
breakdown and it did take a while to recover from that one. It was a
very intense film,” she says.
“That is a really cool film that I did with a really talented director
named Tim Nackashi. I think he is going to push it as a feature film and
I hope that he does, because he has a fascinating mind. My character
(Kathy) works all night and she sleeps all day. It is set in the future
when you can control your dreams and you can be more knowledgeable about
what you dream.
She meets this guy while she is at work and he is in a coma. She falls
in love with him and she starts incorporating him into her dreams. As
the viewer you are confused as to which part is the dream. The guy wants
to find her in real life, but he is in a coma, so he is not able to do
so. He starts questioning that.
All of a sudden she starts losing control over her own dreams. It
plays with that different realm. It is a lot of fun and the director has
really cool vision and he has a lot of great shots. In a dream world you
can play with a lot of different things and he really did,” she says.
If you were at the LA Shorts Fest in August of 2017 you may have seen
Time Is A Place.
There are three things that keep Kerry Knuppe grounded, her marriage,
her family (as in parents and siblings) and some of the actresses who
inspire her. She tries to return to her roots in South Dakota when her
busy schedule permits.
“The
people who inspire me and who have the kind of career that I want have a
really strong interest in what it is like to be somebody else. I always
want to keep that in mind, so I am not doing it for the wrong reasons.
One of those people is Meryl Streep. I have always loved her stuff,
especially in the eighties. There weren’t as many close-ups, so you
could enjoy a lot of her acting. I think some of her best work was done
in those films from the eighties. I have always really liked how she is
a chameleon and how she has been able to change these little small
nuances to make her a very different person, very believable and not
overdone. One of her influences was Betty Davis.
I have done a lot of research and I have watched a lot of Betty Davis
who I think is fantastic too. There is again there is (this sense of her
being grounded) and this strength and it emanates on the screen from
Betty Davis. She is able to do a lot with her voice, with her walk, with
her power and with whatever character she is creating.
She was also a very big reason why we have a union and that we
have some rights and protection as actors. She was very active in
getting the Screen Actors Guild more developed and having residuals (for
actors).
I also really like Marlene Dietrich and I think she is a great
entertainer. She was really big in the thirties. She was a great
entertainer. In the Blue Angel I think she was wonderful. Later in her
career she traveled and sang songs. She was this totally unique
individual.
I have always liked Kate Winslet. I just love her. Every time that she
acts I totally believe her and she is one of those people who is just a
very honest actor. She also has a life other than acting and I think it
shows in her acting. I think those are the best people to put into
parts, because they already have so much background and their look
brings you in. I really like her,” she says and adds that Nicole Kidman
is another favorite.
Kerry Knuppe was married in August of 2016 and she was still gushing
when talking about her husband Adam Harrison during our interview.
“I was married last year (August 2016). I just think he is wonderful.
Adam is so supportive of what I do and he always encourages me with what I do
and to work hard and to be involved in things. It is really important to
have someone who encourages you, because it takes a lot of time for
rehearsals and filming and you really have to have a good relationship
with someone who understands. That is what I really love about him is
that Adam really took the time to understand what it is like to be an
actor. We are auditioning constantly and we don’t have a (set) schedule
as it is up and down. The times when you are not booking are also hard,
to keep yourself interested and to have someone who’s like yeah, keep
going. It keeps you loving what you do and it keeps you reminding you
why you are doing it and for what reasons.
It also brings a whole new level of what it means to be loved and
what it means to love somebody. Those are very important things for an
actor, because those are things that if you don’t have them you can’t
fake them. I think it really shows when you don’t know what love is. I
think that is the biggest thing in any story. Love is usually some
aspect of any story in one way or another,” says Knuppe.
Please take time to visit the
Kerry Knuppe website and remember to watch for
Time Is A Place in film
festivals and make sure you purchase a ticket to see Solver in 2018,
because this is an electric movie.
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Later
on there was another film called
Hidalgo with Viggo Mortensen (2004). At the time I was a freshman in
college and when I came back they were wrapping things up. I thought
this is what I really want to do, so the next semester I changed what I
was majoring in to theater. 
Kerry
Knuppe’s most recent film the 2017
Time Is A Place, still to be
released, sounds like an intriguing short film.