hosted this week's "New Face Friday", which introduces Tracey Heggins, who portrays Senna of Amazonian Coven!
Tracey: Hi! How are you guys?
TST: Great!
Tracey: I am excited to talk to you guys!
TST: We just saw the posters of you and Zafrina. The other actors have talked about what they first thought when they saw themselves. What was your first reaction when you saw the hair and the make up, and the outfit and the eyes?
Tracey: Roar! (sound) That is exactly what I thought! Whoa! This has an earthy, sexy quality to it, so I was all for it. It’s very exciting!
TST: Speaking of what you look like… You are baring a lot in your outfit. I’m wondering if you had to diet or work out? What was your regiment?
Tracey: Yeah! I have to work out. I’m a hippy girl… I have hips and curves. Literally, when I had the fitting, I had a King Size Snicker bar in my purse. After I had seen the outfit, on my way out, I dropped it into the trash can. (Laughing) I was, like, oh, no, no, no, no! But yeah, I do a lot of yoga. And, on set it was easy to be disciplined because Kellan Lutz is up there working out all day long, and the rest of them were fighting to get to the gym before shoot time. So, you know, it was a lot of camaraderie at the gym because we were all on camera.
TST: You were a big fan of the books and the franchise before getting cast. When you were cast who was the first person you told, when you were aloud to tell?
Tracey: Oh! My sister! My sister’s my best friend. It literally blew my mind, because I’m such a sic-fi, fantasy, you know, fan. And, I’m in love with love. Stephenie really captured that first love, that first passion. So, it was just an honor, I was jumping over the moon, and yelling! And, she was looking at me, my sister, and asking, “What the heck are you yelling about?” I was like, “I just got the job, it’s an amazing opportunity!”
TST: I’ve hear Mackenzie and Judi talk a lot about working with you, but I haven’t heard you talk about working with them. Can you talk a little about your relationship on set and off?
Tracey: Wow! They’re both my girls! I’m telling you… That Mackenzie is something beautiful and something special! She was my test student for my children’t books. I would read to her and she would give me her notes. She would come to set with pictures drawn of my characters, which was amazing. She’s just a sweet honest soul, she’s a nice little girl. We’d have walks looking at the ducks and things, we really honestly became friends and, well, I’m that age at heart! So what can I say? It’s not a stretch for me, I think I’m a little girl. And then, Judi, I cannot go shopping with her because we like the same things, and if I have a quarter in my purse we’ll go to the mall and figure out how to spend it. Judi is the best shopping mate of all time! She likes funky items. Even though we are so different, we are so much alike. Like, for instance, she’s got this ‘rocker’ kind of quality, and Iove classic things. But for some reason, we’ll end up buying the same things but putting them on totally different. It was truly a blessing.
TST: I was wondering if when you were preparing did you get a chance to talk with Stephenie about these characters, or was there any pow-wow about how she saw them and how you were going to portray them?
Tracey: Yeah, yeah! It was exciting! Very, very exciting! She was literally on set the whole time we were shooting and she was so available and so kind. So if we had any kind of question she was open to answer them. We’d ask, “What do you think we would do here?” And she was very receptive. That was really a blessing. I mean, I was in awe! I love Stephenie Meyer… I’ve read The Host, and everything. At first I was speechless, and then, she’s so warm and so kind, what can you say, but thank you!
TST: So you had some of your first Twilight experiences with the Breaking Dawn Part 1 Premiere and Comic Con this year. How are you handling it and what are you looking forward to when the movie actually gets in theaters?
Tracey: The Twilight fans, in particular, are just so kind and the reception has been so warm. So I’m just riding the wave. It’s a nice place to be as an actor. You couldn’t have been blessed any more to be able to do this and have the fans support you. So I haven’t seen the movie so I’m curious. I don’t know what I expect. I just know that it was a blessing to work on the project. I met so many friends, like Mackenzie and Judi. Working with them, Toni Trucks, Valerie, all of them, Erik, Noel Fisher. I met so many great people, so hopefully through this, I’ll maintain my friendships.
TST: Your character doesn’t really have a special super power in the movie, but if you could choose any power for your character which one would you like it to be?
Tracey: Oh boy! That is so good! I mean all of them are so awesome! What special power? I mean… I guess she would like to have a shield, but then… Ahhhhh! Oh golly! I mean there are so many I would like a piece of all of them. Um, let me see which power would I want? I guess to electrocute people! I mean, my character’s a fighter, and that would go well with her. (Laughs) That was a good power to have. I think it’s so fun, so I guess that one.
TST: If you had a favorite thing to shoot, was there a moment you were, like, ‘Wow!’?
Tracey: Yeah! My first ‘Wow!’ moment was when I got on set, but pretty much the scenes when we all, it’s in the trailer, when we all said that we want to stand by the Cullens. Just watching everybody in action, I thought that was a good moment. Because, it was something… I don’t want to use the word teaser, but I just think that it was just one of those surreal moments for me. Looking around and watching everybody else and say that we want to help the Cullen’s out, that was a big moment for me. I thought it was awesome.
TST: Looking at your costume, I think you and Judi both have a costume, as you said, a smaller costume, and everyone is always talking about the wolves having to be in the cold with not a lot on. I think you’re the first girls to be in the cold with not a lot on. How did you buck up against all the cold weather wearing what you were wearing?
Tracey: Oh Wow! They provided us with heaters and all kinds of stuff. We had, like, foot warmies on. It still was jarring, as soon as you walk out. We’re deep in Canada, and walk out, and the cold does hit you. But I think that we were so full of adrenaline from being on set, and being in Twilight that it didn’t really effect us much. We moved around so much that I think we were working off adrenaline, but then as soon as your ending the day you realize it’s kind of cold out here… With our little outfits on. Everyone could hear me coming down the hallway because I had all the puka shells, and you’d hear me, like, “clack, clack, clack”. The first two days it was driving me crazy, but then I missed it afterwards. I was like, “Awe man! I have no theme music!”
TST: Did you get to keep anything from set, or from your costumes or anything?
Tracey: I tried, but no! They were checking my bag on the way out! No, I guess they never know if we’re going to be reshooting, or what’s going on, so the set, they keep those just in case.
TST: We saw in the promotional pictures the makeup around your eyes, but in the film we don’t see that. Is that something we will actually see in the movie, or is it just in the promotional shot?
Tracey: No! You’ll see that in the movie, I don’t want to spoil anything, but yeah! You’ll see our makeup… Our special makeup!
TST: Hmmmmm…
Tracey: It was fun! At first when they put it on me, I was like, “Hey! What are you doing? What is this going to look like?” But after we got it on, were like, “Wow! This is super cool!” It goes with the contacts and the hair, because as you can see I have really short hair. Everything, it’s so fun, such a blessing… I cannot complain at all! That is super fun, when they’re experimenting putting makeup on you and making you look fierce. It was just great, even playing in the makeup, I’m such a girl!
TST: In the books, Senna doesn’t talk much. Do you have lines in the movie?
Tracey: Yeah! In the trailer, I have my little line there. In general, yes. I like that you brought that up. Senna is very quiet, you know, she’s watching. She’s there to protect Zafrina, and she’s kind of scared. In my backstory, the last time she’s seen the modern world, they were making a muck of her village and moving things. She is that quiet, kind of watching… And then she meets the Cullen’s and you can’t help but fall in love with them. But yeah, Senna is always constantly checking out, and figuring are these good people or are these bad people? How are they feeling? She doesn’t have a whole lot to say, because she really wants to see what’s going on. Is Zafrina going to be safe, and now is this baby going to be safe? What’s going to happen? She’s very fierce, and she’s almost like a lioness. She’s maternal and visceral.
TST: It’s all about forceful presence!
Tracey: Yeah!
