Q+A with Prom Night Star Dana Davis
Actress Dana Davis used to hate getting dressed up. "I'm a girlie girl now, but when I was younger, not even," says Dana, who plays Monica Dawson on "Heroes." "I was like, 'Dress? No, I'm not wearing a dress." But for the upcoming movie "Prom Night," which also stars Brittany Snow, Dana put on a formal dress every day to play Lisa, a fun-loving, popular girl who is on the prom court. Too bad there's a killer out to ruin their night.
Were you ever scared during the filming of the movie?
I always wondered if people who shoot horror movies get scared, and you do because the actors are so great. There was a scene where we're on an abandoned floor of a hotel. They made it look like a construction site with hanging plastic tarps and dripping water, and I had to run around with my shoes off. The slasher got into his character so much that they would say "action," and he would walk around with a knife and get this crazed look in his eyes. I was totally scared.
Did going to prom everyday get old?
It could have been hard, because after the fifth day of prom you're kind of over it, but it was fun because of the cast. We'd hang out after work and have karaoke nights and game nights. We were stuck together for so long that we became really close.
What was it like wearing a prom dress to work?
We joked that when this movie wrapped, we were going to burn our dresses. Getting dressed for prom every day became exhausting because my hair was done in spiral curls. For the two and a half months we were filming, I spent an hour and a half each day getting my hair done. I was miserable. On my last day, the hair guys and I were so excited because we were never going to have to curl my hair like that again. And then someone said, "Guess what, Dana, we're adding one more day of filming." The hair guys were so mad.
Tell us about your dress.
I went for fittings and tried on all of these beautiful designer dresses. They settled on a burnt orange Amélie dress. Clint Culpepper, the president of Sony Screen Gems, loved it but wanted it in a different color, so they hired someone to replicate the dress in a metallic blue fabric. It's a full-length, low-cut dress with a circular diamond broach in the front. There's a train in the back, and I kept saying, "Can we get rid of this?" because someone would step on it every minute of every day, but the train is really important to the story so they had to keep it.
Would you have worn it to your own prom?
The dress is actually very, very sexy and revealing. They wanted that for my character, but my style is more classic, '50s, glamour. Sometimes it's better to leave more to the imagination.
What was your high school prom like?
When I was a sophomore, someone asked me to prom, but I got out of it. I always had these excuses lined up, a way to get out of prom. And my junior year, I had my lie all worked up, so I got out of it again. But my senior year, I was working on the musical "The Wiz." I was playing Dorothy, and the guy who was playing the Wizard of Oz asked me in January, so I didn't have my lie worked up. He caught me off guard, so I was like, "Uh, okay, I'll go." He was really good friend of mine and we had fun even though I didn’t want to go. But there was no romance, unfortunately.
What was the most memorable part of the night?
There were two really cool parts. One was that my date won prom king. He was super popular, the class clown, so that was awesome. The other was that our after-prom had a gambling theme. We each got a stack of fake Monopoly money and played black jack and roulette all night. I used to live by the Mississippi River, where there are giant river gambling boats, and I always thought they seemed exciting when I was little.
On "Heroes," your character, Monica Dawson, can mimic any movement she sees. If you had her power, what dance move would you want learn?
All dance moves — I can't dance. There's a scene in "Prom Night" where the director wanted me and my date, played by Collins Pennie, to bust a move on the dance floor. I looked at the director and said, "Are you serious?" We had a choreographer come in and to teach the moves, and it ended up being okay, but I lived in fear up until the day we filmed that scene. I wish I could dance like Janet Jackson or J. Lo. I have rhythm, but that's about as far as it goes. I've always been in awe of dancers.
What celebrity would make the best prom date?
I like to laugh, so I would probably want to take a comedian, someone who would make me laugh all night. But if I were going for arm candy, I would take Denzel Washington, even though he's married. But somebody who would make me laugh? Everyone I'm thinking of who is super funny is older and married!
