Ettalong had a taste of Hollywood on Thursday, December 2 with the premiere of a teaser for the upcoming locally produced film, Crazy Love, at Bar Toto.
The film, which is being produced by West Gosford’s Karina Lee and Woy Woy’s Samara Dawson follows the story of Hayley (played by Lee), going on a mission to get her lover back from the police with the help of gangsters and her best friend Moonlighter (played by Dawson).
Lee said she has wanted to make a film about a twisted and toxic love story for a longtime.
“I told the story to a film company I work for, and they thought it was a great idea, so they helped us make it,” Lee said.
“We wrote the story and gathered ideas together and made the story that we wanted, which is based of two people that are crazily in love with each other, but they are very toxic together.
“Hayley was just in control of everyone, and she had her best friend by her side all the time, and her best friend never left her side.”
Dawson said the characters they play were inspired by comic book characters.
“We were getting into the comic side of everything, so we were trying to think of characters, and I really liked the idea of Poison Ivy and I thought, what’s the Aussie version?” Dawson said.
“I started doing some research and found that the Australian version of Poison Ivy is the Gympie Gympie plant in Queensland which goes by another name, moonlighter.”
“My version is an Australian version of Harley Quinn, and instead of having a baseball bat, I have a cricket bat,” Lee said.
The pair said there were a lot of ups and downs creating the film, which started production earlier this year.
“They started writing and then we got straight into pre-production, and Karina went and found all the props,” Dawson said.
“I came up with the idea and in the next month we were filming,” Lee added.
“We also had someone else editing but we weren’t very happy with how it turned out, so I started editing, and then COVID happened, and then I went back to my friends to edit it, and everything was corrupted, which added on a bit of time to production,” Dawson continued.
The teaser premiere was attended by the cast, local celebrities, and some of Lavac’s friends from the business and legal communities.
Lee said that organising the premiere was very important to her as she wanted to create an experience that attendees would remember.
“It was great, I loved it,” Lee said.
“I organised the whole thing and I just wanted to make everyone feel really special when we walked in.”
“It was more about the experience and not just about the film, we wanted people to feel like it’s a proper premiere with the red carpet… a little bit of Hollywood glamour,” Dawson added.
Also featuring in the film is Sydney’s Lamborghini Barrister, Peter Lavac, who became involved when Lavac and Lee met by chance in a local KFC.
“It was the most amazing experience, I saw the Lamborghini and said I need that in my film, like I’ve always wanted to film with a Lamborghini, and I just saw it and thought oh my god,” Lee said.
“Then I met Peter and he had a real gangster look about him and asked him to be in the movie, which he agreed to.”
The Lamborghini Lawyer, Peter Lavac, said this is his first acting role.
“Karina and Samara discovered me in a KFC and thought I was finger licking good and I would make a great gangster,” he said.
“I did a bit of stunt work while studying, but this is my first role as an actor.
“I had a great time and met a lot of interesting people, and their passion and talent is very infectious.
“It was great fun getting to know them.
“It’s much more fun playing a gangster in a movie than defending one in court.
“A Current Affair came to set while we were filming.”
Crazy Love will be fully released at acclaimed short film festival Tropfest, with production for the rest of the film going ahead in 2022.
Harry Mulholland