Chit Chat with Nadia Lamin starring horror film ‘Hosts’
Nadia is an actress known for films including ‘Homeless Ashes’, ‘Nefarious’ and ‘Chimera’.
She now stars in ‘Hosts’, a horror feature film directed by Richard Oakes and Adam Leader. A family fall victim on Christmas Eve to a series of vicious attacks orchestrated by their neighbours whom against their will, have been controlled by a dark ominous entity. Nadia stars as Lauren, the lead protagonist of the film who takes it upon her self to save what’s left of her family before it’s too late!…
‘Hosts‘ has an original take on the home-invasion trope, with a lot of depth to the story and fully drawn characters. You never know what to expect – everything you think you know, you don’t.
Nadia studied at East 15 Acting School in Essex – whose alumni include Alison Steadman and Diane Morgan – and says that method-acting dominated her studies. She learned to harness the importance of finding the truth in the text and the reasoning behind the actions of the characters she plays.
The content of ‘Hosts’ was not only dark, but physically and psychologically draining for Nadia. She says: “I don’t think I had a day on set when I didn’t cry my eyes out [in character], but then I could say the same for laughing so hard it hurt.“
The emotional journey and terror her character Lauren goes through is intense and nothing like any role Nadia had had before. Lauren comes out of the film a completely different person to the one she started as.
Nadia says: “I had to truly trust myself and leave any doubts or insecurities I had at the door, because these were deep and dark-rooted places I had to go, and I needed to come back from that safely.”
Lamin said she was looked after amazingly on set by the cast and crew, and that the directors took care of her, making sure she was comfortable and safe. At one point in the film Lauren has to step up and fight for her life, and she has an epic fight scene with one of the possessed characters. Nadia says it was the most exciting, yet physically challenging, scene she had to do. But she says the dynamic was “pretty much a group of best mates making a film together”, so they had a lot of fun with it too.
Her first day on set was the second day of the shoot, and she hadn’t met some of her fellow cast members before, She said it was slightly nerve-wracking and exciting, but she was gearing herself up to start.
When they started to film the major family dinner scene – about which Nadia says she “can’t give too much away” – she says it was like second nature, and the actors fell into a real-life family dynamic. Lamin says she never experienced a bond develop so quickly before like that, and the actors are all still close to this day. She felt that was an omen of how the rest of the shoot was going to be, and that it felt “incredible”. Nadia says: “I said to myself, ‘This is going to be a special one’.”
Lamin truly loved filming ‘Hosts’, saying: “It is, hands down, one of the best experiences I’ve ever had working on a film. I’ve been lucky enough to have worked with both the directors before, co-writing their first feature film script ‘Dirge’, which is yet to be shared with the world.
“With ‘Hosts’, I’ve also had a special experience watching the film grow from the beginning. Being part of a film from its early stages makes you appreciate the journey it takes through filming and post-production.”