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Billy Zane Has Opened Up About Playing Real-Life Cult Leader Larry Ray, And Said That Actors Deserve “Emotional Support Pay” For Taking On Grueling Roles

By Stephanie Soteriou,

5 days ago

Over the years, more and more actors have opened up about how emotionally grueling filming distressing scenes can be for them, and the real-life impact these performances can have.

https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=2xuQkJ_0u1klaPU00 — Stanley Tucci , for example, earned an Oscar nomination for his role in *The Lovely Bones* , where he played killer George Harvey. Despite this industry acknowledgment, Stanley has insisted that he wouldn't take a character like that on again.
Speaking to *Entertainment Tonight* at the time, he said: “I would not play George Harvey again in *The Lovely Bones* , which was horrible. It’s a wonderful movie, but it was a tough experience. Simply because of the role.”
Meanwhile, Kate Winslet won an Oscar for her portrayal of a former Nazi camp worker in *The Reader* , and she told HuffPost that she struggled to come to terms with her character long after filming had wrapped.
"We wrapped on July 12, and I sort of walked away like some car crash victim who somehow hadn't been hurt on the outside, but I felt like I couldn't speak [about it]. It was truly overwhelming,” she explained. “I really went somewhere. I was in some kind of a trance. And I'm still coming to terms with all of it. I'm so blown away by the movie."
And Sophie Turner told the Cut that she believes she’ll “ exhibit some symptoms of trauma ” after filming incredibly harrowing scenes as a child actor on *Game of Thrones* , which she said she didn’t really “comprehend” at the time.
Meanwhile, Zendaya previously articulated why these performances can be so damaging for actors as she reflected on her role as Rue in *Euphoria* .
In an interview with Elle Australia , she explained: “Your body is a person; it doesn't know that what you're doing is not real. My brain can say: 'OK, I'm pretending,' but when I'm doing it, my body and my heart don't know that it's not real.”
HBO

And Billy Zane has now become the latest star to add his voice to the discourse after playing real-life cult leader Larry Ray in the newly released Lifetime movie Devil on Campus: The Larry Ray Story .

The new movie chronicles Larry’s reign of power over the students up until his arrest, and Billy admitted that acting out the “trauma” was difficult for him, and joked that actors should be compensated for these grueling roles.

https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=0iXPLL_0u1klaPU00 — Speaking to Entertainment Weekly , the actor apparently laughed as he said: “Actors should get emotional support pay.”
“The secondary experience encroaches on the primary. It really does,” Billy went on. “You’re recreating much weird trauma. We're putting coursing adrenaline through our bodies and depleting serotonin and dopamine and freaking ourselves out, and the body registers it.”
In an attempt to counter-balance the difficult subject matter, Billy added that the cast and crew created a working environment where they could laugh and check in with each other between takes.
Lifetime / Via ew.com

Billy also revealed that he struggled the most with the more explicitly “abusive scenes,” and that prior to taking on the role of Larry, he’d been actively avoiding playing villains.

https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=3SpmlD_0u1klaPU00 — “I’ve played nefarious characters in the past and then shied from it for a while,” he said. “I couldn't resist this one because of just the curious nature of it. And I hadn't gone there in a while like this.”
Billy added that being a dad to two young girls — 13-year-old Ava and 10-year-old Gia — made the experience of playing Larry even more “terrifying” and “stressful” for him, with the star jokingly telling the publication that he no longer wants his kids to go to college.
When asked if the character made him worry about his daughters more, Billy quipped: “It was terrifying. It was completely stressful. I'm like: ‘Don't go to college. There's nothing there for you. Join the family business!’”
Lifetime / Via ew.com

Devil on Campus: The Larry Ray Story is available to stream on Lifetime now.

More on this

27 Traumatic Filming Experiences That Affected Actors Even When The Cameras Were Off Hannah Marder · May 19, 2022
Zendaya Opened Up About Being “Scared To Tackle” The Brutal Latest Episode Of “Euphoria” Because Her Body And Heart "Don’t Know That It’s Not Real" Stephanie Soteriou · Feb. 10, 2022
Sophie Turner Revealed She’ll “Probably Exhibit Some Signs Of Trauma” In The Future After Filming “Heavy” “Game Of Thrones” Scenes As A Child Star Stephanie Soteriou · May 11, 2022
Billy Zane Said His "Titanic" Character Should Have Ended Up With Rose Keely Flaherty · June 27, 2016

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