Cerina Vincent, "MoniKa"

Actress Cerina Vincent is probably best known for her role as Marcy, the young woman who has a shaving accident in Eli Roth’s “Cabin Fever,” or maybe as Areola in the spoof film “Not Another Teen Movie.” Vincent’s latest is the title role in the action/revenge flick “MoniKa,” hitting home video Sept. 9. Vincent sat down with The Film Yap to talk about her new movie, following us on Twitter (she can be reached at @cerinavincent), and on being a Power Ranger.

How are you?

Good! Did you just Tweet me?

Yes, and thank you for Tweeting me back!

It won’t let me follow you on Twitter!

Really? Well, I’ll follow you and let’s see if anything changes.

Okay. I’ll get my iPhone. I was just texting the director (of “MoniKa”) Steven Monroe. Very cool! So are you The Film Yap? Is it just you?

Well, I have a partner, and we have a staff of about 10 writers. So there are a bunch of us.

Oh, that’s very cool. Well…I’m excited to talk to you. Thank you for supporting our film.

I want to tell you I’m actually sitting in my new car and you’re on my Bluetooth. This is the first time I’m doing an interview this way, so if it’s hard to understand me, let me know and I’ll turn that off.

No, not at all! Congratulations on your new car.

Thank you! Let’s start talking about “MoniKa.” What is “MoniKa” about? And tell us about your character.

“MoniKa” is an action thriller, written and directed by Steven Monroe. I’ve worked with him on a couple of movies in the past, and he’s a dear friend. I play MoniKa, and she is sort of a badass chick from the desert of Nevada. She hangs around a lot of lowlife people. It’s a very cool film, a great ensemble cast, some really memorable characters.

There’s a supernatural element to the film, but it’s kind of in the background. It’s played pretty straight for the most part. Nobody is flying around or anything.

Yeah, there is. I’m never sure how much to give away, but there absolutely is an element of supernatural. It’s something that fans of horror or sci-fi will enjoy, but right: There’s nothing like people flying around, but there is a supernatural element. It’s part of what drew me to the script, too. Some people might call it a supernatural element, but someone like me might look at it and call it a spiritual movie.

Well, do you want to talk about that terminology? Being “supernatural” versus spiritual? Well, I think there is a supernatural element, and that’s what you call it in the film world. I think when you’re playing a character, and you’re in the character’s shoes, you don’t look at it that way. You’ve got to be in the moment and in the movie, and you would approach it as spiritual…without giving too much away.

You touched on the ensemble cast. Can you talk about them?

Yeah! Jason Wiles is the lead, Jeff Branson plays a bad guy, a really bad, bad guy, he was a favorite as well. Andrew Howard, who was incredible, C. Thomas Howell, who was incredible, one of my dear, close friends Elisa Donovan…a really solid, talented cast, and cameos from people like Lew Temple from “The Walking Dead,” and Kathryn Burke from “Supernatural.” The film was full of really great characters and really great actors, and an interesting story.

And Tim Thomerson, who plays your dad.

YEAH! Tim Thomerson played my dad. He was incredible. I’ve worked with him before, too. And I dyed my hair platimum blonde. I had a lot of hair and I sat for 16 hours of bleach.

I did notice that. You had some pretty blonde hair there.

(laughs) Yeah.

But I mentioned Tim Thomerson because you worked with him in a movie you have coming out called “Bring Me the Head of Lance Henriksen.”

Yeah, that was sort of a mockumentary, I guess you would say. Michael Werth wrote it and directed it. I’m actually working with him on a drama right now. But it’s about ageism in Hollywood. It’s funny. I literally played myself. It was fun to be a part of, and it’s fun to get together with friends and filmmakers and do projects like that.

It seems like a lot of the movies you do are these under-the-radar things, similar to the genre of “MoniKa,” either a horror or action movie.

Yeah, I’ve been trying to be selective with the horror roles I do lately. I do a lot of comedy, actually, and a lot of drama. I actually do a lot of comedy, a lot of drama, a lot of television, but that doesn’t seem to get noticed as much as the genre stuff. So “MoniKa” is the first film I’ve done in awhile that fits into that genre category. “Bring Me the Head of Lance Henriksen” is a comedy, and this other film I’m doing right now is an indie drama, and I have a little part in a big studio horror-comedy called “Kitchen Sink.” So I feel like I have an eclectic career as an actor, but it could look to some like I just do this obscure weird indie horror, but that’s not true. The good thing about being part of this horror community is that it is a community, and once you’ve done a movie like “Cabin Fever,” the success of that movie locked me into the genre as a sort of scream queen, and I’m grateful for that. It is like a little community, and those fans are loyal and they’ll watch everything you do. I’m really grateful for that, but I’m lucky to do things outside of the genre.

Can you talk a little about your TV work? You’ve done spots on some big shows.

Yeah, I just had a spot air on “Californication,” and I did a thing on that new show with Jaime Pressly called “Jennifer Falls,” and we did “Not Another Teen Movie” together, so that was sort of fun. I did “Workaholics,” and those guys are genius, so that was fun. Yeah, when I’m not on a film set somewhere, I’m like any other working actress and auditioning and doing little guest spots here and there, and pilots and getting pinned for them, then not getting them, (laughs). It’s a crazy business.

The last thing I’ll ask you, and I apologize because I’m sure you get asked this all the time, but you were a Power Ranger. Yeah! You don’t have to apologize. There’s a resurgence of that show, it seems like, lately. It was a LONG time ago…’99? I was so young and sweet and it was my first series regular role, and I learned a lot and met lifelong friends. I didn’t even realize at the time what I was doing. A lot of people when they think Power Rangers, they think about a man in a suit, and gymnastics, and really I was an actor playing a little character from the jungle, and then a stunt man would come in and do that other stuff. So it was like any other acting job, it just happened to be on a kids’ show. And it’s interesting because there are a lot of Power Rangers fans out there. That show affected a lot of people. It was the number one kids show in the world when I was doing it. So a lot of adults have a soft spot for that show. And it’s still going now, and they’re releasing our shows on Netflix. I got recognized the other day in an airport. This maintenance guy was looking at me, and I was like, “Is something wrong?” And he said “I know you,” and I was like “Oh yeah?” I thought he was going to say “Cabin Fever” or something…there are certain things people know me from, and he said “You were a Power Ranger!” Here was this 25-year-old strapping, big buff maintenance guy, and he was just like “Oh, my God! I’m so excited!” You know, I’ve done much more sophisticated work, but I’m grateful for every job.