Riele Downs Talks “Cult Classic” Elements of ‘A Breed Apart’ And Being Excited By “The Whole Shebang”

Riele Downs stars in “A Breed Apart” as Killer Queen, a social media influencer who takes part in a dog wrangling competition on a remote island. The problem is that these canines love to maul human beings! A deft mix of over the top comedy and action, “A Breed Apart” is our top pick this week on CinemAddicts. Co-host Eric Holmes talked to Riele Downs about her experience on “A Breed Apart.”

Actress Riele Downs has been acting since she was a child, and she talks about the advantages she has being in show business at an early age. Downs “immediately laughed” when she got the script (co-written by The Furst Brothers and Bob Conte) and was excited about “the whole shebang.”

Catch “A Breed Apart” in theaters, Digital and On Demand May 16th! Eric Holmes also advices fellow cinephiles to watch this, as Downs describes, “cult classic” in theaters!

Full Riele Downs transcript and video is below!

Riele Downs: Hi. Nice to meet you. 

Question: Oh, nice to meet you. I’m here with Riele Downs, star of “A Breed Apart.” This keeps leaving my lips, and I’ll say it until I’m dead. I love this movie. So much fun! 

Riele Downs: Yay! Thank you!

Question: What brought you into this? 

Riele Downs: They reached out and sent me the script and I think I was just immediately intrigued.

Specifically on how they would even do a lot of the stuff they were writing. I think it was delightfully ambitious and I’d also just never done an action movie before, so I was thrilled at the idea of getting to do action stuff and fighting. That’s always been on my bucket list of I’d love to like train and do physical stuff.

I love that element of film. So yeah, I think I was just excited for the whole shebang. 

 

Question: When doing this type of film, what lived up to your expectations and what surprised you the most?

Riele Downs: The locations definitely lived up to the hype. Like getting to actually go to the island and shooting there I think was wonderful as opposed to filming in a sound stage. I think we just got to be so much more into what we were doing and feel like you’re actually immersed in the world.

In terms of not prepared for, I think. (We did) a lot of panting (during production), and you get really lightheaded, and that’s something I didn’t expect. When we’re running we have to be panting, or even if we’re not even if you weren’t doing any sort of action, you’ll just often have to act as if you just did a bunch of action.

And you get quite fatigued by doing that, so probably that, and also just coordinating all of the stunt scenes I think was tough. Like we did a lot of the the stuff ourselves. So you know, the ending in the boat that really was me, Grace Caroine Currey and Ginny (Virginia Gardner). (We were) in harnesses doing all of that and all of that kicking. My scene at the end, which I won’t spoil, (I) only had one take for that.

So just every day was like, “Okay, we gotta nail this.” Because there’s just so many moving parts. 

 

Question: What’s the stress level on that? We got we got one take. Sorry, Riele We got one take. Oh God. Okay. Don’t mess it up!

Riele Downs: no, for real. The thing is I didn’t even know until afterwards, so it was like, it was more so an afterwards thing of being like, wait, did I do it well?

Did I do what I wanted to do there? Because I was thinking, oh, we got a bunch of takes and then you do it and it’s oh wait, that was it. Yeah, but luckily. I was locked in yeah. 

Question: But you’ve been acting since you were three, is that correct? 

Riele Downs: Yeah. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Question: So you probably have a different skill set than most actors I would think. Have you noticed that like maybe child actors have a different skill set than someone that came into acting later?

Riele Downs: That’s a good question. I do think we are, because I’m friends with a lot of other people who are also, were on kids’ shows or started acting when they were younger. I do think we just have a particular comfort with being on set. Like we’re just used to it. And that always helps. I feel like half of acting is just being comfortable and being settled into your body.

And being ready to roll with the punches, like being able to take direction. So I do feel like that is something I’m like extra prepared to do. But also people who started acting later have a brilliant skill set as well. So yeah, it can really be said there are benefits to both, 

Question: Also If you are a child actor and you love your job, you might have the occupation you want for the rest of your life. What is it like to have career choice made that early in life?

Riele Downs: Yeah. I do feel like it helps a lot with, as you were saying, I never had that exact period where I was like, “Oh shoot, I don’t know what I’m doing.” I have something that I’ve always loved doing and that’s going well. So never had to have that moment, but definitely still wanting to explore other things.

Like writing or being behind the camera, you have to make the active choice to do that ’cause you are already doing something. So no one’s forcing you to go find a job. But if you have desires of other things you wanna explore, you have to really be an advocate for yourself. 

Or even like finishing school while I was acting, a lot of the people in charge didn’t really care how I was doing with school. But it’s wait, “I care and I wanna learn.” So you have to really make sure that you’re the one,standing up for what you wanna do. 

***Check out our review of “A Breed Apart” on this week’s CinemAddicts podcast:

Question: Yeah. And do you have any writing, directing, maybe camera work in the near future or are you happy just sticking with acting?

Riele Downs: I definitely have aspirations of doing that. My sister and I, she’s a great writer and we write together a lot. So we have some things where like we working on (that we) would love to see fully develop one day. And directing is definitely something in my in my sites as well. So we’ll see.

Question: “A Breed Apart” will be in theaters and on demand on digital on May 16th. And again, broken record. Great movie. Go watch it. Have a wonderful time. And if you watch it in theaters like I can. 

This needs to come back every year as “A Breed Apart” midnight movie showings at theaters!

Riele Downs: Yes, exactly that. I feel like it. Very much like (a) cult classic – go for crazy time energy. So I hope people get that out of it. 

Question: I do wanna get a movie recommendation from you something that’s maybe a movie that’s real personal to you or a movie that’s this one’s really good and no one talks about it.

Riele Downs: That’s such a good question. I really loved the movie, “The Hate You Give.” I feel like I don’t often get like emotionally moved by films. But that was one my sister and I went into and we were both like, wow, like it was just phenomenal. And then I watched this like dark comedy recently called “Sanctuary,” which was surprisingly really good.

I’m also just seeing a “Totally Killer” poster right now and I think that’s also Lionsgate and it was a great movie. So if you’re looking for another crazy slasher type thing, (see “Totally Killer”).

Question: Nice. Riele congratulations on the movie and thanks for joining me. 

Riele Downs: Thank you so much.

Catch A Breed Apart, co-starring Grace Caroline Currey and Virginia Gardner, in theaters, Digital and On Demand May 16.