#I’ve always enjoyed writing this stuff and found the artistic ways to explore gore and it’s relation to emotion fascinating

[lesbiansanemi]

I’m not like, surprised that I’m like The edgy cannibalism guy atp but it’s really amusing to me. Glad I’ve found my niche I guess

[zachvillasource]

As a striver to be a “master of all,” Zach Villa is a skilled singer, actor, dancer, and instrumentalist who has been a part of various projects and has worked with world renowned talent. Zach has performed in the theater production of “Twelfth Night” alongside Anne Hathaway, has choreographed for Diane Paulus, performed on “The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon,” acted alongside Nicole Kidman, and played with the LA Philharmonic, among many more credits.

Currently, Zach can be found playing the infamous, terrifying, and gripping serial killer, Richard Ramirez aka the “Night Stalker,” in American Horror Story: 1984. Viewing the art of playing different roles as “puzzle pieces,” he strives to find empathy within every character he is given and with a commitment to give reality and a personal adaptation to his roles, Zach is hard-working and enjoys roles that do not resemble him in real life. As well, he is an everyday guy, enjoying fast cars and playing poker, but adores the arts and having a creative bone in his body.

With a great sense of humor answering questions and having patience while I figured out GarageBand, please enjoy the interview below with Zach:

Sorry! I forgot to press record. I have the questions here.

That’s ok. I will delay and deem technology hard cause it’s 2019. Let’s do it.

As this season of American Horror Story is coming to an end, what has your experience been like? Was it different or similar to what you expected?

That is a wide ranging question and hopefully it’s some kind of answer. I think when I booked the show, I mean, look, everybody has an idea of what being a serial killer on a show like AHS as I think you take for granted you’re gonna be busy, you take for granted that it’s gonna be a challenge at some point and you know I kinda took all of that with a grain of salt and just put my best foot forward. I don’t think I was thrown by the intensity of it, but I do know that by the end of the season I checked in with myself and realized I’m much more battle worn than I thought and that wasn’t necessarily like any particular aging quality of the show that tears down actors or anything, but I do think that it’s unique. We spent a lot of late nights out in the woods and doing a lot of very intense, dark, emotional work and even when the tone was light I think that that’s still a part of the world of AHS, so that definitely took a toll on me in a way that was subconscious and so these last few weeks here filming I’ve definitely become aware of that and was like, “Oh I’m looking forward to some rest.”

That’s actually perfect cause that kind of goes into my next question. I saw that your role in AHS is playing the serial killer, Richard Ramirez, what was that like and did you have to do anything to prepare for that specific role?

I get this question a lot and not to err on the side of mysterious mystery or anything. I definitely kept some of the prep that I’ve done to myself only because it’s just really difficult to understand when you’re handed a role like Richard Ramirez, even if there’s a campy nature or a light-hearted nature to some of the material that we get into later in the season. There’s no manual like no one says, “Ok you have to play someone who has brutally killed at least thirteen people and that’s a really terrible thing, but society wouldn’t accept.” The most simple answer is I used the tools I use for every role. I do all the research that I possibly can and if I’m playing a real person, which I am, I compared a lot of physical traits in particular, how he sounds, how he walked, how he presented himself physically in the world. I took a lot of that stuff from the plethora of material available and then injected it into the show and the material that was in the script because there’s always a marriage that happens between the material and what an actor’s performance is going to be. It’s not like they give you the script and “oh you’re just you” or “oh you’re just this perfect character that they’ve written.” There’s always some kind of negotiation when you’re playing a biographical role. That was the biggest thing for me. That I had to kind of edit and be like “oh this is how he sounds, this is how he walks and that still works in the world of AHS: 1984.” Is it funny or is it cool, is it scary, like I had to kind of look outside myself every time to make sure that the role was working from an audience point of view. The scary answer is that I walked around downtown very very late at night just thinking dark things while listening to scary music, but no one wants to hear about that. 

Wait is that actually true?? Was that one of your ways to prepare for the role or are you completely joking?

I don’t want to go into too much more detail, but ya I mean the thing is that like because he was a real person that was LA based a lot of the locations that are mentioned in the material you can go visit. You can go see a lot of the hotels that he crashed at and yeah I wanted to see what that felt like. I wanted to see how it affects the body and the mind being in his place at night, as you know everyone knows that he did. That was definitely an element and what I did on the streets I’m not gonna talk about cause who knows. I didn’t kill anybody if that’s what you’re asking. You dress a certain way it makes you feel a certain way. A lot of these things, you know you don’t have to go downtown and murder 13 people to be able to figure out how somene’s psychology works, but you can get close like if you start to mimic. I think it’s like trying on a different pair of pants or a different mask or costume. It affects you and I took that energy and I took how that made me feel and just kind of amped it up and developed it with my own psychology.

What has being a part of AHS taught you, if anything? Personal wise or career wise.

That’s a very good question. I think that we’re always learning, especially artists that’s kind of our job. Well we have multiple jobs, our first job is getting work, and then our career is doing the acting and being on camera and trying to be brilliant in a very small high pressure situation, but I think that as an artist really what makes you move forward is learning and so I think that I’m always learning. I think that everyone is learning just as much from a good experience as they would a bad experience and AHS was a career highlight, is a career highlight for sure and I want it to continue being a career highlight. I think that it kind of just taught me that you have to stick with it even when things are confusing or hectic or the work seems like it doesn’t make any sense because you’re trying to play a historical person, but then you realize that you’re working on campy comedy that also explores really dark, scary, gore and those are certain things you don’t see in the script at the very beginning and so I think maybe if I were to take something away professionally acting wise it’s that you have to be ok with surprise, you have to learn to adapt to whatever the process asks of you and I knew that, but I think AHS, this particular show, really demanded it of me in a different way and usually it demanded it of me when I only had four and a half hours of sleep after a night shoot, so I think that I learned something about myself. I learned that I have the stamina to really take roles like this and go the distance and just be adaptable and be ready for surprise.

What has been the most challenging character to play, so far in your career?

Man, you’re pulling no punches. I don’t know, I mean I kind of feel like I get more excited and more success in payoff when I’m playing characters that are challenging, that aren’t like me at all, so I would say like “oh ya like Richard Ramirez or Richard III oddly, you know, or something of that nature,” but I don’t really see it as a challenge, I think it’s just kind of a puzzle piece, so sorry that’s not really the answer to your question. I just try not to judge the roles that I do. I mean, sure there are some that I’ve felt better about or less successful about, but I think a lot of those happened in acting school for me, like a lot of it was stuff that I clearly wouldn’t have been casted for in the real world, but it still taught me something, so I guess challenging or most difficult character I’ve had to play was... I don’t know. I don’t really have a problem with getting behind really, pardon my French, but fucked up psychology like I think that’s something that I enjoy delving into because you learn about humanity and look, humans are complicated, confused animals and we’re all just trying to do our best and when we’re being cordial and we got our shit together I think that can be a really beautiful thing, but we’re also capable of some really terrible evil and I think that for me I’ve become more comfortable clearly with that side of my psychology and humanity and I think that you have to as an actor, so it’s hard for me to answer that because I try to find empathy in every character that I take on even if it’s quote on quote challenging for me on a personal level.

I know you act, sing, dance, and play instruments, but if you had to choose just one of those things, which one is your favorite?

I will not choose. There, I refuse to, in fact I got so much slack when I was in high school in particular, instructors who were very wise and 99% of the time this might be true for students that they were working with, they would always try to make me choose, they’re like “stop playing the guitar, why are you writing songs, you’re 17 and why are you just picking this up now like you have a dance career and you’re really good at singing and acting” and I’m like “well those are three things you already listed that are different from each other, so why are you telling me to choose one thing now?” I just kind of felt like that was only the lie and something I’ve been fighting for a very long time and a lot of great artists throughout history have been, dare I say well-rounded, and that’s not to say that I want to be a master of none, I think that I’d like to be a master of all and trying to use all these different gifts and mediums to inform one another. I mean that’s a huge part of my process. I wouldn’t be able to fight or move physically like Richard if I didn’t have an extensive dance background, if I didn’t have a dance background I wouldn’t know the first thing about programming drums and music in the studio, so it’s just like for me it’s just all part of the same suit and they’re all different highs. I mean, selfishly it’s pretty cool that I get to be on the set of AHS and then go play a rock show the next week you know like that’s really fun for me and in a very very different experience cause you can’t replicate on a set.

What inspired you to get into the arts?

I feel like maybe I had no choice. My mom was a dance teacher, she’s retired now, and I had a dance studio attached to my house growing up, so I kind of feel at a certain age it was like “well we can do daycare and never spend time with our son or we can put him in dance class and my mom could teach me something useful” and that’s what ended up happening. I was just injected with it at a very early age and as I grew older the truth changes all the time. Like I'm sure at one point I was like “oh yay, fame and glory” and then I learned more about storytelling and I learned how cathartic that was for me. I’ve definitely gone through periods where the arts were like therapy for me, but I think at the end of the day, it’s in my blood and I can’t imagine doing anything else and I don’t think I even have to know why. I think that I have some things to offer that society likes to call “expert communication” on some level and I think that it would be a waste if I wasn’t doing that because that’s what I’ve always done and I think that’s probably what I'll always do and I don’t really have a logical reason as to why that’s necessary.

What hobbies do you have when you’re not working?

I love playing poker. I love motorcycles and I love fast cars. It’s so stereotypical it hurts, but it’s true. Because when I'm riding a motorcycle it honestly feels like one of my best acting moments, I feel like it’s the perfect balance of risk, danger and control and that’s what being alive is. I took up film photography about three years ago. I needed something that didn’t have the pressure of success, so I get a lot of satisfaction from being the guy at a party or at an event that has a camera and is looking for a candid moment. So that brings me some joy and I haven’t tried to make money from it yet, so everything is going well with that.

You’ve worked with a lot of other big names like Anne Hathaway and Nicole Kidman. Have you learned anything from working with them?

Absolutely! When I worked with Anne, I was fresh out of school and it was one of my first gigs and I think every actor, big or small, has a different process and I can’t tell you how many different ways there are to do this job. There’s no right way, there’s no manual. You can go to school for 8 years and be the worst actor or you can just come out of the womb and just have it. I’ve had the pleasure of seeing big names and small names be incredible on stage, or horrible. I think it’s paramount to understand that everybody has a different way of working and as soon as you start to judge that it’s really dangerous territory because you have to have freedom and you have to feel safe in order to do good work. I’ve seen it done every single way and what I’ve learned about the ones that are good actors, but also good at their jobs, is that they’re just so graceful, open, and vulnerable on set. I think that good manners and being gracious towards your fellow actors, crew mates and everybody who works on the project to make it happen is one of the most admirable qualities. Nicole, when I worked with her, I was blown away. It was a childhood dream to act with her because I watched her in Moulin Rouge and was obsessed with that as a kid. I mean growing up as a triple threat - dancer, actor, singer - and then Moulin Rouge comes out, I was just enamored. When I got to work with her, it was such a weird out of body experience because I had been on the grind for a long time and then I looked around one day and was like, “Oh my god, I’m on Nicole Kidman’s lap sitting on a couch, doing a scene with her. What is this life?” What was so cool is that she was gracious and caring to me and everyone that she worked with and as far as I was concerned, it felt like we were just two peers working on a scene. There was no ego involved and when I got to see that from someone that high up in their career it was extremely admirable. Taking away from that experience, I think it’s important to remember that we’re all in this together, it’s a hard gig and we’ve got to support each other.

[procyon-podcast-network]

HOME STRETCH! Our Kickstarter still has a little over one day left to go. We’re funded, but we would love to reach our stretch goal so we can pay all the hardworking folks who volunteered to help us make it possible. People like our artist, (@theoutsidervevo) sound engineer (@shapechangersinwinter) and musician (@sounddesignerjeans).

During our campaign Andrea Klassen (our Certified Journalist on the team and co-writer/producer for Station to Station) did interviews with the creative teams of all our shows. In case folks on the tumble missed it, we’re also posting it here! 

Below the cut: Station to Station writer’s room insider with Alex Yun and Andrea Klassen on inspiration, horror, and representation in genre fiction. 

When Dr Miranda Quan embarks on an 10-week research cruise in the Pacific Ocean, she expects two months of no-nonsense experiments, bad Titanic jokes and marathoning Grey’s Anatomy. Instead, her lab partner has vanished, leaving nothing but a notebook full of illogical ramblings, a voice recorder, and a half-finished maths problem she has to solve. With a storm moving in and something sinister lurking below decks, Miranda must untangle the conspiracy surrounding her or be consumed.

AK: It's really satisfying to write women who get to be flawed heroes in all the ways male protagonists do too. With moments of bad judgement and moral conflict and selfishness and stubbornness. Also as a queer woman it's... just nice to get write characters whose stories aren't tied to homophobia — where someone can have a crush on another woman, but that's not the source of conflict the way horrifying science conspiracies are.

AY: Exactly. And the reason that we do this — the point of PPN — is to create narrative space for ourselves in genre fiction, be it horror or sci-fi or fantasy, where we are allowed to take up that space and drive that narrative. We deserve to be front and centre, to have our stories not end in tragedy, to have stories that doesn't just mimic the current way the media treats marginalised identities. It is not niche to put non-white, non-straight bodies into narratives that have been historically excluding of them.

The idea that diverse stories are less appealing is based on constructed ideas of what "the norm" looks like - it's tied to the experience of what it means to be the "default" and what it means to be the Other.

The rest is below the cut!

Andrea Klassen (co-writer, Station to Station): In an effort to hold onto the old Q&A format for one question — where did the idea come from for Station to Station?

Alex Yun (creator, Station to Station): I have scientist friend who goes on these types of research cruises once a year and has for the two-three years I've known her. She talked about it last time she went (or was about to leave, back in October/November), I thought 'this reminds me a bit of Wolf 359' which lead to 'this would make a good podcast' and that's how the original idea was formed.

AK: I remember when you first talked about it, there was something so appealing about that setup. Even before we'd really delved into what was going to happen in season one, there's that combination of forced isolation and forced camaraderie. No one's alone on a research vessel, but you're very much stuck with what you've got, for better or worse... and in this case, maybe a little more of the worse.

AY: Right, and that's how it turned from 'slice-of-life dramedy with slightly creepy science' to full-blown sci-fi conspiracy horror. The restrictions of being stuck in confined space, of being unable to escape because you're literally hundreds of kilometres out at sea — that all feeds into the paranoia, the unease, and the claustrophobia of horror.

AK: Yeah, and I think all those same things are reasons this is a story that's so interesting to tell in podcast form. My favourite horror has never been the stuff that's about slicing up people — it's withheld information, the stuff just outside your peripheral vision, that sense there's something going on you don't understand. A medium that's entirely what you can hear is so ripe for that.

AY: I think a big component to horror is helplessness. When you look at these classic horror movies, so many of them are about being stuck in a building, in a room, in a house — and then adding in the growing fear and sense of wrongness that comes from the unknown and truly unnatural. The best horror is psychological. I'm not really interested in gore as a trope. There are a lot of other fears you can delve into that's simply more...interesting and rewarding as a setup. Especially when you tap into the natural-reaction gut-instinct kind of scary.

The best thing with audio is that you get unlimited ways to play with perception. 'Nothing is scarier' is a favourite trope of mine and audio is perfect for that precisely because it's non-visual. It leaves a lot of room for imagination and painting the medium.

I'm honestly not a big fan of horror films precisely because of how many rely on cheap tropes like body horror, jump scares and gore, but I have loved conspiracy thrillers because they deliver the same punch of fighting against something bigger and unknown — so I suppose I wanted to create something that used similar tropes, but that I would be able to listen to and not bug out in the middle.

AK: I love ‘nothing is scarier’ too, and if you think about it, we've got a very literal use of it here — no spoilers, but nothing really is the scariest thing going on in this show in a lot of ways.

AY: Right, the vast empty abyss of the void beyond when you're in the middle of nowhere. Which is always fun to joke about, until you start exploring what it means, and how to make use of the.... let's call it the instinctual human unease towards the unknown.

AK: One of the things that's been a lot of fun there is that at the centre of this story we have this trio of very different, complex women who do paranoia and unease in such completely different ways. (I wanna gush about our characters, Alex. I wanna gush.)

AY: That was something interesting to explore — coming up with different perspectives, different voices, different character motivations was definitely a learning experience for me as a writer as well. We have three extremely competent women of colour at the centre of things trying to solve this eldritch, unexplainable, larger-than-yourself mystery and it is very gratifying.

AK: It's really satisfying to write women who get to be flawed heroes in all the ways male protagonists do too. With moments of bad judgement and moral conflict and selfishness and stubbornness. Also as a queer woman it's... just nice to get write characters whose stories aren't tied to homophobia — where someone can have a crush on another woman, but that's not the source of conflict the way horrifying science conspiracies are.

AY: Exactly. And the reason that we do this — the point of PPN — is to create narrative space for ourselves in genre fiction, be it horror or sci-fi or fantasy, where we are allowed to take up that space and drive that narrative. We deserve to be front and centre, to have our stories not end in tragedy, to have stories that doesn't just mimic the current way the media treats marginalised identities. It is not niche to put non-white, non-straight bodies into narratives that have been historically excluding of them.

The idea that diverse stories are less appealing is based on constructed ideas of what "the norm" looks like - it's tied to the experience of what it means to be the "default" and what it means to be the Other. And as an asexual Chinese woman, I am writing to create that narrative space for myself.

AK: I think it's also deeply informed the kind of story we're writing. Horror can be pretty individualistic — final girls, a single protagonist getting to the bottom of everything — but when you're telling stories about people for whom finding safe community is an essential part of survival in everyday real life, it changes the narrative.

Questions of trust are so central to this story — both who you can trust when things go wrong, and how that trust or lack of it plays out. While in this case there's a conspiracy motivating our characters, these are questions that I think resonate on a pretty personal level if you're a person with any kind of marginalised identity.

AY: Right, and being aware of the real-life subtext is vital if we want to create something unique. Every piece of fiction has multiple layers to it, and every piece of fiction is measured against the meta-narrative it exists in. We're doing a horror-sci-fi in a medium that's abundant with horror-scifi — so it's obviously important to be aware of how we build it. It's been a challenge balancing character moments and not overcomplicating plot, but that's why themes of found families and solidarity and momentary allies an integral structure of the story.

But when all is said, I'm fairly satisfied with what we've got so far — I've enjoyed working with you, I love our cast, and I'm looking forward to bringing this thing to life.

Station to Station launches this summer. For updates, check us out at s2s-podcast.tumblr.com or follow us on Twitter @S2SPodcast.