Preview image from Beauty From Pain. Photo: Passionflix
When Samantha Allsop was auditioning for the Passionflix adaptation of Georgia Cates’ Beauty From Pain, there was a moment during the chemistry read with Jackson Gallagher where the magic came together. “I knew I wanted this,” Allsop said. In my exclusive interview, we talk about everything from the audition process, working with Jackson Gallagher, developing Laurelyn’s accent and so much more.
Watch the full interview with Samantha Allsop
On reading Beauty From Pain and auditioning
Allsop had some lead time to prepare for her audition, which gave her a chance to become familiar with the source material and the work Passionflix does to bring books to life as authentically as possible.
“I read the first book and I loved it so much that I started to read the second book. Then I panicked and I was like, ‘I can’t. If I read the second, it’s going to completely influence how I do the first book and my take on it.'”
After the first round of auditions, which were taped and not done in person, they moved on to chemistry reads. Jackson Gallagher, who plays Jack Henry, had already been cast so Allsop had a chance to audition with him. “We did the dinner scene. There’s a cat and mouse energy to it, but it’s also the first time we see Laurelyn in that position and there’s still a playfulness and an innocence to it before she realizes whether to take that turn with him. So it was an awesome chemistry read.”
On learning new skills
“I played a bit of guitar when I was younger, but not enough to authentically be Laurelyn’s level,” Allsop explained. “And I was really, really committed to the fact I wanted this fan base and the people who love her to really feel like I’d at least thrown everything I could in the timespan we had to get as close to the level that she would authentically be.”
That meant working guitar lessons and pole dancing lessons around the filming schedule, even getting up as early as 4am on some days to fit it all in. “I’ve carried on pole dancing,” she said. “The bruises are slowing fading…the first few sessions, the inside of your legs are destroyed.” She praised her pole dancing coach, Anastasia, for all of her help preparing her for a key scene in the story.
On Laurelyn’s accent
Allsop said she only had about two or three weeks after getting the role to prepare, and that included finding Laurelyn’s accent. She worked with coaches to get the accent right, but it was Cates who helped her most of all. “Georgia, because of her Southern accent, was sending me voice notes. She read a chapter to me and I was like, ‘Okay, we’re going with Georgia.'”
Once she found Laurelyn’s voice, she stayed in it quite a bit. “My God is that accent addictive,” she laughed. “Once you’re in it, it’s so hard to get out.”
Not only did she use the accent while on the phone with her parents, but she revealed that she used it outside of filming as well. “Poor Jackson. I stayed in it. I didn’t get out of it. Sometimes I’d be in the car on the way home and I’d still be going.”
Playlists and Beauty From Pain bloopers
As Allsop and Gallagher prepared to bring Laurelyn and Jack’s intense love story to life, they found ways to get comfortable with each other. “I think anything that has this level of intimacy in it needs a level of trust and safety. And from day one, we just had really, really open conversations about how we wanted to tackle this,” she said.
One of their strategies included creating playlists that they listened to before their scenes. “We made a joint playlist and before scenes we could listen to specific songs and sit cross-legged listening to the same song so that when we started the scene, we were both on exactly the same wavelength.”
Naturally, I had to ask whether the pole dancing scene had a playlist and she confirmed that it did. “We ended up filming two versions. I had a slower version [of the music] that I listened to that was more about the connection.”
As it happens, there were also two blooper reels. “We had one blooper reel that was a private blooper reel and that’s all I can say about that,” she said with a laugh. “I’m not sure that will ever become public.” Another blooper reel was shown to the cast and crew, and she’s guessing that’s the one that will come out.”
Will there be more movies?
After the cliffhanger ending, fans are eager to see Laurelyn and Jack’s story continue. Allsop points out that all three books in the series were optioned, but there hasn’t been an official announcement about more movies being made. “I’ve been speaking with Jackson and I’ve been speaking with Georgia and we all love the series. There’s definitely no announcement yet…but as soon as there is and we’re allowed to say it, I will definitely be sharing the news.”
Before we ended the interview, Allsop answered the famous ten questions from Inside the Actors Studio. You can watch her responses in the video above.
Beauty From Pain is available to stream now on Passionflix.
