Editor’s Note: This was originally published for FANGORIA on October 22, 2009, and we’re proud to share it as part of The Gingold Files.
Every Halloween for the past four years, a new Saw sequel has opened—and the film series’ high mortality rate necessitates the casting of a group of new faces each time. Many an up-and-coming actor has shrieked and suffered his or her way through a role as one of Jigsaw’s victims—but one of the ensemble in Saw VI, opening this Friday from Lionsgate, had special preparation. Tanedra Howard, who plays Simone in the latest entry, won her part via VH1’s Scream Queens reality/competition show last year.
At the time she tried out for the series, however, she had no idea what screen vehicle might await her at the other end. “We were all, ‘What movie is this gonna be for?’ ” Howard recalls. “We didn’t know if it was gonna be a straight-to-DVD, so it could have been good or it could have been kind of embarrassing. And then the first day we taped, they came out and told us, ‘Just to let you ladies know, this is going to be for Saw VI,’ and I was like, ‘There’s gonna be a sixth Saw? Yeah!’ It was cool when we all found out.”
Like all those associated with the hit fright franchise, Howard is under a vow of silence regarding details of the latest Saw, the directorial debut of the films’ longtime editor Kevin Greutert. She will reveal that unlike the winners of similar past win-a-role contests, hers will be more than a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it walk-on. “You’ll definitely see me,” she says. “It won’t be like, [mocks a sneeze] Damn, I’ve got to buy another ticket, ’cause I missed her.’ I couldn’t have wanted a better role.”
She remains cagey about whether she dies on screen, saying only, “I do have a head trap on; there are pictures all over the Internet of me wearing it, and of course the commercials now are showing it too, but that was a big secret for a little while. I didn’t even know it was going to be in the ads; that was a surprise to me. I was actually working a shift at my job, and it came on the TV and my co-workers started screaming and hollering, ‘Oh my God, Tanedra, you’re on TV!’ and I was like, ‘Doing what?’ I didn’t know I was gonna be used in the trailers, so that was even more exciting.”
As for Simone’s overall piece in Saw VI’s puzzle…well, Howard herself doesn’t know for sure where she fits in. “Even when I got my script, they only gave me my scene,” she reveals. “So when people ask me what’s going on in Saw VI, I say, ‘I don’t know.’ They go, ‘Yeah, ’cause you can’t talk about it.’ ‘No, really, I don’t know, I only got my scene.’ They didn’t even put the title of the movie on it. It was called Evolution or something like that.”
Not that overzealous fans and Internet folks didn’t try to pry Saw VI scoops out of her. “People are crazy,” she laughs. “I’ve had people offer me money and trips and cars to tell them what goes on in my scene or give them the script. They’re like, ‘I won’t tell anyone, it will be a quiet source.’ And I’m like, ‘Uh, no. I’ve never been to Hawaii…but no. The Benz may be nice, but no!’ ”
Some have even developed their own theories regarding Simone’s place in the Saw mythology. “People who have their own websites, bloggers, just Saw crazies have come up with their own thing. And they always tell me they have the scoop. ‘Oh yeah, I know someone in production, and I found out that you’re Danny Glover’s daughter coming back to avenge his death.’ And I’m like, ‘Really?’ Or, ‘I got the inside ’cause my cousin works at the production company, and they told me you’re the black guy’s sister coming to avenge him.’ The guy who got killed in Saw III in the twisty trap where his arms and legs were broken—I’m his sister. I’m Jigsaw’s long-lost daughter from a previous marriage. They go all out to figure out where my place is going to be in this movie—probably so that I’ll correct them. I’m like, ‘No, that’s really good; you’re close, but not really.’ ”
It’s an unusual amount of attention to be directed at a young actress making her big-screen debut, but Howard is weathering it with enthusiasm and a sense of humor. Having aspired to perform professionally—and enjoyed horror—since childhood, she’s reveling in the opportunity that winning Scream Queens has brought—though she admits she was initially leery when her roommate first alerted her to the show’s casting notice on Craigslist. “The thing that stuck out to me was the word ‘reality,’ ” she recalls. “I thought, hmmm, so they want 10 women in a house, and I was like, ‘No, I’m not going to do it.’ People asked, ‘Why?!’ Because I watch reality shows; I’m not gonna be in a bikini in a Jacuzzi, being drunk and loud. Then I talked to my mom about it and she said, ‘Well, it’s an acting competition, so I don’t see how they would be able to fuse all that.’ So I decided to go to the open call, and I went from callback to callback to meeting the producers to being sequestered in a hotel for three days to, ‘Hey, you made the show, now we’re getting ready to go tape.’
“And then in the first episode, we had to get in bikinis and get in the hot tub,” she laughs. “But there was no drinking involved, so it was kind of mellower. The show focused more on the actual competition and the talent than any kind of drama. I appreciated that.”
Once Howard got on set, her experience weathering Scream Queens’ challenges stood her in good stead. Of the assorted scenarios she faced on the show, the one that particularly prepared her involved “those damn roaches! I said, ‘If I can get through 12,000 cockroaches being poured on my head, I can shoot a Saw film.’ I had to remain calm, because my partner was already freaking out, and I was like, ‘OK, one of us has to be the man in this relationship, ’cause if we’re both freaking out, we’re both going home.’ I had to play it down like I wasn’t scared, but on the inside, honey, I was jumping.”
She had a different concern when she first arrived in Toronto to lens her Saw VI scenes: “This being my first movie, coming from basically no credits to having a Saw credit, I went in with a little weight on my shoulders,” she recalls. “I had to show ’em proof, because everyone saw me on Scream Queens so they were waiting to see what I could do, and I was waiting to see what I could do because this was my first time. But Costas [Mandylor, reprising his role as Detective Hoffman in her scene] just made it so much fun to shoot.”
In fact, she notes, the entire Saw team, tight-knit after doing so many movies together, welcomed her with open arms. “The one thing I feared was that I wasn’t going to get the respect, because I won the role off a TV show as opposed to actually auditioning and earning the part, you could say,” Howard admits. “I didn’t know if they were gonna take me seriously. But a few of them actually saw the show, even though it didn’t air in Canada; some of them picked it up on YouTube, so they knew me already, and Kevin had watched the show. So when I came up, they were all like, ‘Tanedra, what’s up, we couldn’t wait for you to get here, we were rooting for you on Scream Queens!’ That took some of the pressure off. You can tell they’re a family, but they welcomed me right in. I felt like I had been there forever.”
She did have one Saw regular already in her corner: Shawnee Smith, who comes back once more as Amanda in Saw VI and hosted Scream Queens. “She wasn’t there when I shot my scenes,” Howard says, “but she heard that I did a good job and called me and said, ‘I’m so proud of you. All I got were good reviews from the cast and the crew, Kevin and then the people over at Lionsgate.’ She was like, ‘I’m handing it over to you, you’d better do it justice.’ And I said, ‘Of course, I’m gonna try.’ ”
Whether her character makes it out of Saw VI intact for future sequels remains to be seen this weekend, and Howard is hoping it launches her into more fright films, in or out of the franchise. “I’m assuming stuff will start happening once people see the movie, because a lot of people didn’t watch Scream Queens,” she says. “They’ve heard about me, and they’re like, ‘OK, I want to wait and see what she does.’ Some people have said, ‘Hey, this director is interested in you, but he wants to see the movie first.’ That’s cool, and it’s fair. Because it was a reality show, you really didn’t get to see me act since it was all cut and sliced together, and you couldn’t see what I’m truly capable of. I figure that once Saw VI comes out, I’ll hear about it, and I’m patient. I’m in no rush.”
