Amber Doig-Thorne stars in Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey, a 2023 horror movie where Pooh isn’t the cuddly bear we associate with the character! We caught up with Amber to talk about the unique horror movie, her lead role, how she manages to unwind from an emotionally challenging shoot, and upcoming productions…

Amber Doig-Thorne interview | Student Pocket Guide


 

Hey Amber, thanks for your time! Let’s get straight into things: you play a lead role in a new Winnie the Pooh movie, but the iconic character is not how we remember the cute cuddly bear, is he?…

It was really exciting to hear that they were going to be turning Winnie The Pooh into a horror film. I was such a huge fan of Pooh growing up and I love horror film, so I thought I was really looking forward to being able to merge two things that I love together. I thought it was a really exciting concept because Winnie The Pooh has always been a children’s character. However, with this film we are redefining Winnie the Pooh characters for an adult audience – so hopefully there will be a whole new group of people who have not come across Pooh previously who will be able to appreciate this character as an adult.

Can you talk us through the plot of the movie, and why it appealed to you so much?

Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey takes a lot of influence from classic 80‘s slasher films. It’s a really fun film so don’t take it too seriously! The start of the movie tells us that Christopher Robin grew up looking after Winnie the Pooh and Piglet, however, eventually leaves them and goes to university, leaving Pooh and Piglet to fend for themselves. They’re not used to being alone, as they’ve always been so dependent on Christopher – so they really struggle with this change and end up becoming feral and become bloodthirsty killers! The main plot of the film follows a group of university students who go to 100 Acre Woods for a relaxing weekend away, but obviously things do not go to plan! The story follows the girls as they try to survive Pooh and Piglet’s wrath – with dire consequences.

As I said, I loved Winnie The Pooh growing up – I had the toys, read the books, played the games and loved the films – and horror is also one of my favourite genres to watch, so when I saw the synopsis for Blood and Honey I was very intrigued! It was a unique opportunity where these two things that I love were merged together, so I knew straight away that I wanted to be involved.

Winnie the Pooh Blood and Honey | Amber Doig-Thorne Interview

Winnie the Pooh Blood and Honey | Amber Doig-Thorne Interview

Combining your beloved childhood character, and your favourite genre of movie to act in, how did you feel when you first heard about the opportunity, and what was the audition process like?

I had worked with the production company on another horror film previously called Return Of Krampus, and I saw the casting call online for Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey. They were casting for a role called ‘Alice’. I applied and was offered the role based of my performance in Krampus. I was so privileged to play Alice because she is in an LGBT relationship, so I was incredibly grateful to have the chance to bring authentic representation of a queer character to the screen. I also loved that she had such a great journey and story arc throughout the film, and she is the only character to successfully get revenge on Pooh or Piglet, so that was quite crazy to grasp in itself, being the first human character in Winnie The Pooh history to take down one of the beloved characters! I’ve been sent so many videos of audiences in cinemas around the world reacting to the scene where I get my revenge on Piglet, the response has been truly amazing!

The victims in horror films don’t usually get revenge on the killers, so I was really pleased that my character got to break this stereotype. 

Are there any scenes which stand out as being the scariest to watch, and does playing a lead role in a horror movie play on your mind and give you nightmares?

The scenes that always impact me the most when watching are the death scenes! I have a pretty gruesome death scene in this film, which still gives me goosebumps when I watch it – because it was all practical effects! Most of the deaths in this movie are CGI, so it was really nice to work with props to be able to create my characters death.

I’ve played lead roles in around 25 Horror Feature Films to date, so I’m very used to it by now! I always make sure that I have something fun planned after a horror shoot to take my mind off what we’ve been filming, especially if the material is particularly emotionally challenging – so that helps keep my mind positive!

As someone acting in a horror movie do you get scared at the time, even though you know it’s safe? This might sound a silly question, but people pay money to get chased by Zombies in empty warehouses, which sounds nothing compared to being chased by Pooh and a massive, bloodied hammer, in the middle of the woods at night!

Haha definitely! I’m a huge adrenaline junkie myself, I love going to scare mazes and Haunted Houses, so I really get the appeal. I think that may be one of the reasons why I love acting in horror films so much – because even though its filmmaking, it does get your adrenaline pumping when you’re being chased by a villain! When I first read the script I wasn’t sure if I’d find the Pooh costume scary or not, because it is quite a funny concept seeing the cuddly bear I’d grown up with as a serial killer – however when I saw the Pooh actor in costume for the first time it was just as funny as it was scary! It was really strange seeing Pooh as a 6ft creature built like a house, instead of the small cuddly bear we see in A.A Milne’s books – it was genuinely scary seeing the actors in their Pooh and Piglet costumes for the first time, so that definitely helped me get into the right mindset for filming. 

What are your thoughts on the public feedback, and are there plans for a sequel?

The public feedback has been absolutely amazing! This film wouldn’t have had such a great level of success without all of the fans worldwide sharing the stills and trailer – ending up with our movie having a worldwide cinematic release, which is incredible for a low budget movie shot on £20,000 budget! The audiences have given such great reactions and after each premiere, I have stayed behind for about an hour at each one to talk to people in the audience and take photos and sign autographs and it was so heart-warming to see how much people enjoy the film. There is a sequel – however I am personally taking a step back from this production company so won’t be working with them again, however I wish them the best of luck for the future! The actor playing Christopher Robin has also dropped out of the sequel so I’m intrigued to see how they will rewrite the script for the sequel, as it was originally centred on Christopher’s journey after escaping Pooh at the end of the first film. 

With horror movies, it’s all about shocking the audience, and this plot and the use of the beloved childhood character certainly shakes things up! Do you think this might become a new trend whereby cute childhood characters are reimagined as horrifying killers for horror films? And which characters do you think this would work best on?

Creating a horror spin off of such a popular childhood character is something I hadn’t seen done before, and nowadays it’s so rare for a film to be made around a genuinely unique idea – so as soon as I read the script I knew I would love to be involved. Although being terrorised by Pooh and Piglet is certainly something I didn’t think I’d ever experience! I grew up reading the Winnie the Pooh books, playing the game and owning the toys so being tormented and chased by Pooh was quite odd!

There are so many characters which I’d love to see turned into a horror spin off, my favourite fairy-tale characters are those by brothers Grimm (Snow White, Rose Red, Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, Rapunzel) as they already have such dark origins, so I don’t think it would be that much of a push to write these characters into a horror film setting.

I’m also a huge fan of the comic book series “Fables” by Bill Willingham (and the PlayStation game “Wolf Among Us”, which is based on the comics). The story is set in the modern day following popular fairy-tale characters who were forced to move to New York after their homelands were conquered many years ago. It’s very noir and deals with a lot of dark issues – so I would love to see these characters in a horror spin off, Snow White plays the mayor in this story so that would be a dream role of mine!

Having played the lead role in Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey, and having had toys of the Disney character growing up, who is going to live on in your memory?

It was really strange seeing Pooh as a 6ft creature built like a house, instead of the small cuddly bear we see in A.A Milne’s books – it was genuinely scary seeing the actors in their Pooh and Piglet costumes for the first time!  I think if I came across a Winnie The Pooh character at Disneyland I’d probably run in the opposite direction now just as a reflex haha! But on a serious note, I still have a great appreciation from the original Winnie The Pooh, because the character was such a huge part of my childhood – so I can definitely separate the two and appreciate both characters for different reasons!

Winnie the Pooh Blood and Honey | Amber Doig-Thorne Interview

What is it about horror movies you love so much, and what are your top 5 horror films of all time?

Horror is one of my favourite film genres. I grew up watching horror films as both my parents are really big fans of the genre. I watched a lot of horror films from a young age. I remember watching the original Japanese Grudge film, probably when I was far too young, and I didn’t sleep for weeks!

There are so many horror movies, I couldn’t narrow it down to just 3 films specifically, however my 3 favourite horror franchises are; Saw, The Conjuring, Evil Dead, Scream, The Purge. Three horror films I have seen recently and really enjoyed were Evil Dead Rise (directed by Lee Cronin), Host (directed by Jed Shepherd) and Smile (directed by Parker Finn). I’m obsessed with any films directed by M Knight Shyamalan or produced by Blumhouse – they both make fantastic horror films that always have a really interesting story, alongside the gore and spookiness!

What do you have coming up?

I am currently in preproduction for several Feature Films which I am really looking forward to filming! I’m really excited for ‘The Baby In The Basket’ (with Joliffe Productions and Shepka Productions), which is a Gothic horror set in a monastery in the 1940s. I played the lead character, Sister Agnes and I think this is going to be the most challenging role so far. We will be filming on location in Scotland later this year which I’m incredible excited about as I have a Scottish heritage, so it will be lovely to get back to my roots.

I shot a short from last year called ’The Little Ones’ (with Fraught Productions) which is based around the concept that there is an electrical storm playing havoc with technology. I play a character called Amber, who recently lost her fiancé in a hiking accident. She is sat at home depressed and grieving for her late fiancé – watching the last video he sent her just before he died, when suddenly there’s a moment of lightning as the electrical storm hits, which unlocks an extra few minutes of the video, which is when things really start to go haywire! There’s a great twist at the end which I think will leave people hooked.

Another upcoming feature film I’m working on is called “Mr Hyde: The Untold Story” (with  DB13 Productions and Golden Gate Productions) which is a modern-day retelling of the classic story of Jekyll and Hyde, with an unexpected twist. I play the villain in the movie – so that is going to be a lot of fun!

Finally, I’m incredibly excited for the upcoming Viking film “Dying Breed” about the end of Slavic paganism which I’m coproducing, alongside playing the lead female role of ‘Mary’. It’s a beautiful story following several characters in their battle for love, freedom, and their beliefs. The film has just been picked up by Filmsnickeriet (a wonderful Swedish production company) in association with the wonderful ‘Light Till Dark’ film festival from Örebro, and we have a fantastic cinematographer, director and set of producers attached – so I’m incredibly excited for us to start filming! We’re hoping to film in either Ireland or Sweden within the next year, so stay tuned for more updates!

Kind regards,

Thanks for your time!


Amber Doig-Thorne interview | Student Pocket Guide

Winnie the Pooh Blood and Honey | Amber Doig-Thorne Interview