MERCY College history teacher Lisa Bennet is hoping to bring justice to domestic violence victims through her role in new psychological thriller film Hounds of Love.
The Scarborough resident plays Gabby Donovan, a netball player who is abducted and held hostage by John and Evelyn White, portrayed by Stephen Curry and Emma Booth.
West Australian director Ben Young’s Hounds of Love is set in the Perth during the mid 1980s, where women disappear at the hands of the serial-killing White couple.
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READ NOWBennet, who is known for her roles in Choose Your Homage: Chinchilla Hunt and That War That Changed Us, said she initially joined the production to help with the casting process.
“I was actually auditioning a lot of the other actors, so I read the script… I got to read all those terrible lines but it was very intense,” she said.
“With my particular role, it is just one of those tragic things and it kind of reminds me of what happened at the Ariana Grande concert where young women are targeted.
“In the most unexpected circumstances, they can just get into some horrific situations, it is just really sad.”
Bennet said she researched serial killing cases to grow into her role.
“I was quite upset actually reading them because they were really raw,” she said.
“I usually have done a lot of light-hearted things and comedies.
“With Ben Young, I think he was really investigating why women kill because there is a lot of things about men killing.”
Bennet, who has been acting since the age of 11, said she wanted to act in another psychological thriller again.
“I find it really fascinating and when you can play a character so far from yourself, it is more interesting to expand your own mind and understand how people work,” she said.
Hounds of Love is in cinemas from June 1.
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