Abbie Cornish On ‘Lavender’ And Believing In The Paranormal [EXCLUSIVE VIDEO]

Abbie Cornish stars in Ed Gass-Donnelly‘s horror film Lavender as a photographer who is struggling to remember her past.

Abbie Cornish On Lavender

Following a tragic accident, Cornish’s character Jane suffers significant memory loss and then sees a psychologist (Justin Long) to help her recover her lost memories. What starts to do the trick are her own photos, which seem to indicate that Jane may bear the responsibility for the deaths of loved ones she doesn’t even recall having.

In order to prepare for her role in Lavender, Cornish dove headfirst into her character and her character’s experiences. She also drew some inspiration from The Others, the 2001 thriller that starred Nicole Kidman as a mother, who comes to believe that she and her children are being terrorized by spirits in their home, only to realize that the truth is much darker.

“I think that’s a really great reference because she’s dealing with not only her life and her past, but something that is beyond her own comprehension, but is also so visceral and so real,” Cornish explained in an exclusive interview with uInterview.

Though Lavender is a dark fright fest of a film, Cornish did get the chance to laugh a bit on set thanks to her funnyman costar Long.

“He was stepping into a role that was really quite serious, and he’s playing a doctor and we’ve never seen him like that you know? So he was really ready to go, he was so engaged in every moment and it was really fun,” Cornish said, adding. “What’s nice about Justin is you could have a really serious scene, but then be giggling about it in between takes.”

For Cornish, the supernatural elements in Lavender and in other films don’t seem entirely outside the realm of possibility. Asked if she believes in the paranormal, she says, “I do,” before explaining, “I think that just experiences in life where I can’t really put my finger on it.” And while Cornish believes in the paranormal, that’s not necessarily what scares her the most.

“Real people scare me in real life,” Cornish told uInterview. “I don’t know. You know what life is like. Just watch the news. It’s pretty scary.”

Lavender premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival.