VIDEO EXCLUSIVE: Ella Balinska On Making Feminist Horror Movie, ‘Run, Sweetheart, Run’

Run Sweetheart Run, a feminist horror film, follows the story of Cherie as her life is threatened while on a blind date.

Ella Balinska, who plays Cherie, recently sat down with uInterview founder Erik Meers to discuss putting a female lens on a genre that usually focuses on the male perspective.

“[Director] Shana [Feste] can speak to this better than I, but I do know she wrote this from a place of experience,” Balinska revealed. “I think she wrote it in three days. It was a complete catharsis for her when she wrote it and there were so many things that happened to this poor character that I think every audience member can pull from. She gets her period in the film and that otherwise would be portrayed as something which is laughed at or displayed with a slightly more negative light.”

“In this film, we, and especially Shana, wanted to show that it’s not as taboo as society around us makes us seem,” she continued. “Fifty-percent of us on the planet go through it. The main thing of it being it literally saves her life, especially on that overpass scene. It’s so smart, I never would’ve thought of that. Even for me, filming it as a woman, I was like, ‘Yo, I don’t know anyone on this set and I’m filming scenes like this,’ but I realized it was normal. In showing that on screen, I hope I’m lending my voice and this film lends its voice to the gradual normalization in making women feel empowered and knowing it’s okay.”

She also revealed what the most difficult scene to film was.

“The jail cell scene was really hard, because there’s something about being filmed in a jail cell and you’re trapped in a tight space,” she said. “The cameras are set up right in the doorway so you can’t really leave. It’s a day of being imprisoned essentially.

Run Sweetheart Run is now streaming on Prime Video.