Some thoughts on

by Becky Lathrop (co-star)

The typical question: How did you prepare for this role?

Well, I guess if there's anybody out there who hasn't sat in the waiting room of a clinic, removing every fingernail between your teeth, flipping through an outdated People magazine, knowing that one word, "positive" or "negative," will soon change your life, then I could see that as a valid question. But for those of us responsible enough to monitor our health, it's very easy to call upon that real-life experience when an HIV test could alter your perception of the future. For Alison, its "positive", yet the road ahead has nothing positive about it.

Jason assured me that Keep Breathing wasn't going to resemble an after-school-special, and he kept his word. Alison spends the duration of the film overcoming the humiliation of calling up her past sexual partners, about the length of all the Smith's in the white pages, and in doing so comes to a few realizations regarding the effects of those relationships on everyone involved.

What I liked about this role is that the character is truly human. She is angry, scared, embarrassed, nervous, and lost. She has no hope for her future and her only encouraging voice is played out in her friend Crystal who pushes her to reveal the truths about her past and to confront some brutal personal demons.

Some of the scenes made the hair on my arms stand up, some of them flowed like any familiar conversation, and some of them were pure enjoyment because I don't tend to raise my voice much under normal circumstances. One of the strangest aspects of shooting this film is that there is a separate plot line merged into it, of which my character was almost entirely removed. I didn't see any of these actors in production because of our opposite shooting schedules, so I was at times clueless as to how the other half of the movie was taking place.

This co-existing plot deals with Josh, a twenty-three year old, going-nowhere barfly, who wants the pity of all those he meets as he wallows in his self-inflicted sorrows. Thus, we have girl with real problems, not wanting to face up to them, and we have a guy with no problems who wants to spread his depression to anyone who will listen. I have to praise for Jason for not taking this premise and leaving us with a love-at-first-sight ending, but rather tactically bringing these two together in the hopes that one of them will get a life, and the other will make the most of the life she has left.