Erin Connor in ‘Beast No More’ (photo credit: Dan Berghofer)
Belying the notion that actresses find that roles become scarcer once they reach 40, Erin Connor is enjoying a purple patch in her career.
She has several indie films that are awaiting release, including Luke Sparke’s sci-fi thriller Occupation, and she is securing sponsorship for a US visa.
“There are more roles for women of my age in the #MeToo era,” she tells IF. “People are screaming out for more realism in films.
“I’m an underground indie actress and I love helping to make stories come to life although it’s a hard grind and I often do it for shit coffee. I’m athletic so I’m good at fight sequences and getting dirty and I’m versatile, a chameleon.”
In Occupation she plays Jenny, the sassy wife of Temuera Morrison’s Peter, who are among the last survivors after a devastating intergalactic attack on Earth. Jenny and her son are trapped in a camp run by aliens.
Saban Films will launch the film, which co-stars Jacqueline McKenzie, Dan Ewing, Bruce Spence and Felix Williamson, in the US on July 20, eight days after the Australian release via Pinnacle Films.
The US exposure will be timely for Connor, whose visa sponsorship is being arranged by a leading US talent agency whom she met on a visit to Los Angeles two weeks ago.
She is applying for an O-1 visa, which allows people of ‘extraordinary ability’ to work temporarily in the US, so she can maintain her base in Oz
Connor makes ends meet by doing voiceover work and in between acting jobs she was a radio announcer at Gold Coast stations Sea FM and 1029 Hot Tomato.
Among her upcoming films she plays Blanch, a scary, evil woman in Aaron Warwick’s horror/thriller Beast No More, which stars Jessica Tovey as Mary Jane, a biologist whose son is killed in an accident. Blanch is among a group of women who capture Dan Ewing’s character, aiming to use him as a breeder.
She plays a businesswoman/scientist whom she likens to Sigourney Weaver’s Alien character in Michael O’Halloran’s sci-fi thriller Space/Time, alongside Hugh Parker, Ashlee Lollback and Pacharo Mzembe.
The plot follows a group of scientists who are developing an engine for interstellar travel and are forced to resort to crime when their funding is cut after a disaster.
Earlier in her career she showed her versatility playing a QC in Mack Lindon’s Rise and the love interest of the lead, a hitman played by Steve Mouzakis, in Dru Brown’s cult thriller The Suicide Theory.