Interview with the werewolf - WEST Vancouver actor Katharine Isabelle does not get nightmares. That served her well during filming of Ginger Snaps, a nightmarish film indeed.

"If I get nightmares it's stuff like the bubbles in the bathtub are getting too high and I'm panicking," laughs Isabelle, whose experiences on the set of the locally cast horror film would give most people night terrors for weeks.

Isabelle describes the attack sequences, for example: Toronto in the middle of winter; 18 hours of shooting; soaking wet and covered in blood; wearing a flimsy skirt; rope tied around her ankles while she's dragged through the woods.

Starring in John Fawcett's modern twist on the werewolf legend was a challenge. "I'm such an idiot," says Isabelle. "I read a script but I won't actually read what I have to do... I'm like 'Oh yeah, that's fun!' But then I get there and it's like: 'Prosthetics? What are you talking about?'"

It took the special effects crew five hours to put Isabelle's werewolf makeup on; another two to take it back off. "It was tedious," admits Isabelle, who watched DVDs on a laptop and tried not to doze off in the chair.

Katie, however, is already a seasoned veteran at 19, with 15 years of acting experience and a lengthy feature film and TV resume to her credit.

The stifling suburban atmosphere Ginger endures with sister Brigitte (Emily Perkins) is a far cry from the Bellevue flat Isabelle shares with her parents, but Isabelle and Ginger aren't that different.

The two girls are "pretty damn close," according to Isabelle. "She's not that much of an exaggeration from my bad side, on a bad day, early in the morning."

Ginger and Brigitte are socially backward sisters who make a suicide pact at age eight and vow to be "out by 16 or dead on the scene." One night Ginger is attacked by a wild animal, and although the wounds heal frighteningly fast, the damage is done.

A Bic razor is no match for the hair that Ginger starts sprouting, not to mention that tail.... But Isabelle isn't worried about getting dates after her star turn as a rabid beast with the worst kind of STD: she's been with her boyfriend for over a year.

Isabelle's enjoying her latest stab at fame, but her friends are having fun giving her a hard time. "They're calling me up saying 'I'm sick of seeing your ugly mug all over town!' " she laughs. "And they're going to see the movie on Tuesday -- cheap night. They won't pay full price to go see my movie."

Isabelle found another friend in co-star Emily Perkins. "Emily's wicked. We're like sisters." It was kismet that the two women finally hooked up onscreen. "We're in the same agency, we did the very first audition together, we went to the same private school, same elementary school, same preschool and we were born in the same hospital, but all at different times. It's really weird."

Perkins also appears in Isabelle's latest film, Insomnia, starring Al Pacino, Robin Williams and Hilary Swank.

"I spent all Thursday on this huge sandspit in this garbage dump with Al Pacino screaming in my face," says Isabelle of her most "surreal" acting experience to date. "It was every actor's dream... sort of."

Isabelle went to Al Pacino's birthday dinner. She tells the story like she still can't believe it. ("I don't belong at Al Pacino's birthday party. He doesn't even know my name!") Rather than small-talk with studio execs, she sat herself down with Hilary Swank's mom. "She's a total riot. We got along great."

Isabelle would like to pursue her career on this side of the border for as long as possible. "I've managed for 15 years to stay up here, and I'm doing well enough here. It might take me a little bit longer but it'd be a lot better for me," she says, citing family, friends and her horses as reasons for staying.

A successful run of the witty, gritty Ginger Snaps would help. Isabelle says she knew the "girl-power" horror flick would be great, though she was a little worried about how she'd look as a werewolf.

"Whenever you're doing a werewolf movie, you think it could be really good and really funny, creepy and scary... or it could just be really cheesy and stupid."

Ginger Snaps, according to Isabelle, "has the appropriate amount of cheese for a werewolf movie while still being really good. I'm happy."