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Winter of Thora Birch, Part I
April 17, 2009

Best known for her roles as angst-ridden teenagers in American Beauty and Ghost World, 27-year-old Thora Birch has taken on a different role—this time as a prostitute-turned-murderer in Winter of Frozen Dreams (Monterey, street date: May 5). The film follows the true-life story of Barbara Hoffman, a biochemist and prostitute who is convicted of two murders. Birch recently spent some time talking to Video Business about her upcoming film.

VB: I had never heard of the Barbara Hoffman trial until I saw this film. How much did you know about this case beforehand?
Birch: I wasn’t aware of it before, but I was aware of the film about a year before it finally got put together. And then I was approached again the second time, and I read it in connection with the book and that kind of sealed the deal for me as far as my interest in her, Barbara Hoffman.

VB: I thought it was interesting that it was the first televised trial in U.S. history.
Birch: Yeah, it was really big news for a long time in Madison, Wis.

VB: This is certainly a departure from some of your past roles. How did you prepare for it?
Birch: I read the book. There were certain things about Barbara that were never really clear to me. In fact, the more and more mysterious she became as she matured, that was how some of the pieces were fit together in my mind. It was actually through her silence that I kind of figured some things out about her. And I just tried to do the best I could. I felt like in some ways, I didn’t know what I was doing. And I kind of liked that; I always like that. And at the same time, I felt that I had the inherent sampling of Barbara. I felt that in some way, I knew where she was coming from, even though in no way do I have her IQ or know anything about biochemistry. I’m not that smart. But how she used things and her internal philosophy on life, I felt like I had a clue as to where she was going.

Check back next week for the second part of our interview with Thora Birch!

Posted by Cheryl Cheng on April 17, 2009 | Comments (2)