A female-fronted spin on Frankenstein, Birth/Rebirth is a double-hander horror offering that stars Marin Ireland and Judy Reyes as two mothers devoted to keeping their resurrected child alive. But while these incredible actresses were working on set with co-writer/director Laura Moss to develop the unique chemistry of this twisted tale, a certain co-star was blithely derailing their shooting schedule and ruining the general vibe.
“I don’t think it’s being too rude to say that Anjali was a total diva,” Ireland revealed in an interview with Mashable, conducted ahead of the SAG/AFTRA strike. “[Working with her] was kind of a nightmare.”
In the frightening film, Anjali plays Muriel, the first test subject of the resurrection scheme concocted by coroner Rose (played by Ireland). Muriel is a pig, and Anjali was pretty pig-headed on set.
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The diva on Birth/Rebirth‘s set was a literal pig.
Anjali the pig as Muriel in “Birth/Rebirth.”
Credit: Shudder
“I love having animals on set, actually. Even though I know you’re not supposed to like having animals on set with you,” Ireland reflected, alluding to the showbiz adage “Never work with children or animals.”
She continued: “I love animals. And [working with them in a production], it gives you such a great sense of perspective. You can’t really take it too seriously, because they have their needs. And they don’t know it’s a movie. That’s sort of great. It really keeps anybody from getting too precious or crazy or whatever. Because you’re like, this thing needs to stay alive. And it’s just having fun. We have to make it happy. But this pig was not into it, and it was hilarious.”
A low-budget production with a small cast and limited settings, one can imagine Moss and her crew were prepped to make the most of every moment on set. Ireland praised Moss and the producers’ thorough preparation, which included rehearsals between herself and Reyes ahead of the shoot. “We were all really raring to go,” Ireland explained of the start of production, “and that was really nice.”
But then came Anjali.
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“There’s so much footage of us just waiting for the pig to feel like doing what the pig was supposed to do,” Ireland recalled with a laugh. “There’s a moment when the pig needed to be sleeping, and that pig had just eaten.” Anjali would not lie down. “[They had] to record this pig just hanging out wandering around doing pig stuff for like an hour, waiting for her to get tired enough to lay down. It was not cute.”
Anjali’s diva behavior didn’t end at making others wait on her. She also got aggressive with her human co-stars. “The pig was so food-motivated, and it was incredibly smart. And the pig’s handlers were so lovely,” Ireland noted, “but she was so food-motivated that Judy’s like, ‘See, I taught her to sit’ [in one scene], and she has a Cheerio [to urge Anjali to sit]. And there’s [footage] of the pig biting Judy’s foot to try to get the Cheerio off her. Because [the pig] was like, ‘Just give me the fucking food. Don’t make me do anything for it.'”
Anjali’s antics aside, Ireland remembers the production of Birth/Rebirth as a “great experience.” And she concluded, “Sometimes it’d be so great and amazing just to have the pig around, and then sometimes you’re like, this pig is, like, not in the loop.”
“We all were like, ‘It’s gonna be this cute pig!” Ireland said, “and then the pig was not into it.”
See Marin Ireland, Judy Reyes, and Anjali the pig in Laura Moss’s Birth/Rebirth, in theaters Aug. 18.
