by SARAH ROWLAND

You mean the chick who plays Forman’s girlfriend on That ’70s Show? That was most people’s reaction when they heard Laura Prepon had been cast in the lead role of Karla, a disturbing biopic that chronicles Karla Homolka and Paul Bernardo’s marriage—a homicidal union that led to the brutal deaths of three young Ontario girls, including Homolka’s sister Tammy.

“I can honestly say that I never would have thought of casting her,” says producer/co-writer/editor Michael D. Sellers, who says Prepon approached them about the part. “Not that I thought she couldn’t do it, it just would have been going against type. But she came in, met with us and read some scenes with me, and we were pretty sold that she could do a great job. It was a case of an actress seeing a role and really going for it.”

So if Prepon was so gung-ho to play the cold-blooded murderer, why did she turn down all media requests with Canadian journalists a week before its theatrical release here? Well, it’s partly to do with scheduling conflicts (she’s currently filming the last four episodes of her hit sitcom). But that’s not the only reason.

“She’s really troubled,” says Sellers. “When I talked to her about it, she said that she had initially reacted to the script as an artist. She saw that the murders had taken place 15 years ago, and by our desensitized American standards, that made it okay. But as we got deeper into it, we both became more aware of the sensitivities. She still feels that she can justify what she did, but at the same time it’s too painful for her to be put on the spot about it.”

Killer reaction

Prepon’s co-star Misha Collins, who plays Bernardo, didn’t get off so easy. He agreed to a couple of interviews with Canadian press last summer—shortly before the Montreal World Film Festival decided to drop Karla from its line-up because Air Canada threatened to pull its sponsorship.

“The reporters seemed somewhat vindictive and accusatory,” says Collins, calling from Toronto. “In one instance, I said that playing a character who could be both charming and vicious was an opportunity that most actors wait their whole lives for. The reporter responded by saying, ‘So you would tell the victims’ families that you saw their suffering as a great ‘opportunity?’’ It’s really hard to respond to that kind of thing when you’re not expecting it at all.”

Since then, however, the press has softened on him somewhat.

“I think that once the festival bowed to the pressure of sponsors, a lot of people, including the media, bristled at that because it smacks of censorship. So somewhere along the line, our film went from being a criminal to a victim in the public mind.

“As for me personally, I’ve had some time to think about it and I don’t feel like I have anything to hide. I’m not ashamed of what I’ve done. So I’m no longer nervous. But I don’t think I want to play a serial killer again in the near future.”

Canada vs. USA

Sellers, on the other hand, is still reeling from the difference in the way Canadians have reacted to Karla compared to the U.S.

“People here tend to say, ‘Well she’s being portrayed as the sympathetic victim.’ But the Americans didn’t say that. They were more like, ‘Well, I could identify with her to some extent up to a point.’ It must have something to do with what people bring to the story in terms of what they already know, their opinions and feelings.”

It’s true. From the moment the film starts rolling, it’s very difficult to separate the story that’s unfolding on the screen from the morbid saga that we’ve all been inundated with since Bernardo’s arrest in 1993.

“I guessed I shouldn’t be surprised but there are very specific times in this movie where Karla takes action proactively and the Canadian audiences just didn’t seem to see,” he says referring to the re-enactment of Kristen French’s abduction, in which Homolka lures the 14-year-old girl to Bernardo’s car.

“I mean yes, in the Tammy rape, she is a bit of a reluctant participant, but that’s right off the transcripts of the tapes: He hit her and she resisted when he told her to take her clothes off. She didn’t want to do it. These are facts. These aren’t things we made up.”

Karla opens Friday, Jan. 20

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