"Sorry for the deep baritone voice”, says a seductively husky Chase Sui Wonders, when she hopped onto a Zoom call with us recently. “I was out late last night, and shouting over everyone!”. Many coffees later, she told us all about her new Apple TV+ crime drama series, ‘City on Fire’, and how she spent all day covered in blood screaming, with Lee Pace, Pete Davidson, and Amandla Stenberg, in the new slasher movie ‘Bodies Bodies Bodies’.

Dress **Miu Miu,** bra **Fleur du mal** & underpinning **Commando**

Speaking of husky voices, did you have to learn how to scream for your horror movie role?

Haha! Yes, and I didn’t think I could reach that high, but I got there in the end, I kid you not, something primal in me came out! By day two of shooting, all of us in the cast, after having only known each other for 48hrs, were just cuddling one another in a pool of blood while screaming, it was insane!

Left Tank top **Calvin Klein**, cuffs, necklaces and earrings **Chanel** & rings **Givenchy**
Right Top **MM6**, necklace **Laura Lombardi** & hosiery **Wolford**

What was the first scary movie you saw? Can you watch them on your own?

Well it’s not really considered a scary movie, but ‘The Fifth Element’ with Bruce Willis, which has this blue alien lady in it, was the stuff of my nightmares for years in a row! I always thought how does anyone enter a scary movie willingly you know? But now I’ve made one and seen behind the curtain, it’s almost an adrenalin thrill, and now I go into a scary movie and I’m fascinated and enjoy them and maybe have become a little desensitised to them.

Dress **Valentino** & necklace **Laura Lombardi**

“Music is like a drug, and if you can curate a sound that mimics the headspace of a character, that’s super useful.”

You’re also starring in the Apple TV+ series ‘City On Fire’, which is not so much a slasher flick, but a crime thriller. Tell me about your character Samantha, what drew you to the role?

The story is such a sprawling amazing intricate web of these New Yorker’s stories and how they all connect to the shooting of this girl in Central Park. My character has this raw power and she’s kind of a nowhere girl who builds this family that ends up leading her down a scary path and her whole journey is so fascinating. She’s definitely one of the most free-spirited characters that I’ve ever played, getting to be that cool and confident is a fun pair of shoes to try on for a while.

Dress, shoes **Emporio Armani** & bag **Givenchy**

I imagine crime drama requires a different kind of mental preparation because you’re basically spending all day thinking [in the case of your character], that you’re going to be murdered at some point?

Yes totally, having the paranoia set in is definitely important and you need an on and off ram for your brain to get into that headspace about having a target on your back, it’s definitely mind-altering.

Are you a fan of crime shows?

I love heist and suspense, but not detailed crime shows or real life documentaries. All my favourite movies have paranoia and deception built in, and City on Fire has all of that too.

Coat **Valentino** & bra **Fleur du mal**

The series is written by Gossip Girl and The O.C. creators Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage. So does this mean we’re all going to be fan girl’ing over the soundtrack at some point? I spent my youth Googling every song on every episode of the O.C.!

OMG, same! I fangirl’d to Josh and Stephanie every day, because I was hooked up to an OC drip for the whole of my youth! I’ve often gone up to Josh and dropped quotes from the show and he doesn’t know what I’m talking about, and I’m like, ‘that’s a quote from Season 2, episode 7’, haha! This new show has such an amazing music supervisor too, and it takes place in the early 2000s, so all the bands that you know and love will be making an appearance in a really exciting way. It’s a darker and grittier show, but it’s been really cool to work with these legends, it still feels quite surreal.

Left Bra **Fleur du mal** & skirt **Erdem**
Right Tank top **Calvin Klein** & cuffs, necklaces and earrings **Chanel**

Speaking of music. Do you ever make a playlist to prepare for a role?

Music can become a crutch, and I have a playlist that I listened to every day on my way to set, for City on Fire, and it helped me to tap into a head space. Music is like a drug, and if you can curate a sound that mimics the headspace of a character, that’s super useful, especially on this show, as music runs through my character’s blood, and I had to take guitar lessons for it. Actually, props are kind of upset at me because the guitar I used has made its way into my every day, and I’ve kept up playing it!