The Ledge takes suspense to terrifying new heights as mountain climber Kelly (Brittany Ashworth)Â evades a quartet of killers while trapped on a cliff ledge. The thriller opens with Kelly and Sophie (AnaĂŻs Parello) staying at a cabin in anticipation of their mountain-climbing adventure. Later that day, four close-knit buddies -- Joshua (Ben Lamb), Reynolds (Nathan Welsh), Nathan (Louis Boyer), and Taylor (David Wayman) -- arrive at the neighboring cottage. After an evening of socializing together, Kelly retires to bed, only to be awakened by Sophie's screams. She eventually stumbles across the guys throwing her best friend's dead body over a cliff -- an act she captures on camera.
Now on the run from the murderers, a frightened and desperate Kelly embarks on a perilous climb up the face of the mountain to escape while Joshua and company are in hot pursuit. As Kelly becomes trapped on a ledge, the dangerous friends will do absolutely anything to permanently silence her and the video evidence. Ashworth recently spoke with CBR about pushing herself physically in her mountain-climber role, as well as psychopaths and survival instincts.
CBR: There have been plenty of Hollywood mountain-climbing films. What drew you to The Ledge and this character?
Brittany Ashworth: For the fun of it! I've climbed for quite a long time for fun, with my friends. My brother is really into it. I wanted to immerse myself in that world. One of the best things about being an actor is when you get a job that is quite skilled-based, they always pair you up with somebody incredible. You have private lessons for three weeks.
I really liked my character, Kelly. I liked that this was an old-school, cat-and-mouse, brains-versus-brawn movie. She has survived such a lot in her mourning to be where she is at the beginning of the film. She has to revisit all those demons and access all those things within her.
The main antagonist, Joshua, comes off as charming in the beginning. What makes him utterly terrifying as time goes on?
I think it is because he's so damaged, isn't he? I don't think, initially, you get the extent to which he is quite so broken and disillusioned with life. We all went out for this very fun climbing trip. We are all very enthusiastic to start with. Then, one by one, he picks them off. Even the people he is closest to, the people he betrays who you believe would be on his team, vanish one by one. Everybody is "leaving" one by one throughout. Literally, on the last day of shooting, I physically had to maneuver a body swinging down on a rope on fire. For somebody to be able to do that to their closest [friends], it just leaves to the imagination what he would have done to Kelly if he had caught her.
Joshua hadn't just snapped in the last few months. There was a history there…
Having someone in your life like that and having no idea… That is what a psychopath is, isn't it? Most people have probably encountered not necessarily a psychopath, but somebody who has that tendency to manipulate people and draw them in. It's that magnetism that they have that makes people want to be around them and to be their friend. In the beginning, he's such a fun character. Possibly the narcissism of that sucks you in. There's something within all of us that when somebody in a group is that person who is dominant and bullies people, you want to please them. It's that basic Pavlovian level. "Like me. Be my friend. Why are you being mean?" That's the key to his power in that group.
He takes his time to decide who he is going to humiliate and elevate in that moment, to be his accomplice. Particularly, in that group, they've known each other since high school. They know each other's darkest secrets. Whenever you go back to those sorts of friendships, they do have that Lord of the Flies-type element to them.
Kelly scales the mountain to escape her pursuers. How much of this movie was filmed on a soundstage as opposed to on location?
We did the first fortnight on location and the second fortnight on a soundstage, which was built specially by the climbing coordinator. He designed the ledge and all the holes you need to climb up.
What is your relationship with heights? Do you have any fears?
There's always a fear when you are watching things with heights. I knew I was working very safely with a group of people, who knew they were doing.
How much did you push yourself before you let the stunt person jump in?
I did quite a lot by myself. For me, the worry was not about the height itself, but making sure I was going to be able to do it in the most convincing way. I'm quite a perfectionist. In that final scene, getting to do that was quite important to me because they had to be able to use my face in it, to be able to see Kelly. To experience that was quite useful as well. There was that bit when someone was stabbing her in the tent and she flew out of the tent.
Under this set of grueling circumstances, it would have been easier for Kelly to give up and succumb. To what do you attribute to her will to survive?
There's a moment right before the climax of the film [and] I thought [about] the character, about what was going to await her at the top. There's this question at the end, even though she's made it... What the hell now? Where is she going to go? How is she going to get down? She's damaged. She's starving.
I think it's a combination of a few things. I think that sense of justice and vengeance, that she has the evidence to ensure the right thing happens for her friend, that her friend's family gets to know what happened to her. I think, partially, for the promise that she made in the backstory to Luca [Stefan Knezevic]. Also, I just think for herself. Having survived all this, she's like, "I'm going to live for myself."
Catch The Ledge's thrills in theaters and VOD on Feb. 18.Â