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Rachel Griffiths dropped us a line on her role in Midway's freakishly frightening The Suffering: Ties that Bind game. From acting to dating, Griffith lays it all out there. What did we learn? Australian women just want to kick ass.

Call it morbid fascination: we couldn't help but wonder why actress Rachel Griffiths has such an obsession with death. After all, starring in popular television show Six Feet Under and now Midway's The Suffering: Ties that Bind prove, it's not like her interests run towards the bright and cheerful. Granted, the role she plays - that of Jordan, leader of a bizarre paramilitary research outfit, who teams up with hero Torque against the supernatural - doesn't exactly call for a chipper disposition. But as a candid conversation with the starlet reveals, who knew being bad could be so, well... good?

Rachel Griffiths

Q: Why take on this newest role? Don't get enough misery in your daily life?

Rachel Griffiths: Truthfully, it's a nice change of pace. I just thought it might be a little fun to do something different than what I normally work on.

Q: Gotcha. Although, given past characters you've played, you have to admit you seem like an unlikely fit for the part...

Griffiths: I know. But I've always wanted to do more action movies. Females don't really get much of a chance to star in roles that let them kick ass. It wasn't even until Charlie's Angels, in fact, that you could run around doing things like kickboxing and killing monsters and not have it seen as a joke. I think I'd be pretty good at the part, so when I got the chance to do so, I jumped at it, even if I'm just providing voice-over work for a game.

Q: So there weren't any ulterior motives to getting involved in the project?

Griffiths: It was just a chance to take a role where I'd be beating the crap out of someone and performing in a different way. I got to work with a fantastic voice coach, and it was a chance to explore a character from another angle than that I'd usually take. It's a way to reach out to a different audience as well. I'm always up to try different forms of media.

Q: How did your work here compare to past performances?

Torque

Griffiths: It was my first voice-acting role. Thank God the producer knew what he wanted and was able to give me direction. You're all by yourself. You're sitting alone in a room with a microphone. He'd give me background - this guy's just popped up, this truck's just pulled in here... They had to describe each setting for me. It's very imaginative - just you and the mic.

Q: Tell us about your character... we hear she's quite the firecracker.

Griffiths: That's the great thing about playing this character in a game... there's nothing even remotely of me in her. She's a real bitch, very ambitious. None of the characters really have a soft side here. There's no humanity to them.

Q: So you're not much of a violent person in real life?

Griffiths: Only if I've only had a few hours of sleep. [Laughs]

Q: In the game, you team up with ex-con Torque. How does he compare to the guys you normally date?

Griffiths: You're hilarious. I've never really been attracted to bad boys. I always prefer the gentleman.

Q: Are you much of a believer in the occult yourself?

Hairy, Unwashed Gamer

Griffiths: Well, I almost was the other day. We kept hearing strange noises around the house. But I called a pest inspector. They came in and found a rat's nest. Thankfully, the situation wasn't so frightening in the end.

Q: Thank heaven. Tell us. What's scarier: supernatural beasts from beyond or hairy, unwashed gamers?

Griffiths: The latter. [Laughs] No, actually, I don't find gamers frightening at all. Certainly they could do with some more sun. But what might be considered intimidating is how much they know about technology. We didn't even have a computer until I was 12. Today's kids are so quick with this stuff... it's amazing.

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