LAKE HAVASU — Riley Steele has been reeled in to play a sexy party reveler in Dimension Films’ horror reboot Piranha 3-D. Production kicked off in Lake Havasu on Monday and is expected to run for seven weeks.
The film is acclaimed horror director Alex Aja’s ode to Joe Dante’s 1978 creature feature about a school of piranhas terrorizing the swimmers at a summer resort. Aja’s remake is set in the spring break town of Lake Victoria and stars Steele as "Crystal," a stripper hell-bent on having a good time.
“I was nervous when I got this role because I’m not an actress; I’m a porn star. But, luckily, everything that I say is very natural,” Steele told AVN. “Crystal is a Girls Gone Wild type of personality. She’s always trying to get girls naked with her and have fun. It’s a very comfortable role for me.”
The Digital Playground star joins an impressive cast that includes Hollywood players Elisabeth Shue, Ving Rhames, Dina Meyer, Jerry O’Connell, the great Christopher Lloyd and Richard Dreyfus in a highly anticipated cameo appearance said to be an ode to his role in Spielberg’s Jaws.
Despite the thespian blood in the talent pool, Steele said that she isn’t worried about nailing her character’s fear on camera.
“I’m naturally very afraid of fish,” explained the 20-year-old blonde. “I don’t know why, but they just freak me out. So, it won’t be an issue. It will be a very realistic death scene.”
Ah, yes, death. Every horror fan knows that the only character to die quicker than "the black guy" … is "the stripper."
[Spoiler Alert]
“A piranha comes out of my mouth!”
Steele lets the image sink in before adding, “But, I don’t die till the very end—so it’s all good.”
The role does, however, present a very unique challenge for Steele—one that disturbs her deeply.
“I want to swim sexy, but I have this tendency to dog paddle when I swim,” said Steele. “So, I’ve been practicing my swimming. I’m working on my sexy swim.”
Steele said she’s familiar with Aja’s work, namely his 2006 reimaging of Wes Craven’s cult classic The Hill’s Have Eyes.
The French director is also the twisted mind behind 2003’s brutally violent, damsel-in-distress slasher High Tension and last year’s Mirrors, which thrilled gore-geeks with its gleefully repulsive, jaw-ripping bathtub scene starring a topless Amy Smart (Crank, Road Trip).
“Scary movies … I just don’t like them! They scare me,” admitted Steele. “I know they’re fake, but you’re home alone and it’s all dark. I don’t like to watch them by myself.”
Steele made her adult debut in Digital Playground’s Pirates 2: Stagnetti’s Revenge. The studio signed the starlet to an exclusive contract in February of 2008.
Alex Aja’s Piranha 3-D is tentatively slated for release on March 19, 2010.
