Arts In – Eugenie Bondurant

Arts In

Eugenie Bondurant is film and TV actor, cabaret singer, teacher, director, international runway model – and part of the heart of St. Pete. At an age when many women actors are struggling to find good roles, she was cast in the pivotal role of Tigris in the last Hunger Games film. In 2019, she started work on a DC comics film called The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It and starred with Harry Connick Jr. in Fear of Rain, a national film that was shot in St. Pete, playing a very scary villain and talking Cole Porter to Connick during breaks. They'd already auditioned over 100 guys for that part and couldn't find anyone they liked. When they let Eugenie audition, they rewrote the villain to be a woman. Then she got a call from the director, who said they'd been doing test runs of the Conjuring film and feedback from audiences was that they wanted much more of her character. So amid the pandemic they actually rewrote and re-shot much of the film to expand Eugenie's character. She got a whole new look, new lair, new backstory, more stunt work – and a DC comic based on her character, with material from scenes she played in the film. Last year she joined the Marvel universe via Werewolf By Night – as an elegant and deadly monster hunter in a fun classic horror film world, in an ensemble with Gael García Bernal and Harriet Sansom Harris directed by multi-Oscar-winning film composer Michael Giacchino. And after 25 years of teaching acting, Eugenie opened up her own acting school – Station 12 Studio. Classes take place in front of the big screen at the intimate Greenlight Cinema. She still appears in and directs local indie films and shorts, and uses her storytelling skills to bring classic songs to life with her piano-playing husband, Paul Wilborn. Eugenie shares these amazing stories – and how as an actor, she works hard to humanize the villains that she plays onscreen. A vibrant 61 years old when this was recorded, as Barbara St. Clair notes, Eugenie Bondurant is "living her best life." Arts In is produced by Sheila Cowley Executive Producer Barbara St. Clair