Two pretty American girls are on a road trip through Europe. In Germany they end up alone at night with a broken car in the woods. They search for help and find an isolated villa. The next day they awake to find themselves trapped in his terrifying makeshift basement hospital along with a Japanese man. An older German man identifies himself as a retired surgeon specialized in separating Siamese twins. However his three "patients" are not about to be separated, but joined together in a horrific operation. He plans to be the first person to connect people via their gastric system, in doing so bringing to life his sick lifetime fantasy "the human centipede".

Bloody Disgusting: According to IMDB this is your first major role, how did you end up in HUMAN CENTIPEDE?

Ashley C. Williams: I was living in NYC, and went through a tough audition process. I had 3 callbacks. They really liked me and I had to read with all these other girls. They were trying to pair me with the one that had the most chemistry with me. I have several other films that have yet to be put onto IMDB, but yes this was my first major role in a film.

BD: How did you meet Tom Six?

ACW: I met Tom at my first audition for the film. He wanted to show me a sketch of what the human centipede would look like. Before he showed it to me, I will never forget, he said “Are you easily shocked?” and I said “nope!” so then he showed me the sketch. I wasn’t shocked at first but I had never seen anything like that before, I was like this guy is crazy, but he was so sweet and passionate about the story, that I became intrigued about the film, and about this crazy man behind the project.

BD: Did you read the script before you took on the role?

ACW: I heavily considered everything before I said yes. There was no script. However, there was a synopsis of what would happen in every scene. I had my doubts, especially the nudity in the role, but they assured me that it was non sexual and that my modesty would be respected.

BD: How was the film pitched to you?

ACW: Tom and Ilona are very passionate people who know what they want, and when they talked to me about it they were so confident and excited about the project that I just had to get excited with them. They explained to me the basic synopsis of the film, said that it was controversial, but 100% medically accurate and was going to be a real intelligent horror movie, nothing like a slasher film. Of course I had so many questions after that, but they answered them all. Tom drew sketches on what it would look like and like I said I was a little disturbed but intrigued at the same time, especially when he said that it was going to be an “intelligent” horror film. I think a lot of other girls ran out of the room. But I was very proud of myself that I didn’t!

BD: Tom was telling people at Frightfest that he had to lie in order to get the movie made, what’s you’re experience with this?

ACW: Funny, that’s the first time I have heard that. I had no idea he lied to get the film made! Tom is so crazy!

BD: Tell me about your character…

ACW: Lindsay is from America, and she and her best friend Jenny decided to travel through Europe for the summer. Lindsay is the stronger minded of the two, she takes control in sticky situations, and is not the type to freak out and lose it when there seems like no way out. She has her head on her shoulders and in the movie she seems more mature and cautious than Jenny. Therefore she is the hopeful voice for Jenny and takes control when things start to get really bad. I liked playing Lindsey because of her strength and fearlessness.

BD: How do you prepare for such an uncomfortable role?

ACW: As an actress you just have to do what’s required of the role. I just mentally put myself in that situation, which actually made it work, but made it feel far worse at times! You just have to do it. You have to go there. There were times, in most of the scenes actually, when we had to just cry and cry and cry and lose our sanity. I had to use a technique strong enough to be able to go there, but was able to control it enough where I didn’t lose all my senses, where I was able to come out of it. So that worked for me. But it was exhausting and seemed so scary at times because it felt so real. Everything was just done so professionally and with so much respect, that I was able to just focus on the scene at hand.

BD: I couldn’t possibly be in your position for more than 2 minutes, how hard was this to film?

ACW: The only real hard part that I was not looking forward to, was when I had to pretend I was eating Aki’s poo. That was maybe the grossest thing that I could just NOT deal with!! But thankfully it was over very fast, we did it in one take. It was also hard to constantly put pressure on my jaw and my knees hurt a lot. We had a crazy two day shoot where I was just constantly cold and wet, with the pool scene and the rain scenes, but overall with the great experience I got out of it and the professionalism of the cast/crew it was all worth it in the end!

BD: How were you “really” connected? How was the movie magic achieved?

ACW: Rob Hillenbrink and his son Erik and their team did an amazing job. With Tom trying to explain his vision to them they achieved something crazy. The team did an excellent job making "the connection" look as real as possible with prosthetics.

BD: Have you seen the movie? What were your thoughts?

ACW: I have not seen the movie yet. I will be attending the USA premiere at Fantastic Fest next week. I’m very excited to see it!

BD: Would you say you had the worst role being that you were in the middle?

ACW: I know all of us had some difficulties being part of the centipede. But I feel that being in the middle was very hard because I had Ashlynn tugging at me with her mouth in one direction and Aki pulling me forward in another. So we all had to coordinate. When Ashlynn’s character starts dying she is literally dragging behind me, so I had to pull her, while Aki was pulling ahead. It put lots of pressure on my jaw when the Centipede would walk and also climb up those stairs. We were all regretting doing that scene. It was the hardest thing the Centipede had to do, because we were really doing it. No help from the crew!!

BD: Was it odd getting to know both Ashlynn and Akihiro, what did you talk about before filming? How do you prepare for such a weird role?

ACW: I met Ashlynn several times during the audition process, so we got to know eachother a little bit. But Aki had flown in like a day before shooting so, Ashlynn and I just had to warm up to him real quickly. We just had to be professional and just do it. The cast was so great to work with. We made a very nice centipede! When we all met up together for the first time we were like, “Hello, nice to meet you, I’m going to be attached to your butt soon! Ha ha ha!”.

BD: Are you familiar with David Cronenberg?

ACW: Somewhat. I know about his films…that he has been known as “The baron of blood”. Its cool that Tom is being compared to him.

BD: When people see this in a theater, what do you want them to expect?

ACW: The Human Centipede is more artfully done than you think. Its horrifying but also medically accurate, intelligent and not a slasher movie! There are a lot of fans out there who have seen it that said “This is the grossest, craziest movie I have ever seen”, at the same time they give it 5 out of 5 stars.

You can catch HUMAN CENTIPEDE at the Los Angeles Screamfest Horror FIlm Festival this October.