“Bitch Slap picks up where Grindhouse left off,” she said. “It’s a post-modern, thinking man’s throwback to the B movie slash exploitation films of the 1950s through the 1970s. It’s a loving, sly parody of the same, inspired by the likes of Dragstrip Girls, Faster Pussycat, Kill, Kill, Kung Fun Nun and movies like that. It’s like Russ Meyer with a brain.”

That means lots of cleavage, lots of camp, lots of guns, fast cars and gratuitous explosions. The movie won’t be out for a while, but Cummings is on a media blitz trying to build momentum for everyone to know about it when it comes out.

“I’d just keep telling everyone to go to bitchslapmovie.com and sign up for the newsletter. I think we’re going to be at Comic-Con in San Diego in July, so anybody who is in the area, be sure to come visit us.”

The movie contains some flashback sequences reminiscent of how the movie 300 was shot (producers used the same “red” cameras). Cumming described one carefully choreographed stunt in the film where she does a back flip over another actress and also a fight scene set in a women’s prison where she’s totally nude – not that you’ll get to see her naked, though, thanks to the way it was photographed. Bitch Slap, she said, “seems like a total smut film, but underneath it, it actually has a heart and a good plot. ”

Bitch Slap follows three bad girls (a down-and-out stripper, a drug-running killer and a corporate attorney) as they arrive at a remote desert hideaway to extort and steal $200 Million in diamonds from a ruthless underworld kingpin.

Things quickly spin out of control as allegiances change, truths are revealed, other criminals arrive for the score, the fate of the world hangs in the balance and they are forced to confront a villain much worse than they ever expected... themselves.

In the film she will play Hel, a buxom corporate bombshell. Her wardrobe is as much a character trait as any emotion Cummings brings to the character.

“My character starts off being described as an accountants wet dream, and the type of woman that would wear a power mini business suit with garters sticking out the bottom of it.  And slowly by incorporating my own personal style into the character, she became more of a classic pinup,” Cummings said. 

“I personally am not really into miniskirts. I’d rather wear a really tight skirt that goes just below the knee with some sexy fishnets coming out of it. That’s more my personal style and the wardrobe and producers really embraced that. So she became more of a sexy Vargas girl type.  At the beginning of the movie, you really don’t know much about Hel, except that she is very calculating, very specific about everything she does. She doesn’t show any emotion and is the mastermind behind the entire operation. She is really the one in charge. As the movie goes on, more and more is revealed about who she really is and why she is in this situation.”

She said she enjoyed playing the role because her character undergoes so much change during her journey.

“That’s rare in a script. By the end of the movie she is just a crumbling mess of emotion which is just completely different from what you see, or even imagine that she would be at the beginning of the film,” Cummings said.

The film will include cameo appearances by Kevin Sorbo (as Mr. Phoenix), Lucy Lawless (as Mother Superior), Michael Hurst (as Gage) and Renee O'Connor (as Sister Batril). The film is directed by Rick Jacobson and is written and produced by Eric Gruendemann.

“Eric, who is one of the writers and the producer of the film was one of the creators of Xena, Warrior Princess, and ultimately the spin-off of Hercules, as well,” Cummings explained.  “Rick Jacobson, who directed Bitch Slap, he directed many episodes of both Xena and of Hercules. They had been in the business for a pretty long time, and when they decided they wanted to make a movie that they wanted to go see in the movie theaters, they were able to call in a lot of favors from people they had worked with over the years. Lucy, Renee, and Kevin all have cameos, but Michael Hurst, who played Kevin Sorbo’s sidekick in Hercules has quite a large part. I was able to work with him for quite an extensive period of time during the shooting of this, and he was wonderful.”

The stunt coordinator for Bitch Slap, Zoe Bell, was actually Lucy Lawless’ stunt double for Xena and doubled for Uma Thurman in Kill Bill 1 and 2.

“If you saw Death Proof, which was the Quentin Tarantino film of Grindhouse, Zoe Bell was the girl that was strapped to the hood of the car during the big car chase scene.  She was our stunt coordinator. And fortunately for me, she was doubling for the girl that I do a lot of my fight scenes with. So I got to fight with Zoe for a majority of the fight scenes, which was such a treat because she is so wonderful and incredibly talented,” Cummings said.

Cummings’ past credits include a supporting role in the hit film Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins for Universal. Her TV credits include a series regular role on Dante’s Cove, and guest-starring roles on The Bold & the Beautiful, Charmed, and Star Trek: Enterprise  to name a few.

“I’m proud of Dante’s Cove,” she said. “It was a good experience and good to see a science fiction show where gays and lesbians recognise themselves in the story. I also enjoyed performing on Star Trek: Enterprise. I really do enjoy sci fi and anything having to do with the fantasy genre, because I believe people watch TV and movies to escape reality.”
 

Look for Cummings on the June 18 DVD release of Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins playing a white girl who wants to be black.

“All of my scenes with Martin Lawrence were at the opening of the movie, and everyone from the studio and the director were saying, ‘It’s so important, it’s the most important scene I the movie.’  And of course the movie comes out, and it’s been cut.  So fortunately, they liked me enough to call me about a week before the premiere and they said, ‘So we’re saving your scene for the DVD special features.’  I said, ‘That’s a really nice way of saying my part got cut, didn’t it?’”


On the Web: http://www.bitchslapmovie.com