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[SXSW Interview] Dylan Minnette and Daniel Zovatto On ‘Don’t Breathe’ and the Current State of Horror!

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DON'T BREATHE poster via Sony Screen Gems

Director Fede Alvarez (Evil Dead) blew audiences away at SXSW with his latest film Don’t Breathe (read my review), which was the festival’s first Midnighter. I was lucky enough to sit down with the film’s stars Dylan Minnette (Goosebumps, Let Me In) and Daniel Zovatto (It Follows) and chat about the film. It’s definitely one of the more conversational interviews that I have done, aided by the fact that Zovatto and Minnette are friends in real life. Check out what they had to say! You can also check out my interview with Alvarez right here.

Bloody Disgusting: First thing’s first: I loved it. It was great.

Dylan Minnette: Awesome!

Daniel Zovatto: Great!

BD: What brought y’all onto the film. Did y’all audition or did you seek it out?

Dylan Minnette: We auditioned. We each met Fede and then read together with other people. We got it first, then read with a bunch of girls and then went to film the movie.

Daniel Zovatto: Yeah it was pretty standard but at the same time it was unique.

BD: It’s a pretty intense film. You both have had experience with intense films, but this is probably one of the more crazy ones. Did you have any reservations about doing it? 

Daniel Zovatto: No.

Dylan Minnette: For me it’s not really a reason you would expect, but here’s my story: It was originally supposed to film in Toronto, and then they called me to tell me I got the part, but that the shoot had been moved to Budapest. It took me a week or so to come to terms with it and say “Yes. I want to do this movie.” But I was so afraid of leaving. I had my summer planned out

[Zovatto laughs]

Dylan Minnette: I had my band and, you know.

Daniel Zovatto: I called him and went to one of his concerts and was like “Bro you have to do this.”

Dylan Minnette: But it’s Budapest!

Daniel Zovatto: Exactly!

Dylan Minnette: I knew I was going to do it. I think I was just stalling.

Daniel Zovatto: Yes, you were stalling. You were telling me “I’m gonna do it man. It’s just gonna take me a week.” [laughs]

Dylan Minnette: I just had to convince myself because I was excited about the movie but the idea of just going away for the summer was intimidating.

Daniel Zovatto: This was your first time outside of the States?

Dylan Minnette: It was my first time out of the States so I was just intimidated by the idea. I’m glad I did it though because it was one of the best experiences ever. I’m unbelievably proud of the movie and I’m excited to be a part of it. There was no world where I wasn’t going to do it. There was never a chance I was not going to do it.

Daniel Zovatto: Or I would have fuckin’ killed you.

Dylan Minnette: Exactly.

BD: So were y’all friends before?

Both: Yeah, yeah.

Daniel Zovatto: Well I moved to L.A. and we met because we both did an episode of Agents of Shield and we met there and…[looks at Minnette] you were sixteen. That’s crazy.

BD: Well I forgot you were in Scandal. I watch that shit and I was like “Oh shit he was in Scandal.”

Dylan Minnette: Yup!

BD: Well, not anymore.

Dylan Minnette: Yeah, in and out on Scandal.

BD: Anyway, was there a particular scene where you were…I don’t want to say ready to throw in the towel, but where you were like “Man, fuck this.”

Daniel Zovatto: Yes! There was a scene in a car. I couldn’t say a lint.

Dylan Minnette: Oh oh oh “The guy’s a shut-in!”

Daniel Zovatto: Yeah. I have to say “The guy’s a shut-in” and I would say “The guy’s a…” I don’t know.

Dylan Minnette: What were you saying?

Daniel Zovatto: I don’t know but it took me like eight takes and I couldn’t say it.

Dylan Minnette: I couldn’t stop laughing.

Daniel Zovatto: He took me aside after the takes and showed me the bloopers and by the last time I’m like “I can’t fucking do this!” I’m not American though, so there’s a lot of words that I really have to make sure that I say them right so I don’t sound like I’m Latino. There were a few lines where I just said “Fuck this shit! I can’t fucking do this!” Fede was in the back cheering me on though. “You can do this Danny! You can do this!” They were all laughing at me.

Dylan Minnette: But what were you saying?

Daniel Zovatto: I forget. I was saying something like “sha-da” or something. I don’t know. Anyway. That was a hard scene for me.

Don't Breathe Dylan Minnette and Daniel Zovatto

Daniel Zovatto and Dylan Minnette, ComingSoon.net

BD: The should just add the blooper reel to the credits. It would probably do wonders for the movie.

Dylan Minnette: It was amazing.

Daniel Zovatto: It was so horrible.

BD: Well you’ve each had a horror film come out in the past year, and yes I am counting Goosebumps as horror film even though it’s not a horror film.

Dylan Minnette: Okay. Yeah.

BD: So Dylan you did Goosebumps and Daniel, you did It Follows. Are you wanting to do more horror or is it something that just kind of fell into your lap?

Dylan Minnette: If I’m going to do horror I only want to do horror that’s good. So reading the script and knowing that Fede is making it I knew that it was quality stuff.

BD: But what if it’s not Fede? What if it’s written by someone else?

Dylan Minnette: If it’s a script that I like then yeah, totally. It has to be something that is different from the last character I played. I don’t want to repeat myself and I don’t want to make a trend.

BD: Yeah and you were the bully in Let Me In, so you’re doing a pretty good job in changing it up.

Dylan Minnette: Yeah.

Daniel Zovatto: I did a few horror movies but I’ve been really fortunate to work with three genius directors. Larry Fessenden (Beneath) is a genius and David Robert Mitchell (It Follows) and Fede are as well. Those are three very different movies and I’ve been given three very different roles. I did get the whole “Are you sure you want to do another horror movie?” questions from people and I said “Uh, yeah I want to do this one.” It was unique, different and the character was completely someone else who was so far removed from who I am.

BD: Is that something that you feel is looked down on in Hollywood? Taking a horror role?

Daniel Zovatto: No, but that fact of doing two in a row-

Dylan Minnette: And a lot of people get their start in horror movies so it’s kind of inevitable. It’s not frowned upon. It’s kind of like a rite of passage. It’s going to happen at some point.

BD: This is sort of related but it’s like how it used to be looked down upon for film actors to do TV shows. Now, a lot of film actors are doing TV shows. So my dream is for actors to go back to horror. 

Daniel Zovatto: Well you know what I think it will happen because there’s a resurgence with how films are being made. I think we went through 10 years of shit horror but that in the past couple of years it’s changing. The Witch is a great film

BD: Oh I love it. Not everyone loves it, but I love it. 

Dylan Minnette: I really liked it

Daniel Zovatto: The Babadook was great. Cloverfield is supposed to be good.

BD: Cloverfield is good. I saw it two nights ago.

Dylan Minnette: I want to see it.

Daniel Zovatto: But I really thing things are changing. I’m dying to see another The Shining-level of film.

Dylan Minnette: Well for me the best horror movie I had seen in a long time was the Evil Dead remake when it came out.

Daniel Zovatto: It’s so different.

Dylan Minnette: It is so different and then I saw It Follows and was just so impressed.

BD: Well that’s another thing. It Follows, The Babadook and The Witch are films that the festival circuit really loved but then when they got a wide release the mainstream was like “NO. What the fuck is this?”

Daniel Zovatto: Because they want to see Transformers.

BD: Exactly. Some people just want jump scares every two seconds and don’t really know how to handle “smart” horror.

Dylan Minnette: But audiences are becoming smarter.

BD: That is true.

Dylan Minnette: I feel like the movie has to be marketed properly though. Like with our movie we had all this secrecy and I think that really helps audience reception.

BD: I completely agree. All three of those movies I just mention had a lot of hype, and hopefully that doesn’t happen with this one. Well, I’m certainly not helping matters. I gave it a 5 out of 5 so…whoops. 

Dylan Minnette: Oh thank you!

Daniel Zovatto: Yeah man, thank you!

BD: Anyway, I’m getting the wrap-up here, but it was great talking to both of you.

Dylan Minnette: You as well!

Daniel Zovatto: Same to you.

Check out Don’t Breathe when it hits theaters on August 26, 2016!

A journalist for Bloody Disgusting since 2015, Trace writes film reviews and editorials, as well as co-hosts Bloody Disgusting's Horror Queers podcast, which looks at horror films through a queer lens. He has since become dedicated to amplifying queer voices in the horror community, while also injecting his own personal flair into film discourse. Trace lives in Austin, TX with his husband and their two dogs. Find him on Twitter @TracedThurman

Interviews

“I Don’t See Retiring from This” – Joe Bob Briggs Talks New “Last Drive-In” Format and the Show’s Future [Interview]

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Hey everybody, have you heard the news? Joe Bob is back in town!

The Last Drive-In with Joe Bob Briggs has returned for its sixth season on Shudder. While the show’s format has been slightly revised adopting a new biweekly schedule with one film instead of a double feature the beloved horror host’s approach is much the same.

“It didn’t really change anything,” Briggs tells Bloody Disgusting. “We were crowding all of our movies into 10 weeks once a year and then having specials, and we found that people would rather have more weeks. It’s actually more movies than we had before.

“And some of the people on the East coast fall asleep in the second movie,” he laughs. “It’s about a five-hour show when it’s a double feature because we talk so much. Also, it’s hard to get thematic double features every single time. So our specials are still double features, but our regular episodes are single features.”

The season kicked off last week with The Last Drive-In Live: A Tribute to Roger Corman, celebrating the legendary filmmaker’s first 70 years in Hollywood with a double feature of 1959’s A Bucket of Blood and 1983’s Deathstalker. The special was filmed live in front of a fervent audience of Briggs’ fan base lovingly dubbed the Mutant Family at Joe Bob’s Drive-In Jamboree in Las Vegas last October.

In addition to his usual hosting duties, Briggs conducted a career-spanning interview with Corman and his wife, fellow producer Julie Corman. They were also joined by one of Corman’s oldest friends and collaborators, Bruce Dern. In a heartfelt moment of mutual admiration, Briggs and Corman exchanged lifetime achievement awards on hubcaps.

“I’ve known Roger for about 35 years, so I’ve only known him for half of his career,” Briggs chuckles. In his long history of reviewing, interviewing, and talking about Corman and his legendary work, one emblematic encounter sticks out to Briggs.

“I remember the very first time I went to the Corman studio, which was a lumber yard on Venice Boulevard. He had a standing set for a spaceship control room, a standing set for a strip club, and I think he had one other one, and then he had all of his editing facilities there, but it was still a lumber yard. They had not really changed any of the buildings or anything.

“He’s showing me around the studio, and we were walking past a pile of debris, and I said, ‘Roger, is that the mutant from Forbidden World?’ It had just been thrown over in a corner. And he just said, ‘Yes, Joe Bob, I believe that is. He was apparently no longer needed.’ I said, ‘Roger, you gotta get with it! That stuff is worth money.’ But he was like, ‘When the movie’s over, the movie’s over.’ That was Roget to a T.”

At least part of Corman’s longevity can be attributed to his shrewd business practices and pragmatic approach to the industry, which has included working in every conceivable genre of cinema. “I couldn’t think of a single genre he has not made,” Briggs says.

“When we did this interview at the Jamboree, I said, ‘I’m gonna name the genre, and you tell me what you love about that genre,’ and every comment that he made involved money and box office performance,” he snickers. “None of it was involved with love of cinema, although I did get him to say that his favorite genre is a genre that he didn’t dabble in much other than his first movie [1954’s Highway Dragnet], and that was film noir.”

While the fourth annual Drive-In Jamboree is still in the planning stage, Briggs is delighted by the event’s continued success. “The Jamboree is something that we literally just threw together. We’ve had three of them now. It’s something where we just show up and try to come up with programming for each day.

But I really think the Jamboree is more about the mutant family meeting the mutant family. It’s more about people who know each other online gathering and partying with each other in person. It’s not so much about what movies we have. I mean, we always have an anniversary movie, and we always have some special guests and everything, but it’s more about the gathering of the mutants. It’s fun from that point of view. They’re exhausting, I can tell you that.”

The zeal among Briggs’ audience has only grown over the years, from hosting Joe Bob’s Drive-In Theater on The Movie Channel from 1986 to 1996, to MonsterVision on TNT from 1996 to 2000, and The Last-Drive-In on Shudder since 2018. “I’m amazed, having been in the business for this many years, that I still have a show at this time, because they say you can’t repeat TV,” Briggs notes.

“Nobody wants to see old TV, and yet I’ve done the same show three times on three different networks, and every time I try to change it everyone says, ‘No, no, don’t change it! That’s the part we love.’ I always want to do something new, and I’m always told, ‘No, you’re the CEO of Coca Cola who went to New Coke.’ You can’t do that. People will revolt. So we’re still doing it.

“It’s one of the few shows that I know of that’s just sort of grown organically over, gosh, almost 40 years. We’ve just added elements to the show. We try things. If something doesn’t work, we throw it away. If something works, we do it forever!”

The mutant family will be happy to know that Briggs plans to continue hosting and writing about movies for as long as he’s able to. “I don’t see retiring from this or retiring from writing. I’m primarily a writer, and the good thing about writing is long after they don’t wanna see you on TV anymore you can still write.

“The difference today, though, is I was pretty much the only guy doing genre films when I started. Now, there are academics that do it. There are entire books written about Dario Argento and Tobe Hooper and even lesser names than those, and there are, of course, a massive number of websites, including your own, so that when something comes out today, there’s immediately a hundred reviews of it; whereas in 1982, I was sort of the only guy, because the movies were considered disposable trash. So I have been surpassed in my deep knowledge, because who can keep up with all that? It’s impossible!”

Diana Prince, who serves as Briggs’ co-host Darcy the Mail Girl and was instrumental in getting him back in the hosting chair, has been promoted to an associate producer this season. “She was sort of always the associate producer, but I guess they finally gave her the title,” Briggs explains.

“Diana Prince is in on all the decisions about programming. I always listen to Austin Jennings, the director, and Diana Prince, the mail girl, because they come from opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of what kind of movies they wanna watch, and we try to strike a balance between. You know, she’s not gonna vote for Possession, and he’s not gonna vote for Mountaintop Motel Massacre,” he chortles.

“They’re probably the principal advisors, as far as what we show. Of course, [Diana] has a lot of social media clout, and she’s extremely knowledgeable about pop culture. Wow! She has seen everything. She’s seen more than I’ve seen!”

While surprises are part of the fun of The Last Drive-In, Briggs previews some of what’s in store this season. “The place we normally live is the neglected ’80 slasher, and we still live there,” he assures. “But we’re gonna pay a lot more attention to the ’70s especially. I’ve always thought the ’70s are more interesting than the ’80s anyway. And we’re gonna pay attention to some really recent stuff.”

He teases, “We’re gonna bring back Joe Bob’s Summer School, which is something that we used to do at MonsterVision. And we may have a marathon. There’s a possibility of that. But I’ll be digging this new format of being on every other week between now and at least up to Labor Day.”

While Briggs’ hosting format hasn’t changed much across four decades, the world around him certainly has and that’s why The Last Drive-In remains relevant. He points out, “In the era of streaming, where everything is menus and there are thousands and thousands and thousands of choices, we are that thing called a curator that can direct you to the fun places on the spectrum of streaming.

“Streaming is very confusing for people, and a lot of people don’t like it for that reason. I hope what we’re doing is cutting through the weeds and bringing things into perspective. And, you know, it’s just more fun to watch a movie with us!” he concludes with a Texas-sized grin.

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