Interviews
[Interview] Max Thieriot On Moving Into ‘The House At The End Of The Street’
Relativity Media releases director Mark Tonderai’s House at the End of the Street this Friday, September 21st. The PG-13 thriller stars Jennifer Lawrence (The Hunger Games) and Max Thieriot (My Soul To Take).
Myself and a few other journalists sat down with Thieriot today and spoke to him at length about the film, his preparation for the role and whether he brought any lessons from Wes Craven to set with him. We also talk about his new role on “Bates Motel”.
In the film, “Seeking a fresh start, newly divorced Sarah (Elisabeth Shue) and her daughter Elissa (Jennifer Lawrence) find the house of their dreams in a small, upscale, rural town. But when startling and unexplainable events begin to happen, Sarah and Elissa learn the town is in the shadows of a chilling secret. Years earlier, in the house next door, a daughter killed her parents in their beds, and disappeared – leaving only a brother, Ryan (Max Thieriot), as the sole survivor. Against Sarah’s wishes, Elissa begins a relationship with the reclusive Ryan – and the closer they get, the deeper they’re all pulled into a mystery more dangerous than they ever imagined.“
What’s your process to approaching a role like this? “Before each scene I like to know where I’m at. Even if it’s something as simple as coming up with an idea of what just happened prior to that, where I’m coming from. You see a lot of different layers of Ryan throughout the film so it always has to be on my mind. I don’t want to slip up.”
You’ve worked with both Wes Craven (on My Soul To Take), was there anything you learned from him that you could bring to set? “Wes is Wes. I love the guy. And he’s iconic. He has an old-school take on horror and genre films. Mark has a new look to it all. I didn’t bring the Wes stuff in because I wanted to fully take on Mark’s style. He had this really detailed bible that even went down into stuff that we didn’t see onscreen, like the lineage of my character’s grandparents. I also watched videos of famous people who have made poor decisions in their lives [to try and shape the role].”
The film has a lot of running, jumping and chasing in it. A lot of physical elements. What was one of the most challenging things to pull off? “Physically? Lifting of… people? I think it shows some of that in a trailer so I guess I’m not spoiling anything. Lifting dead weight is not easy. It’s different than picking up a sack of rice or something, it’s awkward.”
Did you watch any iconic films to prepare for the role? “‘American Beauty’. Wes Bentley’s character in that film and just kind of the way he acted around people. I wanted Ryan to be sweet and somewhat approachable, but somewhat mysterious and unknown. [It was] kind of a fine line keeping all those things combined.”
You were recently cast in “Bates Motel”. Can you tell us a bit about that? “I was kind of surprised. I was like, okay, ‘fill me in. What’s going on? Am I playing Norman Bates?’ Which I’m obviously not, I’m playing his brother who they are creating [for the show]. Which for me is maybe more exciting because I’m playing a new character. He could do anything – there’s a lot of room to play there. It’s amazing. [The world of] Alfred Hitchcock is amazing. ‘Psycho’, ‘The Birds’… his movies are pretty amazing. It’s pretty exciting to be a part of something like that.”
Only one episode remains in Season 3 of “Chucky,” and what a bloody road it’s been so far, especially for actor Devon Sawa. The actor has now officially died twice on screen this season, pulling double duty as President James Collins and body double Randall Jenkins.
If you thought Chucky’s ruthless eye-gouging of the President was bloody, this week’s Episode 7 traps Randall Jenkins in an elevator that feels straight out of an iconic horror classic.
Bloody Disgusting spoke with series creator Don Mancini and actor Devon Sawa about that ultra-bloody death sequence and how the actor inspires Mancini’s writing on the series.
Mancini explains, “Devon’s a bit of a muse. Idle Hands and Final Destination is where my Devon Sawa fandom started, like a lot of people; although yours may have started with Casper. I was a bit too old for that. But it’s really just about how I love writing for actors that I respect and then know. So, it’s like having worked with Devon for three years now, I’m just always thinking, ‘Oh, what would be a fun thing to throw his way that would be unexpected and different that he hasn’t done?’ That’s really what motivates me.”
For Sawa, “Chucky“ is an actor’s dream in that the series gives him not one but multiple roles to sink his teeth into, often within the same season. But the actor is also a huge horror fan, and Season 3: Part 2 gives him the opportunity to pay homage to a classic: Kubrick’s The Shining.
CHUCKY — “There Will Be Blood” Episode 307 — Pictured in this screengrab: (l-r) Devon Sawa as President James Collins, K.C. Collins as Coop — (Photo by: SYFY)
“Collectively, it’s just amazing to put on the different outfits, to do the hair differently, to get different types of dialogue,“ Sawa says of working on the series. “The elevator scene, it’s like being a kid again. I was up to my eyeballs in blood, and it felt very Kubrick. Everybody there was having such a good time, and we were all doing this cool horror stuff, and it felt amazing. It really was a good day.”
Sawa elaborates on being submerged in so much blood, “It was uncomfortable, cold, and sticky, and it got in my ears and my nose. But it was well worth it. I didn’t complain once. I was like, ‘This is why I do what I do, to do scenes like this,‘ the scenes that I grew up watching on VHS cassette, and now we’re doing it in HD, and it’s all so cool.“
It’s always the characters and the actors behind them that matter most to Mancini, even when he delights in coming up with inventive kills and incorporating horror references. And he’s killed Devon Sawa’s characters often. Could future seasons top the record of on-screen Sawa deaths?
“Well, I guess we did it twice in season one and once in season two,“ Mancini counts. “So yeah, I guess I would have to up the ante next season. I’ll really be juggling a lot of falls. But I think it’s hopefully as much about quality as quantity. I want to give him a good role that he’s going to enjoy sinking his teeth into as an actor. It’s not just about the deaths.”
Sawa adds, “Don’s never really talked about how many times could we kill you. He’s always talking about, ‘How can I make this death better,’ and that’s what I think excites him is how he can top each death. The electricity, to me blowing up to, obviously in this season, the eyes and with the elevator, which was my favorite one to shoot. So if it goes on, we’ll see if he could top the deaths.”
CHUCKY — “Death Becomes Her” Episode 305 — Pictured in this screengrab: Devon Sawa as James Collins — (Photo by: SYFY)
The actor has played a handful of distinctly different characters since the series launch, each one meeting a grisly end thanks to Chucky. And Season 3 gave Sawa his favorite characters yet.
“I would say the second one was a lot of fun to shoot,“ the actor says of Randall Jenkins. “The President was great. I liked playing the President. He was the most grounded, I hope, of all the characters. I did like playing him a lot.” Mancini adds, “He’s grounded, but he’s also really traumatized, and I thought you did that really well, too.”
The series creator also reveals a surprise correlation between President James Collins’ character arc and a ’90s horror favorite.
“I saw Devon’s role as the president in Season 3; he’s very Kennedy-esque,“ Mancini explains. “But then given the supernatural plot turns that happen, to me, the analogy is Michelle Pfeiffer in What Lies Beneath, the character that is seeing these weird little things happening around the house that is starting to screw with his sanity and he starts to insist, ‘I’m seeing a ghost,‘ and his spouse thinks he’s nuts. So I always like that. That’s Michelle Pfeiffer in What Lies Beneath, which is a movie I love.”
The finale of “Chucky” Season 3: Part 2 airs Wednesday, May 1 on USA & SYFY.
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