Why David Harbour’s Character Doesn’t Talk In 'We Have A Ghost'

Interview with David Harbour

Transcript

00:00Love David Harper, love that he played this role, which is so different from him.

00:04I was wondering if you could talk about the decision not to have him really like have

00:09lines in it and like speaking to David Harper and really working with him during the shooting

00:13on that because that's like super unique.

00:15Yeah.

00:16I mean, look, as a character, as a character thing, I wanted Ernest to be silent because

00:19I felt like I wanted his relationship with Kevin to be very emotional and and that they

00:26don't have the advantage of conversation that they are really sort of reading each

00:30other's energy and sort of each other's feelings and much in the way that like if you travel

00:35to another country and you meet someone like you just have to figure that relationship

00:41out without the advantage of language.

00:45And and that was really important to me because I think it allowed for them to have more of

00:49an immediate bond, you know, and and in terms of working with David on it, like, you know,

00:56David and I had conversations about about the character, about, you know, who he was,

01:00where he came from.

01:01And then ultimately, his character's goal in the movie, which is to just sort of be

01:05able to sort of remember who he is and what happened to him and why he's in this house

01:09and how did he die?

01:12But directing him wasn't that different, honestly, from directing any other actor with dialogue,

01:18just because what my job is as a director is to always make sure that the actor understands

01:23where they are in the film, understands the emotionality of the scene.

01:27And that's kind of it.

01:28Like once the camera's on them, it's it's up to them.

01:31And David is is a is a performer who just has immediate access to his emotions.

01:37He really understands the scene work and is just a really honest performer, you know,

01:44and that reads like this.

01:46This is the kind of movie that would have been so easy to get very broad and slapsticky.

01:53And that's not David.

01:54And that's what I wanted, because I needed Ernest to be a human being and I needed him

01:57to have real stakes.

02:00And that's something that David's very good at.