Writer/Director Rod Blackhurst and Actors Fabienne Therese & Max The Impaler talk to Fest Track about experience, the rhythm of a scene and approach in regards to their horror film: "Dolly" playing the Horror Competition section at Fantastic Fest 2025 in Austin, Texas.
00:00This is Tim Waspuk from Best Track Concert TV.
00:29I'm here in Austin for Fantastic Fest.
00:32So, right, these characters are diametrically opposed.
00:35Yet at the same time, it only works on screen because they trust each other, right?
00:38There's a moment.
00:39So it's weird because you have this competing emotion there.
00:43Like, I'll never forget.
00:44And I'll never forget because I laughed my ass off when your character crawls onto her lap.
00:51It was surreal.
00:52Like, none of us could process it, right?
00:54But, like, the only way that that could happen is if you two knew each other and cared about each other.
00:59And that's also not really how Dolly or Macy felt in that moment.
01:03It's like I was having trouble processing it.
01:06I don't know how to describe it.
01:07Like, it was so emotional that I just could only laugh.
01:10I mean, we just worked really well together.
01:13Like, we really listened to each other.
01:14We checked in with each other and really asked what we needed.
01:19You know, so we were bringing our own personal experiences into these scenes and obviously using, like, memory work, whatever.
01:27Like, our own acting tools.
01:29But then feeding off of each other continuously.
01:34In wrestling versus, you know, screen work with core and stuff like that.
01:39Can you talk a little bit about that?
01:41Working with our stunt coordinator was very interesting because, I mean, wrestling is much more physical than performing it for a film.
01:49In fact, I would be like, I mentioned this earlier to someone else, we had a crash pad and we had things like this.
01:57And, like, it was very safe and I'm just not used to having to protect myself as much.
02:04But it was fun because I got to be in a different fantasy realm and create something that you could not do in professional wrestling.
02:15It was just cool to see a different world where they can implement these, like, safety nets, I guess, so to speak.
02:44But have something turn out to look so vicious and gory and, like, nasty.
02:49Right. We have, like, literally a box of tricks to make things.
02:54We can do more because it's not real time, right?
02:56Like, wrestling is, right?
02:58We're covered in blood and shot and visual language and all these things.
03:02Like, in wrestling, we call people stiff.
03:05Like, if I hit you, it's kind of stiff.
03:07But we're taught to do it in a safe spot or somewhere that won't hurt you.
03:12So, it's just cool the different, like, the similarities but the differences in the two businesses.
03:19It's kind of like dancing.
03:21Yeah.
03:22I went two-stepping last night and there was this cowboy that was just, like, kind of throwing me around.
03:29And I was like, this is kind of like, this is like what it's like.
03:32If you are with, like, a partner that knows what they're doing, then you can, it's, you're being led, like, in a dance.
03:41Like, I remember when we had a stunt, I had a really great stunt double because I couldn't do a lot of things.
03:49Yes, you could.
03:50I mean.
03:51But they did.
03:52But she didn't.
03:53She made, I did a fair, I did a fair amount of my own stunts.
03:56But there was this one scene where, like, she gets thrown by the hair and then I had to come in, you know, to match cut that.
04:04Or there were a lot of things I had to match and then we're just kind of, like, practicing these movements and this kind of dance of it.
04:10By the time we go to shoot it, we've practiced it and rehearsed it together so much.
04:19What you think?
04:20You can just do whatever you want now?
04:22This is still my fucking house!
04:30But that has to do with environment, too.
04:32Because as you were saying, doing the two-step, you're in probably a very specific bar, so you move in a certain way because you're in that space.
04:39Mm-hmm.
04:40With this, obviously being in the nursery, being in the kitchen, you know, Max slamming you down on the actual, like, slab.
04:48It's all about how you react to that environment.
04:50At this point, you kind of forget how you got to that point.
04:53But, I mean, you are blocked, you're rehearsing, you're blocking.
04:57And I do need to give Corey, our stunt coordinator, an incredible amount of credit because, Corey, we would have these ideas, right?
05:04He'd be like, we're confidently going to do this this way.
05:07And he would pull you aside and be like, man, I think you can snap an arm better this way.
05:13He's like, in my experience, I'm like, what kind of f***ing experience did he have?
05:18But, like, when you, again, it comes from, like, you're relying on your collaborators, not just to build the space, right?
05:23So the design of the room, you know, the script is written for a certain space.
05:27And then once the realities of building the space become what they are, then you modify the script to fit it a little more.
05:33Because everything is a concert, it's a dance, it's happening, and all the pieces, like, are telling you what to do.
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