- 5 months ago
"It was pretty brutal, I think, for all of us. There's so much pain that they all go through and keeping that alive was quite the experience," Cohen said of filming the Netflix series over 9 months.
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00:00Hi, I'm Oliver Jackson-Cohen and you're watching In Studio with The Hollywood Reporter.
00:08You play Luke in Haunting of Hill House.
00:10I do.
00:11Tell me about the show.
00:12How would you describe it?
00:13Because the genre is, it's kind of blending, you know, it's not just horror.
00:17Yeah, I think that was kind of the main thing that Mike Flanagan kind of wanted to do.
00:21He wanted to create a show that was actually fundamentally about a family and about childhood
00:27and kind of veil all of that in a horror veil in a way.
00:31Yeah.
00:32So I think that when we were making it, it was kind of interesting because we did think,
00:36are people going to want to watch this because it so heavily relies on this family dynamic
00:41and this broken family.
00:43So I think it's kind of, in a weird way, the show is sort of an exploration about childhood trauma
00:50and the after effects of what that does to you as an adult.
00:53Yeah, your character, Luke, I mean, he's an addict and he's mainly an addict to get rid of these ghosts
01:00and these things from his past that are haunting him.
01:03And I saw an interview, I think, with you where you were talking about how you didn't want to play up the addiction
01:09or like get too deep in like heroin addiction.
01:12Yeah.
01:13You wanted to focus more on what he's talking about.
01:15Well, I just thought it was really important.
01:17When I first signed on to it, I think that the story as it is and the character of Luke
01:24and the way he'd been written was so honest and it was such a kind of honestly,
01:30it was just such an honest portrayal of what trauma does to you.
01:35And so I thought, in a way, if I focus on the addiction part, that's been a judgment on him.
01:40And I don't think Luke sees himself as an addict, even though he is.
01:45He's someone that is constantly kind of trying and trying and trying and trying.
01:50And the fact that he has an opioid addiction is kind of the last resort.
01:56It was inevitable that that was going to happen because he's just struggling and he struggled his whole life.
02:03And the only option and what do you do when you've been through something that traumatic that you're told didn't happen?
02:11What does that do to you?
02:12And so I kind of became kind of interested in that and what it was he was trying to numb
02:20and what he was trying to run away from.
02:22And so his whole life is built on this idea that there's a constant threat,
02:27that he's never, ever felt safe.
02:29And so I kind of, I thought it was, it would be sort of one dimensional if I focus on the addiction part.
02:35So I watched a bunch of documentaries and, but in a way it's more the other,
02:40it's the other family members that mention the addiction.
02:42He doesn't.
02:43He's just trying to be normal.
02:46He's trying with everything he can to just push forward and be normal.
02:50And why can't he function like everyone else?
02:53I think as well what Mike's done, you know, and all the writers have done really brilliantly,
02:57is that they've, they've kind of shown every single side of it.
03:01So they've shown what it's like to be a family member of someone that is an addict
03:06and what it's like to be the addict within the family member.
03:08And sort of being aware of how much destruction you're causing and not wanting to cause it,
03:16but it just sort of feels sort of inevitable for him.
03:19And so I think that they've tread the line, the writers kind of tread the line very, very well about,
03:26it just feels like a very honestly written family dynamic of what that's like for people.
03:33Definitely. And what's it like for you when you're in those scenes and you're acting
03:36and you have these, you know, other actors that I think you guys all get along pretty well.
03:41What's that like for you though whenever you're in it and, you know, they have to be mean to you and, you know,
03:47because there's a, especially whenever you're taking the camera and the iPad and you're like, it's not what it seems.
03:52Yeah, yeah, yeah.
03:53You know, just like the way they look at your character sometimes, are you, are you able to sort of snap out of it?
03:58Do you prefer to stay in character the whole time? How do you approach that?
04:02I think, I think because we shot for such a long time, it was like a nine-month shoot.
04:05Yeah.
04:06So there was probably a degree of all of us that kind of stayed somewhat,
04:11it wasn't staying in character, it was more sort of keeping stuff alive.
04:14And yeah, it was, it was, it was pretty, it was pretty brutal.
04:20I think for all of us, you know, there's so much pain that they all go through.
04:24And keeping that alive was, was, was quite the experience.
04:32Yeah.
04:33I mean, I can't imagine for eight or nine months.
04:35Yeah.
04:36It's pretty intense.
04:37It was, it was, it was by far probably the most intense experience I've ever had.
04:40But sort of what was great about all of us is that, that there sort of became the shorthand
04:45because we were all working together so much and the way that the show is structured
04:49and the way that you sort of the first five episodes at each sibling's point of view,
04:53you kind of were able to, it was very interesting come episode six, I think it is,
04:58when we all come together for the funeral.
05:01It was the first time we kind of all worked together.
05:04So we'd all been sort of shooting our episodes and being like, this is what my,
05:07and so it was kind of so interesting seeing the clashes of what,
05:10because you'd be like, no, I'm doing this.
05:12And then someone would kind of, what's the word, challenge you on it.
05:17So it was, yeah, it was, it was, it was great.
05:20And then Timothy Hodden is great.
05:22What was it like working with him?
05:24Oh, he's the dream.
05:25I loved him.
05:26I mean, ordinary people is just, ugh.
05:27I mean, I honestly, I couldn't believe when they, when they, also when they told me
05:30that Henry Thomas was going to play our dad as a, I just couldn't believe it.
05:35Yeah.
05:36I mean, the whole cast is just, you know, everyone's great.
05:37They are, it's, they are, I mean, we were very, very fortunate.
05:39They are, and everyone is so, it was so nice in a way because everyone really believed in the story
05:45and what we were doing and so everyone kind of brought it every single day.
05:50Yeah.
05:51And so it was, it was such a dream to kind of be able to work with people
05:54that knew their characters inside out and were so fleshed out that it was, you know,
06:00and the scripts were so brilliantly written that it was a joy.
06:03I watched it when it first came out and then I recently rewatched most of your scenes.
06:08It's brave.
06:09You know.
06:10Just trying to, trying to refresh the, the memory.
06:13And I noticed the second time around that whenever you're told that Nell killed herself,
06:19you sort of touched your neck.
06:21Was that in the, cause you know her.
06:23Yeah, yeah, yeah.
06:24Was that, was that a detail that was in the script or is that something that you guys
06:28came up with in the moment?
06:30Do you remember?
06:31I don't remember.
06:33That's a super deep cut, sorry.
06:35I think, do you know what, actually?
06:37No, I do.
06:38It's really subtle and I was like, oh, that's so smart because, you know.
06:41I remember, I sort of as, as, as an actor, I remember thinking I had to create a bunch
06:47of pain in my neck all the time.
06:48Yeah.
06:49So I don't know whether or not it was cause a conscious thing, but I, for a lot of Luke's
06:54episode, I had to just before take, I would sort of try and tense my neck so I would always
06:59have this sort of niggling thing.
07:00Yeah.
07:01So I don't know whether or not I did touch it on purpose or if it was a mistake.
07:04Maybe you're just too deep in the character.
07:05There you go.
07:06Yeah.
07:07Yeah.
07:08You're just that good.
07:09I have another question that in rewatching that also struck me the first time, but there's
07:12a scene where you're on the side, I think it's that same episode.
07:15It's sort of all in the same sequence, but you're sort of doing your seven steps back
07:19and forth and the figure in the bowling hat is behind you.
07:22Yeah.
07:23Yeah.
07:24And then just sort of floats.
07:25Yeah.
07:26And tracks with you.
07:27Yeah, yeah, yeah.
07:28Is that an actual person?
07:29Yeah.
07:30And how did you guys do that?
07:32Because it also just comes in so seamless and it gets really close behind you.
07:35It was also done at four o'clock in the morning on the streets of Atlanta.
07:40It was a whole thing that they kind of rigged onto the camera.
07:45And so they had a dolly that was on a track and then basically a, what's it called, like
07:52an arm that kind of came out with a platform on it.
07:56And he would, they were able to kind of just rotate him in and out of frame.
08:00And then when I walk at one point, he comes into frame and they just tracked him along to me.
08:06Yeah.
08:07So it was, there was sort of two different elements going on at the same time.
08:10How did it feel to watch that back for you?
08:12Because, you know, when you're in it.
08:13It's kind of, I think the show, I mean, I haven't watched it in about a year.
08:17I mean, I watched it just when we finished and then it sort of came out and I was like,
08:22I'm not watching that again.
08:23But I remember when I did first watch it, just sort of being quite, kind of blown away,
08:29especially when you're part of a horror show because you don't really get, you're not really privy.
08:33A lot of it's done in the edit.
08:35And so it was kind of like watching something for the first time.
08:40Not for the first of what I mean.
08:42It was like watching an entirely different show from what you've been in,
08:46which was quite exciting as an actor.
08:49So you weren't sort of constantly sitting there judging yourself because you just,
08:52they build all the scares and the tension in the edit.
08:55Yeah.
08:56You said last time we talked that the eulogy scene was kind of,
09:00I think I had asked, you know, what scene kept you up the night before?
09:05What made you a little bit nervous?
09:06And so can you just maybe just talk about that scene a little bit?
09:09Because also, again, re-watching it is, you know, it's very emotional.
09:13It is.
09:14I feel like so much of Luke's stuff was very emotional and quite painful.
09:21And it probably makes you sound a bit like an actor.
09:26But it genuinely was, you know.
09:29I think I'd never really played a character that is going through so much.
09:35And to lose his twin sister, there's such a bond between them,
09:41is the worst thing that could ever happen to him.
09:44And so it really, that scene in particular, there were a couple of scenes.
09:49There was a scene as well that Luke and Nell are in a car and he's asking her to buy him drugs.
09:56And that was, that was, when we finished shooting that, we were, again, on the street.
10:03It was a sort of night shoot and there was rain and we shot it.
10:07And so we shot Victoria first and then turned around and did me.
10:10And then it was like two o'clock in the morning and Mike came out and he went,
10:16great, great.
10:17So I got out the car and then something really strange happened where I just sort of stood in the middle of the street.
10:23And then, it's quite bowser, but I just started kind of shaking and I just started freaking out.
10:30And I said, I said to her, we have this lovely PA.
10:33And I said like, where's Victoria?
10:35You've got to find, where's Victoria?
10:36And I just started like, and I just could not calm down.
10:39I was just sort of like, because I think once you're building all of that stuff up, you know,
10:43for hours and hours and hours, it kind of has to come out somehow.
10:46Yeah.
10:47There's a, I think earlier we were talking about some of,
10:49we sort of tapped into a little bit of the attention to detail in the show.
10:53There's all of the hidden ghosts, all of these things.
10:57And then I also realized or read and then went back and noticed that Nell is in the same clothing with each person.
11:08When she sees them as a ghost, she's in the same outfit that she was in the last time they saw her alive,
11:13each of the characters.
11:14I didn't notice it the first time.
11:15Oh.
11:16But how much of the ghosts in the background and how much of that detail were you aware of while you were filming?
11:23Not an awful lot, actually.
11:25Okay.
11:26Like we would have, we would have ghosts come in every day and get done up in the makeup trailer.
11:30Yeah.
11:31And you'd just sort of be like, who's this guy?
11:33And Mike was, and Femi, our DOP, they were so clever about how they placed them.
11:39We weren't really aware of an awful lot of it.
11:42Which is why then, you know, when I then finally watched the show, was terrified.
11:48Yeah.
11:49By a lot of it.
11:50And it's such a clever tactic on their end.
11:52Yeah.
11:53Very clever, very scary.
11:54Yeah, exactly.
11:55When we were watching, it's like, oh, there's one.
11:57Yeah.
11:58And you know.
11:59There's one, there's one with like, when Henry goes into the whole mold thing.
12:03He's like trying to bash through the, in the bricks.
12:05Yes.
12:06That one scared.
12:07And there's like one like in the back.
12:08I mean that, that was not good.
12:09She's like just the, it's just the face and the long hair.
12:11Yeah, and the long hair.
12:12Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
12:13That was one of the first ones I noticed, which is kind of later in the episodes.
12:16And I was like, what is that?
12:18Yeah.
12:19Because you know, we, we were binging it.
12:20And then later, you know, looked it up.
12:22And of course that was a whole thing where it's like, there's ghosts everywhere.
12:24I mean, there were like, yeah, there were like hundreds of them.
12:26And I was like, oh my God, great.
12:27Now I gotta go back and.
12:28But even, even in the, our Mauricio, our set designer, he, in the wallpaper of Hill House,
12:34if you actually look at the wallpaper long enough, there's a face.
12:36That, that shows up in the pattern.
12:37Oh yeah, yeah.
12:38I think maybe I saw an interview where he, yeah, yeah.
12:40I was like, oh, I'm gonna.
12:41I thought you said before.
12:42Maybe.
12:43Yeah.
12:44There's a chance.
12:45Um, uh, can you see that in the show though?
12:47Or just maybe when you're on set?
12:48I think so.
12:49I think there's, yeah, no, there's a couple, there's a couple of shots of, if you, I mean,
12:54you probably have to like pause it.
12:55Pause it and just stare at it.
12:56And just like stare at it for a minute and then you see your face.
12:58Cool.
12:59Um, no, the, the attention detail is great.
13:01Uh, and you know, everything came together so well.
13:04Whenever you're in this and everybody obviously really believes in it, you're surrounded by
13:09this great cast.
13:10And, um, like, do you ever really know that it, did you know that it was going to be such
13:15a crazy phenomenon?
13:16No.
13:17Because everybody was talking about it.
13:18Like it was, it was pretty much a phenomenon.
13:20It was, it was, it was quite the surprise.
13:23And not that, not because, I mean, all of us believed in it, but I think, you know, I've
13:27been doing this for 10 years and you do, you, you kind of become, um, you, you just become
13:35accustomed to sort of going, look, I'm signing onto this because I think it's great.
13:39And I don't know whether or not all the audience is.
13:41And, um, but it was quite, I think it was, it was, I just thought it was such an original
13:47idea.
13:48And the fact that they were replaying 24, 48 hours from five siblings, different point
13:52of view and all of this, I just thought it was something that had never been done before.
13:56But that doesn't necessarily mean that it will work or that people will, um, you know,
14:02kind of warm to it.
14:03And, and kind of fortunately it, it did.
14:06It was, it was insanely overwhelming when it first came out.
14:09Yeah, I can't imagine.
14:10Like it was, it was, cause we were just, I was just like, yeah, we've sort of done this
14:13show on Netflix and maybe people will watch it.
14:15And then it just turned into like pandemonium for like three months.
14:18Yeah.
14:19Well, it's a good problem to have, I guess.
14:21No, it's, I, I, do you know what is really nice is that it's, it's a show, all of us feel
14:25very proud of and, and proud to be a part of.
14:28And, and I think that, you know, across the board, not just the actors, the, the crew
14:32that we had, it, it, everyone worked tirelessly for such a long time.
14:38And, and it, it's so nice when everyone's work is kind of appreciated like that.
14:43It's, it's just really nice to be a part of something.
14:45Definitely.
14:46Okay.
14:47Last question.
14:48There, I think there's a season two that's been announced, but they're being very vague
14:51about it.
14:52Do you know anything?
14:53And I've heard that sadly, maybe the Crane family might not even be involved.
14:56Is that, do you know anything?
14:58I do.
14:59Can you tell me?
15:01I don't know if I can.
15:02I think I'll get into so much trouble if I do.
15:05Is the Crane family not involved?
15:06I, they're being cryptic.
15:07They were like, maybe the Crane family won't even, you know, be there.
15:11That's true.
15:12That's the truth.
15:13I don't.
15:14You're.
15:15I don't know.
15:16What can I say?
15:18You can be vague.
15:19I, I think Mike has, with season one and with what happens to the Crane family, I think
15:28that it's been explored and, and I don't necessarily know where you would go, the way that the show
15:34ends, where you would go from there with, with the cranes.
15:38Unless you would just want to go back and just keep on having them haunted.
15:41Um, so.
15:42Yeah, okay.
15:43Do you know what I mean?
15:44I don't know where.
15:45So I think the idea is, is to do an anthology, so an entirely new story.
15:51Yeah.
15:52Okay.
15:53Yeah.
15:54Fair enough.
15:55I mean sad, but you know, fair enough.
15:56It's, it's, yeah.
15:57I, I think all of us love our, it's always, I think it would always be sad to say goodbye to
16:00a character that you love that much.
16:01Yeah.
16:02And the, there's so much, you know, with, with Luke Crane specifically, I feel like there's
16:07so much of me that I put into that.
16:09So it's, it's clear.
16:10I think it's always quite sad if you have to say goodbye to, but.
16:13Well, if nothing else, you have this great season.
16:15You have these perfect 10 episodes.
16:17If you're only going to do, you know, one thing in your life, some actors would be lucky
16:21to just have that one thing.
16:23So, there's that.
16:25And we all have loved watching it.
16:26Well, thank you for watching it.
16:27You're great in the show.
16:29So nice talking to you.
16:30And thanks everybody for watching.
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