00:00And she hissed at me.
00:01And it was the most terrifying moment of the last 10 years of my life.
00:05Even with my generous warning, you're going to continue to ingest my words.
00:12I love Colleen's novels because I feel like the houses always kind of have their own personality.
00:17They're almost like their own character.
00:18Talk a little bit about that setting and how it influenced how you portrayed your character.
00:23I think for Loan, it was, you know, unlike anything she's ever seen in her life.
00:28And what's interesting is the house is a Tai Chi retreat.
00:32So when you're in there, it's actually really peaceful and lovely and it's beautiful outside.
00:36But it was also quite dark in the house when it was night.
00:40So when there's these moments where she's kind of being a freak at night, she's, it was easy to feel
00:46spooky.
00:47When I first saw it, like, it was just about the time that I signed on and Michael sent me
00:53a picture of the house, like immediately.
00:54And I was like, that's not at all what I expected, but it's so much more elevated.
00:59Like I was expecting like a Victorian house in, on the outskirts of some, you know, Vermont town, you know,
01:08and this was just something else entirely.
01:10I was imagining a Victorian house too.
01:12I think just because the, the idea of Gothic.
01:14So when Michael showed me the house, I was like, oh, I'm just, I'm just surprised because Colleen described something
01:19completely different.
01:20And he goes, no, she doesn't.
01:22I'm like, I think she did.
01:23And then we actually went back to the text, read all the bits about the house.
01:27And I realized that what Michael had chosen contradicted nothing about what Colleen had said.
01:33It was just my, my imagination filled it in differently than his imagination.
01:37We got to the house and the house that they chose, like it went so far beyond what I imagined.
01:44Like it's the most gorgeous location that I don't feel like the house was as much of a character in
01:50the book as it is in the movie.
01:51You know, the roof line is a V and the inside, the roof looks like canoes.
01:57Like it was just mind boggling how it felt like the house was built for this movie.
02:03It doesn't actually go into much description in the book of what the house looks like.
02:07And I don't know if that was intentional or not.
02:09And that's good because it kind of gave us a little bit of a blank slate to work with.
02:14I like the idea that there were sort of rooms that you didn't quite know where you were.
02:18Like this idea of this office, I almost pictured this kind of womb-like environment, very feminine, almost like it's
02:26almost a boudoir.
02:28And the idea that this would be this like very sacred, almost like, like a, like a, like a tomb.
02:35And so I thought, yeah, there's like, she, that's what Verity has, this kind of secret pod that she exists
02:42in, in the creation of the house, wanting to make something that felt sort of scary, but also alluring and
02:51beautiful.
02:51Um, and yeah, we're very excited about the location that we found.
02:57This is your final warning.
02:59Only darkness ahead.
03:02And we need to talk about the voice.
03:05How did you land on this ethereal, haunting voice that you have?
03:09The minute you started talking in the film, I was like, oh my God, is that her?
03:13Do you mean I don't sound like that in real life?
03:15No, it's, it, I, there was like a featurette thing that we had and it's me doing an interview and
03:21then it cuts with the voiceover.
03:22And I go down like an entire register.
03:25I don't know.
03:26I think I was just imagining Verity as like, there's just something very velvety about her writing.
03:32There's something really seductive about it.
03:34And I think she enjoys reading her own work.
03:37And so much of the, so much of the, the time that you spend with Verity in the story is
03:42actually from Lowen's point of view, reading her writing.
03:45And so I wanted it to have that kind of slightly artificial narrated voice.
03:51And then I wanted her voice in the letter to be slightly different, a little bit more raw.
03:55I wanted it to sound a little bit more like a person.
03:58And so, yeah, I don't know.
04:00You know, it's just, you, you make these choices and hope they're the right ones.
04:03That is interesting.
04:04I didn't think about that, that the voice that she has in the flashbacks, it's actually what Lowen is imagining
04:11her voice would sound like.
04:12All of it.
04:13That's such a good point.
04:13All of it.
04:14And that's why, that's why we leaned into like making everything just feel annoyingly perfect.
04:18Like her hair is always annoyingly perfect.
04:21Like she's wearing makeup, even when she, like just that girl that you're just like, oh God, just stop, you
04:26know?
04:26And I wanted her to be completely irritating to Lowen.
04:32That's the beauty of a great performance.
04:33She created all these different sides to the character, these layers.
04:38I found it fascinating just, you know, after all the different films she's done this year to then have this
04:43one where she almost plays as many different characters in this one movie.
04:48It's, it's, she's so talented.
04:50Verity is a master at manipulating the truth.
04:54Is there a scene for any of you that genuinely unsettled you?
04:58The end scene, I really didn't like that.
05:01I didn't like not liking children.
05:05I really, like, that was all, like, I really, really hated that whole section of like, even though there, there
05:12weren't real children when I was like looking at them with murderous intent.
05:16Um, still, still did not like going to that imaginary place.
05:20Was very happy to leave as quickly as it could.
05:21But there was also something else that was a lot, a little bit more fun was that there was a
05:25scene in which, uh, you know, Lowen and I are making out in the kitchen and we think we see
05:30Verity and, or she thinks she sees Verity and so she, she sends me off down the hall.
05:34And Annie wasn't even supposed to be there that day.
05:36She jumped out from behind the corner.
05:38Or, what are you, we're supposed to, we didn't know where, I didn't know where you were going to be.
05:41And she hissed at me.
05:42And it was the most terrifying moment of the last 10 years of my life.
05:47Do we have the B-roll of that somewhere?
05:49I don't know.
05:49I know I should have set it up that way because we had to work out like how I was
05:53going to disappear from the camera view quickly enough that it could all happen in one shot.
05:58And so I found this like little alcove and I was like pressed up in it and Josh was rehearsing
06:01his part of the scene, The Walk Down.
06:03And he was so locked in and focused that I was like, he has no idea I'm here.
06:08And I thought, I can't jump out and scream because that'll scare too many people.
06:12It has to be a very private scare just for Josh.
06:14So I just waited.
06:16So I waited until he like passed me and I just went.
06:23And as you, as you know, the house is a little bit elevated as well.
06:26And yes, it has a nice Tai Chi sort of feel to it, but who knows, you know?
06:31But maybe a tiny bit haunted.
06:32And then what was cracking me up was that Josh then like reacted and stared at me and he said,
06:37you just scared me.
06:39I haven't been scared like that in years.
06:43You were just, you narrated it so articulately from your place of like nervous system, overwhelmed terror.
06:49Yeah.
06:51Yeah.
06:51Yeah.
06:52That was.
06:52Yeah.
06:53Yeah.
