Interview – Michael Abbott Jr. Talks Working With Bryan Bertino on THE DARK AND THE WICKED and That Three-Legged Goat
Writer/director Bryan Bertino is known for making genuinely pulse-pounding horror movies like The Strangers and The Strangers: Prey at Night, and his new film, The Dark and the Wicked, might be his scariest film yet. The Dark and the Wicked tells the story of brother and sister Michael, played by Michael Abbott Jr. (Mud, The Death of Dick Long), and Louise, played by Marin Ireland (The Umbrella Academy, Hell or High Water), who return to their family’s secluded farm because their father is dying. To make matters worse, their mother has been exhibiting strange behavior, which causes Michael and Louise to become extremely concerned about both of their parents.
Soon the siblings notice that a dark presence seems to have enveloped everything and everyone on the farm. Michael Abbott Jr. and Marin Ireland both give phenomenal performances in this film and the way it slowly gets under your skin will give you a serious case of the creeps and leave you looking over your shoulder for days. You can read Drew Tinnin’s review of The Dark and the Wicked from Fantasia International Film Festival here.
Dread Central had the pleasure of speaking with Michael Abbott Jr. about working with director Bryan Bertino and actress Marin Ireland on The Dark and the Wicked, the three-legged goat who also stars in the film, and a lot more. Read on to find out what we talked about!
RLJE Films will release The Dark and the Wicked in theaters, on demand, and on digital on November 6th.
Dread Central: The Dark and The Wicked might be the scariest horror movie I’ve seen this year. What was it like working with writer/director Bryan Bertino on this film?
Michael Abbott Jr.: You know, I’d never really been a huge fan of the horror genre, for no other reason than they just kind of scared the shit out of me, but when this script kind of came my way and I realized that it was Bryan Bertino, there was no question that I had to do it. The opportunity to work with, who I would consider a master of the horror genre, I would be a complete idiot to turn it down. I think one of the things that drew me to this film from the script, from the get-go, was the fact that he somehow manages to give it equal parts horror, equal parts psychological thriller, so I think that’s going to appeal to a larger audience. Someone who might tend to lean towards horror versus psychological horror, I think we have the ability to reach a bigger scope of audience because of what he’s able to do here. I never read a script where I feel its equal parts of both genres and I think he’s done that here masterfully.
DC: Marin Ireland plays your sister in the film, and the two of you work so well together. Your characters spend a lot of time alone on a farm where these strange things are happening with your parents and I was wondering what it was like working with Marin?
MAJ: Well, when I first signed on to do the film, there was another actress slated to play the role of Louise, and there were kind of some shifts in schedules to the point where the other actress had to bow out. I really went to bat for Marin. I called her personally, I begged the producers, and I begged Bryan. We had actually worked together playing siblings before back in 2016 in a film called In the Radiant City, written and directed by Rachel Lambert and produced by Jeff Nichols. We only had one scene in that film together, but that one scene forced us to kind of build this sibling relationship that I think fed into The Dark and the Wicked, so we had a rapport to work from, and I think she’s absolutely fabulous. There’s not another actress of our generation that I feel is as equally captivating on stage as she is on camera, and Marin, her ability to commit to a role and give it a hundred percent kind of transcends both mediums and I think that just makes her an incredible force and I think her work in this film really shows that.
DC: I know both of you have really strong theatrical backgrounds, so I wanted to ask, how different is it transitioning from the stage to a horror film?
MAJ: In terms of stage versus film and television, I think when it all boils down to it, the training is the same. You train to learn how you commit to your given circumstances; how to break down a character; a script; how to break down lines and to beats and scenes and to beats; and I think the work is the same; the work of the actor is the same. The challenge is in a theater you’re playing to sometimes two thousand seats, so there are people sometimes who are three to five hundred feet away from you, where with film the camera is right in your face, especially with a film like The Dark and The Wicked. There are so many close-ups and scare scenes where the camera is right there in your face and you’re watching beads of sweat roll down someone’s face. I think the challenge of the actor is just to draw it back a little bit. You’re no longer playing to the back of the house, you’re playing to a one person audience, which happens to be the lens of the camera, which can sometimes be eight to ten inches away from your face, but the work is the same.
DC: I have to mention this scene, because it’s one of a few scenes that really bothered me. There is a scene where your character finds several dead goats, and I wondered what it was like filming that sequence. You also worked with a three-legged goat.
MAJ: Yes, and that’s a question that has come up several times. That three-legged goat was actually a three-legged goat. We filmed the movie on the farm that Bryan grew up on, and I think we really lucked out being able to do that, because at the end of the day, I feel like this ranch ended up becoming a character unto itself in this film, and the crew really did a great job in terms of writing and scenes and they just kind of took what was already there and grew upon it. The lighting in the film is very natural and it’s just a really spooky place to be at night. The challenge of acting scared or pretending to be scared was certainly lessened by the fact that we were in the middle of nowhere Texas with no neighbors around and no one in this town knew we were shooting a movie, so I think that really worked to our benefit.
Yes, the three-legged goat was an amputee, so with a little application of some special effects blood, that goat became a victim in the film. The goat had a bigger trailer than I did on set, was actually treated better than Marin and me both, which was a point of contention [laughs]. In terms of the scene with all of the dead goats, they had, probably if I had to guess, fifteen or twenty goat pieces strewn about. Then one of the things they did in post-production was went in with special effects and made it seem like this field was full of dead goat parts, but the physical dead goat parts that were on set for the day of shooting were certainly real enough to scare the shit out of us and kind of make our job a lot easier. The crew on this film went above and beyond, it was a passion project for everyone involved, and the fact that you have actors in front of the camera who are literally scared of props that are strewn about, I think that is testament to who you have behind the scenes.
DC: I did spend a good amount of time trying to figure out if that was really a three-legged goat or if it was CGI.
MAJ: Yeah, you know, I should have probably talked to the producers and asked them if they wanted me to tell the truth about that [laughs], but I feel like for the sake of the goat, everyone should know it was a goat that actually had three legs. It really got around quite well and was one of the highest jumpers out of the herd of goats, which I thought was quite impressive [laughs].
DC: I know we’re all still trying to deal with this pandemic situation that we find ourselves in, but I wondered if you could tell me what you’re planning to work on next?
MAJ: Well, I have a few projects which unfortunately, I’m not at liberty to discuss too much. I just had the season six premiere of Fear the Walking Dead, I had a role in the first episode of that, so I was super stoked about that. It came out last Sunday or the Sunday before. I was working on a film in Georgia in mid-March and the shit kind of hit the fan and we got shut down there. Then about a month ago, I was able to go back to Georgia, and with all the new safety protocols now in place, we were able to finish up that film. It’s a new beast, making a film under these circumstances and certainly you want to do it as safely as possible, but it definitely adds a whole new element to production that none of us have ever experienced and hoped we’d never have to experience. Work is slowly ramping back up; projects are shooting again and I’m excited for 2021. There’s some great stuff coming up on the horizon.
DC: I’m hearing other similar things, from actors and filmmakers both, that things are slowly starting to pick back up after being incredibly difficult for everyone.
MAJ: Yeah you know, everyone is certainly affected, and I think it’s important for everyone to maintain their sanity, to wear their masks, to vote when they have the opportunity to vote. We’re given that right as Americans and make our voices heard, and you know, I think the pandemic, this whole situation, has brought about these huge things of isolation, despair and loneliness, and one of the things I think The Dark and The Wicked brings to the table are those things. But I think it will be a nice escape for people to go and see someone else experiencing that as opposed to themselves experiencing it. A little break from reality and to just go and be entertained, hopefully by a film that will make you lose a little bit of sleep, ask a lot of questions and talk about it for days afterwards.
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