Kyle Gallner Interview: The ‘Strange Darling’ Star In Graphic Detail [August Cover Story]
As I was speaking with horror’s Scream King Kyle Gallner, his father lurked off camera, not wanting to interrupt our talk, but arms full of plastic bags to drop off. So Gallner pauses our interview to let him walk through, lightly ribbing his dad before saying “I love you” and returning to our chat. It may seem like such a tiny, inconsequential interaction, but it says everything about Gallner as a performer and person: He’s generous and kind and has never lost sight of what matters in his life, even after decades of terrifying audiences.
Gallner has been a fixture in the horror genre since his brief but memorable appearance in Wes Craven’s Red Eye. He also starred in 25 episodes of Veronica Mars from 2005 to 2006. But his first real horror outing came with The Haunting In Connecticut. Since then, Gallner has become a fixture in genre films, starring in films such as Jennifer’s Body, A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010), Scream (2022), Smile, and now, JT Mollner’s Strange Darling.
Talking About Strange Darling In Graphic Detail
Strange Darling is a twisty serial killer tale starring Gallner and Willa Fitzgerald in a tantalizing, erotic, and terrifying game of cat-and-mouse that constantly keeps you guessing. Mollner’s work with cinematographer Giovanni Ribisi (yes, that Giovanni Ribisi) makes this feel like a technicolor nightmare, a cautionary tale about talking to strangers and judging a book by its cover. For Gallner, this movie was a dream come true.
“When this came along, it had a very unique and interesting approach to the subject matter in a way I hadn’t really encountered before. It felt very true and authentic to the story in a way,” he said.
Strange Darling was something different, which is hard to come by when you read as many scripts as Gallner. That’s why he gravitated towards this strange story told out of order to craft a twisty puzzle that doesn’t fully come together until the credits roll.
“It was really fun to play, especially the way the story unfolds because you have to know where you are at any given time because of the way the film jumps around. And you have to really navigate things very carefully because your performance is constantly switching,” he said. “I mean, that’s not really that different than making any other film, but because of the way this story unfolds, it’s a little different in the way you would prep or even play a scene.”
Mustaches, Consent, and Cigarettes
Gallner’s mustachioed character, simply named The Demon, is meant to make you uncomfortable but also at ease, an attractive man who smokes cigarettes like it’s his job. And while this is a horror movie, there are scenes where he and Fitzgerald share cigarettes while basking in blue fluorescent light that are on par with the hottest sex scenes of recent memory.
“Even though the subject matter is what it is, there’s at times this very strange sort of sexy undertone and the way it’s lit and the way it’s shot. There are definite moments where that’s supposed to come out and feel that way,” said Gallner.
Several scenes in a hotel bedroom bring up important conversations about navigating consent, with Gallner and Fitzgerald engaged in a delicate dance twirling on the edge of a knife. But navigating consent wasn’t just on the page; it was in Gallner’s interactions on set to make sure he never betrayed Fitzgerald’s trust.
Gallner reflected on that relationship, saying, “It’s an interesting thing shooting a film that can be that intimate and that vulnerable because you’re kind of being asked to give yourself over to somebody you barely know very quickly. So trust has to be built. I’m a big fan of getting to know somebody, and having potentially awkward conversations for some people, but the direct conversations of where can I touch you? What is okay, what makes you feel uncomfortable? What do you feel safe with? What’s good for you? And we go, okay, how far do we want to take this to the point where everybody feels okay?”
But you also can’t forget about your character and their own motivations. It becomes a complex but necessary discussion. Galler said, “With Strange Darling, there are a lot of nuances and a lot of things happening. So it’s navigating that conversation of consent combined with, what are the characters doing and where are they? And what does consent mean in this moment and doesn’t it mean in this moment? And where are we going from one place to the next?”
The last thing he ever wanted to do was violate Fitzgerald’s trust, especially when moving so fast on an indie horror film set. So Gallner wanted to do Fitzgerald and Strange Darling right in making sure to establish that respect and trust right off the bat. Plus, it helped that he and his wife stayed with Fitzgerald and her partner in the same Airbnb, at least for part of the shoot.
Gallner explained, “It was kind of a unique situation where we actually, for the back half [of the shoot], shared an Airbnb in this house. So we were cooking dinner at the end of the day and kind of talking about the day, but then also having conversations with our significant others in the other room and living this life [where] we got to just hang out. I’ve never had that before with a living situation.”
Gallner All Grown Up
Strange Darling is another film in a string of recent releases that finally illustrates Gallner’s acting chops as a mature performer. It seems silly to say, but as Gallner tells me, he played high school students when he had a kid.
“I think I’ve looked so young for so long that I’m finally being allowed to play adults and dive into these deeper roles,” he said. And the movie that really changed things for him was the 2020 indie darling Dinner In America. For Gallner, he had what he described as “a real aha moment” making that film that changed the trajectory of his career for the better.
On Dinner In America, he could “just go for broke”, especially working with director Adam Rehmeier and co-star Emily Skeggs.
“I’ve gotten to play like crazy teenagers that have shot up malls or blown up airplanes, but it’s always angsty and always that CSI whatever guest star, which there’s nothing wrong with that. I did plenty and it’s a great place to cut your teeth,” he said. “But it was rare air on Dinner in America where I got to work every day in a real character role in a guy who just didn’t give a fuck.”
And for Gallner, that woke something up within him. Acting was no longer just about tailoring performances to match everyone around him. Now, it was about getting others to match his energy. “What I love about acting is there’s no ceiling. So there’s always more turn and there’s something different to do and you can always get better and shift. And that was a noticeable shift for me that I felt personally,” he said.
He added, “I also have come to learn just how lucky you are to work with the right director and the right co-stars because sometimes I would find myself changing my performance to help somebody else out or changing my performance to try to pull something out of somebody else and I was kind of hurting myself. Whereas now there’s a little bit of a mentality of like, alright, motherfucker, keep up because we’re going for a ride.”
Uplifting A New Generation
And that metaphorical ride became quite literal when he starred in Carter Smith’s The Passenger, which debuted last year on Prime Video. This harrowing tale follows a young man named Randy who’s taken on the road trip of a lifetime by his violent co-worker Benson. Gallner plays that co-worker, Benson, clad in a green fuzzy cardigan, opposite Johnny Berchtold, who plays Randy. By no means is it an easy watch, but it is a stunning display of acting skill for both performers. But for Gallner, The Passenger had an even deeper significance.
Gallner explained, “Looking at Johnny, there’s something in [him] that reminded me so much of myself. I don’t mean to think of Johnny as a young man because he’s not, Johnny is very much his own man. But there was just something I saw in him that I was able to apply to the character where I was like, I want to protect him in any fucking way I can because there’s something so great about the way this kid thinks about the way this kid approaches stuff, his excitement, his joy to be here, his work ethic, everything.”
So Gallner tapped into that feeling and applied it not just to how he interacted with Berchtold, but also to how Benson interacted with Randy.
“In a weird way, [that attitude] applied to the film because in a way Benson sees himself in Randy and wants to almost protect himself”, he said. “And so there were a lot of very strange, real-life parallels happening where, I don’t know, part of me was like, protect baby Kyle at all costs. You know what I mean? Keep it alive. Keep the hunger alive in these younger cats who are trying to come up.”
The future is bright for Gallner, who is set to reprise his role as Joel in this year’s Smile 2. So sit down, buckle up, and take a ride with Gallner. You may just be surprised as to where it takes you.
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