Something I was talking about to Spain before we started recording is that it has to do with what you just said. When certain people are writing, and they’re worried about “oh, this scene is too much like that scene in whatever movie,” do you think that’s a fool’s errand to think that way, and how do you not think that way when you’re writing?
Willingham: Yeah, at this point, I’m like, “I don’t know who’s going to see this.” Hopefully, as I continue, more and more of an audience will grow with these weird movies that I want to continue to make. I don’t want to say that we just make them for ourselves, and hopefully, people will like them. It’s not really that. It’s kind of…you write what you know, and I was so ingrained. I mean, that was my life. From 1986-2000 was pretty much what my world revolved around.
It was, “How do I see these movies? How do I now write about them?” It’s hard to get away from that. You’ll eventually get it out of your system, and I won’t do horror-comedies forever. I’m still having fun with it, and I know exactly what you mean when you say that. The only thing when I write is when people are like, “Look, let’s hone this into what’s funny and also bizarre at the same time. You’re just so over the top in some of your regards that there’s gotta be both audiences. It can’t just be this weird niche little cult audience. There’s gotta be something for mainstream audiences. We have to sell this and do a P.R. campaign around it.” So you have to think about that.
Right now, I’m working on an anthology movie, which is not as bizarre or zany as some of the other stuff I’ve done. It’s three tales. One of them will be much more comedy, and the other two are much more serious horror. That’ll be fun because most of my stuff is very zany. Lloyd (Kaufman), you know! I’m trying to do a little bit of some serious scares. That’s the goal because there’s always been so much slapstick. After all, I come from such a comedy background.
Drew, I think there are moments in Beast Mode where the scares are legit. Especially with the make-up artist scene. I was like, “Wow, this is pretty impressive.”
Fortune: When we were coming up with kills and deaths we’d never seen before, so we were like, “Okay, intestines strangling someone else.” I don’t think we could put our finger on where that had been done.
I don’t know, but I can say with my knowledge that I’ve never seen it before.
Fortune: Alright, hey! I wanted to go back to real quick when you mentioned if we were scared of showing our influences or at least showcasing our influences too much to the point of almost theft.
I don’t think it was like that, by the way.
Fortune: To me, I was honestly more worried about… I don’t think you can purposely set out to make a cult film. It’ll be so desperate and so obvious and cringey. So walking that line is crucial for me. I think Spain is definitely more zany-based in his writing. I come from a foundation of putting it more on in reality’s plane. For me, I guess I kept comparing Breen to William H. Macy in Fargo. A very slimy character. Breen came out more of a well-rounded nice guy. I wanted to keep that level of reality, so it’s not just character’s flailing about, essentially.
“…I don’t think you can purposely set out to make a cult film.”
I think that all the characters are very well developed, especially James Duval playing his two characters. I feel like both of them are fully realized. I wanted to know, Spain, what it was like to direct one person playing two different roles?
Willingham: Luckily, there wasn’t much that we had to have him be like, “Okay, today in the morning, you’re Michael, but we gotta get you changed and you gotta be full Huckle right after that!” That’s gotta be a little confusing for an actor. He would’ve been fine. It’s James Duval, he would’ve done fine, but luckily there wasn’t really much of that. He could just kind of hone in on how Huckle Saxton was on the days where he was kind of this bad-boy a-hole kind of wild actor. Then there’s Michael, and he’s just this kind of clueless dude, and then there’s Michael playing Huckle. So that’s the third character.
Fortune: It’s like an onion!
Willingham: Yeah! Then there’s Michael playing Huckle becoming a beast.
Fortune; That’s four layers, Jesus Christ.
Oh, my God!! That’s four characters, which I didn’t even really think about till just now.
Fortune: It’s a nacho platter!
Willingham: Yeah, it’s just a lot of talking to Jimmy before we roll. A lot of times, Chris would be setting up lighting or would be behind the camera. Whereas I would be more with the actors because I was sometimes acting in a scene with some of these people. So, I would be more coaching about why I came up with this scene, the real subtext and motivation behind these characters, and having fun with the little mini rehearsals while things were being set up. So, with an actor background and Chris has more of a writing background and lighting background. We shared our strengths really well on set. As far as Jimmy playing all these characters, I knew that he would handle it well. Drew and I watched a lot of his movies before we even met. Even like, the day it came out, Drew and I went and saw May, which was so fun.
Oh, I love that movie.
Fortune: I love that movie!
Willingham: So we were big fans of him. It was never like, “Michael is more like….” He was never asking me anything. He was just who he was on the day he was playing them, and we had some pick-ups about a year later where he had to be Huckle again. He hadn’t been Huckle in quite some time, so I was like, “Remember him? Remember Huckle Saxton?” So yeah, he was BOOM! Right back to it. So yeah, it was fun.
