CS Interview: Larry Fessenden on the unique role in Jacob’s wife
Just in time for the film’s theatrical and digital debut, ComingSoon.net had the opportunity to talk to the horror genre veterinarian Larry Fessenden (The dead don’t die) to discuss his role in the Barbara Crampton-directed Chiller Jacob’s wifewhat’s out now!
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ComingSoon.net: Jacob’s wife is an absolute hit in a movie. I have to try it out before South by Southwest and then SXSW and I just love it so much, but how was it really that you got drawn to the project?
Larry Fessenden: Well, I have a relationship with Barbara, we did radio plays and two films together, although I didn’t see her the first time You are the next onebut she’s just amazing, and I think we’re a bit older than the kids out there so there’s a sort of camaraderie of being middle-aged. I liked the script a lot, and then I had known Travis for a number of years. So there was a great combination of personalities behind the camera, and it was a huge role for me as a man of making clothes different.
CS: I wanted to say that was one thing I also talked about a bit with Barbara, that it was a completely different role than the one we’re used to seeing you where you’re wilder, but in In in this case you are a little more shy. You are a man of matter! How was it for you to explore this other personality?
LF: Well I like that you know I’m interested in philosophy and some thoughtful things about how you get on in life and how you are a good leader. So there are some aspects of character that I have connected with, maybe not religion, but the idea of having responsibility in a community. Then I just find it funny to play a toned, older white man [laughs] Who is somehow depressing for his wife, so I could access all of my grumpy demeanor. It was fun.
CS: Would you say you had any creative challenges other than getting into the role?
LF: No, the way I approach acting is that you try to find empathy with the character and understand where they’re from and then just bring that to each scene. Then of course the director makes adjustments and you have to play the other actor, which was a great privilege to work with Barbara. She’s so lively that she’s always really jamming on something. So this combination is really a win.
CS: It was interesting to hear Barbara talk about how long she had been trying to get this project off the ground. I’m curious to see what it was like to work with her, where she plays both the producer and the actor’s chair.
LF: At this level of filmmaking, you all work together to make the film. It was very natural to hear her concerns as a producer, she had casting ideas, you know, Travis had written the scripts after the other writers he passed had fun dealing with fellow producer Bob Portal to watch Travis and then me as an actor, but also as a filmmaker. It all seemed very natural to me. I wear a lot of hats a lot and it was great to see her really flex her muscles as a producer and she likes filmmaking and the genre.
CS: Since you mentioned that you wore different hats as well, how was it for you to work with Travis to further refine your character, knowing that you have worked as both a writer and a director in the past ?
LF: He had a nice idea, he asked us to fill out a questionnaire for our characters and it’s one of those things that I don’t think he tried to get our answers about but gave us the opportunity to sort of thinking about how our characters would answer the questions. As if one of them was “Who was my favorite president?” than my character and that was kind of cool. It was fun just coming up with an answer. It forced you to share a backstory and all sorts of other things about our relationship, what was her first boyfriend and what was my first girlfriend and all those things. So I thought this was really inventive for Travis. There were other times on the set where sometimes I would suggest a way to do something, but he had a strong vision. It’s all collaboration, and you know the actors are in the director’s service, so I only gave advice when he seemed overwhelmed.
CS: You and Barbara have worked many times before, but what was it like building the chemistry for your character relationship before putting them on camera?
LF: Well the cool thing is we filmed in Mississippi but we all went down there and never went home, that’s where we lived for the month. Barbara and I lived together in the same house, so we lived married life, so to speak. Someone was making the coffee etc in the morning and we hung out both before and after the shooting. That was nice. I think we both knew that not only were we having fun as actors and fellow artists, but also logging in while we were together, which gives you a more naturalistic character. We just like to talk. We talked about our own marriages. It was cool. It’s not always what happens to a lot of films. You go on set and just start working and it’s very disoriented.
CS: I can only imagine, especially when it looks like this, “Hey, we have to be a married couple in five minutes.”
LF: I mean, that would be a badly directed movie. [laughs]
CS: You have had a lot of films that you were a part of that came through the south, but what was it like to hear that this came in and then see this outflow of love out of horror Community at its premiere?
LF: Well the love was so wonderful and it was great to see Barbara, who worked long and hard on this movie, only got props. It really felt like it was a high point of their hopes and dreams for the piece because it had gone through many iterations. It’s always gratifying to see this, and for myself I was very happy to be a part of it and I enjoyed the fact that people giggled at my whole look in the movie, everything cleaned up. You don’t realize how people think of you until you change clothes and then everyone is in shock, so that was fun. It was pretty excruciating for me because I looked like I was 20 pounds heavier. But that is the joy of doing. They throw away any kind of vanity and really become the character to whatever extent one is in the method. That’s the job. It’s a fun, fun job.
CS: This isn’t the first time you had to get bloody in a horror movie, but what was it like filming some of the bloody or most practical effects-heavy sequences in the movie?
LF: I’ve always been very at home with all of this, since I was a kid, you know, I got gunshot wounds. And real blood too. I’ve always been inclined to help myself and live on the edge [chuckles]. It was all fun, it was cold so some of the Geysers of Blood got a little gross, but it’s all part of the gig. I enjoy it. With horror you shock people one way or another, and that was kind of my MO [laughs]Making people feel uncomfortable, that’s my jam.
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CS: How was it then for you to see Bonnie in the complete master’s dressing room and in the make-up?
LF: Well, Bonnie is so cool. She’s such a big figure as a person anyway. It would show up and do a couple of days and then go away, but I think design is fantastic. It obviously relates Nosferatu and Salems quantity, those kind of categories of vampire movies and I think this is such a favorite of mine and yours is so great. It was great fun with this kind of iconic looking character. It’s like welcoming an old friend back, that particular imagination, that design, that kind of rat-like face.
CS: To look away from Jacob’s wife, it’s been a while since we really saw you step behind the director’s chair. Bad was the last thing I can think of so I’m curious when we go to see you get back in the saddle?
LF: I hope that I have to find the money this fall, that really is the only centimeter every time. But I got a script, I’m very excited, I’m starting to prepare, and nowadays I try to spend as little time as possible on the money. That sacrifices to make a movie cheap, but I’m fine with that so I’m hoping to find a couple of shekels in early fall. That would be pretty dreamy.
CS: Will it be another horror outing of yours or are you traveling a bit outside of the genre this time?
LF: Certainly not! It’s a full-blown horror! More accessible than maybe my other films, although I think my films are always a little elevated, preoccupied with different things. I’m not going to reveal it, but at its core it’s a very well known, beloved monster so I’m excited to get into it.
Directed by Travis Stevens (Girls on the third floor) and together with Mark Steensland (The Special) and Kathy Charles (Castle freak), The film revolves around Anne, who is married to a small town minister and feels that her life and marriage have shrunk over the past 30 years. After a chance encounter with “The Master” she discovers a new feeling of power and an appetite to live bigger and braver than before. As Anne becomes increasingly torn between her alluring new existence and her previous life, the number of bodies grows and Jacob realizes that he must fight for the woman he took for granted.
In addition to Crampton (We are still here), the cast for the film includes Fessenden (Stake land), Nyisha Bell (Coming 2 America), Mark Kelly (The hot zone), Sarah Lind (Wolfcop), Robert Rusler (A nightmare on 2 Elm Street, vamp), Bonnie Aarons (The nun, the incantation 2) and Phil Brooks (aka CM Punk, Girls on the third floor).
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The horror thriller is an AMP production by Bob Portal (It came from the desert), Inderpal Singh (The hoarder), Crampton and Stevens. RLJE Films is a unit of AMC Networks, while Shudder is the studio’s premium streaming service for horror, thriller and supernatural titles.
Jacob’s wife debuted on SXSW last month to rave reviews and is now available in select theaters and digital platforms!
