Opening in limited release today
Magnolia Pictures releases the Canadian thriller Good Neighbors – starring Jay Baruchel, Scott Speedman and Emily Hampshire – in a limited theatrical run today. Shock caught up to stars Speedman and Hampshire and director Jacob Tierney to discuss the film, horror and more.
Shock Till You Drop: What got you excited about this project from the get go and now that it’s done what you’re most excited about audiences seeing now?
Jacob Tierney: Well, I mean, in terms of it coming out now, this is always what you want, right? You always want your movie to come out. So, it’s always great when it’s about to go before the public. There’s no specific part of it. I’m just happy that it’s coming out. That’s a victory right there. What excited me about it in the first place was the book. I loved that book and it really stayed with me for a long time. I was thrilled to get a chance to make that movie, to tell that story because it’s the kind of movie that I would want to see. So, that’s what was really appealing it for me.
Shock: And what hooked you guys?
Emily Hampshire: I think that Jacob just said it for me with it’s the kind of movie that I would like to see. It’s rare that I get that in a script, a movie that’s actually my taste. When I read it that was it. I also fell in love with Louise from the book initially.
Scott Speedman: I was into it right away. Just reading the script I thought that it was an interesting thriller. I hadn’t done anything like that before, just how funny it was and how dark it was. The character itself was different, aside from all the other things that I had done before. It was really interesting. Not a polite man. Not a charming guy, but very interesting and not politically correct, not social in that way. It was good fun to do.
Shock: How hard is it to make a thriller these days with so much history in that genre behind us, say, to really surprise people? Is it super challenging or did you just have to feel it?
Tierney: I just felt it, but I knew, again from the book, what was different about this right away and that was Louise. It was what Louise does in this story. You don’t see a lot of that. So, I knew right away that we had something different, that we were going to do something that was a little bit off center. I mean, it’s a weird movie. So, I knew we were going to be doing something like that. To me, movie making, storytelling, it’s all retelling. You’re not inventing the wheel here. These stories have all been told before. It’s how you can put your own spin on it, what you can add to it, what you think the team that you’ve assembled can bring to bring new life to it. But besides that it’s just a lot of instincts. It’s a lot of trusting that we all like the script, that we’re all on the same page, that we want to make the same movie and try to do it.
Shock: Does it help you guys to have a director who knows how to direct and who has experience doing that and can talk to an actor like they need?
Speedman: Yeah, for sure. I think I know what you mean. That’s always nice. Not always. I think it’s the first time I’ve ever done that, where it was an actor turned director, but yeah, to have someone that understands that, what you’re going through, the neurosis involved, the insecurities involved in performing with people and in the service of the story. I think that’s very helpful for me, specifically, I think.
Hampshire: Yeah. I think that Jacob in particular, it’s weird because he’s right here, but on top of being an actor and understanding where you’re coming from I think he’s really skilled at talking to people. I think he spoke to each of us differently and met us on our level and has a good instinct for what you need. Some actors like you to talk a lot to them. Some actors want to be left alone. I think that you have an instinct for that. I don’t know if that comes from acting or not.
Shock: And what’s your perspective on that, Jacob, knowing how actors thing and the need to understand the material?
Tierney: It’s helpful, for sure. I feel like I do. That part of it comes really naturally to me, but I’m reminded when I act, which is not that often, but when I act for another director and you see them not knowing how to talk to an actor, there can be a tragic inability to communicate there. I mean, directing is communicating. It’s being able to get the best out of everybody that you’ve hired and not just the actors. For sure you get to know people and you get to know how to talk to them and learn what they respond to and what they don’t. Again, these are people that I know, and so that makes it easier as well. They weren’t strangers coming onto my set. They were folks that I knew all ready and that I wanted to work with. Again, I really am a firm believer that everything is about the script. Everything is about the page. That’s where you make all your important decisions. That’s where you determine the course that you’re going on. And you do that with everyone involved, with the actors, with the crew. This is what we’re here to execute, this. So, if we all agree it should be a relatively painless process.
Shock: You mentioned your love of the book specifically. Is that why you wanted to tackle this genre alone, or is this a genre that you want to continue to work in and find more stories in?
Tierney: It’s a genre that I love. I’m sure that I’ll come back to it at some point. I don’t have a particular desire to repeat myself right away, but I’m sure, yeah, that I’ll make another thriller at some point. It’s rich. It’s a rich genre and there’s a lot that you can do with it. I don’t think that I would make it just like this movie, but for sure there’s tons of noir that I love.
Jay Baruchel had actually said something interesting to me when we were having, like, an actor discussion. He’s further along in his career than I am. He was like, ‘I decided at some point that I wanted to make my resume my taste.’ I thought that was a really interesting thing because when you’re starting out you don’t have all those choices, necessarily, but the ones that you can make, to build a career and a resume that reflects your tastes I think is an amazing thing to do as an actor. So, I feel like with this movie, with my last movie, with Jacob, I feel like I’m getting to build that, that resume. This is the kind of movie I like. ‘Shallow Grave’ is a movie that we both loved and I think it’s in that genre. I like movies like that. I think that they’re cool.
Shock: Name some movies that are to all of your tastes, movies that get you excited?
Speedman: I always balk at these questions because I know that as soon as you leave I’ll think of ten. I mean, I like all of the Paul Thomas Anderson movies. I know that I’ve seen movies just recently that’s I’ve loved that I can’t remember.
Hampshire: I have lots. ‘House of Yes’. ‘Cabaret’. I love ‘Gilda’. All Paul Thomas Anderson’s movies. But more than that documentaries. I’m a big lover of documentaries.
Tierney: For me there are filmmakers that I’m really interested in. I’m very interested to see new Lynne Ramsay. I’m very interested to see the new Lars Von Trier. Directors get me excited more than anything else. If there’s a guy that I’m really into that’s got a new movie coming out that’s always appealing to me.
Shock: Since Jay’s not here feel free to talk about him.
Tierney: Okay. From Jay’s perspective he’d like to see more movies starring Jay Baruchel.
Shock: He’s in a little sweet spot in his career. Can you talk about working with him on this film?
Tierney: Yeah, sure. I’ve been pretty lucky in that it’s the second movie in a row that I’ve done with Jay. He’s a huge talent. He’s incredibly gifted and he’s a lovely guy. We have great fun working together. Him and Emily get along super well and they have a great chemistry. He’s a pleasure, and yeah, you’re exactly right. It’s a total boon for him to be around in my city and we get to work together. It’s fantastic because of all the good stuff that’s happening to him. He deserves it. He’s a talented guy.
Shock: What were the first films that really got to you in this genre, thriller/horror?
Tierney: I was horror movie obsessive when I was a kid. I watched every horror movie ever made, like, I loved horror movies. I collected those trading cards. I read ‘Fangoria’ and all that kind of dorky crap, but I loved that stuff when I was a kid. Which were the ones that had the biggest impact on me? The Carpenter movies had a big impact on me. I loved them. I loved ‘The Exorcist’. But then I moved on to noir. I feel like this is much more noir and the noir movies that I loved growing up were Hitchcock. I watched a ton of Hitchcock when I was a young person and I read a lot. I read, like, a ton of Arthur Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie and Steven King, all of that stuff. I was a big fan of that genre.
Shock: And for you?
Hampshire: Okay, maybe you can help me because there was this movie that scared the shit out of me.
Tierney: It’s called ‘Sleepaway Camp’.
Hampshire: That was a big one. I liked that one. No. This movie, they’re in a house, Karen Black is in it and the house starts to make the parents crazy [‘Burnt Offerings’].
Shock: And Scott, what your seminal horror movie?
Speedman: ‘The Shining’ was a big one for me. That terrified me, and the end scene of the first ‘Friday the 13th’. He goes into the water and you think it’s over.
Tierney: ‘Carrie’. I remember that, too. Amy Irving goes the grave and hand pops out and grabs her. I remember that I saw that movie a thousand times and I would still cover my head. I would watch the end of the movie like this.
Speedman: I threw up. I got so freaked out I threw up. I was a sensitive kid.
Tierney: You’re a delicate petal.
Shock: Given that you’ve been in the ‘Underworld’ films, what’s that world of fans been like?
Speedman: I don’t know. The only times that I’ve really run into it, to be honest, on a mass scale is, like, Comic-Con a few times. I’ve been to that a couple of times which is always interesting. For some reason, this is probably not a good thing, but I sort of fade into the background and watch from a perspective because I really feel like that stuff is more Kate’s [Beckinsale] stuff. It never really affected me one way or another, that thing, and it’s not like walking around the street that people come up to me and talk to me about that movie.
Shock: Are you doing the fourth one?
Speedman: No.
Question: Would they still be able to lure you with the right twist on a sequel?
Speedman: I don’t know, man. It’s tough to go back. I love those guys so much, Len [Wiseman] and Kate, and they’re good friends of mine, but I don’t know.
Shock: Do you have your next project lined up?
Tierney: Yeah. I’m adapting a book called ‘The Good Terrorist’, the Doris Lessing book. That’ll be my next movie next year.
Question: And Scott, what are you coming out in next?
Speedman: Maybe ‘The Vow’ which is a Channing Tatum, Rachel McAdams romance thing that I have a part in. ‘The Moth Diaries’. I don’t know when that’s being released. It’s doing festival kind of stuff. Then ‘Edwin Boyd’ doing festival stuff. We don’t know what’s going on festival wise with that. No distribution for that yet.
Source: Scott Huver
