(Photo Credit: Lionsgate)
Cellar Door director Vaughn Stein discussed the new thriller movie Cellar Door. The director discussed working with stars Jordana Brewster and Scott Speedman, the film’s twist ending, and more. It is out now in select theaters and digital.
“Looking for a fresh start after a miscarriage, a couple (Jordana Brewster and Scott Speedman) find themselves being gifted the house of their dreams from a wealthy homeowner (Laurence Fishburne) with one caveat – they can never open the cellar door. Whether they can live without knowing triggers shocking consequences,” says the synopsis.
Tyler Treese: What really attracted you to this script? It’s such a fun premise: you’re getting a free house, but you can’t open the cellar door. When you’re told that you can’t touch something, it just makes you so curious. You want to touch it!
Vaughn Stein: I think you’ve, you’ve hit it dead on, Tyler. Yeah. Curiosity killed the cat, right? I think for me, when I read a script when there’s something that’s like elegantly simple that you can grab onto when there’s a central premise that hooks you, that really excites me. At the heart of Cellar Door is this Faustian bargain, right? This deal with the devil.
You’ve got this couple trying to start anew who are kind of seduced by this reclusive billionaire, this incredibly charismatic guy, and he makes them an offer. What would you do? What would you give up for this house? What is it that you would sacrifice morally, physically in your relationship to have the thing you want most to make your dreams come true? I think that throughline, that sort of simplicity, that almost like dark fairytale quality that really hooked me. I love that.
Do you think you could resist the temptation of the cellar?
Absolutely not. Absolutely not. I’m a total fiddler. I’m a picker. It’s a really good question. I think that’s one of the things the script poses. You’ve got John and Sera who sit at sort of different ends of the personality spectrum, one of whom is able to accept that Faustian bargain, Sera, who’s able to kind of say yes and embrace it wholeheartedly and lock away the cellar door physically and emotionally. And then John, who’s obviously, as we find out in the film, is carrying guilt and carrying avarice. He’s not able to. He picks, he fiddles, he questions, and he ends up in this sort of real negative spiral because of it. I’d definitely be that guy. I’d be in the negative spiral for sure.
You have two really talented leads in this film. I really enjoyed Jordana Brewster’s performance here because we see a side of her that we don’t usually see. She gets a lot of fun stuff to play with. How was it just working with her and seeing her really dive into that character?
Oh, she’s unreal. She’s a dream to work with. She’s brilliant as is, but she really elevated that role and she’s incredibly disciplined. She’s meticulously prepared. Her instincts are superb. She gives so much [with] her range, her variation. It’s just amazing as a director. You just point the camera and let her go. But I think the thing about her is there’s this twinkle in the eye, right? She has that, that quality, that sort of timeless ethereal quality of being like incredibly sort of delicate and strong and she could just convey so many things with one little twinkle of the eye. I think for me, to find that in Sera, and to be able to sort of build the character around Jordana like that, it was amazing. She’s just lovely. She’s such a pleasure to work with. She’s awesome.
I really like the pacing. It’s tight 97 minutes, but it keeps you on edge the entire time. How is it finding that balance of keeping the story beats so they’re significant and they don’t feel rushed, but also keeping the pace snappy?
The script was tight, which always helps. I’m a big fan of a tight 90. I sort of always set out with that lofty premise of trying to deliver that tight 90 for an audience. I think I love that as a filmmaker. I love being in and out with something that’s lean and mean and doesn’t carry too much fat. The script had that. But I think also I had a wonderful DP, Michael Merriman, who was able to convey so much in a sort of… he has a very classical style, and the way he moves the camera has this sort of gentle conviction. There’s no vanity to it.
So in terms of being able to be rhythmic editorially, having someone like Michael delivering like that kind of, you know, those beautiful daily really helps. We had a wonderful editor in Alex Márquez, who did a great job. But I think for me, so much of it came down to the cast, the ensemble kind of embracing the tight 90. We didn’t wanna linger. We wanted it to be punchy, and that was baked into the script, and it was definitely something that we thought about a lot in performance and rhythm as well.
You mentioned the charismatic billionaire earlier, and he is played wonderfully by Laurence Fishburne. That’s just spot on, perfect casting. What made you think about him for that role?
I think with someone like Laurence, it is that innate, like unknowable, kind of charisma that the role of Emmett has. There’s something meta about it, right? This idea of this kind of beguiling millionaire, this sort of Robert Redford indecent proposal silhouette that we sort of talked about a bit, Laurence and I, it’s that, it’s that feeling of this kind of this man who can put you at ease. This gentle confidence, this charisma. Dressed immaculately in this beautiful house who welcomes this couple in and wines and dines. Then they have this gorgeous evening together full of conversation and booze and like a really good time. Then they wake up, and he’s gone, right? Like, he’s just left a note on the kitchen table saying the house is yours on one condition.
To find an actor that can embody that in 20 minutes of screen time in a tight 90, you need a superstar. That’s what Laurence is. He has this amazing kind of gravitas about him. He’s so wonderful. He’s such a gentleman, and he’s so receptive to notes. He’s just so easy to work with, but he just has that like innate… you can’t really put a word to it, like it’s a superstar quality. He just, he brings it, you know? Having the sort of anchor around was vital.
What’s so interesting about him is, as you mentioned, he is able to be so charming, but there’s also this element to him where you’re like, “Are there bodies in that cellar door?” There’s a mystery and intrigue to his performance and to that role where you’re still like, “Can we truly trust this guy?”
Chameleon is too strong a term. We talked a bit about this kind of coldness behind the eyes, Laurence and I, this idea that he was charming and suave and debonair and sophisticated and all those nice words. But behind it, there was something cold, something callous, something calculating. Without giving too much away, we find out this isn’t the first couple he’s done this to. There’s a lab rat experiment going on somewhere in there. That is a really interesting thing that Laurence lent into beautifully. AHe could do it all with a, with a, you know, a hardening of the eye or a sort of a twinkle of the smile. Yeah. He was a real pleasure to work with. He was brilliant in the role.
You get a good performance out of Scott Speedman as well. His character, the husband, is facing these sexual harassment allegations. What did you find interesting about that subplot?
It was really interesting because it was sort of beautifully metered in the script. Like the timing was so good that this couple moves into the house and Sera blooms and blossoms, and she’s able to sort of accept the stipulations of the contract and move on. But John isn’t. John ends up like torturing himself, like twisting himself in knots. His life implodes from the moment he moves into that house, there’s sexual harassment allegations. He begins lying, he begins pretending he’s going to work. He begins this sort of this manic exercise program, like just running his problems away. Scott , he is an amazing actor, and he’s the nicest guy to work with. I think the thing with him was like a lot of it, he’s constantly lying to everyone.
He’s constantly trying to play people off one another. And that’s the thing about lies, right? You’ve gotta be really, really smart to be a good liar. You’ve gotta constantly build on the structure of the lies you’re telling. That was a big thing for Scott, trying to get into that headspace of just constantly trying to remember who you said to what, who you said what to and when. He just does it so well. He comes apart in this really believable, really subtle way. He’s wonderful in the movie.
The big reveal late is a lot of fun. How was it balancing and keeping that a surprise but also laying some breadcrumbs throughout?
Oh, yeah. It’s a great question. I’m a big fan of an Easter egg. I love a breadcrumb trail. We wanted to be careful because we wanted, the producers and I always wanted to treat the audience with respect, right? We didn’t wanna hide the ball too much. Like, because it’s important that the audience are on the rollercoaster, right? They get to enjoy it, they get to see the half looks and the moments of tension between the characters.
I think for us, we wanted it to be a surprise. We wanted there to be a rug pool moment, but we wanted it to be plausible. We wanted the audience to sort of have enough clues in the clue bag to be on the road to figuring it out. I know as a viewer, I love a rug pool film and you know when you get that feeling, that kind of savage satisfaction you get, right? When there’s a great reveal or a great plot twist, I know how that feels as an audience member. That’s what I look for to kind of deliver that for the audience.
Thanks to Vaughn Stein for taking the time to talk about Cellar Door, which is out now in theaters and digital.
The post Interview: Cellar Door Director Vaughn Stein on Crafting a Twist appeared first on ComingSoon.net – Movie Trailers, TV & Streaming News, and More.
