I mean, I think we're all witches, you know.
I'm definitely a believer.
And I think anyone who is a believer in the power of women,
not that only women practice witchcraft,
but I do think that there is the specific and singular
power that women have.
I'm Sam Highfill with the writer
and director of The Craft Legacies, Zoe Lister-Jones.
How are you?
I'm great All things considered.
Yeah, great in our bubbles.
Everyone's in their bubbles.
I would love to throw this all the way back and kind of start
at the beginning of your journey with The Craft.
Obviously, the original film comes out in 1996.
Do you remember the first time you saw the original?
Yeah.
It was at a sleepover party.
I think we went and rented it from a Blockbuster
or like a off brand blockbuster in Brooklyn.
I was never a fan of scary movies.
And so I remember that like pushing it for me.
I was taking a risk watching it.
But I was sort of like a riot girl/ rude girl in '96.
And I had a shaved head and I really
did feel, and was made to feel very much like a weirdo.
So even though it was a genre that I wasn't super down with,
I felt so seen, you know what I mean,
by the characters and the actors portraying them.
The number one rule of The Craft,
if a person is a danger to herself or others,
they will be bound.
At what point kind of did you get involved,
and what made you kind of think, I would love to be
the person who gets to do this?
Well I had written and directed my debut feature
which is called Band-Aid.
And I was trying to figure out what the next feature would be,
which is always a daunting question.
And The Craft Legacy came to me.
I knew Blumhouse was rebooting it.
And so they asked if I was interested in pitching
a take, which I very much was.
It was like a challenge that both
terrified me and thrilled me.
So when I feel both of those things,
it's something that I should go towards, lean into.
And then it all kind of just went from there.
And here we are two years later
What goes into when you're writing a film like this,
and it's obviously a different story,
it's a continuation of a story.
But also even in the trailer we see
wonderful nods to the original.
How do you find the balance between, you want to have ties
to it, you want it to feel like it is
a part of this greater universe, but also to make it
its own story?
How do you feel like you really worked
on striking that balance?
Yeah, that was probably one of the tougher balances to strike.
Because the original is so beloved by so many people.
And so to carry on the torch is a huge responsibility.
And so I really wanted this film to stand on its own,
and not necessarily be beholden to the original.
But I still wanted to pay homage to the original.
And give fans of the original that nostalgic
hit, which is always so fun.
So there are a lot of Easter eggs in it.
But I think it was important to me to--
I rewatched the original and then I didn't watch it again
on purpose just to make sure that then, I was really telling
the story that I wanted to tell, that
was a personal story to me, that I drew on my own adolescence.
And also I wanted to be speaking to today's
contemporary landscape.
And you know that's a very different landscape
in some ways than the mid 90s.
Sure.
I do think one of the things that makes this film work
so beautifully, is the casting.
The four girls I fell absolutely in love with.
Was it difficult for you to cast this film?
There are so many incredible young actors, I have to say.
I was like, what's up with our generation?
It's kind of like, are we not as talented as these young people?
It wasn't difficult in that there was sort
of an embarrassment of riches.
And yet when each of these young women
showed up at the auditions, and then ultimately tested,
it was just like magic.
It was really like life imitating
art in that they each sort of were their characters already.
They all, outside of Cailee Spaeny who plays Lily,
were already practitioners of witchcraft.
And they all fell instantly in love with each other.
So it was really exciting to see and was exciting to then go
into production with that just incredible energy
and all the nuances that they brought to their characters.
If we can do that, what else can we do?
We need to put a spell on Timmy.
We don't want to hurt him, though.
Right?
I wanted to be a part of that friend group.
Well I did want to make it aspirational in that way.
I think it was important to me that this group of young women
was in love with each other, and that translated offscreen.
And that this was really a film about women upholding
and uplifting each other, because that was
my experience in high school.
I had a really tight-knit group of women
that were really like my lifeline
at a very difficult time.
So it's all too rare that you see
those relationships portrayed.
So I wanted to make sure that it was a priority.
I'm always so curious when you're writing something
like witchcraft that has this added element to it,
where really you could kind of write in anything, right?
It's kind of up to you.
What goes into deciding their powers, or like what smells--
I feel like that's something I'm always so,
I'm like ooh why did they decide that she could do this?
Well it was interesting because I had never written
or created anything that allowed me to let my imagination just
run wild.
So it was a cool opportunity to speak to a VFX House
and just be like, I imagine this insane thing.
And them being like, all right let's see what we could do.
It wasn't like the micro budget, Indie rom-com world
that I had come from.
So it was really to me about like getting
in touch with my teenage self.
And thinking about what I wished I could have done.
And then I also worked with three occult consultants
who are all practicing witches.
Pam Grossman was one of them.
And she was really helpful in devising the spells
and just making sure that the witchcraft
that we're portraying was authentic to the community.
That's so cool.
Do you feel like you learned a little bit?
Could you do it?
I learned a [BLEEP] ton.
Yeah.
Could I do it?
I mean, I think we're all witches.
You know I'm definitely a believer.
And I think anyone who is a believer in the power of women,
not that only women practice witchcraft,
but I do think that there is a specific and singular
power that women have.
And I'm including trans women when I say that, obviously,
that is just inherently witchy.
I think the history of witch hunting is very much
hand-in-hand with the history of the patriarchy
and those institutions being threatened
by women's inherent power.
I mean, I think that's part of the reason why people loved
the original movie so much is just because it
felt like it was women taking back their power,
and doing that.
And I feel like that, I'm sure when you came to it,
was a through line that you felt was like--
I feel like that is sort of the foundation of The Craft
and why that film is so beloved and I think
what makes your film so great.
Was that kind of what you would
consider the first building block of that story?
Yeah.
I think it was so exciting, especially
as a young woman to watch the badassery of the original.
And to watch young women have the space to be villains.
And still be cool as hell, and to take
vengeance on all those people who had tortured them.
So, yeah.
I mean that was definitely a foundation of the original.
I think in reimagining it, I definitely
wanted to shift the outcome.
Yeah, so I think that was on a macro level something
that I definitely sought out to do from the jump.
We have to talk about casting David
Duchovny because he's so good.
It's nice, isn't it?
To have a family unit?
Come on in and meet the boys.
They are really excited to meet you.
Did you have him in mind when you were writing?
How did that come about?
I generally don't write with cast in mind,
even if I'm like a huge stan of someone
like double D. Once he became a possibility,
I was just like oh my God, like obviously.
Obviously David Duchovny is this character.
And yeah, I was such a fan of his and continue to be.
And he's such a brilliant actor and just
brings so many amazing Duchovny-isms to the part.
Well thank you Zoe, so much.
Thank you so much.
It's so nice talking to you.
Truly, I cannot wait for the world to see this movie.
Oh, thank you.
That means so much to me.