- Hi, I'm Oliver Jackson-Cohen,
and you're watching In Studio with The Hollywood Reporter.
- You play Luke in Haunting of Hill House.
- I do. - Tell me about the show.
How would you describe it because the genre is,
it's kind of blending, you know, it's not just horror.
- Yeah I think that was kind
of the main thing that Mike Flannigan kinda wanted to do.
He wanted to create a show that
was actually fundamentally about a family
and about childhood and kind of veil all of that
in a horror veil in a way.
So I think that when we were making it,
it was kind of interesting because we did think
are people gonna wanna watch this
because it so heavily relies on this family dynamic
and this broken family.
So I think it's kind of,
in a weird way this show is sort
of an exploration about childhood trauma
and the after effects of what that does to you as an adult.
- Yeah, your character Luke, I mean he's an addict,
and he's mainly an addict to get rid of
these ghosts and these demons, these things from his past
that are haunting him.
And I saw an interview, I think, with you
where you were talking about how you didn't want
to play up the addiction
or get too deep in heroin addiction.
- Yeah. - You wanted to focus more
on what he's going through.
- Well, I just thought it was really important.
When I first signed onto it,
I think the story as it is and the character of Luke
and the way he'd been written
was so honest and it was such a kind
of honestly, it was just such an honest portrayal
of what trauma does to you.
And so I thought in a way if I focus
on the addiction part that's bringing judgment on him.
And I don't think Luke sees himself as an addict.
Even though he is, he's someone that is constantly
kind of trying and trying and trying and trying.
And the fact that he has an opioid addiction
is kind of the last resort.
It was inevitable that that was gonna happen
because he's just struggling.
And he's struggled his whole life.
And the only option,
what do you do when you've been through something
that traumatic that you're told didn't happen?
What does that do to you?
And so I kind of became kind of interested in that.
And what it was he was trying to numb
and what he was trying to run away from.
And so his whole life is built
on this idea that there's a constant threat.
He's never ever felt safe.
And so I kind of, I thought it would be too,
sort of one, dimensional if I focused on the addiction part.
So I watched a bunch of documentaries.
But in a way it's more the other,
it's the other family members that mention the addiction.
He doesn't.
He's just trying to be normal.
He's trying with everything he can
to just push forward and be normal.
And why can't he function like everyone else?
I think as well what Mike's done,
you know and all the writers have done really brilliantly,
is that they've kind of shown every single side of it.
So they've shown what it's like to be a family member
of someone that is an addict
and what it's like to be the addict within the family.
And sort of being aware
of how much destruction you're causing.
And not wanting to cause it,
but it just sort of feels inevitable for him.
And so I think that they've tread the line,
the writers kind of tread the line very, very well
about, it just feels like a very honestly written
family dynamic of what that's like for people.
- Definitely.
And what's it like for you
when you're in those scenes and you're acting,
and you have these other actors that,
I think you guys all get along pretty well,
what's it like for you though whenever you're in it
and they have to be mean to you?
(laughing)
'Cause there's a, especially whenever you're taking the
camera and the iPad, and you're like it's not what it seems.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- You know, just like the way they
look at your character sometimes,
are you able to sort of snap out of it?
Do you prefer to stay in character the whole time?
How do you approach that?
- I think because we shot for such a long time,
it was like a nine month shoot,
so there was probably a degree of all
of us that kind of stayed somewhat,
wasn't staying in character it was more so
keeping stuff alive.
And yeah, it was pretty,
it was pretty brutal, I think for all of us.
There's so much pain that they all go through.
And keeping that alive was quite the experience.
- Yeah I can't imagine for eight or nine months.
That's pretty intense.
- It was by far probably the most
intense experience I've ever had.
But what was great about all
of us is that there sort of became this shorthand
because we were working together so much.
And the way that the show's structured
and the way that you set up the first five episodes,
each sibling's point of view.
You kind of were able to,
it was very interesting come episode six I think it is,
when we all come together for the funeral.
It was the first time we kind of all worked together.
So we had all been sort of shooting our episodes
and being like this is what my,
and so it was kind of so interesting seeing
the clashes of what,
'cause you'd be like no I'm doing this
and then someone would kind of,
what's the word, challenge you on it.
So it was, yeah it was great.
- And then Timothy Hadden is great.
What was it like working with him?
- Oh he's the dream.
- Yeah. - [Oliver] I loved him.
- [Natalie] I mean, ordinary people, it's just.
- I mean, I honestly, I couldn't believe.
Also when they told me that Henry Thomas
was gonna play our dad as.
I just couldn't believe it.
- [Natalie] Yeah, I mean the whole cast
is just. - [Oliver] They are.
- [Natalie] Everyone's great. - [Oliver] They are.
I mean, we were very, very fortunate.
They are, and everyone is so.
It was so nice in a way because everyone really believed
in the story and what we were doing
and so everyone kind of brought it every single day
and so it was such a dream to kind of be able
to work with people that knew their characters inside out
and were so fleshed out that it was.
You know, and the scripts were so brilliantly written
that it was a joy.
- I watched it when it first came out
and then I recently rewatched most of your scenes.
- That's brave. - You know.
Just tryin' to refresh the memory
and I noticed the second time around
that whenever you're told that Nell killed herself,
you sort of touch your neck.
Was that in the, 'cause, you know, her,
was that a detail that was in the script
or is that something that you guys came up
with in the moment?
Do you remember?
- I don't remember. - It's a super
deep cut, sorry.
- I think, do you know what, actually,
I do. - It's really subtle
and I was like, oh, that's so smart
because, you know.
- I remember, sort of as an actor,
I remember thinking I had to create a bunch
of pain in my neck all the time
so I don't know whether or not it
was a conscious thing but I, for a lot of Luke's episode,
I had to, just before takes, I would sort of try
and tense my neck so I would always have
this sort of niggling thing.
So, I don't know whether or not I did touch it on purpose
or if it was a mistake. - Maybe you're
just too deep in the character?
- There you go. - Yeah, yeah,
you're just that good.
I have another question in rewatching
that also struck me the first time, but,
there's a scene where you're on the sidewalk,
I think it's that same episode,
it's sort of all in the same sequence,
but you're sort of doing your seven steps back and forth
and the figure in the bowling hat is behind you
and then just sort of floats and tracks with you.
Is that an actual person? - Yep.
- [Natalie] And how did you guys do that?
Because it also just comes in so seamless
and it gets really close behind you.
- It was also done at four o'clock in the morning
on the streets of Atlanta.
It was a whole thing that they kind of rigged
onto the camera so, they had a dolly
that was on a track and then basically,
what's it called, like an arm?
That kinda came out with a platform on it
and they were able to kind of just rotate him
in and out of frame.
And then when I walk at one point he comes into frame
and then they just tracked him along to me.
So, there was sort of two different elements going on
at the same time. - [Natalie] How did that feel
to watch that back for you?
'Cause, you know, when you're in it.
- It's kind of amazing.
I think the show is, I mean, I haven't watched it
in about a year.
I mean, I watched it just when we finished
and then it sort of came out
and I was like, "I'm not watching that again."
But, I remember when I did first watch it,
just sort of being kinda blown away,
especially when you're part of a horror show
because you don't really, you're not really privy,
a lot of it's done in the edit.
And, so, it was kind of like watching something
for the first time.
Not for the first, I mean, it was like watching
an entirely different show from what you'd been in
which was quite exciting, as an actor.
So you weren't so constantly sitting there judging yourself
'cause you just, they build all the scares
and the tension in the edit.
- You said last time we talked
that the eulogy scene was kind of,
I think I'd asked, you know, what scene kept you up at night
the night before?
What made you a little bit nervous?
So, can you maybe just talk about that scene a little bit?
'Cause, also, again, rewatching it is,
you know, it's very emotional.
- It is.
I feel like so much of Luke's stuff
was very emotional and quite painful
and makes me, probably makes me sound
a bit like an actor.
But it genuinely was, you know?
I think I'd never really played a character
that is going through so much and to lose his twin sister,
there's such a bond between them,
it is the worst thing that could ever happen to him.
And so, it really, that scene in particular,
there were a couple of scenes.
There was a scene, as well, that Luke and Nell
were in a car and he's asking her to buy him drugs
and that was, when we finished shooting that,
we began on the street.
It was a sort of night shoot and there was rain
and we shot it and so we shot Victoria first
and then turned around and did me
and then it was, like, two o'clock in the morning
and Mike came out and went, "Great, great."
So, I got out the car
and then something really strange happened
where I just sort of stood in the middle of the street
and then, it's quite embarrassing,
but I just started shaking and I just started freaking out.
And I said to, we have this lovely PA,
and I said, like, "Where's Victoria?
You've gotta find, where's Victoria?"
And I just started, like, and I just could not calm down.
I was just sort of like.
Because I think once you're building all of that stuff up,
you know, for hours and hours and hours,
it kinda has to come out somehow.
- There's, I think earlier we were talking about some of,
we sort of tapped into the attention to detail in the show.
There's all of the hidden ghosts, all of these things,
and then I also realized or read
and then went back and noticed that Nell
is in the same clothing with each person
when she sees them as a ghost,
she's in the same outfit that she was in
the last time they saw her alive, each of the characters.
I didn't notice it the first time.
But, how much of the ghost in the background
and how much of that detail were you aware of
while you were filming?
- Not an awful lot, actually. - [Natalie] Oh, okay.
- Like, we would have ghosts come in every day
and get done up in the makeup toward that
and you'd just sort of be like,
"Who's this guy?"
And Mike was, and Finn the RDOP,
they were so clever about how they placed them.
We weren't really aware of an awful lot of it.
Which is why, then, you know, when I then finally watched
the show, was terrified.
By a lot of it and it's such a clever tactic on their end.
- [Natalie] Very clever, very scary.
- Yeah, exactly.
- [Natalie] When we were watching,
it's like, "Oh, there's one!"
- Yeah. - And you know, you're.
- There's one when Henry goes into the whole mold thing.
He's, like, trying to bash through.
- [Natalie] In the bricks? - In the bricks.
- [Natalie] Yes! - And there's, like.
- [Natalie] That one scared. - And there's, like,
one, like, in the back, I didn't know that.
That was not good. - Just the,
it's still just the face and the long hair.
- Yeah, and the long hair!
- That was one of the first ones I noticed,
which is kind of later in the episodes,
and I was like, "What is that?"
Because, you know, we were binging it.
And then later, you know, looked it up
and of course it was a whole thing
where it's, like, there's ghosts everywhere.
- I mean, there were. - Hidden in the show.
- Like, yeah, there were like hundreds of them.
- And I was like, "Oh my god, great,
"now I gotta go back and."
- But even in the, Mauricio, our set designer,
he, in the wallpaper of Hill House,
if you actually look at the wallpaper long enough,
there's a face that shows up in the pattern.
- Oh, yeah, yeah, I think maybe I saw an interview
where you, yeah yeah. - Yeah.
I probably said it before.
- I was like, oh, maybe, there's a chance.
Can you see that in the show, though?
Or just maybe when you're on set?
- I think so, I think there's,
yeah, no, there's a couple of shots.
If you, I mean, you probably have
to, like, pause it. - [Natalie] Pause it.
And just stare at it. - And just, like,
stare at it for a minute and then you'll see a face.
- [Natalie] Yeah, cool, no the attention to detail is great
and, you know, everything came together so well.
Whenever you're in this and everybody obviously
really believes in it, you're surrounded by this great cast,
like, do you ever really know that it.
Did you know that it was going
to be such a crazy phenomenon?
'Cause everybody was talking about it.
Like, it was, pretty much a phenomenon.
- It was quite the surprise.
I mean, all of us believed in it,
but I think, you know, I've been doin' this
for 10 years and you do, you kind of become,
you just become accustomed to sort of going,
look, I'm signing onto this 'cause I think it's great
and I don't know whether or not an audience is.
And, but it was quite, I think it was,
I just thought it was such an original idea
and the fact that they were replaying 24, 48 hours
from five siblings' different point of view
and all of this, I just thought it was something
that'd never been done before.
But that doesn't necessarily mean that it'll work
or that people will, you know, kind of warm to it.
And, kinda fortunately it did.
It was insanely overwhelming when it first came out.
- Yeah, I can imagine. - Like, it was,
'cause we were just, I was just, like,
yeah, we've sort of done this show on Netflix.
Maybe people will watch it.
And then it just turned into, like, pandemonium
for like three months.
- Yeah, well, that's a good problem to have, I guess.
- No, it's great.
Do you know what is really nice?
It's a show all of us feel very proud of
and proud to be a part of
and I think that, you know, across the board,
not just the actors, the crew that we had.
Everyone worked tirelessly for such a long time
and it's so nice when everyone's work
is kind of appreciated like that.
It's just really nice to be a part of something.
- Definitely.
Okay, last question.
I think there's a season two that's been announced,
but they're being very vague about it.
Do you know anything?
And I've heard that, sadly, maybe the Crane family
might not even be involved.
Is that, do you know anything?
- I do.
- What can you tell me?
- I don't know if I can.
I think I'd get into so much trouble if I do.
- [Natalie] Is the Crane family not involved?
They're being cryptic!
They were like, maybe the Crane family won't even,
you know, be there.
That's true.
That's the truth.
- I don't.
(laughter)
I don't know.
What can I say? - You can be vague, it's fine.
- I think Mike has, with season one and with
what happens to the Crane family,
I think that it's been explored
and I don't necessarily know where you would go.
The way that the show ends, where you would go from there
with the Cranes.
Unless you just wanna go back and just keep
on having them haunted.
So, do you know what I mean?
I don't know where.
So, I think the idea is to do an anthology,
so an entirely new story.
- Okay. - Yeah.
- Fair enough, I mean, sad, but fair enough.
What can you do?
- It's, yeah, I think all of it's,
it's always, I think it would always be sad
to say goodbye to a character that you love that much.
There's so much, you know.
With Luke Crane specifically, I feel like
there's so much of me that I put into that,
so I think it's always quite sad if you
have to say goodbye to that.
- Well, if nothing else, you have this great season.
You have these perfect ten episodes.
If you're only gonna do, you know, one thing in your life,
some actors would be lucky to just have that one thing.
So, there's that. - Thank you.
- And we all have loved watching it.
- Well, thank you for watching it.
- You're great in the show.
Thank you so much for stopping by,
so nice talking to you and thanks everybody for watching.