Exclusive: Logan Marshall Green Dishes on The Invitation
Staci Layne Wilson
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The Invitation is director Karyn Kusama’s latest opus and homage to dread. It’s an ensemble chamber piece that ends with a bang and a bounty of blood, and since the sinister story takes place in the hills of Hollywood, it’s only fitting the press junket would be held at a historical hotel atop the Sunset Strip.
The protagonist (sort of) of The Invitation, Logan Marshall Green, who plays Will, was on hand to talk about taking on such a difficult, textured role while nestled in the womb of safety his director provided. He described Karyn as “calm, knows what she wants, captain of the ship, artist, mother, dreamer, pragmatist… that’s her.”
In the movie Will is a guarded, unsmiling but appealing hipster beardo. In real life, Logan Marshall Green is a guarded, unsmiling, but appealing clean-shaven young man wearing a suit. In a film that’s hard to talk about because of its intricacies, the actor does a beautiful job of revealing a lot but spilling nothing.
Dread Central: Tell us about working with such a calamity of characters – this truly is an ensemble cast.
Logan Marshall Green: It was definitely not a trailer life. You know, we were very quick to instant friend each other and I think there was a deep respect for everybody’s process but in the end we just sat around and talked, all the time. It was just one of those shows that you can’t wait for Monday to come around again, and literally, I mean that. When we would call “cut” and turn off the cameras, we would sit there and continue talking. In a way we were out of character but it just allowed us to be very comfortable in the uncomfortable elements that we would then have to put on and it was one of the best ensembles I’ve ever worked with.
DC: You seemed very ensconced in your roles, as if you’d had a lot of time to rehearse. But that’s not usually a luxury indies enjoy… what was your pre-production experience?
LMG: You know, we did; and you are right when it comes to independents. We got two days and that’s a lot of time but I think it was very telling of how this ship was going to sail because those two days, to the minute, to the second, were perfectly organized by Karyn, the producer, Phil, and Matt so that were we able to work swabs of pages as an ensemble, do fittings, do one-on-ones; and that is very rare. Throughout my years… I haven’t done it too long, but long enough to know film directors all want rehearsal. Everyone wants those two days of rehearsal, no matter how big or how small a production is. Very rarely does a director know how to rehearse. You know, theater directors know how to rehearse, and we spend a month doing it. I find film directors dream of rehearsal without an understanding of how to run a rehearsal… Karyn, I can tell you, is not someone who comes from opportunities to rehearse; she simply knew what she was doing, what she wanted, and knew how to structure those two days to really benefit us in three weeks of shooting.
DC: Although I would hesitate to call The Invitation a horror movie, it seems the horror film community of critics and fans are really embracing it. To what do attribute this label?
LMG: I think luckily almost everyone is connecting with it, just the humanity and the human condition of grief and loss, and then it happens to be a genre film as well. I was talking earlier… I think it’s a “dramra,” you know? I see it and that’s one of the things that I sought and I think we hit. I wasn’t interested in the genre of it; I was interested in… am I going to be able to feel unsafe and vulnerable and drive through this piece on an emotional path? And luckily Karyn felt exactly the same and Phil and Matt wrote those words and I think that’s what drives the film, that you are forced to feel; whereas, genres… they let you off the hook a little bit. You know, there’s two-dimensional characters, you’ve got archetypes, there’s three-act structures, and you have those flash frights to guide you along until the big payoff. But that’s not what I wanted to do; I wanted to do a boring, conversation, chamber piece; and I think everybody felt the same. And I think everybody feels the same who’s watched it, not just the horror websites, but some of the other less genre-driven ones, too.
DC: What about Will as sort of the anti-hero?
LMG: You know, I wanted the anti-hero to be present, not the hero, so we constantly kept stripping Will of the ability to deal. He talks a good game, but when it comes to survival, it’s truly Will and Kira together. It’s the only way they make it through, and so I kind of let the gore come to me and I didn’t try to fight it too much. I kind of give over to not being physically equipped.
DC: Were the writers on set?
LMG: Yes, they were intricate and intimately with the process. Obviously, Phil and Matt and Karyn have a history of working together, working well together, but while the script was somewhat amorphous as we shot, what you saw coming out of our mouths was written, and that was a collaborative experience with the writers on a day-to-day basis. But it was all on the page; we were never free to ad lib. We were free to work in that fashion, but in the end you saw quickly that the words guided you, and actually, if you departed from them, you were moving away from the best intentions for each character. So everybody really trusted the writing. It’s a fantastic script from the beginning, and that’s what we saw, what you’re hearing.
DC: What’s the best way for horror fans to see The Invitation?
LMG: I don’t think you should know much. I think the best way to view this film, I do believe, is in a theater; and I definitely think you should go in without any expectations, and hopefully you walk out a little different.
The Invitation (review) is out April 8, 2016.
Written by Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi, The Invitation stars Logan Marshall-Green (Prometheus), Tammy Blanchard (Into the Woods), Michiel Huisman (“Game of Thrones”), Emayatzy Corinealdi (Middle of Nowhere), and John Carroll Lynch (“American Horror Story”).
Synopsis:
Will and Eden were once a loving couple. After a tragedy took their son, Eden disappeared. Two years later, out of the blue, she returns with a new husband… and as a different person, eerily changed and eager to reunite with her ex and those she left behind. Over the course of a dinner party in the house that was once his, the haunted Will is gripped by mounting evidence that Eden and her new friends have a mysterious and terrifying agenda. But can we trust Will’s hold on reality? Or will he be the unwitting catalyst of the doom he senses?
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