Set Visit Interview with Gideon Adlon from THE CRAFT: LEGACY

Blumhouse and director Zoe Lister-Jones’ The Craft sequel, The Craft: Legacy, with Cailee Spaeny, Gideon Adlon, Lovie Simone, Zoey Luna, Nicholas Galitzine, David Duchovny, and Michelle Monaghan will head straight to on-demand platforms on October 28th. In the lead-up to the film’s release, we’ll be sharing a series of interviews from our set visit in 2019.

Today, we’re talking to Gideon Adlon, who plays one of the new teenage witches! Give the interview a read below the trailer and synopsis.

Synopsis:
In Blumhouse’s continuation of the cult hit The Craft, an eclectic foursome of aspiring teenage witches get more than they bargained for as they lean into their newfound powers.


Can you tell us a bit about your character?

Gideon Adlon: Yeah, so Frankie is Air, that’s her element. This is going to sound really stupid, not stupid maybe, but she’s a mix of DJ energy and badass feminist energy; she’s worldly. She’s kind of always the goofball but when it’s time to get down and serious she understands and can flip that switch. But yeah, it’s kind of like her style and personality, like a kindergartener just threw it all together, and she’s very like, “Hi I’m Frankie. I’m here! I love her. She’s kind of the mixture of a fifth-grader and a forty-year-old.

What grade is she actually in?

GA: I don’t even know. I think we might be seniors. I’ll have to ask [director] Zoe [Lister-Jones], but I think we’re eighteen….I think.

What is your familiarity with the original Craft and once you got the role, what kind of research did you do?

GA: So it’s funny. The Craft for me was a movie I watched in eighth grade when I was going into high school, kind of like all my friends. My friends are all witchy; I always grew up around that. My grandmother is a witch and my mother is very spiritual. I’ve been a crystal child since I was six years old. I’ve always dabbled in things like that but I’ve never done witchcraft. I don’t think I’ll cast spells, I don’t want to mess with the universe if the universe isn’t messing with me. But that movie made me feel so cool because I was always the weirdo, the kid that was the outsider. I was bullied and I had a really hard time in school. When I got to seventh grade in middle school I found my clique, that was kind of like my coven. And so I think that movie gives space for teenagers to be like, “I don’t even think those girls are weird, they’re unique, artistic, they are one with the universe, they have a better understanding for themselves and others than probably any other teenagers would.” It just made me feel good; it’s an empowering film, until they drown each other, but it was just being yourself and not giving a fuck. That was nice for me to see as a kid, like The Craft, Virgin Suicides, Thirteen. You start watching those movies and it’s like, “Oh, I’m a teenager now.”

Watching you do that scene downstairs, how challenging is doing the chants? Because they are almost like tongue twisters.

GA: We had a lot of rehearsals with Pam Grossman and Aaron Fogel. Aaron is our resident witch in Toronto and Pam Grossman is… I was such a huge fan of hers before I even knew that she was going to be a part of this. She wrote the book Waking the Witch and has the podcast The Witch Wave, it’s so cool. They taught us all about magic doesn’t know you’re acting, so that’s the thing I’ve been really aware of the whole time. On top of learning your lines you have to think about, you know, you can’t leave a circle until you’ve closed it. You have to open and close the day with a blessing, and we’re trying to do it really respectively and right. Magic doesn’t know you’re acting. Then it’s all about the beats, dun dun, dun dun, dun dun, and you have to set your attention with every single word. They did write the spells for this movie, so they are not real spells, but they have that same feeling; they definitely got us, as above so below, setting your intentions. It’s a whole equation. It is difficult, starting at the same time; we have to learn how to breathe into it. But yeah, it’s been awesome, I’ve learned so much on this project.

So was your personal upbringing with the crystals and stuff what drew you to this project?

GA: Well, it’s the remake of The Craft, so first of all I was like, “Yes please!” And I was like, I don’t know, since I was six years old, not even when I was six, I grew up with my Grandmother who was always saying, “You’re a witch, I’m a witch, you’re great Grandmother was a witch,” and I was like “Okay Nana, I get it.” It’s always been a part of my life, and I don’t want to sound crazy, but I saw a spirit for the first time when I was six years old. It was the spirit of my Grandfather; he was sitting in a chair across from my bed and I had just had a dream about him, never met him, and it wasn’t like I woke up and saw a pile of clothes on the chair. I closed my eyes, went under the covers and when I opened my eyes he was still fucking sitting there. It scared me so badly, I just sat in my bed the whole night and I wanted to call my mom’s name but I felt like if I did he would try and interact with me. And I just remember that feeling so clearly. I would not go into my bedroom and my mom finally asked me why I wouldn’t go into my room, so I told her, and she took me to a psychic. I was six years old, and that was kind of the beginning of all of this for me. Learning I’m a crystal child, all children are kind of gateways for spirits to communicate through, but just learning how to shut that off and calling on your arc angels, doing crystal work. I’ve been collecting crystals forever, knowing their properties and powers and what crystals I should carry around with me on a certain day or week; how it has to do with the moon cycles, and I just kind of taught myself over the years. This project came at a time when I felt like I needed it the most; I was at a very weird and low point in my life personally, and then coming here and putting everything I’ve personally taught myself in terms of my own spirituality to work has been the most rewarding process every.

Did you have any input on your character’s crystal?

GA: No, I actually did not. Avery, she also considers herself a witch and she kind of took it upon herself, they gave us our elements, and she kind of added, “Okay, so Frankie is Amethyst, Lourdis is Malachite,” so she did that herself. But I love Amethyst; it’s a grounding stone, so I had no issue with that. I have it in my pocket right now.

Cailey Spaeny had mentioned you guys did a lot of things in order to bond, to get your group together. Can you talk a bit about that and those experiences?

GA: Yeah, so it’s crazy. These girls and I are like sisters and are really sad to have to leave each other. It makes me emotional. You do a project and you don’t expect to become friends with people; some actors, they are with you on set and then off set they do their own thing. We had the Aries full moon, the fourth day we had been here together, and we did a full ritual together. We bought affirmation candles, we said our intentions, we wrote them down so that was really bonding, brought us together. Cailey and I have been best friends for a while now before this project so doing this project with her has been amazing. Lovie Simone is a witch, Zoe Luna is a witch, Cailey is learning and I’m a witch so it’s kind of funny. Also, Cailey is so Lily, in terms of we’ve been teaching her our different forms of our moon cycles, crystals and everything. Being around these girls makes me feel really powerful and I think it shows on screen. We’re really comfortable with each other. It just flowed together so well, we make each other laugh a lot, we’ve had many adventures in Toronto, going to different occult shops, it’s been great.

Check back tomorrow for another interview from the set of The Craft: Legacy!

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