‘The Unheard’ Star Lachlan Watson On Tackling Their First Lead Role
Mary Beth McAndrews
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Lachlan Watson has been dominating the horror scene. They first got our attention at Theo Putnam in Netflix’s The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina then wowed us as Glen/Glenda in season two of Chucky. Now, they’re tackling their first starring role in Jeffrey A. Brown’s latest film, The Unheard.
Watson plays Chloe, a young woman who undergoes experimental surgery to try and regain her hearing. To her doctor’s surprise, the surgery is a success. But, Chloe begins hearing voices, voices linked to the disappearance of her mother 12 years ago.
Dread Central spoke with The Unheard star about their first lead role, acting around sound, their witchy experience filming, and more.
Dread Central: How did you get involved in The Unheard? How did that whole process start for you?
Lachlan Watson: I, for the first time in my career, got an offer. An offer come through my email and it was for a lead in a horror movie. And I remembered feeling like I was floating on top of the world because that’s exactly what I had always dreamed of, finding this niche where I could just be there doing the projects that people really want me for. And so I got The Unheard script and thought it was incredible. I had a meeting with Jeff who lives in the same neighborhood of New York in Astoria in Queens. So we got coffee and I fell in love with this project. And then we were out in Cape Cod filming a couple of months later.
DC: That’s amazing. So what was it like getting into the mindset of Chloe, this person who has lost her hearing and then it comes back?
LW: It was nice having a good starting point because Chloe in so many ways did feel a lot like me.
DC: Ooooh, OK.
LW: I had a good foundation, then I was able to build on top of that. So I didn’t feel like I was starting from scratch on this one, which was really, really helpful. I kind of grew up weirdly in the Deaf community because my sister was really, really interested in learning American sign language and becoming an interpreter and being this integral part of the Deaf community. And so because of her, I learned sign language and so we would talk shit at the kitchen table in sign language. It’s kind of odd that I had these really nice jumping-off points and was able to just sort of build on top of them and add all of these horror elements and add all of these dramatic elements. But like I said, I didn’t feel like I was starting from scratch.
DC: I talked to [director] Jeffrey [A. Brown] and he said that a lot of the acting with the sounds, you had to pretend that the sounds were happening. So what was that like to act around the things that you were “hearing”?
LW: It’s funny you mentioned that because I hadn’t even really about it. <laugh> Looking back on it, it’s kind of ridiculous. But that might have been the first time that I ever really thought, oh wow. Yeah, that was kind of <laugh> difficult because as an actor, or at least for me, you show up ready for kind of anything and you kinda have to be prepared for getting the job done at whatever cost in whatever circumstance. And so you kind of just know the ridiculousness of the situations you get yourself into and knowing that you are the one that has to get it done no matter what. So I kind of hadn’t really thought about it.
But now that I’m thinking about it, yeah. I’m thinking about the most emotional scene in The Unheard where Chloe’s sitting in front of the TV screaming bloody murder. And the only actual reference point I had for Chloe’s mom’s dialogue, the noise cues, and the light cues was Jeff in the background going, “Chloe, are you there?” <laugh> So yeah, it’s kinda a little ridiculous. But something about it felt totally normal on the day and I just knew that this was what needed to happen. And because me and Jeff worked so well together and we made such a good familial connection, I never really questioned it.
DC: What was it like in Cape Cod? I feel like it was so creepy, so quiet. What was that like being in Cape Cod in the off-season?
LW: Yeah, we had Halloween while we were filming. So it was right in that spooky leaves turning, turkeys wandering around. It was really special for me and my mom because my mom was out with me the whole time because I’d never been number one on a call sheet. I’d never been a lead before in a movie like this, in a movie this rigorous where I was pretty much the only one in every single scene. And me and my mom both had this moment where we were like, I could do this on my own, but man, I don’t want to. <laugh> And so she ended up coming out and being my right hand essentially. I’m so grateful for that because it was an incredibly emotionally grueling process. I had to go to places that I’d never really been in that way before. So having someone there, especially someone like my mom, was pretty crucial.
But having this little cottage in the middle of the woods in Cape Cod on the off-season with my mom with actual wild turkeys fascinated the two of us. We’re from North Carolina, we don’t see that there.
And so to see these turkeys wandering around, we would go out in the mornings and we would go through this huge backyard that we had. We would find all of the turkey feathers that the turkeys had left behind in, in our backyard. So we were having this weird witchy experience.
DC: Wait, that is so witchy and cool. That adds so much to The Unheard since it’s about moms and daughters and the supernatural.
LW: Yeah, it added this really wild and wonderful element to it. Not only did I have this incredible support through my mom and having this little weird vacation, but it also really helps for the actual movie when Chloe’s in a ball screaming and crying “Mom”, my actual mom was in the next room. So it added this weight, this spookiness, and this kind of shared experience that I think blends into The Unheard in this really weird way.
DC: That’s incredible. You’re in so many horror things. I know this is your first lead, but you’ve also been in the Chucky show, you’ve been in The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. You’ve had a pretty cool couple of years. What has this been to be this new and emerging talent in the genre?
LW: I’m loving it <laugh>. I never thought that I would end up in this little horror niche corner of the world as a big part of my career. It was never something that I assumed that I would be allowed, honestly. But now that I have it, it makes me so happy because it is kind of what I’ve always wanted. When I was little, the things that I auditioned for primarily were some weird horror.
DC: Oh really?
LW: And I always gravitated towards that as a consumer of entertainment. I gravitated towards it as an artist. So it is kind of funny the whole “that which you seek is seeking you” idea because I always assumed that it wouldn’t be so easy to find a community in that way. So I think it’s great and I’m not mad at it at all. If I could do weird little indie spooky horrors for the rest of my life, I think I would be perfectly happy.
DC: Hell yeah. So what are some of your favorite horror movies then?
LW: I was talking about this last night, so weirdly, the movie Hush with Kate Siegel. Yeah. And surprise, surprise, it’s a spooky horror movie about a woman in the middle of the woods who has lost her hearing and is dealing with a predatory man coming into her space and taking advantage of what she can’t hear. Ultimately she prevails in ways that you don’t expect. I always admired the way that they used sound in that movie, the way that they subverted stereotypes in that movie, and the way that the plot unfolds in that movie. And just Kate Siegel as a person. But then I made [a new version of] Hush.
DC: Wait, there are so many weird serendipitous things you’re talking about coming into this movie That’s so cool.
LW: Yeah. I always admired that movie and I always had in the back of my mind, like, how incredible would it be to be a part of something like this? And now I have been a part of something very similar but also so unique. It’s such a different movie, but it gets to play with all of the same elements that I love so much, which is the tech aspect, the texting when, how that’s used, the sound coming in and out, how that makes you feel as an audience member. And then I got to jump in and play in that sandbox, which is so rare and so cool. So I was just talking about this and I think it’s really incredible and I I will continue to explain this movie as if the movie Hush was also a ghost story.
DC: So you said that watching The Unheard last night you felt hungover in a way. Was it like so cool to see how all the sound design came together? Was that the first time seeing it with all of the sound design put in?
LW: It was the first time I’d seen anything from it. Jeff specifically was like, “I don’t want you to see anything. I want the first time you experience this movie to be the right way, to be in the right environment with the right people and with the right sound system. <laugh> And I completely understand now. I really do because there is something really powerful about not only experiencing it with other people and watching everyone around me react in a different way, but also having these sounds affect everyone in different ways and immersing yourself in this.
As an actor, hearing, seeing, and imagining all of this in your head, it’s like reading a book. You get this idea of what everyone looks like, what everything feels like. Then it’s sometimes kind of rare when you watch the movie and everything is exactly the way you imagined it. That is kind of what happened last night where all the screen glitches that are a huge part of The Unheard. None of that was there [when I filmed]. I was acting to a light bar and a blank screen. And so all of those pieces, you know, the VHS pieces hadn’t been recorded yet. So I had an idea of what it would feel like and to watch the full thing come together and to have that feeling be so spot on is pretty impressive.
DC: My last question for you is, what subgenre of horror do you wanna star in next? If you had your way?
LW: Oh no, it’s like picking a favorite child. Vampire movie.
DC: As a vampire or fighting vampires?
LW: As a vampire, or let’s broaden our horizons here. I will play the villain next.
The Unheard is streaming now on Shudder.
Categorized:Interviews News
