In Happy Death Day, the new horror-comedy by director Christopher Landon, Tree is a self-centered college girl who wakes up on her birthday in the bed of a student she doesn’t know, named Carter, played by Israel Broussard. As the morning goes on, Tree gets the eerie feeling that she’s experienced the events of this day before. When a masked killer takes her life in a brutal attack, she once again magically wakes up in Carter’s dorm room unharmed. Now, the freaked-out young woman must relive the same day over and over until she figures out who murdered her. Carter helps her, but unwittingly, since he’s not aware it’s the same day over and over again.
We caught up with Broussard to ask him what it was like to take on a role that’s both hapless and helpful… it wasn’t easy, but he really did a great job and in end, the audience is rooting for Carter almost as much as they are for Tree.
Dread Central: Are you a horror fan?
Israel Broussard: No. I saw “IT” [the mini-series] when I was twelve. I saw it two days before Hurricane Katrina and I stayed in my public school and the lights went out. So I was in the bathroom, in the pitch black, thinking a clown was gonna come up from the toilet – I veered away from horror films after that. But I like psychological thrillers, I loved Paranormal Activity, which was horror yes, but there’s nothing coming to stab you. And I loved Get Out. So it’s very humbling being part of the Blumhouse family.
DC: But this is not strictly a horror movie?
IB: It’s kind of a jack of all trades when it comes to movies. I mean it’s definitely based around a horror/thriller vibe, but I feel like it’s got enough comedy and enough drama and horror that it mashes up into an all genre kind of movie.
DC: How do you manage to bring layers to a character who has to relive the same day without knowing what’s going on?
IB: Maintaining the ignorance? I feel like it’s something I like to do on a daily basis (laughs). Honestly, I wanted to keep Carter a simple guy and with Jessica having all these dramatic changes, because she’s waking up, same day, different day, same day. I wanted to keep some familiarity to Carter. So I feel like he’s kind of the opposite to Tree, in the sense that she’s very popular – I wouldn’t say he’s unpopular, he’s just a very good kid, he doesn’t want to hurt anybody. I think that just at the root of it, he’s a good kid. He’s definitely had a crush on Tree for a while. When we had rehearsals we were mostly focused on keeping the scene within the boundary of that day and not changing it too much. So it was kind of simple playing the character the same way over and over. Keeping the ignorance at the same time with – at the same time having this knowing something’s up, something’s wrong, but then putting it back on himself. There’s a certain point in the movie where he kind of turns from a young boy into a young man and Tree is really what helps him go towards that. Tree is what he needs to get out of his shell. And he is what Tree needs to get grounded to reality.
DC: Your character doesn’t go through most of the horror, but did you see some of it being filmed?
IB: Actually yes. I like being on set because there’s an energy that you can’t really find anywhere else. So I showed up a couple of times. Once was the first death with the little music box. And that was fun, it was very cool. Jessica is a trouper. She had a very tough night, but she went through it. And the hospital scenes. That hospital was abandoned since Katrina and there’s spots you can’t go in for health issues. So it was fun being on that set because it had its own energy.
DC: There’s a lot of physicality to the deaths.
IB: We had a team of stunt guys. For the specific thing that I did, I was very adamant on wanting to do it, that was very exciting for me. There was a wide shot where we had to use a stunt guy. It was mostly Jessica that had – obviously she dies so many times. Her stunt co-ordinator, I didn’t spend much time with her so I don’t know her name, but I know that she was a doll and also a trooper, getting drug across floors and water and run over by buses.
DC: There are a lot of deaths. How many? I lost count!
IB: I think fourteen. It could be more – at least fourteen.
DC: What did you think of the Groundhog Day premise of Happy Death Day, right at first?
IB: I was skeptical of it. I’d read Before I Fall and that was coming out, there was Edge of Tomorrow and obviously Groundhog Day, so it was like, alright, let’s give it a shot. So this idea, that’s been done before, they want to make a horror film about it. Alright, I’ll give it a read. So I opened it up and it wasn’t a horror film, it was more of everything, and I liked that about it. I was left in suspense, I was excited, I was laughing, tearing up at one point. So there was heart to it and when I met Chris and Jessica, all my doubts, they went away. I said I’m not going to worry about the outcome because I really like Chris as a director and as a person. He’s very – he’s in touch with himself, I feel. He has an understanding of the other side of the business that was helpful towards the day to day, being on set, and how he treated the cast and how he treated the crew. It wasn’t this “I’m a director” thing which you get sometimes. It was definitely an energy of family, hey we’re all here being a team. So working with these kind of creative people – all my worries, they went away. And once we finished up, I just forgot about it and finally got to see it about a month ago and I’m pleasantly surprised. I was expecting more of a horror that I wasn’t excited to watch, because I’m not a huge fan of horror, instead I go something that was, I feel even people who aren’t a fan of horror can watch and that meant a lot to me.
Happy Death Day is directed by Christopher Landon, who co-wrote the film with Scott Lobdell. Jessica Rothe headlines the film, which comes out Friday, October 13th.
Synopsis:
A college student (Jessica Rothe, La La Land) relives the day of her murder with both its unexceptional details and terrifying end until she discovers her killer’s identity.