Exclusive: Matthew Modine on His Role in WRONG TURN & How Movies Influenced His Life
Michelle Swope
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Most horror fans are familiar with the original Wrong Turn, which was released in 2003 and told the story of a group of friends who have car trouble in West Virginia and end up being hunted by backwoods cannibals. The writer of that film, Alan B. McElroy, has teamed up with director Mike P. Nelson (The Domestics) to create a modernized telling of the story for the Wrong Turn reboot and it’s very different from the original film.
The reboot follows a group of young adults who plan to hike the Appalachian Trail, but after a series of grisly accidents in the woods, they find themselves captured by a group called The Foundation and fighting for their lives. Wrong Turn features an excellent ensemble cast which includes Charlotte Vega, who plays Jen, the film’s final girl, as well as Emma Dumont, Daisy Head, Adain Bradley, and Bill Sage. The iconic Matthew Modine, who is known for some amazing films such as Full Metal Jacket (1987), Vision Quest (1985), and Pacific Heights (1990), plays Jen’s father, Scott. Scott decides to travel to Virginia to look for Jen and her friends after they go missing and ends up going up against The Foundation as well.
Dread Central was thrilled to have the opportunity to speak with Matthew Modine about what appealed to him about his role in Wrong Turn, some of his favorite film roles, and a lot more. Read on to find out what we talked about!
Wrong Turn will be available on VOD, digital, DVD, and Blu-ray on February 23rd from Saban Films.
Dread Central: I want to talk a little bit about your character Scott. Charlotte Vega plays Jen, and she’s fantastic in this, and you play her father Scott. I wanted to know what appealed to you the most about the script for this movie and the role of Scott.
Matthew Modine: Well, I have a daughter, and also a son, and God forbid that anything should happen to either one of them that would require me to go climb a mountain to find them, but if it did I would absolutely do everything in my power to do what I could to help them and save them from the situation they found themselves in, and I know my wife would too. So that was easy for me to imagine myself in those circumstances. I liked this because it wasn’t supernatural. I mean, if I think of a horror movie you generally think of something supernatural and I didn’t think this was supernatural, it was something that could actually happen. You might compare the circumstances of this movie to a young African American boy taking a wrong turn into a gated community and shot.
These kids took a wrong turn into a different kind of gated community and find their lives in peril. It was all relatable and that may be too extreme an example to use, but I think it’s because I was talking to an African American about the movie Get Out, and they talked about all the things that were frightening and supernatural about the movie for them. He said it became a real horror movie when the policeman pulled over the protagonist, the lead in the story, they said, “Oh, now he’s dead,” and that was based on their perspective of life in the United States.
DC: Yeah, absolutely, and this movie has such an interesting message, especially when you compare it to the original film. I sort of expected your character Scott to just be this worried parent who was going to do this investigation, but you actually battle against this group called The Foundation and I wasn’t expecting that, so I thought it was pretty cool. What was it like filming some of those more intense fight scenes?
MM: Well, when I studied acting, one of the things I learned was the best way to deal with a situation is not to act but to react. That means one of the first things you learn when you’re in school is to listen, to listen to your partner, react to what it is they are saying. You’re not acting, you’re reacting. In the circumstances of this film, where we had to go and climb the mountain, you have these traps that are set up by the people, you react to the situations that are at hand. As I said, I’ve got a daughter, so it was easy for me to see my daughter in these kinds of situations and what I’d do to protect her.
DC: I spoke with the director, Mike P. Nelson, a few days ago about how different this movie is from the original and I was wondering what it was like working with him on this film?
MM: It was great. First of all, he’s a gentleman and he was very prepared, which you’d have to be when you go out into nature and be ready to pivot. I mean, what happens if it starts raining, somebody turns their ankle, you always have to be ready to pivot with the circumstances. He was really prepared, he really understood the genre, knew how to cut a good action sequence, so it was a real pleasure to work with him.
DC: I was wondering if you were by any chance, a fan of the Wrong Turn franchise?
MM: I’ve seen the first one, I don’t know if I’ve seen the subsequent ones, but it was terrific. I was so happy that the original writer of the franchise had come back and sort of re-invented the genre and took the zombies out and the supernatural aspect and as I said, just made it more real-life drama, real monsters, real circumstances that horror movies don’t require the supernatural or monsters to be terrifying. I think that what he wrote, and how Mike Nelson addressed the aspects of the story just made it a terrific film.
DC: Do you have a favorite role that you’ve played and why?
MM: You know it’s a difficult one, and it’s sort of cliche to say it now, but they are your children, the people that you play, you don’t want to take preference, one over the other, because I’ve kind of enjoyed playing almost every role I’ve had. Something that I’ve learned from it that made me a better person. In Harper Lee’s book To Kill a Mockingbird, Atticus Finch says to Scout, “We never really understand another person until we get inside their skin and move around in it,” and that’s what you do as an actor. You climb under the skin of the character and see the world through a different lens and perspective, and it makes you a better person.
The thing about this job, this profession, when you are projected onto a motion picture screen or stage and people look up to you, or come into people’s homes on the television, the things that you do and say are going to have an impact on viewers consciousness, perhaps change their perspective on something, help their heart to not be so prejudiced, as I say, to see the world through someone else’s eyes. I think those are the most wonderful films for us to become better. I think of the characters that Sidney Poitier played as an example, the way that Dustin Hoffman impacted my life, Little Big Man in particular.
It was the first time I’d ever seen a Western that pivoted the camera from white settlers being attacked by savage Indians to Indigenous people being attacked by savage U.S. Calvary, murdering the ponies, children, the women. I was living in Utah at the time and saw it at my father’s drive-in movie theater, sitting on the ground, holding the speaker in my hand, watching the movie. I was going to school with Navajos, so the film changed my perspective on life, made me ashamed at what had been done to those Indigenous people and altered my perspective. Films can be used as means of propaganda as well, so you have to think about the responsibility of the roles and stories.
DC: I know Wrong turn comes out on the 23rd and of course we’re still dealing with this pandemic situation, so I was wondering what you were planning on working on next?
MM: Well, I have another movie coming out by Tate Taylor called Breaking News in Yuba County. It’s got a terrific cast, so many people in it, from Mila Kunis, Allison Janney as my wife, Wanda Sykes, and Awkwafina. I’m going to leave people out; you just have to Google it and see how incredible that cast is. It’s a dark comedy and the character I play, I don’t know if you know what a Rube Goldberg contraption is. Do you ever watch Turner Classic Movies? A Rube Goldberg contraption, you’ve seen one before, a match lights, the ball drops, the dominos fall down, you know it’s a contraption that one event sets off a whole bunch of other events. My character Karl Buttons is the device that sets everything in motion and it’s a really dark, dark comedy. It’s the third time I’ve worked with Allison Janney. I adore her, she’s such a great talent and wonderful person, you’ll have a great time watching it.
Categorized:Interviews News
