SXSW 2021 Interview: Barbara Crampton Really Comes Alive in JAKOB’S WIFE
Drew Tinnin
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Anyone who visits Dread Central on the weekly already knows and loves Barbara Crampton. You’re also probably acutely aware that she has a new movie out called Jakob’s Wife where she stars alongside Larry Fessenden as a preacher’s wife whose life has sputtered out. Premiering at SXSW, Travis Stevens’ new film feels like it should almost have an “Introducing” credit for Crampton. She’s never been this explosive on screen and, as a producer, she’s been the arbiter of this supposedly secret film about a woman going through…changes.
Below, we talk about the real-life inspirations for Jakob’s Wife, how snoring can ruin a marriage, where Crampton ranks this role in her career, and what her current favorite internet deep fake is using her likeness. Every horror fan and every Barbara Crampton fan (probably not mutually exclusive) is going to check out Jakob’s Wife when it hits Shudder later in the year but, just in case, check out this interview if you’re still on the fence.
Synopsis: Anne is married to a small-town minister and feels like her life and marriage have been shrinking over the past 30 years. After a chance encounter with “The Master,” she discovers a new sense of power and an appetite to live bigger and bolder than before. As Anne is increasingly torn between her enticing new existence and her life before, the body count grows and Jakob realizes he will have to fight for the wife he took for granted.
Dread Central: One thing that’s exciting today is that we don’t have to talk about cosmic horror and Lovecraft, we can talk about vampires. That must be a little refreshing for you.
Barbara Crampton: It’s nice. I’ve always wanted to play a classic character and I was able to in this film. So, that’s something I can scratch off my bucket list, I guess.
DC: I’m guessing that you’re missing SXSW this year but you’ve been such a great part of the continuing film and horror community since everything went virtual. I saw you and Larry Fessenden at Nightstream recently for the cocktail hour…it was so fun seeing you guys together. And The Thing script read-through at Chattanooga Film Fest when you were MacReady was inspired.
BC: Oh my god, so fun. I had such a good time with that. Yeah, I mean the pandemic has brought us together online in ways we didn’t expect before. I do a weekly movie watch with friends on Zoom where we have a little cocktail hour, we chat and catch up. We watch a movie and then we come back on Zoom and we do a recap. It’s kept me sane and I have a Zoom call with my sisters every week, now. I have three sisters and we talk every Sunday. In some ways, it’s brought us closer than we’ve ever been. I definitely developed a closer relationship with my daughter. My daughter’s at home, she’s a senior in high school and we’ve really become such good friends as well as being in a family together through the pandemic. Some good has come out of it.
DC: I wanted to talk to you about Larry Fessenden a little bit. Seeing him as a wholesome preacher is comforting but it’s also a little unnerving. This is only your second time working together but you guys have such great chemistry and timing together in this.
BC: Thank you. I read the script in 2015…and I’ve been developing it with Bob Portal at AMP for a number of years. I think as we were developing it and getting further along and thinking about who would play Jakob, Larry was the first person that we thought of. He’s been synonymous with the horror genre for a very long time. He’s been a director himself and an actor and a producer and a writer for so long. And we worked really well together on We Are Still Here, I just love him. This is a great role for him. He’s used to playing the friend or more of the second banana or he’s used to coming on for two scenes and getting killed. He’s really a very talented actor. We have a friendship now for many years. It just seemed right for us to play husband and wife. We’ve both been long married, we both have children and there’s just a sensibility about that. We get along very well and we think very similarly about things so I was just really happy to work with him.
DC: I would love to see some kind of horror version of Wandavision with the two of you. I love the snoring scene at the very beginning. So many wives can relate to that, being kept up all night. It’s just the quintessential illustration of being unhappy in a relationship, isn’t it? Or just genuinely being annoyed by your spouse.
BC: Yeah, when Travis Stevens came on board he actually asked Larry and I particular, specific things about our relationships with our own spouses and added those things in. And for years, I have worn ear plugs to sleep because my husband snores. So that was something taken directly from my own life. There’s other things in the film, like my husband talks over me all the time! Somebody asks a question and he will answer. Maybe he’s just more excited or something and he can’t wait, I don’t know. But many times I’ll say to him, ‘You know, that question was asked of me and I’ll answer it’ and little things like that. You know…little issues that couples have together. There’s a lot of things that are specific to Larry’s and my relationships with our respective spouses.
DC: You’ve mentioned before that with Jakob’s Wife you see a lot of parallels with your own life in the story. As a producer, it’s been a four or five year process for you from development to now a premiere at South By. Does that make you respect the process of filmmaking more and make you love it more when it comes together or does it make you loathe how long it takes?
BC: No, I mean just like Anne in Jakob’s Wife you have to be accepting of what happens to you and go with it. As a young actor getting a call for a film or an audition that was how I grew up in the eighties and the nineties, really. And now, I do have more respect for the process because it does take long when you’re putting a project together. It seems like a long time but it’s really not uncommon for it to take four or five years to put a project together developing the material. Even though the script, originally written by Mark Steensland won Best Screenplay at Shriekfest in 2015, there was a development process that just naturally happens with every project. Raising the funds and finding the location and casting and putting the team together and scheduling everything, it just takes time. So I definitely have more respect for it but I also love it, too. I’m really very invested in producing more films and I want to produce more films. I found that it’s something I really like doing. I like finding the material and working with writers and I’m working developing some other scripts as well and I really enjoy the whole process of putting a project together.
DC: It’s great to see it come together especially when the cast starts coming together. And one huge delight for me was seeing Robert Rusler pop up who plays your old flame. I was really excited to see you both acting together.
BC: I know! And we’d never met before but I knew of him and his work. Travis had met him at a screening for something and he said, ‘What about Robert Rusler for that role?’ And I said, ‘Oh yeah! He’d be great.’ So, we just hired him and I met him on the set when he showed up and he’s just fantastic in his role. It was just easy to fall in love with him! (laughs) For a minute…before terrible things happen to him. We had a great time on set together. I think Larry and I have a natural chemistry because we know one another and we’ve worked together before and I think that Robert and I had a really nice rapport and chemistry because he’s just such a great performer and a really great actor.
DC: Who would have thought you guys would make out now and not back in the eighties.
BC: Yeah, right!
DC: Speaking of terrible things happening to him, there are lots of rats in this. Did you interact with the rats at all? Were they difficult to work with on set? Did they give you any attitude or were you kind of removed?
BC: (laughs) You know I was more removed from the actual rat wrangler. Robert had to be somewhat of a rat wrangler. There was a certain scene where they crawled up a window. It was really hard to make the rats crawl up the window on the house so we actually had to recreate a panel of the house and put it on the ground and had the rats crawl around on the ground. And then take that shot and put it into the film where the actual rats were on the house. For us, we had to create a VFX scenario for that. That was one of the few times that we had to actually do something like that because most of the special effects in the film are practical. I don’t know when you article is coming out but after the film we can say that it’s a vampire film. There’s a lot of blood that’s used and a lot of goo and spray and stuff like that happening. We’ve been doing that for many years so that’s actually easier for us to do the practical effects on set.
DC: I did want to tell you how fantastic you are in this. The performance is really great especially in the breakdown scene you have in front of the mirror. Do you not like to watch yourself and where does Jakob’s Wife rank as far as the roles you’ve had?
BC: I’m used to watching myself because I did soap operas for many years so I would see myself everyday. I know a lot of other actors, they cringe when they watch themselves and they always have a revisionist moment about it thinking ‘Oh, I should’ve done that in that moment or I should’ve done this.’ You always think that, that’s always there. I think that’s true for any artist but I’m kind of used to watching myself so it doesn’t bother me, per se. As far as ranking this role, I think it’s right up there with my top ones which would probably be From Beyond and We Are Still Here and Jakob’s Wife as far as the roles that were multi-dimensional, multi-layered and gave me a really big chance to expand and to do something different than maybe a character that had sort of one note to play in a film. I love this character. I love Anne Fedder and I love what the movie says about her. Having an unsatisfying union and something horrible and tragic happening to her but having that enable her to recapture her youth and gain a zest for life that she never knew she had before. For me, the film is really about hope and renewal and I think, beyond my character, I think it says something positive about relationships and about marriage. To me, that was one of the most important things about the project.
DC: Absolutely, yeah. It’s about finding yourself and rediscovery, too. I know you’re really active on social media so you’re definitely aware of the Psycho Reanimated deep fakes with Bruce Abbott. I think Abner Pastoll started that who you worked with on Road Games.
BC: Yes!
DC: Do you have a favorite image yet of a famous role that you’ve been inserted into? Or is it just too strange to see yourself superimposed onto so many iconic roles?
BC: Now that’s where it’s hard to watch myself because he’s been doing these deep fakes on me for a very long time, for weeks now. With the pandemic he has a lot of time on his hands. It’s been fun to see but it’s a little disconcerting to see me in some of these classic roles but it’s very fun. I really enjoy being put into the Psycho one in the car drive while she’s leaving. She has the money and she’s leaving before she gets to the hotel, I thought that was really fun. They’re all great. He put me into Gone With the Wind, just so many other ones so it’s even hard to keep track of them. It’s been fun, it’s been a little fun diversion for us all.
DC: We get to see you now in every role now which is great. Have so much fun with the premiere and I’ll be watching the Q&A with you guys. I’m also looking forward to King Knight, too, with Richard Bates. I enjoyed Trash Fire quite a bit.
BC: I love Ricky Bates, I love his films. When he asked me to be in it I was like I’m all in. I just think he has a unique voice. I get to play Matthew Gray Gubler’s mother in that film so that was really fun for me.
Categorized:Interviews News
