Andi Matichak Interview: Son | Screen Rant
In recent years, Andi Matichak has become a rising star in Hollywood. After testing the waters with appearances in television shows and the occasional film role, she thrilled audiences with her effortless ability to share the screen with Jamie Lee Curtis and Judy Greer in 2018's Halloween revival. While fans eagerly await her return in the upcoming Halloween Kills and Halloween Ends, horror fans looking for something different from Matichak can currently catch her in the indie chiller, Son.
Matichak stars as Laura, a single mother raising her son, David, played by Luke David Blumm. After he comes down with a mysterious illness, Laura takes him on the road, seeking a supernatural cure for what she believes is an unholy ailment. Considering the presence of demonic cultists involved in some sort of sinister conspiracy, she may just be on to something. Son could be described as a "slow-burn" horror film, but it still delivers on all the gore and disturbing imagery genre fans have come to expect, buoyed by realistic characters and genuine stakes. Emile Hirsch co-stars as a small-town police officer trying to uncover the horrific truth behind the increasing body count.
While promoting the release of Son, Andi Matichak spoke with Screen Rant about her work on the film and her rising Hollywood star. She discusses sharing the screen with her young co-star and the wisdom she gained from his approach to the film, and talks about working with her director, Never Grow Old helmer Ivan Kavanagh. Finally, she talks about how important it is to love the work, and the lessons she learned from the Halloween creative team of David Gordon Green and Danny McBride.
Son is out now in theaters, VOD, and Digital.
Hi Zak, how are you doing?
I haven't been sleeping well ever since I saw your movie!
(Laughs) I guess we did our job!
Absolutely.
I kept saying that I was so grateful, since the material is so dark, intense, and scary, I'm happy it was such an exhausting movie to film, because if it wasn't, I wouldn't have slept!
You've made a bunch of horror movies, but I wouldn't classify you as a "scream queen," since these movies really run the gamut across the horror space, and they show how flexible that genre really is. Is that something you're aware of when you are up for roles?
When Son came to me, I was really interested by the collaborators that were involved. At the core, the story is about the love between a mother and her son. That was really interesting to me. And that's the beauty of horror; there are so many sub-genres inside the genre of horror, it's a genre that just keeps on giving. There's so many different nuances to the movies, different ways to stay engaged and make it really exciting. Son was exciting on so many levels. It's incredibly different from the other films I've done, but it's still in the same vein, so to speak.
You have some very intense scenes with Luke David Blumm. He is fantastic. The movie wouldn't work if he was a dud, but he totally brings it.
Luke David Blumm is an unbelievably talented actor, and such a great human being, and working with him was just so much fun. It's a very intense movie, and the majority of it is just the two of us. There were intense scenes to shoot, especially with a ten-year-old kid. But the thing that made it so magical, I think, and made it more manageable, was working with a ten-year-old who was just having a ball with every single take. He's playing make-believe. That definitely bled into my work in the same regard. He could dive in and out of that depth and darkness very quickly. In between takes, he's joking around and having a good time. I think that levity really adds to the film, and it kept us all sane while we were making it. That was something I definitely learned from Luke, and I took a lot away from him on that.
There's countless schools of acting, and I'm not an actor or anything, but it all boils down to playing pretend, playing make-believe, and I don't mean that in a reductive way at all.
Yeah. I get paid to play make-believe! It's pretty unbelievable. It's so much fun, and it feels like a dream in every regard, every time I get to work.
We make the movie in Mississippi, in the Delta. You'd pretty much fly into Memphis and then drive two-and-a-half hours south, into the Delta area, which is kind of a no-man's-land, in between three major cities. Kind of in the heart of that space. It was a fascinating place to shoot. No matter which way the camera was pointing, there was so much atmosphere, and so much happening in one frame. And you don't have to do anything to get it, it's already there. On top of that, when you have a director like Ivan Kavanagh and a cinematographer like Piers McGrail, you're going to get so much atmosphere, just oozing from these scenes.
Not to get distracted, but did you have a lot of BBQ?
(Laughs) I did. I did have a lot of it. I spent a lot of weekends up in Memphis, and I had some pretty unbelievable barbecue up in Memphis.
It's amazing. I've been to Memphis once, and steak just isn't the same anywhere else. It's like New York and pizza. It's tied to the region.
I know, it's a little upsetting. I've been fortunate to be able to film in a couple of places that are BBQ capitals. And my dad is an unbelievable barbecue master, so I'm able to have that on a regular basis.
I talked to Emile earlier this week, and he had worked with Ivan before. Tell me about your experiences with him, how does he direct you and how do you keep up the intensity during long days?
Ivan is really a tremendous filmmaker. Working with him was such a pleasure. He has such a vision for what he's doing, and for what the story is. He has his hands in every aspect of the film. He spends just as much time, if not more time, on the sound design as he does editing the movie. He has a very clear vision of what it is, even prior to filming. He knows exactly what shots he wants. There aren't that many frivolous things. He's just very clear. It's very fun working with a director like that. And at the end of the day, he has a lot of respect for the people he hires, and he trusts them, as well. So there's a lot of freedom in that, and a lot of, "Okay, let's take it again." He's with you along the ride and very open to different ways of approaching a scene. I had so much fun working with him, it was really such a pleasure.
You are having a moment, a meteoric rise through the Hollywood ranks. You're a rising star, there's no limit to what you accomplish. How do you feel about career ambitions? Do you have any, or do you kinda just take it movie-by-movie and see where the road takes you?
I think it's a mix of both. I definitely have goals and milestones that I want to hit, as an actor. There are people I would love to work with, who I dream of working with. But at the end of the day, I also just take it day-by-day. There has to be a level of grace with yourself, as well. Working with different people, different collaborators, is so exciting to me. One of the things I really took away from working with David Gordon Green and Danny McBride on Halloween was, they make movies for the sake of making movies. They love it so much. I don't think they care if anybody sees them! They just love making them. That mentality has, obviously, gotten them extremely far. They've found huge success in it, but they find such joy in it, such pleasure in it. I felt that mentality when I was working, and then meeting them, I was able to articulate it a little bit better because I saw them as an example of that. Personally, I just try to enjoy any time I'm on set, or any time I'm able to dive into a script.
Son is out now in theaters, VOD, and Digital.