The cast and crew of Bad Samaritan, from director Dean Devlin starring David Tennant and written by Brandon Boyce, took time out from their busy schedule to talk about this new psychological, horror film to STARBURST.
STARBURST: David, your character, Cale Erendreich, is very dark and a departure of some of the roles you’ve played before what attracted you to the story?
David Tennant: The character is tactical and calculating in his methods. I wanted to explore the dark side of human nature. When I read the script, I jumped at the chance to play him.
How did you prepare for the role?
DT: He’s a psychopath without guilt or remorse. I read a lot of books on psychopaths to see how they functioned and in that, you have to find your character. What would it be like to live a psychopathic life?
Dean. How did David come about in casting for the role?
Dean Devlin: Being a big Doctor Who fan, I watched all his episodes and there are some actors you just want to work with because of their quality of work. David is amazing in all of his roles. When David got the script, we were Skyping over the Internet and I geeked out telling him how much I loved Doctor Who and I even wore my Who t-shirt when we talked!
DT: Yes, but you were wearing the Eleventh Doctor logo T-shirt, not mine and I was ready to hang up!
The technology in the film is interesting, but it seems more plausible in the future.
Brandon Boyce: Yes, you’re right. It doesn’t exist. When we screened the film in Silicon Valley everyone cheered that we got the technology right in our film, yet it was all made up. We had to laugh about that.
David, how do you decompress after portraying this type of dark and sinister character?
DT: You play a role that you dabble in and get intoxicated with it then you have to back away from it. It’s the Scottish guilt of shame going down that rabbit hole. Bad guy versus worse guy. Meaty stuff there.
Brandon, did you want to combine the two elements of crime and horror in the beginning when you wrote the script? How did it come about?
BB: Yes, as the writer I had the ending already written in my head. When I began the script, I took the characters on their journey traveling down this dark highway to see what avenues they would follow.
Dean, was shooting the majority of the film at night difficult?
DD: I’m a night person myself and I don’t get going until 10 PM. Night shoots are vampire moments and it was so damn cold when we filmed in Portland, Oregon where I live. We had five snowstorms during the filming.
DT: We did get that gorgeous snow scape at the end of the film that we didn’t have the budget for. The snow covered the background in the end scene that we got for nothing.
The horse sequence is a bit disturbing and frightening at the same time. How was that filmed?
DD: We never had any horse on the set, nor could we afford them in our budget. They are 100% digital. The sequence came about in the script by Brandon.
And it works quite effectively. David, what is Cale’s backstory?
DT: He doesn’t have one, but you know he’s damaged goods. He has a lot of unanswered questions and self-awareness himself, but he’s a broken man who doesn’t know who he is as he’s psychopathic and nomadic in his actions.
What villain from childhood affected you the most?
DT: The only character I can think of is the Child Catcher in Chitty Chitty, Bang Bang. Even now, I have to look away when I watch that film, so if you see Cale on the screen, you decide if there’s a bit of the Child Catcher in me on the screen.
Bad Samaritan hits UK cinema screens on August 24th.
