And to get their revenge, they make these teens spend just one minute on the phone.
On the other end?
A litany of supernatural horrors, revelations of traumas, and spooky bloody ghosts, of course.
Collider: What initially attracted you to the role of Edward Cranston?
TOBIN BELL: The long scene in the house, with the four young people.
Actors choose jobs for a variety of reasons.
Image via Cinedigm
Geez, I’ve never been there.
Or, you know, it might be the money.
Or it might be I didSaw I, for example, because Danny Glover was in it.
And so people do things for different reasons.
There was a lot of dialogue.
You keep your hammer close by, and you keep your knives well sharpened.
So I was like, “Wow, yeah.
I want to do this scene.”
And I had never met the director, Timothy Woodward, until actually I got to the set.
And Timothy had some really good ideas on how to do it, and we combined our thoughts.
And the kids were great.
And so that’s what attracted me to the material.
That scene, specifically.
That scene really stuck out for me as well.
And it’s curious to hear you say you only met the director when you arrived to set.
Was there any time given to an onset rehearsal process?
What was the creative process to attack the scene, with you and the director?
A lot of actors, and a lot of directors, don’t even like to rehearse.
And he brought me into the room.
And I said, “Where are the chairs going to be?
Where’s the table going to be?”
Because acting is doing.
Acting is not about the lines.
And there’s a physical logic to everything.
And so that’s basically what we did, was arrange the room.
And I would say to him, “How about if we put the envelopes over there?
So that while I’m saying this, I could go get [them].”
So that’s the kind of thing that we did.
Then you have a brief break in between, and then you go.
And that’s it.
What was your relationship with these four younger performers, these kids like?
Or were you relatively chummy with them?
BELL: [laughter] I was hopefully gentlemanly with them, and kind, and welcoming.
Which I think Edward was.
I mean, it wasn’t as if he was being rude.
He was being very specific and very much a businessman.
And so that’s pretty much what you see on screen.
I don’t engage a lot with other actors on sets anyway.
Even on cell phones or anything like that.
Inviting, but all business.
And I think I was pretty much that way with the actors themselves.
Did the two of you work together on how to craft this lived history between you two?
BELL: No, we didn’t.
We had no time for that.
She still develops the human side of that character.
And that’s the side that I was trying to connect with.
I like to connect, as an actor.
And it’s lovely when you’re working with an actress like Lin, who likes to connect also.
And so I did.
And I honestly think that Edward worshiped her, in some way.
So I hope that Edward’s caring about Edith is reflected in the film.
BELL: Oh yeah.
And that’s about as much as I can say at the moment.
Chris is such a talent that I can’t imagine that it won’t be pretty compelling.
The Callcomes to theaters and drive-ins October 2.
