I had the chance to talk with TRICK star Ellen Adair about the highly anticipated new film, Trick, due in Theaters, On Demand and Digital HD on October 18, 2019.
SYNOPSIS:
On Halloween night in 2015, Patrick “Trick” Weaver massacred his classmates at a costume party. After being arrested, he managed to escape police custody, but not before being shot five times by Detective Mike Denver (Epps). Everyone believes Trick must be dead, but when a masked killer reappears the following Halloween, and every Halloween after that, they realize the nightmare is not over. With Trick wreaking havoc and killing innocent people in increasingly terrifying ways, Denver will stop at nothing to finish what he started and bring the carnage to an end.
How did you come to be involved with Trick?
We had a wonderful casting director by the name of Judy Bowman, who I adore and have known for a number of years. She brought me in and I read. Interestingly, I remember thinking as I left that it didn’t go very well, so I was really delighted to get the offer for the role.
From moment the opening scene on, there’s a lot of blood in Trick. Did you enjoy getting to work with all the blood or did it gross you out?
I think I enjoyed it. I’ve only worked on the one horror movie, but I think working on horror movies is really fun because you’re on the other side of the trick for the effects. I don’t want to spoil anything, but my own interactions with having the blood were, “this is awesome!” So yes, it was a great time.
Did you do any research on cops or serial killers before jumping into your role as Sheriff Jayne in the film?
I did some research on sheriffs – specifically what is the role of a sheriff. It’s actually an elected official, as a lot of people might not know or remember. I read a lot of interviews with real sheriffs about how they got the job and their process through law enforcement to ultimately become the sheriff.
I talked to the really wonderful director, Patrick Lussier, about Sheriff Jayne’s path to that might have been. Something that’s fun that’s not in the script (I don’t think), but is established for ourselves in the world is that her dad was the sheriff before her. Law enforcement runs in the family. They used an actual picture of my dad in my office – photo shopped in a sheriff uniform. That was so delightful to my dad and me. My dad thought, “you know, I’ve always thought I wanted to sort of be a cop.”
I did that, and for the really fun homework that actors have I asked Patrick what films he suggested I watch to get into the mood for the film. The film is intentionally retro in the way that it’s shot even though it takes place in the present day. Some of those films were older films like “Manhunter” and “Invasion of the Body Snatchers.” I watched those and that was very fun. He also recommended “Zodiac,” which is such a phenomenal film. It was very helpful to me in terms of thinking about the journey of somebody in law enforcement trying to track down a serial killer that they cannot seem to track down.
For a chunk of the film, Jayne plays kind of a devil’s advocate against Omar Epps’ Detective Denver. Was it fun getting to acting spar with Omar Epps? You guys have great chemistry together in the film.
That’s really lovely. I loved working with him. What is so wonderful about him as an actor is how real he is and that makes it so easy to slip into the alternate reality of the film with him. I felt like it was so easy to try to make the case to him. I don’t know any other way to say that, but the devil’s advocate nature. He was so deeply into the reality of Detective Denver’s belief about Trick that it was so easy to naturally engage with that and to try to slap him out of it a little bit. I had a great time working with him.
Patrick Lussier and Todd Farmer are like horror royalty. What was your experience like working with them?
They’re just the best! What I said earlier about working on a horror movie being so fun, I think that probably has a lot to do with how fun they both are as human beings and how clearly fun horror is to them. It just delights them. It was a real pleasure to come to the set every day with both of them. Patrick does such a great job of establishing the best working environment in the world where it’s just about us playing and telling a story. It’s so clear that both he and Todd are like kids in candy store with getting to tell a horror movie and that’s very infectious and wonderful. They’re so good at it and telling these kinds of stories. That’s also infectious when you’re working with people who are in their element.
Sheriff Jayne is really put through the ringer in the film. How fun was it to jump into such a meaty role?
It was the best time – it was so good! I love how tough she is, but I also love how much she grows over the course of the film. I love all of the different things that she gets to do. It’s a horror movie but it’s like a horror/action movie and a lot of the stuff that I got to do is like being in an action movie. I have never gotten to do that before. Normally I play people in suits, so this was getting to play someone in a uniform instead – chasing down the bad guys. It felt like when you’re a kid and you’re playing like “I’m going to go get the bad guys!” It was so fun. She’s just a really interesting human being because she is so tough and smart, but also has a secret, not so secret, soft side. She really cares about her town and her mentor, Detective Denver, and her deputies. She has a maternal view of her town in addition to being a badass.
Keeping it as spoiler free as possible, if there’s a Trick sequel, are you in?
I don’t know if I can answer that question. Here’s what I will say: I would love to do all of the Trick movies forever.
What is next for you? What are you working on now?
I just shot an episode on season four of “Bull,” the show on CBS. I think because season four has started to air, it should be out in a couple of months. That’s probably the next place that people can see me.
RLJE Films will release the horror film TRICK in Theaters, On Demand and Digital HD on October 18, 2019.
