Interview: Imaginary Star DeWanda Wise on Grounding Horror Movies

ComingSoon Editor-in-Chief Tyler Treese spoke to Imaginary star DeWanda Wise about the Blumhouse and Lionsgate horror movie, which is now available via VOD and comes out May 14 on Blu-ray, DVD, and Digital. They discussed Wise’s role in the film, being an executive producer on the project, and grounding the horror movie.

“When Jessica (DeWanda Wise) moves back into her childhood home with her family, her youngest stepdaughter Alice (Pyper Braun) develops an eerie attachment to a stuffed bear named Chauncey she finds in the basement,” reads the movie’s synopsis. “Alice starts playing games with Chauncey that begin playful and become increasingly sinister. As Alice’s behavior becomes more and more concerning, Jessica intervenes only to realize Chauncey is much more than the stuffed toy bear she believed him to be.”

Tyler Treese: Your character, Jessica, has her own trauma that we find out throughout the film, and you have these really great scenes with Samuel Salary in the film, but how is it kind of doing those more grounded moments? Because the film gets really out there by the end, but those moments really humanize the character. So how was it filming those scenes with the father? I really like those.

DeWanda Wise: I do too. I don’t know how we found a man who looked like he could be my brother. Sam was really such a great find. I felt like those scenes, and even the relationship that Jessica has with Max, are like the touchstones. As an actor and as an EP too on it, my main priority was the performances and having them be as grounded as possible.

Because I felt like if the audience doesn’t care about what Jessica is experiencing internally, they’re not gonna take the ride. You know what I mean? They’re just gonna do that thing we do when we watch horror movies, and they’re like, “Just kill her. Just eat her already,” kind of thing. I’m glad to hear they resonated because they were very, very important to us.

They found two fantastic young actresses who play your stepdaughters in this, Pyper Braun and Taegen Burns. How was it kind of finding that family dynamic with them? They’re a bit distant, so that’s a unique thing. You’re not trying to bond and get a super chummy chemistry right off there. There is a distance. So how is it finding that right balance there?

I thought that Taegan, specifically as Taylor, did such a beautiful job of… That’s a really hard role just like the surly teen, you know what I’m saying? Like the disgruntled teen girl. It’s such a challenging role. I just remember watching, there was one moment where she’s like, “Oh, only I can call her that.” Basically, it’s like a scene early on in the movie, and I could see it’s so wild.

I can see Teagan’s discomfort being that mean. The way that it registers on camera is that you can feel the discomfort, like you can feel that there’s this kid that’s essentially grieving, and that grief comes out in acerbic ways. But ultimately, I think that that’s something that Jessica understands, and it’s why she’s so patient and so present and also so determined to win their love.

What’s most rewarding when you’re working with such talented young actors? Because they clearly have such a bright future as well.

Yeah, the most rewarding thing is a sort of low-frequency mentorship where you’re helping them build skills that they’ll be able to use going forward and to learn how to advocate for themselves and not be afraid of being like, “Oh yeah. No, that’s too much,” or whatever. It’s so important too to build in young women growing up in this industry. So that was one.

And there’s just nothing more satisfying than being there to witness any actor when they nail a take, and they know it. They’re so proud of themselves and the inverse too. To assure them if they felt like, “Oh, that’s not exactly what I wanted to do,” just letting them know, “We got it. We got what we needed. Sometimes what’s in your head isn’t what the thing is, you know what I mean?”

One of my favorite scenes in this movie is when you find out that nobody else is seeing this bear. Your reaction is so great. You have a lot of really good facial reactions throughout, which is so key to horror. So how was showing these different emotions, especially in that scene?

I think I read the script throughout as deeply psychological. There’s a version we had where there was comedy and a bunch of fun in ours, but there’s definitely a version of this movie where… Like I told Jeff [Wadlow] from the beginning that one of Jessica’s greatest fears because she grew up watching her father’s demise and watching him in the state, her greatest fear is losing her mind. So that’s my only fear and my, DeWanda’s, only fear. I’m not scared of spiders. I love deep sea diving and jumping out of planes and the whole bit, but I have a healthy fear of losing my faculties, especially in an industry like Hollywood.

So, that was something that I was just able to like use in that scene, where you’re just like, “Oh, I can’t trust myself. I can’t trust what I’m seeing.” That’s extremely disorienting. I loved filming that scene. I also loved filming the moment where she’s scrambling and coloring the walls back in.

You spoke about the comedy. I found the ending really funny where they get to the other hotel and the kid has an imaginary friend, and they’re like, “Nope, we’re going to another one.“ Teagen mentioned that you had filmed a couple of different variants and takes on that. So, how was it filming that ending in post-production?

It was great. That little moment, that coda, came from one of my EP notes to Jeff. Because he just ended the movie. It felt like a curtain drop, and he was like, “Yeah, I like to get out of there.” I was like, “Okay, all right. Okay.” So we went back and added that extra beat both for the actors, so that you know where they are and how they are after the house burns down, but also for the audience to have one last exhale.

How has that been being an EP and having more input creatively in shaping the project?

I just really loved it. It’s not something that I haven’t done on other projects. Like, I think back to She’s Gotta Have It, and I had a huge thumbprint on that show. It was just a matter in this instance of getting credit, one, and also not having to couch my opinions in anything. And the thing about working with Jeff that’s really beautiful is he’s open in general; he’s legitimately open, legitimately, like if you see something, say something. He actually enjoys the collaborating component of filmmaking, and it was just delicious. So great.

There are these great practical effects in Imaginary. The giant Chauncey looks terrifying. As an actress, how does that aid you rather than just going off of a green screen or it being added later?

To be fair, I have no touchstone, no point of reference because I haven’t worked on something yet where I haven’t had all the toys. Like I think people saw Jurassic [World], and they were like, “Oh, how was working with all that?” And I was like, “There are so many puppeteers. That multiset alone, like every dinosaur you see in the multiset, there was a puppeteer somewhere.” So yeah, I’ve been very, very, very, very, very fortunate so far.

I think as an actor, you’re always gonna have moments where you’re acting across from nothing. Like if you’re doing an extreme closeup, you’re acting with a piece of tape anyway. It’s a skill that is required for the job, no matter what you’re working on. But I can say that any emotionality in this movie that you find it’s pretty easy when you have the wind blowing in your face, and there’s a huge monster in front of you, and the lights are flickering, and you just have all these external things to tell you that you should be terrified. It’s very, very helpful.

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