We at team THN have long been supporters of Kyle Gallner. The actor has consistently chosen interesting projects. In 2023, Gallner had a wealth of new titles arrive, but sadly their releases clashed with the SAG-AFTRA strike. With the strike now over and actors finally on the way to a fair deal, it is at last time to discuss what Gallner has been up to.
In the first of a three part series, THN spoke with the actor about his recent releases Mother, May I? and The Passenger, as well as looking back at some of his other projects. In this opening section the conversation is focused on the brilliant Mother, May I? The film places Gallner alongside Teen Wolf’s Holland Roden as they play Emmett and Anya, a couple whose relationship is forever changed when Anya is possessed by the spirit of Emmett’s late mother… or is she? The tricky plot keeps itself ambiguous, allowing the audience to draw their own conclusions. If you haven’t watched the film yet, I recommend giving it a viewing prior to delving into this interview as it ventures into spoiler territory.
What was it about Emmett that stood out to you?
I just thought the relationship between Emmett and Anya was really interesting. Watching these two who are…I don’t want to say at the beginning of the end, but they are very much at a crossroad. What are they going to do? What does the relationship look like moving forward ? That time in life where all the fun and games are over and now you have to start asking yourself, what does life look like moving forward in an important serious way. Do we continue this? Do we have kids? Do we get married? What does that look like? I thought, to step into a relationship that is in that moment… I thought that was really interesting.
Then dealing with Emmett’s past and having that past thrown so directly in his face. I thought it was really cool to have Emmett come face-to-face with his trauma, and have to deal with that for more than half the movie. I thought it was funny, and I thought it was dark, and I thought it was weird, and it ticked a lot of boxes. It wasn’t loud. It was pretty subtle. It was more like a chess match between these two, like a push and pull. There was a lot of interesting stuff to dig into.
I love the therapy game that repeats where Emmett and Anya are pretending to be one another. How difficult were those scenes because it’s not simply Anya being Emmett and vice versa, but Kyle pretending to be Holland as Anya pretending to be Emmett.
It was a really unique shooting situation because it was Covid. The way we got around it was we rented the big farmhouse that’s in the movie. We rented that out and we all lived there for the entire show. So we would film there, sleep there, wake-up, film there, sleep there, and that was our world. It was kind of weird because me and Holland were on top of each other the entire shoot. Whether we were working, whether we weren’t working, we were always in each other’s face. I think in a weird way that helped.
Not that we were annoyed with each other in real life – we weren’t – we got along great and actually living together with the crew and everybody was a lot of fun. But it allowed us to pick up on each other’s little nuances and little things, and bring that into Anya and Emmett. Because you don’t ever really get that experience. When those scenes happened they were actually a lot of fun. We ran them a bunch and we just kept pushing them and pushing them. One of the last ones where I really lay into Anya and I sort of almost mock her like “well, I’m Anya and this is a lot of fun!” That last one like it didn’t necessarily start out like that, but it eventually got to that where it was; let’s just keep pushing this into the deep part of her territory.
Another aspect I enjoyed is that when we meet them, it is Emmett who is the most keen to be a parent. He has got all the ovulation trackers on his phone. It is so refreshing to see this portrayal and not have it be another baby mad woman again.
I agree, I thought that was cool too. Emmett is driven by this want and need of having a family. You have to question why you want a family? Why are you trying to have a kid so quickly? Why are you trying to make this happen? Is it for the right reasons or, do you think maybe in some weird way this will fix you, or help you move past your stuff. My mom wasn’t there to take care of me, but if I have a kid, maybe I can take care of them and maybe I can reverse the cycle? So it’s always a case of what position he is coming from. Why does he want these things? Why does he need these things? Why is he pushing for these things?
Having kids is a big responsibility and what happens when they come into the world? Because it’s one thing to say you want a kid, and it’s a totally different thing that when you have the kid, what does that look like? What does that look like for you, and your partner, and your life? I think that’s a big sword hanging over him, and Anya’s head as well; the idea of having a child.
A lot of couples do find themselves in that situation, having kids for not the best reasons, to hold a relationship together etc. Or in an attempt to fix mistakes from their own childhood. That is very evident in the script, and although a piece of fiction, it does a really good job of highlighting these issues that really happen.
Of course it does have this supernatural element to it for sure, but Anya and Emmett are just two incredibly normal people. They’re just normal people trying to figure it out just like anybody else. Until things shift, there’s nothing particularly out of the ordinary about them. You would see those two walking down the street and just be like “a couple”, and then you start to dig deeper and there’s a lot going on here. There’s a whole lot happening here.
So in your opinion, is Anya possessed, or is she trying to manipulate Emmett? How did you approach it?
As Emmett, I always played it as I can’t deny that it’s happening, because it might be happening. But it might not be. He was always stuck. There were always things and moments that I think pushed Emmett into a place of believing it was real, and then moments of calling bullshit. He always had to be off-kilter. He could never have both feet on the ground.
I think part of him didn’t want it to be real, because he didn’t want his fucking girl to be his mom obviously. But then there was a part of him at times that wanted it to be real because there were almost potential moments of closure, or moments where he could dig into stuff with his mom that he couldn’t do when she was alive. So I think there was a part of him that was hopeful that he could deal with his past. I don’t necessarily know if it was like feeling exactly one way or the other much as he was always flip-flopping back and forth.
It is almost heartbreaking at the end when Anya ‘returns’; Emmett is almost bereft. That must have been tricky to juggle?
In some ways he’s probably glad that Anya is back, but in a weird way, he’s lost his mom all over again. He’s had to live her death twice, only this time he had maybe a little bit more of a connection with her, or was even willing to dig in and dig deeper and come to more of an understanding with her than he probably ever would have before, and then that’s been taken from him. It’s a big loss all over again. He doesn’t really mourn her death the first time, so it’s almost like the second time is the first time he’s really mourning for her death. It’s pretty twisted. He really is all over the place.
Mother, May I? Is available to watch on FreeVee in the UK and on Tubi in the US.
