Alex Essoe talks eating bugs & nightmare neighbours

Alex Essoe interview for The Neighbour.

Alex Essoe is one of our favourite acting folks around at the moment. Her turn in Starry Eyes as an actress desperate to succeed is hypnotic and haunting. Since then she’s carved up a strong career on the independent film circuit, and it surely won’t be long until she breaks into the big leagues. Her latest venture, The Neighbour, sees her character Rosie kidnapped by her neighbour.

Rosie and her boyfriend John (Josh Stewart) are down on their luck and are making ends meet by working with John’s criminal uncle. Whilst John is out on what will hopefully be their last job, Rosie witnesses their creepy neighbour Troy (Bill Engvall) do something terrible, and finds herself as the next target. When John returns home he suspects Troy might be to blame for her disappearance and sets out on a rescue mission.

Alex Essoe has been on this writer’s to-interview list ever since Starry Eyes, and was finally able to speak with her ahead of The Neighbour‘s release. We spoke about all things The Neighbour, what it’s like to eat bugs, the dangers of going method, and about how terrible that Wicker Man remake really is…

Alex Essoe interview for The Neighbour.

There’s a distinct, almost True Romance, vibe to The Neighbour. John and Rosie are almost like a modern Clarence and Alabama, is that something that drew you to the project?

That is 110% what drew me to the project. Actually when I first started talking to the director about doing this, that was the first reference I made. That this was totally Clarence and Alabama, Mickey and Mallory from Natural Born Killers, it totally has that element to it, which I loved. I love both those movies and both of those female characters.

Where you familiar with Marcus Dunstan’s work prior to working with him?

Oh yes, I had seen The Collector and The Collection and actually, this is a little trivia, Marcus [Dunstan] and his writing partner Patrick [Melton] were actually script doctors on Pacific Rim. Which I didn’t realise. Pacific Rim was one of my favourite movies of what… was it 2013? Oh my God, it’s soo good. I wish more people would understand that about action movies. I don’t need an hour and a half of exposition before anything happens. I bought a ticket to see monsters fighting robots and that’s what I got. I absolutely loved it! I was so tickled. It was everything that Godzilla wasn’t. I brought a ticket to see that in 3D and I felt like such a chump. I bought 3D glasses to watch Ken Watanabe peer into the darkness in 3D.

Alex Essoe interview for The Neighbour.

Back on Starry Eyes – you actually put those bugs into your mouth, despite the directors [Dennis Widmyer & Kevin Kölsch] telling you that you didn’t have to…

You know what, it wasn’t even that I agreed to do it, it was my idea to do it. I volunteered, I was like ‘sure, I’ll put a bug in my mouth – who cares?’ They were like ‘are you sure? You really don’t have to. We can do other stuff’, but I was just like ‘yep I’ll do it.’ I immediately regretted that decision because it was absolutely horrifying. It was terrible. I had to go into a room by myself and like sob afterwards.

I’ve never understood people who go on shows like Fear Factor and eat stuff like that for the chance to maybe win some cash.

You know what, after doing it, I don’t understand either. I’m never doing it again (laughs).

Was anything remotely that tough on The Neighbour? I’m guessing after that, whatever gets thrown at you now is easy. 

No, well actually the house we filmed in (laughs), the house we filmed in was full of cockroaches. While we were filming the scene in the kitchen, a cockroach crawled into Josh’s beer and none of us saw it. He drank his beer and took in a mouthful of roach during a take. And he’s such a pro that he didn’t spit it out until we called cut. He didn’t want to ruin the take. Is that a pro or what?

There seems to be a theme developing in your films where somebody at some point eats bugs. 

(laughs) Hey they’re animals too! They deserve their time in the sun.

Alex Essoe interview for The Neighbour.

Acting offers the chance to learn a whole host of new things. What’s the best skill that you’ve had to learn for a role?

A lot of the movies I’ve done haven’t really required extraordinary skills on my part. None of them have really demanded I go outside of what I know skill-wise. I haven’t had to learn how to weld or play the violin – I hope to at some point, I love all that stuff. But thinking back, there isn’t anything that I’ve had to learn to do.

How do you go about getting into your roles?

I mean, I have a process for each character, but it is tailored to that individual character. I like to immerse myself in whatever that character would be immersed in. Like for Starry Eyes, saying that Sarah’s favourite movie is Gilda. Which is what I decided. I watched Gilda like a hundred times, because that’s her favourite movie. Apart from learning my lines, also very important in case anyone gets the wrong impression, as far as character prep goes that’s a really big tool I use to understand them. I don’t want to get too lofty about it. (Laughs) Start pontificating about the process.

Alex Essoe interview for The Neighbour.

In real life, who would be your dream and nightmare neighbours?

Best neighbour – Bill Engvall who plays the neighbour. I would be so happy if Bill and his wife were my neighbours. They would be the best neighbours ever. Worst neighbour – Chris Brown. I think the worse neighbour ever actually. I feel sorry for his actual neighbours.

Did you have much interaction with Bill between scenes, or did he try and keep his distance?

Oh Yeah. It was super family on set. Everyone was really close. Everybody got along. Bill is sooo much fun. He’s cracking jokes. Between him and Josh [Stewart] and Skipp [Sudduth] and Ronnie [Gene Blevins], I was just done. I couldn’t breathe half of the time. It’s maybe the most fun I’ve had working on something.

Alex Essoe interview for The Neighbour.

Does that make it easier to do the tense scenes?

For me it makes it a lot easier. It does make it a lot easier. If you really want to get lost, especially when you’re doing a fight scene with someone, you have to trust them implicitly. You have to trust them that they have your back. Like the scenes that I do with Ronnie where he’s beating the actual shit out of me. He’s just handing my ass to me, he and I have a very friendly rapport. In between takes it was ‘hey are you okay? Is that too hard? Should we practice this?’ Very respectful. I’m not really a fan of actors who I don’t know if they think it’s cool to do this or what, but I’m really a fan of actors who do what Jared Leto did on Suicide Squad.

Like sending dead animals as gifts?

Yeah. I know it has become a very popular example, and there are many others. Like Dustin Hoffman in Kramer Versus Kramer which he regrets. He’s said he regrets it in interviews since. That whole – ‘my character is as asshole, so I’m going to be an asshole to everybody and alienate them’. That’s not artistic to me. I really respect actors  who know how to treat acting as a job. That’s what it is, a job. They know how to be with people and be in the moment, and they know how to separate those two things. I think that that’s important and I think its healthy to be able to do that.

Alex Essoe interview for The Neighbour.

I heard your audition scene for Starry Eyes was Sarah’s audition scene from within the film. How daunting was that? Because it’s quite an intense scene…

It was (laughs). It was intense because when I went in for the call back I hadn’t been sent the script or the sides. I only had a scene from what I had already done. So when I got there I had to basically do a cold read. They handed me these sides and I went outside for ten minutes and then I came back in. It was interesting because for that scene, because I had no real time to prepare, it was one of those – ‘well you’re gonna have to just jump off the cliff’ (laughs), ‘You’re just going to have to jump into the abyss and not think about it and whatever comes out of you, is what comes out of you.’ That’s what I did. And yes it was daunting, absolutely. Especially in an audition process when you get a really intense scene like the character sobs or screams. You’re not in ‘the world’, you’re not in the situation that would justify that. You have to just jump there immediately, you can’t ease yourself into it.

Alex Essoe interview for The Neighbour.

The Neighbour releases on Halloween in the UK, what do you usually watch around Halloween?

My favourite Halloween scary movie?…Besides Tales of Halloween (giggles)? My favourite Halloween movie… I have a bunch, The Witches I love, there’s this eighties horror movie called House that I like to watch on Halloween. It’s just fantastic. Gosh, there’s a lot. There’s the classic like slasher stuff, that are my real favourites. Oh and I love the original Wicker Man. The 1974 Wicker Man. I think it’s so creepy and awesome. I think Christopher Lee is just the master of horror.

So not the Nic Cage version with the bees?

(Laughs) Oh my God, I did not understand that remake at all. I was like – ‘are you making some kind of statement about how women are just vicious and hungry to punish men for having penis and nothing else? Really… that’s what you’re going with?’ I thought it was so weird. The original Wicker Man is more or less egalitarian / Pagan society. The sacrifice of the cop has everything to do with their Pagan ritual and nothing to do with punishment. Whereas the Nicholas Cage version is all about punishment, but I honesty cannot even imagine for what? It felt like it was almost punishing you for being a guy. It was just – ‘we’re gonna cut off your penis – how about that?’ All the men who were a part of that society are just like slaves. I was just like ‘fucking what?’ It just wasn’t interesting to me. I also just don’t know why it needed to be remade. What’s the point? But then I feel that way about a lot of remakes.

The Simpsons Treehouse of Horror, they are part of my Halloween ritual as well. The original ones. They’re so good.

Yeah, like the one with The Shining.

Yeah, and the one with the aliens. Where they have that book that’s covered with space dust. ‘How to Cook Humans’, ‘How to Cook for Humans’…

How to cook forty humans…

(laughs) ‘How to cook for forty humans’. Wait, there’s still more space dust on here…

Starry Eyes was the film that really launched yourself, Dennis and Kevin. Is there any chance you’ll get the band back together for a future film?

At some point I would love for us to make something together again. I love those guys like family. They really are like family to me. They’re wonderful people. I have a laugh working with them and hanging out with them. Cinematically we speak the same language. I hope that we’ll all accumulate in another project for sure.

Alex Essoe interview for The Neighbour.

Next up is Fashionista. What can you share about that one? 

I’m very excited about this. So this is a new Simon Rumley picture, he wrote and directed. It’s about a women who is dangerously addicted to clothing. She has an unhealthy obsession with clothes. Basically we take her down this really crazy path (laughs), it takes her to some really dark places. My character… I can’t really say what my character is without spoiling it. I will say that the lead character, who is played by Amanda Fuller, who played Tracey in Starry Eyes – she meets my character in a mental institute. But that’s all I’ll say.

I also hear you have a song in the film?

Yes I do. They reached out and said ‘hey we’re just wondering if anyone has any songs, and then we remembered you make music.’ So I sent them a few things and they picked one and they’re using it in the movie. I’m stupid excited about it.

Alex Essoe interview for The Neighbour.

So do you have any desire to do a musical?

I mean, if that music was like Rocky Horror Picture Show, or Hedwig and the Angry Itch. Or like Little Shops of Horrors, not that – I do not have the voice for Little Shop of Horrors (laughs). But those are the musicals, I like and pretty much no others. I haven’t seen Book of Mormon though, but I’m sure that would be one of my favourites if I saw it.

What other projects are you excited about? 

Oh Gosh, there’s a couple. There’s a movie I did in February / March in Rhode Island. The working title is Revellers, I think they’re gonna change it though. That one I’m really excited about. It’s this really sort of ‘Michael Haneke meets Hitchcock’, really fucked up cat and mouse kind of thing. But very much in the realm of psychological thriller.

Then there is another movie that is coming out next year that I am the most excited about. It’s a movie called The Maestro. It is a 1950’s period piece about a very prolific and unsung composer who worked in the fifties. I play Cyd Charisse in that which is awesome as I’ve never played a living real person before. I’ve never done a period movie before either, so that I’m also extremely excited about.

Catch Alex in The Neighbour when it arrives on DVD on Monday 31st October. Read our review now.