Daniel Kash
Mama has already been one of the best horror movies of 2013 and it saw actor Daniel Kash team up with Jessica Chastain and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau.
We caught up with Kash to chat about the movie, working with first time director Andres Muschietti and what lies ahead.
- Mama is about to be released on DVD here in the UK so can you tell me a little bit about the film?
It is a horror film, I guess, but it is also a terrifying romantic film about a mother who is trying to get her children back.
In the past a woman lost her children and, in the present, she is trying to get live children to replace them.
- You take on the role of Dr. Dreyfuss in the film so what was it about this character and the script that initially drew you to the project?
I don’t judge too many things and when something comes by my eyes and it has anything of a reasonable storyline I just jump in saying ‘who knows what is going to surprise you’; that really is the way that I go about choosing things.
The money was good and playing a psychiatrist seemed like an interesting thing to do.
Also there was the fascinating aspect of having a great cast, Guillermo Del Toro was the producer and Andres Muschietti was a fantastic first time director; he had a lovely personality and was a sweet guy.
Everything about going forth and doing that project was fun and interesting.
- Dr Dreyfuss works closely with Victoria and Lilly after they are found to understand what happened to the so what sort of research did you do as you were preparing for this film?
I have several people in my life who are involved in psychiatry and psychology and so I plied them with as much questioning as possible about how they deal with their everyday lives; especially the tone that they try to achieve with their clients.
Also I wanted to know how they would be persuasive with children and what the right attitude towards dealing with a child is so that you don’t freak them out, while trying to heal them and get information from them.
Apart from the fact that I am a father - I have an eleven year old and a fourteen year old - and so I am well versed in how to talk to children.
This other information was interesting but it really was all about tone and I tried as hard as possible to get a reality with that.
- They always say that you shouldn't work with children but both Megan Charpentier and Isabelle Nelisse are fantastic in the film so how did you find working with them?
I couldn’t believe those guys. I am freaked out by children these days and just how professional they are. Megan basically ran the set when she was on it.
She was very focused and very concentrated… actually I am directing my child in grade six version of Les Miserables and it is killing me, it is the hardest thing ever as these are not professionals. But when you get a girl like that who, at the age of twelve, is focusing for ten or twelve hours, it is very impressive.
Isabelle is just a freak of nature - that is why she got cast. She has got a great entertainer’s sense of how she freaks people out with her slightly off the wall mental perspective (laughs). They were just fantastic. They never got tired and they were just the greatest little actresses, amazing!
- Andrés Muschietti made his directorial debut with this film so how did you find working with him?
He was the greatest guy, just the greatest guy. I have been working with a bunch of South American directors recently and they really are just the greatest people with a wonderful joy and simplicity about doing the work. They are like ‘hey, let’s have fun and to do the work’ and there are jokes and humour and smiles.
He is just fun loving, concentrated but the sweetest guy every - if I ever heard a complaint ever about Andres in any way about his attitude or the way that he does the work I would lose faith in all humanity. He really is one of the nicest people that I have ever met.
- How collaborative a process was it between you and him as you were developing this character throughout the filming?
Totally, it was very collaborative. He is a first time director and I have been acting for thirty years and there were other experienced actors on set such as Jessica and Nikolaj, and he was very receptive to hearing our perspective when we thought a scene needed to go this way or that.
He made the final decisions but he was very open and humble of people’s experience and he took it all in. Some people sometimes get defensive about that and they put their foot down. He did have the final say but he used our input; actors love that by the way. (laughs).
- This is quite a dark and a tense movie but what was the feeling on set?
Party (laughs). I’m not kidding, it was almost like cowboys and Indians where you go ‘let’s go and freak people out’. It really was a lot of fun.
- The movie has been topping the box office bit how have you personally been finding the response to the film?
Unbelievable. I have done a hundred and twenty things and a lot of things that I have done many people even heard of - even vaguely - so when anything has a name where people go ‘yeah, I know that movie’ I am so happy.
A lot of people have seen it and a lot of people like it. It has made me one of the most popular guys in the neighbourhood with my teenage kid’s friends.
So it is a feather in my cap that it is a Guillermo Del Toro produced film and that it did so well. It was also great to work with the likes of Jessica and Nikolaj as they are both on the road to superstardom and it was great that I could handle myself with those people.
So it was all good for me professionally and it was nice that something hits, because you never know. I am just so happy for Andres and his sister Barbara that this is a hit.
- How much was the fact that Guillermo Del Toro was producing a draw for you? And is he someone you have always been quite keen to collaborate with?
I loved Pan’s Labyrinth, I thought it was fantastic. It is a different style of filmmaking in this world of CGI as it is trying to be tactile and human, as much as he can, with the kinds of effects that he likes to achieve. I think he is a great storyteller.
And, again, he is a great guy - a stupidly great guy - and I karaoked with Guillermo. It’s so weird because the guy is a main player in the world right now in film and when those sorts of people go to a bar and you are on their level and you are having a laugh. It means a lot to me that Guillermo Del Toro is even aware of me because I think he is just a master.
- Throughout your career you have worked in TV as well as film so how do you find the two mediums compare? And how easy is it to move between the two?
I have also done eighty five plays too; I just want to thrown that out there. I do think that they are all the same. There is a problem with amplification when you have to reach the back of the house if you are in theatre and in TV you have to be aware that the visual is a smaller visual.
But I do think that acting is acting and if you say ‘I love you’ in a play or a movie or TV you still have to mean it. People do make a big deal about the differences over these things; I do think that it is all nonsense.
- You have also moved into the director's chair to helm some short projects so are there other directing projects in the pipeline?
I have done three shorts; the first one was in the official selection at the Montreal Film Festival and the second was as well. I have done two comedies and a drama. The second we auctioned for a series; it eventually fell through because we couldn’t get a broadcaster - which is horrifying.
I would love to do it again; I am directing a play soon. I think I am ok at it. But I am never doing a short again, I will tell you that, if I do anything else it is going to be the full feature.
It is really hard to get a short together and so you might as well go the whole hog and see if you can get lucky.
- We are also going to be seeing you in Split Decision this year so can you tell me a little bit about that project?
Split Decision was another fun project that I did. It is about a tree hugging guy, played by Brendan Fraser; he is the lead. Dominic Purcell plays the bad guy.
The film is Deliverance as it is a horrifying chase after children by this monstrous character in the woods. It was really fun. I haven’t seen the final result yet but it was interesting to do.
- Finally what is next for you?
I have just finished a project called Orphan Black. BBC has just picked it up and it is a BBC America production and it about clones; it is really cool. The lead actress is playing six characters and she is brilliant. I am also on RoboCop. I have just finished that and that is going to be a big deal.
And I am the main bad guy in two of the biggest video games coming very soon - it is part of an actor’s world these days. I am always the bad guy though.
Mama is available to buy from 17th June, 2013 on Blu-ray™ and DVD, both with UltraViolet , and digital download.