THE GUEST directed by Adam Wingard, written by Simon Barrett, with Dan Stevens, Maika Monroe, Brendan Meyer and Sheila Kelley. A D Films release. 99 minutes. Opens Friday (October 17). For venues and times, see Movies.
If I had to describe Dan Stevens in a word, it’d be “dashing.” The former Downton Abbey star really does have that charming, handsome thing going on, which is why it’s so jarring to see him do what he does in The Guest.
Adam Wingard and Simon Barrett’s throwback thriller – which closed TIFF’s Midnight Madness program earlier this month – gives Stevens his first big-screen lead as David, a well-spoken military veteran who arrives at the home of a fallen soldier and insinuates himself into the family’s routine. Only the dead man’s sister, Anna (Maika Monroe), notices that something is terribly off about the visitor.
“I guess I wanted him to operate slightly on his own tempo,” Stevens explains, sitting with Monroe on a couch at the Thompson Hotel a few hours before the TIFF screening.
“It was interesting for me as an actor to really throw myself into one of those physical transformations. Everything – the way the guy moved, the way he spoke – was very, very different from my own way of being, and from a lot of the characters I’d had a chance to play before.”
David’s mercurial temperament was another appealing element. For much of The Guest, we’re not supposed to be sure what he really wants from anyone, and Stevens enjoyed keeping his motivations hidden.
“There’s a certain kind of charm to him, for sure – you’re not sure where this is going,” he says. “I think that’s very much part of the game that Adam and Simon wanted to play – teasing the audience a little bit, making you briefly comfortable – ‘Oh, I know what kind of movie this is. I know this scene this is a bully-victim scene,’ or ‘This is a teacher-pupil scene’ – and just twisting that on its head and seeing how that makes you feel.”
Stevens says Wingard and Barrett lured him in by exploiting a mutual love of John Carpenter movies.
“It’s a real celebration of those kind of films and the feeling that you got watching them as well,” he explains. “It’s not so much wanting to recreate the images and scenes from those films, but more [recreating] the sense that you got watching them, something that can be quite hard to find these days.
“We definitely shared a common bond over Big Trouble In Little China and the kind of fun that both the actor and the filmmaker look like they’re having in those films. Kill Bill was a big one as well – Uma Thurman is having such a great time on screen.”
At this, Monroe produces her iPhone: its background is the Japanese poster for Kill Bill: Vol. 1.
“Nice,” Stevens says. “That’s badass. I did want David to wear a big yellow catsuit, but it was vetoed.”
Interview Clips
Dan Stevens and Maika Monroe on the dynamic between their characters:
Stevens on his character’s secret backstory [potential spoilers]:
Stevens on whether he’s planning to return to the stage, having starring in The Heiress on Broadway opposite Jessica Chastain in 2012:
Read our interview with Adam Wingard and Simon Barrett, the director and writer of The Guest.
normw@nowtoronto.com | @normwilner
