March 8, 2011

If you’re not familiar with character actor Brett Rickaby yet, rest assured you will be. The versatile actor has made appearances in THE CRAZIES, David Fincher’s ZODIAC, as well as dozens of television shows from CSI to ER to 24. He even played Frank Gorshin as The Riddler in the Return To The Batcave TV movie. This weekend, you can catch him front and center in Stevan Mena’s BEREAVEMENT playing serial killer Graham Sutter; the man responsible for creating the human monster that appears in Mena’s debut feature MALEVOLENCE. BEREAVEMENT acts as a prequel to that film, but also completely stands on its own as a self contained story.

While on set, Massive Hysteria contributor Adam Barnick had the chance to speak with Rickaby about what it was like to step into Graham’s damaged psyche. Read on! – Interview Adam Barnick, Intro Robg.

Adam Barnick: Can you tell me who you’re playing in Bereavement?

Brett Rickaby: I am Graham Sutter, he is the guy in this prequel to Malevolence who’s responsible for making Martin become who he becomes.

AB: How did you first hear about the role? What attracted you to it?

BR: I had just landed in LA and my manager called and said ‘here, there’s something I’d like you to take a look at. Read the script, you’re gonna call the director today.’ And I was like “OK!” I took a look at it, read it that day and called my manager, and told him ‘yeah, this is something I could do something with’ (laughs) and then I called Stevan, we started to talk about it. Right away, I started getting into the whole thing about nature versus nurture, which is something that I came to find later when I watched Malevolence, actually I think I watched it even before the role was offered to me. But in the special features, Stevan was talking about nature vs. nurture.

AB: All the prevalent themes.

BR: Yeah! Because I told him I wasn’t-not knowing where he was coming from at the time – I told him I’m not really all that interested in a thing about “evil”, per se, but much more interested in what make a person become who they become.

AB: I’d heard a great quote a long time ago that I when I saw the first film, I remembered; ‘as the twig is bent, so grows the tree.’ We’re constantly seeing these broken families in this passing down their damage.

BR: It’s a dysfunctional legacy that gets passed along, from Graham’s father to him; as we learn in this movie. But this also then connects to Malevolence in that you see that my training, my upbringing of Martin makes him become who he becomes then..and who you see in the first movie.

AB: I got the impression that Graham was still a hurt child, who happened to now be in adult form. Constantly trying to please this father figure and not being able to.

BR: Yeah, there’s so many different things here! One is that, not being able to please the father; but also seeing the father as a discompassionate person. Because Sutter had this real connection with animals. And then to live in a slaughterhouse, and have to go through that, did something to his psyche. And now, somewhere along the line, he now actually believes the animals speak to him. In order to redeem himself for his own deeds, and for killing all the animals…for each human that he kills, a sin is forgiven from his past. And so it’s a twisted process (laughs), but one that makes sense in Graham’s mind.. To gain redemption. And as you have more life experience, I’ve come to realize that a lot of us are looking for that in our life anyway.

AB: To clear our slates?

BR: Yeah! Clear our slates, absolution. Redemption, forgiveness.

AB: By any means necessary?

BR: I don’t think that Graham thinks about it in that regard. It’s just “this is what I need to do.” That’s not good or bad; he doesn’t realize that he’s causing more wreckage in order to clear up his wreckage. That’s where it gets a little twisted.

AB: When you have to go this deep into a character like this, and go this deep in terms of your personal process… do you leave Graham on the set?

BR: I am a firm believer in ‘save the drama for the stage’… I don’t believe that actors need to…for myself anyway, maybe other actors feel this way and that’s how they approach it. I don’t feel I need to be stomping around in my hotel room. That doesn’t mean I don’t need to do preparation. Doesn’t mean I don’t need to know exactly- because you can’t fake the camera out. You have to live it. It’s the only way. You have to experience it. Doesn’t mean I have to kill people, I’m not saying that. But on an emotional level, you have to go through a true experience in order for that to translate onto the camera.

AB: Can you tell me a bit about working with Stevan and your collaboration so far? You’ve been here for two weeks, right?

BR: I’ve been here for two weeks, but I spoke with him twice before coming here. And I think he’s a super-smart guy. Really smart. And he’s got a bit of the child in him, in a really good way. I knew he already had a real strong picture of this in his mind. And he’s been very open and accessible and non-judgmental on things that I don’t know. Because I haven’t known everything about Graham. The film is like a broken mosaic; pieces of him that get revealed. And so I needed to know “how does this fit with this” and he’s helped me sort of bridge those gaps. There are things I already innately understood, but I needed some help and he’s been great with that.

AB: Have you worked with the actors playing Martin yet?

BR: Both of them, yeah.

AB: How has that been in terms of …it’s a sensitive topic, how do you approach this with a child?

BR: The first day (on set) was the abduction of the six year old. When we did the rehearsal, and I said the lines about- I offer him a new bike. And the kid was like (brightens up) “new bike!?” And I was like oh my god… see how easy it is (to trick and kidnap someone)? That was actually a little bit scary. Then once we started doing it, where it registered on him in a way that actually generated a real response, numbed down a little bit; but that first time, it was really frightening.

There’s a degree of sensitivity working with a six year old, and you want to make it okay, also for him to have an understanding that we’re doing pretend… but yet at the same time you don’t want to go too far where-

AB: Where he can’t take it seriously?

BR: Yeah, you’ve got to be able to take it seriously, but it’s hard for a six year old to have the understanding that…

AB: …of the subject matter you’re depicting?

BR: Of the difference between life and acting. And if I numb him down too much, and it’s still not slightly real or dangerous, and it’s all “nothing” , then I think it’s gonna reflect in his performance. So there’s kind of a line there. But I don’t want him to be scarred. (laughs) That’s not good.

AB: What do think audiences will- do you have something you hope audiences will take from this movie? Anything you’d like people to come away with?

BR: Well, a couple of things. One is- I think it will be a terrifying ride for them, more so than an ordinary horror film.. because people will relate to the monster as a victim, as well. That’s what makes it really scary! The more you can relate to the bad guy, the villain, the monster… the scarier it becomes. That’s a goal, and I think that that will happen.

The other thing is, that thing you brought up about ‘legacy’, is…that’s a good little warning. You know? I’m a parent now, we all know what our relationships were like with our parents, some people have been really lucky and blessed, and others have struggled through different things with our relationships, and you go through that phase, it’s natural to go through that phase of blaming and what-not. And then sometimes you come around to forgiving your parents, and you move on, and have a relationship again. But there’s always that- there is that thing (in this film) of what you’re passing along. You know? We think we’re doing better than our parents did, but we still hand down our own baggage. That they’re left to deal with.

AB: You’ll see the results down the line.

BR: Yeah! And I think it’s an important thing to take a look at. I’m talking about this like it’s a regular drama, and I kind of see it in that way in many regards! Despite the fact it’s going to be frightening.

AB: I feel this one (of the two films) is a stronger distillation and emphasis on these themes; the first film is an exploration of that theme as well as a ‘crime doesn’t pay’ picture that a killer happens to show up in, and cause trouble. And I felt the same about this story; it’s a drama about broken homes and families, what is passed down; and then a killer, who happens to BE one of those families, shows up and causes trouble.

BR: Yep. And I think that’s good (that we explore that).

BEREAVEMENT is now playing in select East Coast theaters with West Coast dates to be announced.