Last week we got to talk to the wonderful Gia Crovatin about her new film she stars in called ‘House of Darkness’ we talk about working with Kate Bosworth, Justin Long, and Neil LaBute. Also we have fun talking about how Justin Long was once the Mac guy in the PC Vs Mac commercial’s for Apple.
AJ: Hi Gia, How are you doing today?
Gia: Awesome. How are you?
AJ: I’m doing good. Thank you so much for joining me today.
Gia: My pleasure.
AJ: First question is how do you get involved with House Of Darkness?
Gia: I have worked with Neil LaBute many times. We’ve collaborated on the stage and on the small screen and the big screen. And this script was just such an interesting little puzzle in riddle and I right. Couldn’t put it down and I had to know more. And then I saw that there was a four page monologue that my character and I was like, holy shit. okay. Let’s do it. So, yeah, that’s how.
AJ: And that’s also what I wanted to talk to you about is this seems like an actor’s actor is movie, right? There’s just so much monologue. There’s so much dialogue in the film. You can really get into, like, that had to be like extremely welcoming as an actor to just get so much juicy dialogue. And like you said, you had a four page monologue that just had to be exhilarating to have been saying, to do it too
Gia: Exhilarating and like piss your pants, terrified. Cause when you’re doing, you know, take after take, and you’re looking at everybody around you and the camera operators and stuff, you’re like, all right, is everybody up for another, 15, 16 minute take? Here we go. You just don’t want anybody to get bored with you or think you suck. But honestly it, it getting to work on Neil’s writing is always an actor’s dream. He just writes the way that people think and speak, all those pauses, all those ellipses, um, you know, the way that you say something, but you really mean something else. The subtext is so clear. It’s just heaven. It’s just divine. And I come from the theater. So a small, tiny chamber piece with, for actors that feels like home to me, it you’re just depending on each other to kind of tell the story and trust that what you’re doing is gonna come across to audiences in the way that you intend. It really what you know. that kind of a setup is absolutely perfection for an actor.
AJ: Right. And I was gonna talk to you about that as well. Like, you know, what, the intimate setting that you and Justin Long had throughout the whole movie, it felt like it could have easily been as a stage place. And that had to be almost like going bating home with you and Neil with this, after you mentioned you worked with him in theater. So that had to be another reason why you kind of gravitated towards this script as well in this movie with it being that intimate and how it played off as well.
Gia: No question. And I love the way that you just said theater, where are you from?
AJ: I am from Charlotte, North Carolina.
Gia: Oh, bless you. Bless your heart. I’m from Virginia. So we’re neighbors. Originally I’m from Virginia. You nailed it. It just felt very comfortable, you know, we’re shooting all night. This movie was an 11 day shoot. We’re doing all night shoots and this was the first project that all of us had really done after COVID had hit. Right. It was April, may of 2021. And we’re in Arkansas in a castle in the middle of the night in pitch blackness. I mean, it really was kind of a mind. So being able to do things that felt like comfortable and like, okay, what we’re doing is really artistic and cool, and this is the kind of stuff I live for that helped ground it a little bit. Cuz you know, there’s so many unknown factors going on there.
AJ: Right. And how was it like working with Justin Long on this? Cause you know, I’m old enough. I remember him from the old PC and MaC commercials, you know, he played the Mac guy
Gia: I’m old enough too.
AJ: And now he’s a genre icon almost, like he’s been into a Drag Me To Hell, he’s been in Yusk and now this, and now he has Barbarian coming out.
Gia: Mm-hmm
AJ: How was it like working with him in House of Darkness as well?
Gia: I just have been a fan for Justin’s before this project for a long time. I think he’s so I mean just gifted and, and such an instinctual actor. There’s something very natural about him. I really like to like his podcast, and getting to be on the set, you know, watching him transform into this utter jerk and, and seeing how he would take on nuances and really became this, person was just fascinating to watch and it is intense and you know, you’re in these kind of dark tight, shots and sets and everybody’s kind of you’re feeling that that energy of the film kind of come through in, in the whole dynamic of the set. So that was just really fascinating honestly, to be there, with someone you’ve seen on the screen for such a long time.
AJ: Right. And you know, this, the actress since that played to your sisters were both fantastic when they came into play. So how was it like working with those two as well?
Gia: Kate, in the similar vein with Justin, someone I’ve admired for a long time, Kate Bosworth, Yeah. And, and Lucy Walters who, who played our other sister, you know, anytime I get to be with, with women on set is a dream. I love the company of women and I love the dynamics there and I, I don’t have sisters. So, you know, having to having that imaginative structure of like, what are we like together? What do we do in our downtime? That’s always so exciting to me to come up with the background and, and all of that. I just love it.
AJ: Right. And one final question for you. What was the most that you took away from your experience on house of darkness? What was the one thing that stood out to you or multiple things, if that, what didn’t you take away most from your experience on this film?
Gia: Don’t ever do a night shoot after again, you’ll never sleep normally. No, I’m okay. it would be that honesty really is the best policy in life and just own up to the stuff that, that you do. It’s okay to make mistakes. It’s okay to be, we’re all jerks. We’re all assholes sometimes. And it’s okay to say that, you know, just karma is real and it’ll come back and get you. And when it does, it will not be pretty
AJ: Well. Gia. Thank you so much for joining me today. It’s been really fun and congratulations. I can’t wait from people to receive this film cuz I really think thank you. I think people are gonna enjoy it. So thank you so much for joining me.
Gia: I really hope so. Thank you so much. Well, enjoy your day in Charlotte.
AJ: Well, you enjoy yours as well.
