Actress Rachael Harris talks to The Inside Reel about perspective, thematics, physicality and the notion of family in regards to her new series based on the R.L. Stine novels: “Goosebumps”, available on Hulu and Disney+.
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00:00 (screaming)
00:02 (dramatic music)
00:05 - We have no choice.
00:14 - This ends now.
00:15 - Run, run, run!
00:18 - It's time for them to learn the truth.
00:23 Come with me.
00:25 (dramatic music)
00:30 (screaming)
00:31 - Oh my God.
00:32 - We need to talk.
00:33 - Why does James smell like watermelon Jolly Rancher?
00:35 - I was just gonna say.
00:35 - All these characters have layers,
00:37 but yours, because of her perspective,
00:40 but also her perception of what's going on
00:42 and how she deals with it is key.
00:44 Could you talk about looking at the psyche of this lady
00:47 and how you needed to approach her from your point of view?
00:51 - Yeah, yeah, well, Nora,
00:53 what I love about Nora is she's a mother first
00:58 and loves her son very much.
01:01 And the thing that I really loved about it
01:08 was that she's also, I feel like she's a truth,
01:12 you know, she wants to be present
01:14 and wants to always be in the truth.
01:16 And I think what's happening with her
01:19 with the other parents is they wanna push this down
01:23 and keep it aside.
01:24 And what I loved about getting to play her
01:26 was that she's this person that's like,
01:28 you can't deny it.
01:29 And when someone is telling you that you're crazy,
01:34 that what you're thinking, what you're seeing isn't real,
01:39 and you know it's real,
01:41 I liked that she persisted with all of that
01:43 and kept, even when she was thrown into a psych ward,
01:48 I mean, the layers of just the sheer fear
01:53 about what's happening
01:54 and then trying to get people to listen to her
01:56 and then being put in an institution
02:00 because she's saying what people don't want her to say
02:04 and they're trying to shut her up.
02:06 And then getting out and proving a point
02:08 was really, was very, very satisfying.
02:11 And I loved getting to play all those layers,
02:14 like just being a mom
02:16 and then realizing I have to take care of my son
02:18 and then really advocating and fighting for my son
02:21 was great.
02:22 And then we haven't even talked about the stunts
02:24 and getting to chase worms
02:25 and be a badass in that regard.
02:29 That was incredibly fun.
02:32 Oh, hi.
02:38 - Oh, hi.
02:39 Just the person I was looking for.
02:43 - Why were you looking for me?
02:44 - You know, our mutual friend.
02:47 - We have a mutual friend?
02:50 - Yes, we do.
02:51 - What are you talking about?
02:53 - You know.
02:54 - I don't, I don't know.
02:55 - You went to the mine, you took him out of the case
02:59 and I want him back now!
03:01 - Hey!
03:01 - Help me!
03:02 - Hey!
03:03 - Don't help him!
03:04 - Hey!
03:05 - Guys!
03:06 - But as you're saying with the physicality also,
03:08 it informs the emotionality
03:10 because it makes those scenes,
03:11 like the one you were talking about,
03:13 so much more powerful
03:14 because you've watched her go through it.
03:17 Can you talk about that,
03:18 that physicality informing the emotionality
03:20 in those kinds of scenes?
03:23 - Yeah, yeah, no.
03:24 It was tough a lot of times,
03:30 like even in the stunts,
03:31 like later on where we do a lot of work in the snow, right?
03:35 We shot in Whistler, which was incredible and great.
03:38 But I found that having those,
03:41 the outside elements working,
03:44 I don't know, it felt like it was working with me
03:46 because we had to use it,
03:47 you know, to like trudge the snow
03:49 and it just was,
03:54 I had a lot of those moments,
03:56 these really kind of like come to Jesus moments,
03:58 like with Lucas, twice, you know, big scenes.
04:02 And it was really,
04:07 I was just really grateful
04:08 that I got to be a part of those scenes
04:10 and get to be honest.
04:11 And I have to say kudos to our director and our team,
04:14 you know, the crew for working in those elements
04:17 and making it so great.
04:21 - Don't you love me anymore?
04:25 (screaming)
04:28 Uh-oh.
04:33 Now if you just go ahead and die down there,
04:39 that'd be great.
04:41 (laughing)
04:43 Yes, yes.
04:48 (laughing)
04:52 - Hello, old friend.
05:10 As we come to the end of the season,
05:11 it's interesting, the sins of the parents
05:14 are the sins of the children in a way.
05:16 And then even before that,
05:18 'cause you know, there's something that goes back
05:20 even farther with Harold and with Slappy.
05:23 Yeah, I mean, could you talk about
05:24 that notion of history repeating itself,
05:27 that sometimes we are doomed to make the same mistakes
05:29 because that's a big theme that goes through.
05:31 - We're realizing that once we do have,
05:33 we feel like we've solved this problem,
05:36 that we haven't even scratched the surface, right?
05:38 Like there's a bigger entity at play
05:40 that's going to come in, which is exciting.
05:43 And that's what we're teeing up for hopefully a season two.
05:48 - This bigger sort of metaphor, what's going on,
05:50 these questions that the characters have about themselves.
05:54 You know, why do we do this?
05:56 Is it a primal protection of our children
05:59 or is it something more?
06:00 - One of the greatest moments for me with Nora
06:02 is when she says, you know,
06:04 I'm gonna really start trusting my instincts
06:06 and do what I know is what has been right all along,
06:09 instead of placating to these other people
06:12 and not wanting to rock the boat.
06:13 And I like it when she says, no, I'm right.
06:18 And I trust my gut.
06:20 This is actually happening and we need to face it.
06:24 And finally, they do get on board when they can't deny it,
06:28 but it's very empowering.
06:31 - I did hear the horrible story
06:34 about the boy who used to live there.
06:36 - No, I hear it's haunted.
06:37 (man grunts)
06:41 Have you seen anything strange happening there?
06:44 (gunshot)
06:45 (woman screams)
06:45 - Say cheese!
06:47 - That is not funny!
06:49 - No, not that I can think of.
06:52 (dramatic music)
06:54 - Some weird stuff has been happening.
07:05 Something's clearly wrong.
07:07 - Why would you do that, man?
07:09 That's not cool!
07:10 - There's no such thing as a curse, dude.
07:12 That isn't real.
07:13 (dramatic music)
07:16 - Are you okay?
07:17 (woman coughs)
07:18 - Get the knife, get the knife!
07:19 - You know, that's why certain scenes
07:20 like seeing Harold's reflection and stuff like that,
07:23 that duality, we always, we have the good and bad within us.
07:27 It's just how you balance it, you know?
07:29 And so that's interesting to see all these characters,
07:31 you know, what's the greater good?
07:33 Where does conscience come in?
07:35 - Well, yes, and that's what I was going to say too,
07:38 is that, and I think I was writing this up
07:39 in something else with my publicist,
07:41 but that my thing is that I love to play
07:44 these bad characters, right?
07:45 Nor is very good and is true blue,
07:47 but if you look at every bad character
07:50 that we've ever seen, like quote unquote bad,
07:51 there's always a positive reason
07:54 as to why they're doing something.
07:56 You can't play, oh, a bad guy.
07:57 It's just that this person believes they're right.
08:01 And that's when you see that with Harold,
08:04 and I think that's exactly what we're talking about,
08:05 is that it's so heartbreaking to understand
08:10 what actually went down and what actually happened, right?
08:14 That it was just a lot of misunderstandings
08:18 and people trying to do the right thing
08:22 that ended up going very poorly
08:24 and having very terrible consequences.
08:27 (dramatic music)
08:30 - This is all connected.
08:33 He's getting revenge for what our parents did to him.
08:37 - Oh my God, we're murdering Nepo babies.
08:41 - Tell us what's going on.
08:45 - It's obvious you know.
08:47 - That's why all of this is happening to us.
08:49 (dramatic music)
08:52 (crowd chanting)
08:55 (dramatic music)
08:57 (dramatic music)
09:00 (whooshing)