Why David Harbour’s Character Doesn’t Talk In 'We Have A Ghost'

Interview with David Harbour

Transcript

00:00 Love David Harper, love that he played this role, which is so different from him.

00:04 I was wondering if you could talk about the decision not to have him really like have

00:09 lines in it and like speaking to David Harper and really working with him during the shooting

00:13 on that because that's like super unique.

00:15 Yeah, I mean, look, as a character, as a character thing, I wanted Ernest to be silent because

00:19 I felt like I wanted his relationship with Kevin to be very emotional and and that they

00:26 don't have the advantage of conversation that they are really sort of reading each other's

00:31 energy and sort of each other's feelings and much in the way that like if you travel to

00:37 another country and you meet someone like you just have to figure that relationship

00:41 out without the advantage of language.

00:45 And and that was really important to me because I think it allowed for them to have more of

00:49 an immediate bond, you know, and and in terms of working with David on it, like, you know,

00:56 David and I had conversations about about the character, about, you know, who he was,

01:00 where he came from.

01:01 And then ultimately, his character's goal in the movie, which is to just sort of be

01:05 able to sort of remember who he is and what happened to him and why he's in this house

01:09 and how did he die.

01:12 But directing him wasn't that different, honestly, from directing any other actor with dialogue,

01:18 just because what my job is as a director is to always make sure that the actor understands

01:23 where they are in the film, understands the emotionality of the scene.

01:27 And that's kind of it.

01:28 Like once the camera's on them, it's it's up to them.

01:31 And David is is a is a performer who just has immediate access to his emotions.

01:37 He really understands the scene work and is just a really honest performer, you know,

01:44 and that reads like this.

01:46 This is the kind of movie that would have been so easy to get very broad and slapsticky.

01:53 And that's not David.

01:54 And that's what I wanted, because I needed Ernest to be a human being and I needed him

01:57 to have real stakes.

01:59 And that's something that David's very good at.

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