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[Thisstorycontainsspoilersfrom[Thisstorycontainsspoilersfrommania.]
Sometimes, people miss what is right in front of them.
In Carrie Parker mania, Bear (Michael Johnston) uses the One Wish Willow and wishes that Nicky (Indy Navarrete) would love him more than anyone else in the world. The wish is fulfilled, but at the cost of tragic consequences.
One of these comes when Nikki Sarah kills Megan Lawless after Bear sneaks out to talk to her in her car. While the scene shown in the finished film is indeed brutal, Sarah’s death was originally more graphic in the scene that premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September. What made it even more tragic was that Sarah had feelings for Bear that she was apparently on the verge of expressing – and then it was too late. “Sarah was the perfect choice. I think they would have been perfect for each other,” Johnston previously said. Hollywood Reporter.
Now, as the hit film enters a successful second weekend at the box office, Lawless talks to him THR On Sarah’s “iconic” exit, what would have happened if Nikki never showed up in the car that night, and Nikki changed her appearance to look like Sarah in the finale and who she thinks the villain in the movie actually is.
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One lesson from this movie is to be open and honest about your feelings. Bear, of course, was too nervous to tell Nikki that he loved her. But Sarah also seemed too nervous to tell Bear how she felt. If Sarah had been honest from the beginning, do you think this would have changed anything?
This is a good question that I had never thought of. Honestly, I think Bear wasSo He’s caught up in his feelings for Nikki and I’m not sure they would have changed much. I think he still has tunnel vision towards Nikki. But I would have loved it if Sarah had done that, because I feel like she had the power to tell Bear the truth. I think when she does, it will be too late. But if they had had that conversation in the car earlier, maybe we could have avoided everything that happened next. (He laughs.) It would have been better if everyone had made their feelings clear earlier than they actually did.
When I spoke with Michael, he told me that Sarah and Bear would have been a great match, and she would have been the obvious choice. What is your reaction to that? Do you agree?
I completely agree with that. Bear obviously needs someone to reciprocate his feelings, and I also feel like you can tell from our dialogue that we have that depth and connection. Bear is not a fan of the idea of me, as is Nikki. He knows the true sides of me, and I know the true sides of him. Yes, I think we would have had a great game. I hope we see what happens.
The party scene was one of the scariest moments, but also the funniest, with Nikki reading her poem, and Sarah, Ian and Bear’s reaction to it, especially when you pull your chair out. What was the atmosphere like on set during this scene?
From my perspective, I had overcome illness, the shoot was overnight, and we were all wearing very little clothes. I’m in my little dress, Nikki’s in her little dress, and I remember we were all a little cold. There are pictures of us backstage wearing big blankets over ourselves. But it was also really fun because it’s not often that we get to have so many of us at the same time. And all the extras in that scene were also friends of Carrie and Cooper and friends of ours. Skyler Zorn, the casting director, was there. We all had to hang out together behind the scenes, and when we were filming it, we didn’t take it seriously. I love the comedic elements in this scene because we all got it in the moment we were filming it, and we were enjoying everything that was happening. I remember when Indy was doing that monologue, we knew the ridiculousness of it. Our reactions are real because they’re so ridiculous, but once the cameras cut, we can fall into the humor even more. Instead of the cameras being cut, that’s where we’re concerned, our reactions are more serious, and then once the cameras are cut, it’s like, “Dang, what the hell is this?” ( He laughs.)
Was this the first time she’d seen Nikki’s outrageous version of herself?
It was my second time. The first time was when I visited the set on a random day and Indi was doing one of those final scenes on the couch at the end of the movie, where she was screaming. That was ridiculous. I was very impressed with her because, up until that point, I had never seen her play Nikki before. So, I was really happy to see that, because I was like, “Okay, this movie is going to be complete now that I see what Nikki looks like on camera. This movie is really going to work because Indy is so excellent.”
Sarah also has a brutal death scene. What was your reaction when you found out your character was going to die this way?
I was happy about that, because you want to go out in a special way. Everyone dies, and I dietruly Things start off well. You won’t forget my death scene, and I was glad it was so important to the story and the nuts, because I knew it would stick with audiences. Also, the scene in the car before that was very beautiful. When Michael and I were rehearsing it, I loved the dialogue. It felt real and raw. An actor’s favorite thing is to perform a scene like this. Michael and I had the best time, and knowing that my brutal death followed was even more exciting, because I knew it gave weight to both sides of that scene, the death and the previous conversation. So I feel proud that there is an iconic death scene in this movie that no one will forget. (He laughs.)
I heard it was also one of the funniest days on set too?
I completely stand by that. This was my favorite day on set. It was a little bit silly, if you take a step back and see everything that was going on backstage, because Indy was wearing this crazy wig that had a helmet underneath it, basically something to protect her head when she hit the glass. She looked so funny, it was just funny. She had to commit to running towards the glass as fast as she could and attacking me. We had to play this thing that seemed a little silly, but with 100% commitment, as actors do. We didn’t have many attempts, we had two attempts to get it right. They were like, “Don’t grab her head too hard or push it in. We can’t do that for safety reasons,” so she was gently holding her hand on the back of my head, and then I was mimicking, hitting my head against the brick, and that whole sequence was funny. There was a version of the doll that they put in and then hit her head with. The best actors act, which sounds silly, but you have to commit. (He laughs.)
Originally, what premiered at TIFF was a more violent version of that scene and would have received an NC-17 rating. How did you feel when you saw that reaction since he was your character?
It’s funny that you asked that, because the reaction was completely unexpected for me. I’m sitting here saying: “Poor Sarah is being brutally murdered.” The entire theater at TIFF exploded in cheers at that moment. I was like, “Why is everyone cheering? Oh!” (He laughs.) I wasn’t expecting everyone to be cheering. I thought people would cry, maybe. (He laughs.) But I think it’s because this moment is so special. These horror fans, this is their bread and butter. They just go bananas for something like that. And this version originally caused me to suffer from ADR. Carrey wanted me to make gurgling noises to add to this scene, after my head had already been kicked. So, you could hear Sarah gurgling, like she was still alive, and they removed that when they edited it so it wasn’t NC-17, but it was brutal.
There’s a lot of talk about who the real villain in this movie is. A lot of people say Bear, but there’s also some debate about whether everyone in this movie is evil. We have Ian secretly hooking up with Nikki and not telling Bear. And then Sarah is friends with Nikki, but it’s clear she’s in love with Bear. Do you think it’s more accurate about who the villain is? Do you see a clear villain?
I think it’s good to Thinking about everything from a careful perspective and having a dialogue about it. But clearly I’m biased. I’m team Sarah until I die. (He laughs.) I don’t think Sarah is the villain. I mean, if you really put yourself in Sarah’s shoes, she and Nikki had this friendship, and Nikki was saying to her, “I’m going to talk to Bear and tell him you love him. I know you love Bear. You guys would make a great match. You should do it.” If your best friend was pursuing your love interest, and then one day, there was a flip of the switch, and they were dating, I would feel extremely insulted! I remember talking about it with Carrie. From the moment they started dating, it’s been bothering me, because my best friend is now dating the guy she likes out of nowhere, when she never expressed interest before? It feels like a slap in the face, and I feel like Sarah is trying to handle it the best way she can, and be honest, and she doesn’t like it, and it feels like a betrayal, in a way. But also don’t go overboard with telling them what to do. I think she holds off as long as she can on telling her friends: “You can do this and you can’t do that.” But she can also be honest that it doesn’t feel healthy. Ultimately, in that car scene, she really knows that this is the time to step in, just like Sarah knows it’s time to step in after seeing what she saw at the party, and now I need to hold my friends accountable because everything that’s going on is not okay. This is not healthy for anyone involved. Of any character in this movie, Sarah is not the villain…I think Bear is! (He laughs.)
What do you think would have happened if Nikki hadn’t come to the car and interrupted Sarah and Bear?
I love this question. I like to think that Bear was seeing what was in front of him the whole time. I don’t think I necessarily want them to accept or break any boundaries. Obviously, from Sarah’s perspective, they are still in a relationship. I don’t want to force it in any way, but for Bear to wake up and say, “Sarah, this is not healthy, whatever Nikki and I are doing. And I appreciate you being honest with me about your feelings. Let me break things off with Nikki.” In a normal world, where One Wish Willow doesn’t exist and Nikki isn’t obsessed and that could lead to dire consequences, this would be the perfect scenario. ( He laughs.) Maybe they would kiss, but I don’t think I really want that personally, because I think that goes against everything Sarah believes.
In the end, it’s interesting that Nikki starts changing her appearance to look like Sarah by drawing on her tattoos and wearing her dress. Whose idea was this and what do you think is almost trying to become or mirror Sarah in some way?
That was always written in the script, so it was Carrey’s idea. It’s crazy because you see my body there naked and it’s because Nikki is wearing my clothes. She even smokes weed. I think that’s a weird touch, and it continues to add to the theme of this unhealthy obsession that was against Nikki’s own agency, but it’s also an unhealthy obsession in romantic situations: you’ll change yourself to please the person you want and that’s not healthy either. So, add that layer of being like, “Don’t do this! Don’t try to become someone else. Don’t try to become what they want to be.” I think that’s a nice touch in the end.
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mania Now playing in theaters.Check all Hollywood Reporter Coverage here,Including a profile of Curry Barker and spoiler interviews with Inde Navarrette and Michael Johnston.
