The Manor Bruce Davison Interview

Automatically transcribed; may contain errors.

hi my name is Allison Rose and I'm with FlickDirect how are you Bruce I'm fine Allison good to hear you and see you yes nice to meet you uh so we're here to talk about the manor uh which takes an interesting Twist on kind of your old age nursing home kind of fair it makes it a little bit darker and Sinister so tell me about playing your character specifically well my character Roland he loves life he just gobbles it up it's it's the most important thing to him and um what I loved about the script and the character more than anything was U this whole new take in a horror genre on some Primal fears I mean we're dealing with the you know the veil falling here and abandonment and losing On's Marbles and all of those are Primal fears you know that's the seventh age in Shakespeare and everybody's keeps that at a bay as much as anything else we'd rather be scared of monsters and lizards and stuff than something that might be a little too real I was gonna say reality is much more scary yeah exactly and that's where this horror film goes and um go ahead sorry I was just goingon to say so let's talk about uh exploring the idea of eternal life what would be the pros what would be the cons for you yeah well that's a tough one and I mean we could spend hours on that what is one also what is one willing to give up for that now that goes back to you know Portrait of Dorian Gray all of those how what's it going to cost you to uh have that Immortal Life to go back to your youth to have that for the first time and when you go back is love going to me the same thing is that first Spark that you ever had for someone is that going to be there or is that just going to be a replay of something you're just using up like you know Cold Cereal all of those things are considered uh in this and that's all part of it so it's very difficult to decide you know what should give for a few more years what you give to be 21 again what you'd give to have all of those things and what it would mean um and their questions that everybody kicks around yeah I I like the way you look at that aspect of eternal life and should you shouldn't you what would it be like if you had eternal life or Eternal Youth and I can't imagine going through high school all over again so right exactly that you know do I want to be humiliated again or do I have do I have a comeback now I've been waiting 50 years for this one comeback to say to that son of a you know how you always think of the good comeback after I thought about when I got in my bedroom after I got done crying myself to sleep about why she dumped me and then I thought oh I could have said that that would have been if I just knew that line from Shakespeare that I could throw throw at her you know I have loved you as a dream doth flatter and sleep a king but waking no such matter oh clean exit all right moving on talk to me about your co-stars you had a phenomenal group of ladies to work with how did you all play off of each other well it was it was just wonderful it was just I I asked Charlie dering one time uh who is a friend of mine I said how do you how do you create all of that stuff he says I just think about my life and I was a young man at the time excuse me but you know we're all at that point in life where we've been in this business a long time Barbara and I did our first my first film together back in BL last summer with Frank and Elanor Perry that was my first movie I've never been on a set before wow um so all of us you know have a backstory and it's already there before they say action and then we have a director who says yes use that take that you know that's why I cast you great actors to do this because now kick the ball around let's see what happens in that card game you know all of that was was um there so that's how we got to draw on that sometimes so was there a lot of impro improvisation between all of you not so much improvisation because the script was strict and structured and together but the feeling the camaraderie the connections that we've all had um you know have the illusion of having been there forever isn't so much an illusion because we have you know we have been there forever yeah and you know the three of you bringing Barbara into the that little group with your reasons why we won't get into but um it felt like you were almost like family in a sense so and actors actors are always family I mean I I will have great intimate relations with people and then pick up 50 years later 20 years later 30 years later remember when we were in Munich driving down that thing and that girl waved to you did you married her didn't you yeah you know we all are connected in in ways over the years as actors and actors are already vulnerable and put it out there every day they're naked and they put it out there when in their work that's why I have great admiration for the acting Community because because people really put themselves on the line and then as it comes back to our age to be able to share that it's it's there's great stuff there and how wonderful to be mined into a horror genre you know yeah not necessarily you normally see in a horror genre but Jason that's Jason Blum and buum house they you know yes they sit out on the edge of the wing lots of times it's start new stuff and that's what's uh so amazing and why they're so successful yeah I I mean they do incredible stuff so I want to talk briefly about the younger cast because you mentioned you know you've all been there and you you've been there on set for how many times but you had younger cast members that you were working with so what did they bring to the production that's wonderful I remember when I was that age sitting with u an older actor Donald Pleasants at the time and he said to me he said the thing about being 23 is you think you're Immortal and you're not yeah okay I get that because I think I'm Immortal I don't think about these things death and life or anything else but um and and the the balance between you know the grandmother and the and the grandson are are so that's the glue that holds everything together because that's a the love connection that holds this story together and really makes you root for it because we've all you know most of us have all had grandparents and yeah and been one age or the other and that's important to us it means so much especially in an in a in a society that warehouses are elderly yes very true absolutely and this in a sense kind of does that as well but tries to break that mold a little bit I think and so I found it to be very interesting I love the idea that they made it into a horror movie um but when you first read the script did you think is this gonna work or were you immediately yes I want to do this this is it yeah well I did I wanted to do it right away because it's a great story and it's a story that holds me from page one to the very end I want to know where these people are going yeah what they're going to pay for this and oh my God if that's possible what what are the ramifications of that and that interested me all the way through from beginning to end and that's what makes a good film absolutely kind that's Axel story you know that's Axel created the story as well as directed it yeah it's kind of a slow burn and you don't necessarily see what's coming but it works when you find it at the end and you start putting all the pieces back together so tell me just very briefly a little bit about the Celtic aspect of it was that something that you were interested in in exploring or was it just oh we're just gonna do this you know whole little Celtic thing oh the Celtics oh Celtic okay you say Celtic I say yeah um sure I um that's all Axel you know we were coming up with what you know what works here you know and there was some ancient Catholicism I started to bring in at different times you know um St Michael's prayer against the devil and all but um that's all hers you know all the Celtic stuff came from her so we just fantastic that was the that was the hook we sort of followed through there you know well I can't wait to ask her about that then I W to thank you for your time and for the movie because I think it really is great and I think it's going to appeal to aot lot of different people because it has such an age range and it's not necessarily what you would normally see from an older group making a horror movie so called the wisdom of Horror