Interview With Ryan Corr And Alyla Browne, Stars Of ‘Sting’

I’m going to say a big fat “no” to huge, hairy spiders invading my home. Just, no thank you. Unfortunately, the characters in the new film Sting, don’t have that option when Sting, a spider that starts so cute and small rapidly morphs into a gigantic maneater after tween Charlotte (played by the incredible Alyla Brown – 2024’s Furiosa), a plucky, lonely girl looking for companionship, brings the arachnid into their tiny apartment. Just burn it all to the ground!

I have to say though, that there’s more to this movie than just spectacular special effects, the aforementioned terrifying man-eating eight-legger, and some harrowing scenarios. There’s also a lot of heart and it did make me cry a bit during the scenes between the brave Charlotte, and her loving but may-be-trying-too-hard stepfather, Ethan (Ryan Corr – 2013’s Wolf Creek 2). This film sucked me in from the moment I saw the trailer on the big screen. I’m happy to say, it did not disappoint, and Sting is easily one of my favorite movies of the year thus far.

To celebrate the release of the film into theaters, I chatted with stars Ethan and Alyla about shooting my favorite scene in the movie, their biggest fears, horror movies, and more!

PopHorror: I love Sting! Talk about making me incredibly uncomfortable, and that means you did everything right so I’m super excited to talk about it today.

Alyla Browne: Yes! I’m glad you were uncomfortable.

PopHorror: What intrigued you about Sting and made you want to be a part of the project?

Alyla Browne: I think that it was because I could relate to the character so much and I could tell that Kiah (writer/director Roache-Turner) had such an idea and excitement and passion about the script. I could feel it from the first director meeting we had, like I just knew this was the one. I could tell he was going to make it amazing.

Ryan Corr: I think Kiah had such an incredible… I’m kind of similar. Kiah was certainly a central element. I think he makes slightly elevated worlds and he’s been making genre, really keyed-up visions of films for many years. I don’t think there’s many people that move a camera or step outside the box quite like Kiah does. I know he goes, “These are the films I loved watching, these are the films I grew up with, and this is what I want to make.” It’s really infectious when you first meet him.

Alyla Browne: It is!

Ryan Corr: I think more particularly for me, I know Kiah says all good horror films come from somewhere real and so both his fear of spiders and for me, his fear of being a parent, a stepparent, and getting it wrong, and exploring that dynamic with the wonderful Alyla was a real draw for me as well.

PopHorror: There’s two things that you mentioned that I really like that you brought up. One was how he moves the camera. The camera work in this is amazing. The point of view when Charlotte is looking in the jar and it looks like it’s looking out at her. That was amazing. And then you brought up the fear of being a parent and stepparent. You both played off each other very well. The chemistry between Charlotte and Ethan and both as actors was incredible. The argument about Charlotte’s father when Ethan just kind of throws it out at her. That brought tears to my eyes. Like it made me cry. That was just an amazing scene. What did you draw upon to bring forth such real emotion?

Alyla Browne: For me, I have a preamble before a scene. I hadn’t really done it too much. I think this was one of the first emotional scenes that I had done on Sting, and I hadn’t really used this form of preamble before any emotional scenes before because it’s the set. There’s doors and the doors just lead straight into this massive studio that’s just a black room with lots of cushions on the walls kind of thing. I was in one of the back corners of the studio, just outside one of the set doors, and I had a pillow. I would just punch it and start screaming before the scene and then I’d just stand up and start storming into the set and I think that kind of way of preambling was very interesting. And having Ryan there being like my dad and having him off the camera, I don’t think I could have really done it without him because he was there. I was talking to him, and I was furious at him and it kind of felt like this energy between both of us and hopefully that played in the scene. I actually haven’t seen the film because I want to wait for the screening, but hopefully that kind of energy could be felt in the scene that you’re talking about.

PopHorror: Yes, I think you can.

Alyla Browne: Okay, great!

Ryan Corr: Certainly, watching that scene particularly happen, the emotional energy that Alyla’s talking about harnessing, it was literally a time in the shooting and a time in the film where it stopped the set. You can feel everyone’s focus going and they know what’s happening in front of them is important, and I think we’re all quite taken aback, having done some fun stuff before and horror stuff through the film, but we hadn’t quite hit that emotional intensity, and having Alyla run out with Kiah. I remember Kiah would run out, “You guys be like whispering things you could sort of hear and now say this, and say this, and say this!” And it sort of worked to a point and then you’d come out and bring it all back and then they’d say, “Action!” and be ready there to explode. Watching that was pretty spectacular, I’d have to say.

PopHorror: I bet! That was such a great scene. What was your favorite scene to shoot?

Ryan Corr: It’s hard saying favorite because sometimes your favorite scene is when you’re being hung from the wall and screaming because you’re dealing with all these amazing practical effects and full puppeteers and whatnot, but it’s not necessarily a fun experience. I’ve been saying that forming that connection that is really central to this film, which is Ethan and Charlotte’s relationship and how they navigate that and as cracks appear in that, the monster grows. I think those early scenes where we were learning to find what that balance was, where their relationship has gone slightly adrift and finding that connection between their two characters and cementing that down were really highlights for me. We spoke a lot in pre-production with Kiah about his experience being a parent and a stepparent, and his fears about that. I know Alyla and I, we spoke about what Ethan and Charlotte’s relationship may have been before and where it was at its best, where something might have gone wrong. I remember speaking about… I think Ethan was self-conscious about Charlotte’s real father, and we spoke about you having to have a real space and a love for your real father and it being Ethan that doesn’t understand that and that dynamic. He’s jealous.

Alyla Browne: He was never my proper father, my biological father. But I think I learned that it doesn’t have to be biological to love both of them. I think that’s what Charlotte learned. I think that’s very important for stepparents to watch and that daughters and sons and stuff. I think it’s very interesting to kind of see you don’t always have to be angry at your stepparent or anything. You can accept them and they can be just as important as your biological parent.

PopHorror: I love that. A lot of people are terrified of spiders. I think that this is really going to tap into the fear of people. What is something that you’re terrified of?

Alyla Browne: I’m not scared of spiders! I catch and release them most of the time. Gently take them out of the house. It sounds pretty cliche, but I think loneliness is the thing that scares me most and being alone. I always have such a great time with my friends and my family, and it sounds so cliche, but it’s true. There are crazy studies that show that loneliness can be just as bad for you as heaps of other physical things. I think that’s very interesting because it’s so mental, like mental health and stuff. It’s interesting.

PopHorror: I agree with that. I find loneliness pretty scary too.

Ryan Corr: Or losing someone close to you. I think on the back of that, losing family or not having said I love you, or those sorts of things, can make a difference. I’ve never told this story before but when I was younger than you, Alyla, I was at our holiday house, and I had just seen The Mummy. I don’t know if you guys have seen The Mummy, but it’s got these scarabs that eat flesh. Like they crawl all over you and you end up a skeleton. Well when I watched that when I was kid, I was in the toilet at this little shack somewhere, and I turned around and what looked like, to me, this giant mummy scarab and I screamed like the house was burning down. My uncles came charging through and they barged through the door. They opened it, and I was in the corner of the room covered in toilet paper, squealing, and then lands a Christmas beetle. Looks completely innocent, but from underneath, a Christmas beetle when it opens its shell, it looks like a scarab from The Mummy. So that was simultaneously one of my scariest moments, and most embarrassing moments, at the same time. I think my parents thought there was a snake in the toilet. It was that big of a reaction. So, I’m scared of Christmas beetles, apparently.

Alyla Browne: I actually have a fear of flying insects. I forgot to mention that one. I never would kill them, but I don’t like moths. Kind of scares me quite a bit. Same with Christmas beetles. They have their big wings they spread open.

 

Ryan Corr: They’re cute!

Alyla Browne: They’re very cute but I forgot about that. I’m scared of moths. But you just leave them be. I always know they’re more scared of me than I’m scared of them. But still.

Ryan Corr: I remember catching a moth when I was younger, or it might have been a butterfly. I remember it making a sound. It was like a growl or a fart. It might have been its wings or something. I didn’t know you were scared of flying insects.

Alyla Browne: Yup! That’s me. I remember, I went to Costa Rica and I was like, it’s okay, moths aren’t scary. I was holding a torch out and then this moth just came and flew right in my face. It’s happened multiple times. Whenever I try to face my fear, they always fly in my face. I’ve just kind of given up since then. That was a long time ago. So I think that was a real turning point where I was like, nope don’t like them. But again, do not kill them guys! They’re okay. They’re so cute.

PopHorror: I don’t know what a Christmas beetle is so I’m going to have Google it after this to see pictures because I don’t know what it looks like.

Ryan Corr: Look at the underside as well, because they’re quite cute, as my uncles discovered, but from the underside, they’re the most terrifying demon beetles you’ve ever seen in your life.

PopHorror: I will keep that in mind! Just one last question for you both today. What is your favorite scary movie?

Ryan Corr: I mean, there’s classics like of course The Exorcist, and there was this really scary film that my dad told me about when I was a kid called The Trilogy of Terror, which had this little voodoo that tried to cut its way out of a suitcase. But more recently, Hereditary, which now that I think of it, is really kind of similar to this because what it did is make the family unit, it made what’s usually your safety inside the walls of your home and the people you rely on, the most scary element and kind of similar to Sting as their relationship fractured, things got worse. I just found that so atmospheric and I think by the time Toni Collette’s in the attic, there’s some of the scariest images I’ve ever seen.

Alyla Browne: Yeah, I watched that one. It was crazy. I watched it in London in an apartment and I imagined… I was on the second level and the curtains were opened when I was sleeping, and it was dark outside, and you could see a carpark. I would imagine someone just floating there without a head. I think I was in shock after watching it, so I don’t really remember… I didn’t really appreciate it, but thinking back on it, it was lots of crazy stuff just happening, happening, happening and I think that was a really good film, I agree. I also loved Talk to Me, which I watched at the premier in Sydney and it’s just a really good film. It was crazy. And they’re making a second one, which is so cool.

Thank you so much to Ryan and Alyla for taking the time to speak with us. Sting opens in theaters nationwide April 12, 2024!