PopHorror Let's Get Scared
Pophorror recently got to sit down with Aaron Dominguez, who recently starred in Chuck Russell (The Mask, A Nightmare On Elm Street 3)’s newest horror movie Witchboard. The movie is great, and we hope you enjoy this interview.
PopHorror: Hey Aaron, how are you doing?
Aaron Dominguez:: What’s up AJ? I’m doing all right, brother. How are you?
PopHorror: Good. How did the collaboration between you and Chuck come together to get cast in Witchboard?
Aaron Dominguez:: Chuck and I had spoken I think briefly, or I had gotten the script for Witchboard, I want to say two months prior to when we shot. I was interested in the movie, I was interested in working with Chuck, but we were already up for another project and schedule-wise the dates were conflicting, I didn’t think I was going to do Witchboard, I had made my peace with it and I was like, “It’s meant for somebody else.”
Long story short, that other job falls through and Chuck had reached out to my team randomly two months later and was like, “Hey, can I hop on a phone call with Aaron?” I’m sitting there thinking, “I’m about to talk to Chuck. He maybe wants to talk to me about another character in the movie.” But once again, longer story shorter, I hop in a phone call with Chuck and he is like, “Hey man, do you want to come play in this movie?” And I’m like, “Yeah, sure. What role?” And he is like, “For the lead still, for Christian.” And I was like, “Oh, shit.”
To me, if we were still going by the original schedule that I had had for the movie, they were set to shoot within four or five days of that conversation. And I was like, “Hey man, are you guys still set to go this Monday? It’s Thursday.” And it was like, “Yeah. I’ll see you in Montreal in a day or two.” I ended up saying yes to the job, and mind you, I was in the middle of moving. I had an 80 pound U-Haul box on my back. 72 to 96 hours later I’m in the middle of a scene with Jamie. It all happened very, very quickly. It was equal parts, very intimidating and scary and equal parts exciting, I think, to take on a job of that level and of that magnitude with those pieces involved.
Working with Chuck Russell, working with Jamie Campbell Bower, Madison Iseman, is a scary thing. It could be a really intimidating thing, especially granted the genre. But I said yes, and as much as I wanted more prep time, I didn’t have that. I had to fully dive into it head first and trust Chuck and I already did because of all the work he had done before in the genre and Jamie and Madison and everyone else, Melanie Jarnson, Charlie. That was my intro to it all. It was very quick and I had to go be willing to play ball.
PopHorror: And how was it seeing Chuck’s vision for Witchboard all come together? He already is a master in this genre, he’s done A Nightmare on Elm Street 3, he’s done The Mask, he is well inversed in this genre. How was it seeing his vision all come to play?
Aaron Dominguez: Once again, I think that’s one of the reasons why I said yes, having my own hesitations and what I thought were my own limitations. It was also what was presented on the other side of that was me having to entrust Chuck fully, and because he’s had the success that he had, I was like, “Who better than this person in this genre?”
And this is my intro to the genre. I obviously have this respect and this reverence to it where I’ve always known that if done well, an actor can just be afforded the ultimate playground to be able to showcase their talents and/or just be able to play. And I never took that for granted, not a single day on set. I thank Chuck, obviously, I thank Chuck for allowing me and for choosing me as his Christian and choosing me to come play with everyone.
Once again, I don’t know if I would’ve had it been someone else, especially with such little time for prep and for the pieces to have come together as they did, I hope that with the final product, people get to see that it was meant to be.
Because I think a lot of people don’t usually know how things come to pass or come to fruition, especially in film. We just get to see the final product and judging from that place, but you don’t know anything and everything that went into it. I think the way in which it all culminated and came together, once again, Chuck has had a lot of success in this genre. I think that was a big component of me coming onto it. And then once again with Madison Iseman and Jamie and that cast, that wonderful cast that came together.
PopHorror: And you said this was your introduction to the genre and a lot of times genre films are just like, get you to point A to point B quickly just for the kills, but Witchboard was not like that. It actually had grounded characters and a grounded storyline. That had to be very rewarding as an actor as well, reading that on script as well.
Aaron Dominguez: Absolutely, man. I love that you brought that up, you’re very right. A lot of times in certain genres is like exposition, exposition, exposition, exposition. I’m going to get you from point A to point B. And then it’s very formulaic in that way. As opposed to this film, you see Chuck’s imprint on it everywhere where it gives you a bit of that eighties, nineties nostalgic storytelling where it’s got equal parts like horror, thriller, adventurous, campy storytelling, which was nice to play in and get to ebb and flow in.
I don’t really see films like that being done anymore. And obviously the genre, the horror thriller genre is such a, it’s an ever-evolving thing, especially it feels like now there’s some beautiful and wonderful filmmakers that are trying and exploring the genre past its limitations or where it was for a really long time. I think once again, Chuck does that in his own way and you find his imprint on it throughout the entire film.
And it’s almost like he also gives his own tipping of the hat to himself and to even his previous films. Seeing it twice now, I see elements of his past films in there and even in the way that he moves his camera and tells a story. I am glad that you saw that and that you got to enjoy it in that way where it’s its
own thing.
PopHorror: And you said you saw this a couple of times, what do you think in the finished product?
Aaron Dominguez:: I did, I like it. I think that Chuck tied a bow around it perfectly. I remember the things that we shot. He even tweaked some from now to what’s going to make it into the theaters, to what we saw in Montreal at the… I’m blanking out on the festival?
PopHorror: Is it Fantasia?
Aaron Dominguez: At the Fantasia Film Festival in Montreal when we saw it last year. He even tweaked it a little bit from then to now. Obviously as the saying always goes, the film is always in the hands of the editor and the director. I am all entrusting in Chuck for him to paint the picture the way that he wants to. It’s his story. I play a part in telling that story and that’s it.
Even then, it’s his film and it’s his vision. Even down to when we were shooting, Chuck will give notes and he’s going to get out of you what he wants to, and I think he did a great job for what it is that he wanted to do with this film and with the script. I think he did a great job. I enjoyed the film, unbiasedly, just trying to watch it. And obviously that’s subjective, but even within the nuance, once again, I just sat down, I enjoyed the film.
PopHorror: Thank you so much, Aaron. It’s been fun and congratulations on the film.
Look for Witchboard in theaters starting August 15th!
