PopHorror Let's Get Scared
The third season of Chucky has no shortage of WTF moments, from the voodoo doll plot of Tiffany Valentine (Jennifer Tilly, Bound 1996) and double death of Devon Sawa (Final Destination 2000) to the shocking ending at the mansion of Wendell Wilkins (John Waters, Pink Flamingoes 1972 [our interview]).
Amongst all of the craziness and bloodshed, longtime fans of the Child’s Play franchise were gifted quite the special moment that has been a long time coming: Brad Dourif (The Exorcist III 1990) and his daughter, Fiona Dourif (The Blacklist 2018), sharing the screen for the first time.
Since joining Don Mancini’s [our interview] Child’s Play family in 2013’s Curse of Chucky as Nica Pierce, Fiona has become accustomed to working with the recorded voice of her dad, the man behind the killer Good Guy since 1988. Usually, Brad records his lines ahead of time and, because his job is basically done, doesn’t need to come to set. Yet in Chucky Season 3, when Chucky finally meets his demise, the soul of Charles Lee Rae transitions to the Spirit Realm. Free from the vessel of the doll, he takes on his original, human form, thus allowing Brad to appear on screen for the first time in years.
When Jake Wheeler (Zackary Arthur, The 5th Wave 2016 [our interview]) heads to the Spirit Realm, he’s greeted by various iterations of Charles Lee Rae, from the child version that once killed his own mother to impress a serial killer to Good Chucky. Leading the crew is Charles in his current, older appearance, played by Brad, and Charles as the young man who was shot on that fateful night outside a toy store, played by Fiona, who first transformed into her dad for flashback scenes in Chucky Season 1.
For the Dourifs, getting to work together on such an iconic scene was simultaneously nerve-wracking, thrilling and comforting, and they share all the details in an exclusive interview with PopHorror.
PopHorror: You guys have been part of two Child’s Play films and the show, but you’ve never actually shared the screen until this season. What was it like to finally do that?
Fiona Dourif: We were initially pretty nervous. We rehearsed it lightly over the course of maybe two or three days before it. And then as soon as it kicked on, it suddenly felt very familiar and free. I was looking at somebody who I trust a lot, right? I just felt like I couldn’t mess up. And then the scene itself is so celebratory of Chucky. There’s so many iterations of him in the past three decades, that the whole thing just felt like some weird, fun, screwed up celebration of an aspect of my dad’s legacy. So it was really cool.
Brad Dourif: Yeah, when Fiona first started out, we would audition together. She would read with me and I would read with her, and we did all this in the living room. And after, like she said, we got over the nerves, I felt like I was just back in my living room with somebody I knew exactly how to work with. And it was free and great.
PopHorror: Brad, I’ve always been really fascinated with how the Chucky doll is operated by the puppeteers. I spoke with Don Mancini the other week, and he said that you spent a lot of time with them while you were on set. Was there anything that you learned or were just surprised by regarding the mechanics of the doll?
Brad Dourif: The doll is getting more and more sophisticated. Each season, they add a heavy duty electronics thing to the doll, so the doll becomes more and more animated as the series progresses, and they showed me all of that. Plus, the crew is like the silliest group of people you have ever met in your life. I was introduced to these rubber chicken things that you put on your finger and you fire, and they have these battles constantly. And of course, I was terrible at it and they were all great. I mean, they could hit anything. That went on a lot.
And it was really fun because, what I would do is, I would do Chucky for them, and they would do the lines, and I would say, “You know, here, it would be really, I feel like I wanna do this, and I feel like I wanna do that, and this is how I would really follow this scene. I would look over here first and then here and then listen.” I tried to bring some specificity on how I would actually play this. And that was a lot of fun. Don saw some of the rehearsals, and he thought it was fun too. And a good time was had by all.
PopHorror: Fiona, I feel like some of the most emotional scenes of the series revolve around Nica, from way back when in Season 1 when you woke up with no limbs. You have some really great moments this season too, especially revolving around Tiffany, you’re screaming at her. How do you get into that traumatized mindset of Nica and just tap into those emotions?
Fiona Dourif: Sometimes it comes easy and then sometimes it doesn’t. To be honest with you, it’s sometimes tiring. You wanna go home and go to sleep after.
PopHorror: I could imagine!
Brad Dourif: Can I add something here, Fiona?
Fiona Dourif: Go ahead!
Brad Dourif: When Fiona was young, her volume was up to 11. I mean, she was a very reactive, very strong kid. She would scream and pitch fits like no tomorrow. I remember her uncle, she was pitching a fit in a restaurant and he took her out to the car, and she was screaming and screaming and screaming. He turned to her and he said, “Fiona, can’t you scream any louder?” And she stopped and looked at him astonished and said, “I’m screaming as loud as I can!” As far as all that goes, she’s really talented [laughs]. Innately talented.
Fiona Dourif: Yeah, I guess I could scream apparently! I was also kind of bratty.
Brad Dourif: You weren’t a brat. You were just reactive.
Thanks for speaking with us, Brad and Fiona! Chucky Season 3 is available to watch on Peacock and through your cable provider.
