Interview With Carla Gugino, Star Of ‘Lockbox’

Caring for someone with PTSD can be challenging and life-altering, but in Daniel Stamm’s (The Last Exorcism) new film, Lockbox – written by Justin Yoffe and developed from Soren Narnia’s podcast, Knifepoint Horror – Ellen (Carla Gugino – Gerald’s Game) does it with care and compassion, taking in her cousin Winthrop (Lou Taylor Pucci- Evil Dead 2013) in his time of need. Add in a slightly unhinged neighbor, Vanna, played by a quirky Katharine Isabelle (Ginger Snaps), and some very strange occurrences, Ellen has her hands full.

A woman puts everything on the line to defend her enigmatic cousin from a dangerous otherworldly entity determined to track him down.

To celebrate the release of the film, I chatted with Carla about what intrigued her about the character of Ellen, working with Lou, horror, and more!

Carla Gugino: Hey Tiffany, how are you?

PopHorror: Good, how are you?

Carla Gugino: I am well, where are you?

PopHorror: I’m in Phoenix.

Carla Gugino: Oh, nice. It’s so wild, right? We get to do it from all over the world. It’s kind of like magic.

PopHorror: Yes, yes. Where are you right now?

Carla Gugino: I’m in Melbourne, Australia. I’m in the future! I’m working over here so just navigating this time change is crazy.

PopHorror: I bet!

Carla Gugino: Thanks for working with us.

PopHorror: Thank you so much! I really enjoyed Lockbox. I grew up watching Troop Beverly Hills so I am so excited to see you in some horror. You have a massive and loyal following in the horror space thanks to iconic roles in genre favorites like The Haunting of Hill House and Gerald’s Game. What drew you to the script for Lockbox that made you want to dive back into this genre?

Carla Gugino: It’s interesting. I don’t go specifically for any genre, needless to say getting to collaborate with Mike Flanagan on the projects we’ve done together has just been such a joyous, creative collaboration and that he’s so inspired in horror and creates such great, complex characters in horror. That’s how I found myself doing that more. But this one was so interesting to me because of the quiet nature of this character, Ellen, and the fact that the story… I kind of hope that people don’t watch the trailer. I don’t watch trailers before I see movies for this exact reason, which is that you end up kind of knowing where it’s going to go and then it becomes so much less interesting. But what I loved about reading the script when it came my way was that I was like, huh, this seems like a quiet character drama. I’m intrigued about this woman who starts with these sort of small but important life things like family, guilt, choices, like the stuff that we’re all navigating and then ends up with the larger things and with the sort of things we can’t reason with, and how the rules in our life, when they won’t work anymore what do we do? What if it’s something that actually is bigger than we know how to deal with and that’s the real horror. As the story started unfolding, I was like, I’m intrigued to play this woman who is kind but not naive, who is an observer and who has true faith, all of which is really hard to maintain in this world. So, I was lured in by that, by the surprising way into horror. And then I listened to the podcast that it came from, the Lockbox podcast, and Soren, the way that he brings you into the world is like this sort of Norman Rockwellian Americana and then what’s happening underneath, and also how the systems are failing people and that systems set up to help people are now such systems that they aren’t helping the individual. Therefore, we have people who are in foster care or aren’t being treated well or are dealing with PTSD coming back from fighting. All of these things that this story deals with. I was really intrigued by all that.

PopHorror: I went into it completely blind and spent the whole movie thinking, what does Lockbox mean? Why is this called Lockbox?

Carla Gugino: Right? Totally!

PopHorror: It was not at all what I was expecting. I was looking for your standard lockbox. I tend to not watch trailers if I can help it, because I want to be surprised

Carla Gugino: It’s more fun that way!

PopHorror: Absolutely! Ellen is obviously someone who cares deeply about her cousin Winthrop. Your on screen chemistry with Lou Taylor Pucci feels incredibly fragile. How did the two of you work together to build and navigate that kind of volatile and unpredictable energy?

Carla Gugino: You know, it was lovely because we did have some time to sit together and be with Daniel, our director, and build the history since you don’t get to see it and for us to know where we were coming from. We did really build. You know that special relationship when you’re a kid and someone’s your babysitter, whether they’re your cousin or whoever, but you look up to them and you kind of want to be them? I really do think that Winthrop felt that way about Ellen and that Ellen said she would always have his back and she really meant it. But, life happens and the way that life happens, especially when we’re younger and we don’t know that we have the authority to go, “Hey, this is my instinct. I have to really stand by it.” When his parents died tragically and he was being sent off to this other relative who turned out to be a horrible experience, Ellen really tried to get her parents to take him in. Ultimately, they said no and she didn’t fight and went off to college and I think has always felt responsible for him, and so this opportunity to have him with her again is this opportunity to right those wrongs. Lou was so beautiful and authentic and connected to the damage in this character. Once we built all of that, it just became about really responding and the fact that Ellen is taking in all of this information. It’s kind of oddly fearless. I think we think of superheroes or the hero of a story being somebody who does something extremely valiant in a very apparent way, and with her, I think she’s just continues to look at everything with her eyes open and ultimately, is fearless because she has such a strong sense of faith that she really truly believes that good will win in the face of all of it and there is that nature, that quiet, strong nature that allows her to be the strongest one in the whole story, ultimately when we see where it goes. But yes, it was very much about that delicate balance of wanting him to be okay, realizing he’s not okay and then realizing the ways in which he’s not okay are something that she’s never seen before. It was fun for us to be able to play with that together and to modulate when we reveal those things and when we don’t because you don’t want him to reveal too much too early and have her seem like a character that isn’t very observant but you also need to start revealing slowly and see what we do to protect ourselves from truth.

PopHorror: I thought Ellen was the perfect person to take care of someone like Winthrop because she was so gentle and understanding. I really loved the balance and how caring she was. I think you made that apparent and brought that out very well.

Carla Gugino: Good, I’m so glad to hear that.

Thank you so much to Carla for taking the time to chat with us! Lockbox is in theaters today!