Interview With Jeffrey Reddick And Lisa Normand, Producers Of ‘The Other’

The Other, written and directed by Paul Etheredge (Hellbent), produced by Jeffrey Reddick (Final Destination creator) and Lisa Normand (Satanic Panic), and starring Avangeline Friedlander (Harold and the Purple Crayon), Olivia Macklin (A Family Affair), Dylan McTee (Wrong Turn 2021), Lily D. Moore (Never Have I Ever series), and Shawnee Smith (Saw 1, 2, 3, 6, X; The Blob 1988) is unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. What started out as a movie about a nonverbal foster kid who can’t explain the strange things that happen around her when she enters a new foster home morphs into a batshit crazy wtf did I did just watch movie. It’s best to go into this supernatural horror film completely blind.

Unable to conceive, a couple seeks to build a family with a young orphan, survivor of tragic childhood. But their act of love turns to horror when they realize the violence in their foster’s past has returned to destroy the new family.

To celebrate the release of the film, I chatted with Jeffrey and Lisa about how they became involved with the film, casting the two excellent young actresses at the center of the film, horror movies, and more!

PopHorror: I really enjoyed The Other. I’m super excited to talk to you guys about it today. How did the project come about and how did you both become involved with it?

Lisa Normand: I’m glad that you really enjoyed the film. I love talking about it so I’m excited to talk to you about it today. I became involved with the project because Jeffrey called me. Chelsea Stardust, that’s how I got connected with Jeffrey because they were looking for a Dallas based producer because we did shoot in Dallas, Texas, and I had worked with Chelsea Stardust on Satanic Panic a few years ago and Jeffrey and Chelsea are friends. I don’t know if you know Chelsea but she’s wonderful and amazing and talented in her own right.

Jeffrey Reddick: Yeah, I love Chelsea. I actually got involved with the project because of Paul. I’ve been friends with him for many decades, going way back. We got seated together at a Saturn Awards table and started talking, and I realized he did Hellbent, which I loved. So, we became fast friends, and I’ve just always wanted to do something with him. An opportunity came up where someone said we need a project and Paul had an idea that he’d been percolating on for a long time with a lot of themes that resonated with me. I read the script and loved it, and that financing thing fell apart because welcome to Hollywood. Fortunately, Chelsea connected us to Lisa and I always think everything happens for a reason, so we ended up with such a great team that just was very supportive of the project and Paul’s vision. Just really happy to help get this story out here.

PopHorror: Avangeline Friedlander as Kathelia is superb. Being nonverbal through the entire film, she is so expressive that she was just so effective. And Lily D. Moore as Fiona is also phenomenal. I’m just so in awe of them because they’re so young as well. What was casting them like?

Jeffrey Reddick: Again, I have to give credit to our producers because they really did let us creatively go with who we wanted and the best talent, but they both just blew us away in the auditions. They’re so amazing. Avangeline is such an amazing actress and, like you said, just so expressive, and Lily is so talented. They’re both so wonderfully talented and they also have wonderfully supportive parents, which I think helps create a well adjusted young actor or actress. We just got very fortunate when they auditioned. There were no fights behind the scenes about who to pick, they just nailed it. They both nailed it.

Lisa Normand: Exactly. I only chuckled a little when you asked just because I was like, ugh, I can’t just gush. You don’t want people to just be like, “Because they’re amazing.” That’s like a terrible answer. But it was like a traditional casting process where we did a call for auditions, we reviewed their auditions, we did callbacks. It’s exactly what Jeffrey said. We were blown away by both of them and they were our first picks, and we would have been devastated if they had said no.

PopHorror: I’m in awe of Avangeline because not being able to speak, I imagine that’s hard. I can’t imagine not being able to say anything. But to be able to be effective with your emotions and what’s going on with just your face and your body language, that takes a lot of talent. So to find someone that can still tell us her side of the story by just using her hands and body and face is so impressive. Just a great choice.

Jeffrey Reddick: Yeah, and it tied into the themes of the story too, because children are often not heard, especially in situations where there’s danger around or being placed in a foster care system where it’s hard to find the right family, so when there’s danger around, you have our lead actress who literally has no voice, and there’s a lot of symbolism in that too because she is a black child that’s been through the foster care system. You also have a special needs character as well, who’s phenomenal, but they’re tuned into what’s going on way before the adults are, and it’s them trying to get the adults on board with what’s going on but also helping the adults grow as parents. There’s a lot going on and they were able to just hit all those layers and the fun too. This movie does have a dark sense of humor, which if you know Paul and I and Lisa as well, we just have a kind of twisted sense of humor so it’s not like, haha, a set of punchline jokes humor.

Lisa Normand: I just want to add, Lily also just has such great comedic timing. She’s a very funny actor and when you look at her reel, she really, really gets comedy. Not that this was comedy, but there’s just these moments where she really got it and mailed it. She won Best Supporting Actress at Fantaspoa Film Festival.

PopHorror: Oh, that’s really awesome!

Lisa Normand: Yeah! I’m just really happy and proud of her. She did such a great job.

PopHorror: I spoke to Paul the other day about casting them and having them in the movie and he said that behind the scenes, they were just normal kids playing with dolls and having fun and running around. With something as heavy as this and having to deal with the themes in it and basically carrying this movie on their backs, it’s great to hear that they were still able to have fun with each other, especially with Fiona smacking Kathelia over the head with a hammer.

Jeffrey Reddick: Ooh, yeah. Paul had a very, very collaborative, easygoing set so he definitely had his vision for what it was going to be. Even the adults had fun. I think we really did get really fortunate with a great cast all the way around. Dylan and Olivia and Shawnee… You don’t want to gush too much but I’m gushing for a reason because I am just so proud of what we were able to accomplish on a limited budget but also with such a supportive group behind us. You don’t get that often when you’re making films.

Lisa Normand: I was just going to add that Ava is just so interesting, because at that age, she’s not really drawing the way adults are, like drawing on the lifetime of pain and heartache, so for her, she could just turn it on and off. She’s not like, “I have to remember all these things that happened to me and stay in this headspace.”

PopHorror: That’s a good thing that she doesn’t have that to draw on just yet.

Jeffrey Reddick: Yeah!

PopHorror: I have just one last question for you both. What is your favorite scary movie?

Jeffrey Reddick: Everybody knows mine. It’s the original A Nightmare on Elm Street. The original A Nightmare on Elm Street is my favorite.

Lisa Normand: I’m a big fan of Return of the Living Dead, for the repeat watch value. I’ve never gotten tired of it. I’ve never thought, I don’t want to watch that right now.

Thank you so much to Lisa and Jeffrey for taking the time to speak with us. The Other is now on Digital and On Demand!