Interview With Johnathon Schaech, Star Of ‘Suitable Flesh’

I waited, pretty impatiently, for Joe Lynch’s new flick, Suitable Flesh, to finish playing the festival circuit. The highly anticipated film boosting an amazing cast (Heather Graham, Barbara Crampton, Judah Lewis, Johnathon Schaech, Bruce Davison) and based on an H.P. Lovecraft story, was slated for Shudder fairly early in the year, and man. That wait was looonngggg. But the time is finally here, and Suitable Flesh is now available for the masses to consume at their leisure.

A psychiatrist becomes obsessed with one of her young patients, who she later discovers is linked to an ancient curse.

To celebrate the release of the film, I chatted with Johnathon Schaech (the star of one my all-time favorite movies – more below) about how he became attached to the film, crafting his character, The Doom Generation, and more!

PopHorror: Suitable Flesh was amazing so I’m super excited to speak with you today.

Johnathon Schaech: It was a lot of fun to make!

PopHorror: It looks like it! What intrigued you about the script and how did you become involved with the project?

Johnathon Schaech: Joe Lynch and I have known each other for a really long time. We’ve always wanted to work on something. Mayhem was the one that was like, “Man, you’re a really good filmmaker! I’ve really got to work with you!” So there was a Creepshow episode that he contacted me and said he wanted me to do. That was during Covid. I went and did Creepshow in Atlanta. He called me up and he was like, “Johnathon, I have this script. It’s an H.P. Lovecraft story, It’s The Thing on the Doorstep. I know you worked with Stuart Gordon. We’re going to take the protagonist and make them female because you know, H.P. Lovecraft was a misogynist. We’re going to switch all the roles around! So, the protagonist is going to be female and basically your role is like a housewife! So, we’re switching all the roles around!” First, I got excited because in acting class we would do that. We would switch the genders around and then play with that. I had a lot of fun doing that in acting school. And then I thought, yeah, H.P. Lovecraft is known to be really macho and anti-this, that and the other, and switching these roles could be a lot of fun. And then he told me, “Well, guess who we got to play the lead? Heather Graham!” Me and Heather have come so close to making so many movies over the years. You would think we would have made a movie in the 90s, but we didn’t. We didn’t make a movie together! It’s unbelievable! But we didn’t make a movie together and we finally got to do it and it was a fantastic experience. So that’s how he sold me.

PopHorror: That’s awesome! What were your initial thoughts on your character of Eddie?

Johnathon Schaech: Well, we needed to make sure that he was likable because the relationship had to be important. It couldn’t just be two people that were together that were at ends with one another and they’re looking at other avenues because they’re not happy with the relationship. They had to be happy with the relationship, like it had to be important. We built a whole storyline, and it came into the dialogue eventually, that my character, during Covid, lost his job and he was struggling to find who he was so he started being this guy who would make food. He started to become like the foodie. She had a job, they were financially okay, they weren’t struggling to pay the mortgage or take care of the kids. So, he was trying to find these avenues of himself that had purpose. I think we put that in there. It was a lot of fun. But I did get to play the housewife and had a lot of fun doing that too.

PopHorror: You had me with the fish scene and making the fish talk.

Johnathon Schaech: The branzino! I’m a reflective human being. I reflect everything around me. I just watched Joe. I watched Joe talk about how he wanted it, and I kept just watching Joe and the way that Joe would do it. I took a lot of characteristics of this character and made them Joe, the director. All along, with Gregg Araki, Tom Hanks, I would always just let them reflect what they really wanted.

PopHorror: You just mentioned three of my favorites – Joe Lynch, Tom Hanks, and Gregg Araki – all in one sentence. I’ve met Joe a few times. He’s hilarious. He has quite a presence and is like a walking movie encyclopedia.

Johnathon Schaech: He is, right? He really is.

PopHorror: The cast! Not only Heather Graham, but Barbara Crampton! Like, wow! What was your favorite part of shooting?

Johnathon Schaech: Well, I love working with Barbara, but we didn’t have these amazing scenes that me and Heather had. Role play switching… It’s a body swap movie so when the male entered her and then looked at me, and then he – through Heather – came after me, that was just so much fun because it was like trying to figure out this person that you’ve had intimate relationships with for such a long time, and then all of a sudden they’re a different person and bringing a different energy to the same mix that you’ve had for a long period of time. That was a lot of fun. The power dynamics were just fun because Heather had to bring this essence and watching her do her thing and having to respond to it, it was just a blast!

PopHorror: The movie looks like it was a ton of fun to make. So much stuff that you’re like, wow, what just happened here? Was there anything that you were adamant about bringing to your character?

Johnathon Schaech: I wanted him to be, because he had all this time off, in great shape. He had such low self-esteem at that part of his life that he tried to build all these other aspects of himself, so he was in really good shape. That was one thing that I worked on, and I had the time to do it. Always wanted to work with Heather. Barbara warmed my heart. She called me about making the movie. I was so hesitant to make anything, and she just convinced me. Joe convinced me first and then Barbara convinced me second, because when you make a film like this, you’ve got to give up a lot. It’s not a big-budgeted film. I don’t want to do anything that’s not going to help feed my kids. 

PopHorror: That makes sense.

Johnathon Schaech: Right, you’ve got to have your time free to make money. It’s not to say that they didn’t take good care of me but just the nature of independent features. But the cast and Joe, it’s just such a great combination that I was just like, “Yeah, this is what I’m supposed to do.” I’m trying more now in my 50s, I’m trying to be more authentic with what I do. In the horror genre, I’ve done a lot of horror films and people come after me with horror movies all the time, so I try to be very selective in that genre. 

PopHorror: Well, we’re glad to have you.

Johnathon Schaech: You know I wrote for the Masters of Horror for Showtime, so I’m a horror guy. I wrote for Stephen King. This is my jam.

PopHorror: I’m a huge fan of The Doom Generation. It’s the film of my youth. I rented it on VHS when it first came out and I’ve been watching it ever since. I just attended a screening of it a few months ago. The reception for the 4K release of The Doom Generation has been extraordinary. People are super excited. When you were making the film, did you ever think it would have the following that it does now?

Johnathon Schaech: It’s interesting. It was an impossibility. In 1995, you knew you were going to get your little indie market but now that indie market, you put it on Netflix, even Tubi. The audiences that get to see this film… I don’t even know the number but it’s like 100 million more people! Not just a small group of people but everyone can see it. I always wondered, I thought, why doesn’t it come out? Is it too outrageous? Too raunchy? Why doesn’t this come out, why don’t you see this film? Why don’t I see it in my residual checks? It’s a good movie. People love that movie. It’s changed people’s lives! I was sitting at the airport with a guy. We were going somewhere and by the end of the flight, he turned to me and said, “Listen, The Doom Generation… I grew up with it. It changed my life. You were great in it. Xavier…” His whole life was changed by it! I was wondering, and then when Gregg called me up and said let’s go to Sundance, same theater. Last year we went to Sundance and we screened it just like we did when we first did it. First off, I was more present this time around but then the same response from the audience! He told me, I don’t know what the word is, but he made it so you can watch it and it’s not so dark and you can see all the elements that you would when you look at the screen, and now you can do it on a TV. Now it will play, more people will get to see it, more people will have either this really hardcore, “Oh my god, this should never be seen,” or “This changed my life” sort of thing, right? It’s that movie. It either repulses you, or “God, this changed my life. Thank you so much.”

PopHorror: I was surprised at the number of people that hadn’t seen it, and also at the number of people that walked out before the ending because it was just too much for them.

Johnathon Schaech: That ending… I mean, that’s the truth. He basically said, “We’ll pay and play and then I’m going to tell you the truth.” Man, that ending just breaks my heart every time.

PopHorror: It hits differently on the big screen.

Johnathon Schaech: I could not… That was the hardest thing I had ever filmed before in my life.

PopHorror: I bet.

Johnathon Schaech: I can joke through most anything, but that broke my heart because the truth behind it… It’s so hardcore.

PopHorror: What is up next for you?

Johnathon Schaech: I have a TV series called Blue Ridge coming out. It’s on the Cowboy Way FAST channel. So, this FAST channel thing is really interesting to me. It has commercials in it, and it’ll run on Roku, Tubi, all these different places, but I love this because it’s a procedural. I’m a sheriff in a small town. I’ve got to figure out what happened. My father was a Baltimore City Police Officer, so I get to be a cop. I’m really good at that world. It’s in the genre. It’s not like Reacher where you go into an investigation, and you’ll see naked people splattered all over the place. It’s geared toward a younger audience so my son can watch it with me, and I’m really looking forward to that part of it. It’s not Suitable Flesh, it’s not The Doom Generation. When I made The Doom Generation – I think it came out around the same time I was making That Thing You Do – and I remember telling Tom, “If The Doom Generation comes around, don’t watch it, man. I don’t want you to think anything. I love that movie but talk to me before you watch it.” So that’s kind of like, I had this adult version of myself and that’s where Suitable Flesh is and The Doom Generation, and then there’s a part of me that wants to make family oriented projects because I have a three year old and a 10 year old, and I’m happy in that space. That’s what’s next.

PopHorror: Well, that makes sense, and definitely no, don’t show them either of these movies for a very long time. And I can’t imagine Tom Hanks sitting around watching The Doom Generation.

Johnathon Schaech: Me neither!

PopHorror: Like, that blows my mind.

Johnathon Schaech: I know!

PopHorror: Just one last question for you today. What is your favorite scary movie?

Johnathon Schaech: My favorite scary movie? Wow… It. 

PopHorror: The original?

Johnathon Schaech: Well, the book itself is probably the best written horror, and Stephen King is by far my favorite horror writer, even though he’s beyond a horror writer. I think both the old and the new still have elements of it that just show how brilliant it is.

Thank you so much to Johnathon for taking the time to speak with us. Suitable Flesh is now available on Shudder.