PopHorror Let's Get Scared
Musician Tim Kasher (frontman of bands Cursive, and the Good Life – read our interview with him HERE) has made one of my favorite movies of the year, Who’s Watching. It takes a lot to make me uncomfortable and fuck, man. Who’s Watching made me so physically uncomfortable that I found myself yelling at the screen through a lot of the film.
Starring Zachary Ray Sherman as Caleb, Gracie Gillam (Superhost) as Krista, and Olivia Luccardi (It Follows) as Tawnia, Who’s Watching is about exactly that. Who’s watching whom?
Caleb is a metal head loner who becomes obsessed with his new coworker, Krista. He begins invading every aspect of Krista’s life. As his infatuation escalates from inappropriate to criminal, we’re left asking who is really watching whom.
To celebrate the release of the film, I chatted with star Zachary Ray Sherman about working with the director, taking on those dark roles, horror movies, and more!
PopHorror: I loved Who’s Watching so much. It made me feel physically uncomfortable and that takes a lot. I watch a lot of horror and disturbing movies, and it made me feel so uncomfortable that while I was watching it, I was like, what the fuck is he doing?
Zachary Ray Sherman: Yeah, yeah.
PopHorror: Like when you were trying on her dress and you were just throwing your stuff around her room?
Zachary Ray Sherman: Yeah, it’s heavy stuff, it’s wild stuff, it’s weird stuff, it’s dark stuff. You saying the dress instantly takes me back there. It’s far out; it’s twisted. He’s having trouble.
PopHorror: I have to tell you; I watched A Desert a few years ago because I interviewed the director and I didn’t realize it was you in it at first. I was like, I know that voice. And then I realized it was Jasper from 90210.
Zachary Ray Sherman: Wow! That’s cool that you’ve seen that work and most people, I imagine, wouldn’t see both of those projects. That’s badass.
PopHorror: I watched 90210 when it first aired and I love seeing you do movies like this one. I love seeing you do horror so I’m super excited to talk to you about it today. What was your immediate reaction when you first read the script? Was there a specific scene or trait of Caleb’s that made you say, “I have to play this role!”
Zachary Ray Sherman: The big thing was working with Tim and collaborating with Tim. We’d become friends over a decade trying to get a different movie made, that I’m still in love with and still want to do. I actually adapted it for the stage and recently did a reading. So, it was Tim and what was really cool is as he and I kept talking about it and from the first script to the last script, he kept throwing stuff into it that was kind of like what you alluded to. I was just like, oh my god, oh my god. But as an actor who appreciates going far because I understand how that will ratchet up a story, for better or worse, I’m just like, wow. Freaky, horrible, let’s do it! Because it all aligns with the character. I think it’s just somebody who is so unaware, not in touch with himself, and so drastically uniquely… Unique is the word; just strange. I was like, how do I do that? How do I pull off this kind of funny, on the nose at times writing, and then bring this guy some humanity?
PopHorror: I had read a previous interview you had done, and you had mentioned a process of aligning your own heart with a character’s heart. How did you find a common heartbeat with someone as deeply unsettled and intrusive as Caleb?
Zachary Ray Sherman: I was talking with Tim recently on like an interview deal, and he asked where are you similar to Caleb? And I was like, oh man… Or what do you pull from yourself, kind of alluding to the same idea. I think it starts with feeling like an outsider, however silly that feels to say as me. I have felt that at times. You talk about Jasper from 90210. It’s like a lot of the parts that end up coming to me are kind of on the periphery and so I think I just inherently connect to that so that’s a good in. I feel so silly going this far but it’s like, Caleb just wants connection. As far as me playing him, I have to see it that way, however cringe we are when we watch it, it’s like dude just wants somebody to give him what he doesn’t have. He takes it way too far, but those are things I can connect with that’s very human. I think most people would say that they understand that, so that’s kind of my in. Then you layer all of the complex – getting outside of it – horrible things that he does and how he goes about it in ways that’s really inappropriate, really shouldn’t be happening.
PopHorror: That brings us to my next question and you kind of answered it a little bit because you said that you find yourself playing a lot of these characters. You mentioned Jasper, who was another character with a darker side who also made his own movies, very much like Caleb. I did make a connection kind of, because that’s the one role of yours that I am really familiar with. I rewatch it at least once a year. Why do you feel that you are kind of drawn to these complex, misunderstood, and multilayered characters?
Zachary Ray Sherman: I think I was touching it. I’m thankfully, actively in therapy and it’s been changing my life. Since I had two sons and as I unpack who I am and why I am the way I am, there’s a lot of history that I went through life not touching, not exploring, and that stuff comes from mainstream popular terms these days, just like childhood trauma. I think it boils down to that. I have that in my history and so I understand these characters who you could probably go down their history and their past and connect it to something like that. Both Jasper and Caleb. If I looked at the things I’ve done in the last 10 years, I bet you 90% I would go that way. Again, I think it’s very human that all of us have things that color who we are and shape us. But it is really weird. I’m going to be doing another movie where I’m playing a guy who’s a budding filmmaker and I’ve done that a few times. It’s strange how these things keep resurfacing, and I’ve directed three films so that’s part of who I am. It’s wild. I have no idea how the universe ends up aligning this stuff. It blows my mind.
PopHorror: Your character in A Desert was a pretty dark and troubled young man too.
Zachary Ray Sherman: Yeah.
PopHorror: Do you find it hard to shake off those characters at the end of filming?
Zachary Ray Sherman: I don’t at the end of filming. It’s something I’ve been thinking about recently, just staying on the therapy couch. I’m pretty good at not being so kind to myself and I wonder how much these dark characters that live in doing things that I wouldn’t do.
PopHorror: I hope not.
Zachary Ray Sherman: Yeah, of course not, but I allow myself to go there in the prep and in the shooting. It’s like, yeah, I’ve started to consider how much of that carries over into parts of me that I’m not even aware of. And it’s funny because I bristle in a way when I hear that there’s, I guess like a therapist, I don’t know what they’re called, on set that help you process the work. Because I’ve just done it for so long where I’m like, oh that’s a really insular thing that I go through, why would I share that? As I think about it more, I still don’t know how open I would be to it. Maybe I should be, but it’s like, there probably is a healthy way to expel – release – these things. Man, I just feel like a fucking crazy person saying all this stuff.
PopHorror: I wouldn’t worry about it. You mentioned that you also directed, which you have written and directed a few independent features. How does being a director change the way you approach your roles as an actor?
Zachary Ray Sherman: I think it helps me understand the structure a little bit and understand what’s necessary. At times, I totally miss the mark and I’m just following my actor instinct and the director’s like, “Go way further left.” But I think it also just excites me in terms of what I can feel and what is communicated from the director in a way that I don’t know if other actors would get a good jazz about it the way that I do because of my directing and just my love of movies. I guess that’s it. It just broadens my knowledge of film. I don’t know; I really don’t know. So much of what I do, it’s like I’ve heard other people say it but it just rings true, it’s a mystery because it’s like I don’t exactly understand it, I just kind of do it and it is kind of different from time to time. I was just shooting something two days ago and I went into the first take and the director came up and they’re like, “Oh, did you make a choice to be kind of drunk or on drugs here?” And I was just like, wow, that’s wild that they felt that because I absolutely had no direction in my mind to do that and it just goes to show how subjective it all is. I just do it.
PopHorror: Like you don’t know how it’s going to come off, like it’s coming off to you one way when it’s coming off to the director another way?
Zachary Ray Sherman: Yeah, just how wild it is that I just was kind of coming at it from a place wherever I was and that’s what they saw. But what’s really cool as an actor and somebody who wears a director hat sometimes, I think it’s more of an actor muscle but I do think I’m pretty good at hearing where they’re wanting it to go and just understanding that and being able to do it. That’s one of the beauties of acting. My eldest is three and he’s just really starting to come into play. That’s all it is we’re doing and it’s about getting those nerves out of the way. But I love working with directors for that reason.
PopHorror: I love that. I have one last question for you today. What is your favorite scary movie?
Zachary Ray Sherman: Oh, that’s a good one. It’s got to be The Shining but there’s like… Yeah, it’s The Shining. Yeah, it’s definitely The Shining.
Thank you so much to Zachary for taking the time to chat with us. Who’s Watching is currently in select theaters and also available HERE.
