PopHorror Let's Get Scared
Thanks to the tiny terror that is Chucky, normal teenage lives are out of the question for Jake Wheeler, Devon Evans, and Lexy Cross. With their parents, friends, pets and more killed in brutal fashion, this trio has been through the ringer since the beginning of the TV series, Chucky… and the second half of Season 3 is no different.
In the final four episodes of the latest season by Don Mancini [our interview], which were filmed after the SAG and WGA strikes, Jake (Zackary Arthur: The 5th Wave 2016), Devon (Björgvin Arnarson: The Seventh Day 2021) and Lexy (Alyvia Alyn Lind: The Spiderwick Chronicles 2024) must head to the White House in order to stop Chucky’s (Brad Dourif: One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest 1975) latest murder spree and track down Lexy’s little sister, Caroline (Carina Battrick: Under the Banner of Heaven 2022), a fresh follower of Damballa. This time around, with Chucky wrecking havoc from the beyond in the Spirit Realm, the stakes are even higher.
PopHorror recently spoke with the trio about the remainder of Season 3, including why the break made these last four episodes their “best work yet on the show,” and how Arthur trained with Brad Dourif to embody Chucky for the shocking finale, which was chock-full of WTF moments.
PopHorror: To start, this has been a little bit of a weird season. You guys had a break halfway, through. What was it like to come back and film those last four episodes, which are just insane?
Zackary Arthur: You know, instead of the usual six months that we have to film the show—that usually feels like a marathon—this really felt like a 100-meter dash. We were all running to the end. We had to get four episodes in about one-and-a-half months or two months or something like that. So, it was definitely like we were all rushing; we were all working really hard. But I feel like this is our best work yet on the show.
Alyvia Alyn Lind: It was kind of weird because we stopped in the middle of an episode. We were filming Episode 5, and we literally stopped right in the middle. So, to be filming one scene, and then have a three month break, and then come back and film the next scene… You’re leaving one room and entering another, but it’s been three months. It’s a little bit weird with your mind to get back in the zone and the exact headspace you were in. But I think we all killed it, no pun intended. And I think the rush to get it all done, the adrenaline of it all and how fast it was, I think—like Zack said—that made it our best work. The adrenaline, it actually felt like that. It felt like we were running and doing all these crazy things, and we were really trying to get something done. The stakes were actually there in real life. So it added to it, I think.
Björgvin Arnarson: Yeah, it was a pretty wild shooting experience.
PopHorror: This is the first time that you guys have really worked with Brad Dourif in a large capacity on set. What was that like?
Zackary Arthur: On the show, we get the opportunity to work with legends like Don Mancini, Jennifer Tilly (Bound 1996), Fiona (The Blacklist 2018) and Brad Dourif. Everybody that we’ve worked with on the show, they’re so amazing. He’s definitely one of those actors where you just sit back and you’re like, “Woah.” You could watch it forever because each take is different.
Alyvia Alyn Lind: I was just excited to work with him in general, because we haven’t been able to work with him in-person. We’d been working with his voice for so long, so getting to talk to him, hang out with him in the green room, hear all the stories that he has and all the things about Chucky that he has to say, and all of his on-set stories… He told us one story about when he was filming—I don’t remember which Chucky it was—but when he dies after he gets shot, he actually got frozen to the pavement when they were filming. The blood stuck to the pavement and he couldn’t get up in his jacket. He was sitting on the pavement because it was so cold. It was just crazy stories from back then that were so fascinating to hear.
Zackary Arthur: Everyone was leaving, and he was like, “Wait a minute! I’m on the ground and it’s freezing outside.”
Björgvin Arnarson: Yeah, it was really cool because I think I saw him around set once, and I said, “Hi,” but then I really saw him when they filmed that one scene, and they revealed Charles Lee Ray in the elevator, and I was there when they did that. And it was just super cool to see him turn that on as a person. It was super cool.
PopHorror: Zackary, without giving too much away, you and Chucky become very close in the final episode, so much so that you do sound like him, and I’ll leave it at that. Was that you doing the voice and, if so, how did you perfect it? Especially the cackle?
Zackary Arthur: You know what? You better hold this until Episode 8 because that’s gonna get people real crazy. So if we’re holding it toward Episode 8, I will say that it was basically almost a year in progress. I got the opportunity to work with Brad and I got to sit in to some of the recordings that he had done, and there was actually about 30 minutes on set where me and Brad were screaming at each other in the Chucky voice, and I’m sure they all heard it. I’m sure everybody heard it. But it was such an interesting experience. Getting outside of yourself and becoming this completely different character is a lot of fun.
Thanks for speaking with us, Zackary, Alyvia and Björgvin!
Be sure to check out Chucky on SyFy and on Peacock!
Photos by Shane Mahood/SYFY
