The Front Room Directors Explain Casting Brandy and Kathryn Hunter
Max and Sam Eggers were looking for their "wicked step-mother" and "Cinderella."
Max Eggers and Sam Eggers are making their directorial debut with The Front Room, a new horror from A24 that's set to hit theaters in September. The Eggers twins have both worked on their older brother Robert Eggers' films with Sam serving as a production assistant on Thew VVitch and Max co-writing The Lighthouse. The Front Room stars Brandy Norwood (Descendants: The Rise of Red) as Belinda and Kathryn Hunter (Poor Things) as Solange. In the film, Belinda is a new mother who must deal with her mother-in-law, and the duo don't exactly get along. ComicBook recently had the chance to chat with the Eggers about the new film, and they talked about casting Hunter and Norwood in the roles.
"So oddly, no, she was not," Max admitted when asked if Hunter was their first choice to play Solange. "We went out to a lot of people because I think Solange, thanks to [author] Susan Hill, is quite an iconic role. She's this sort of evil force that you kind of know but haven't seen before. The response we would get from some people would be like, 'You want my client to do what on camera? Are you kidding? You want them to fart on camera?'"
"And so, it was a little bit difficult at first, but then at the studio with A24, who I have to say are wonderful partners, very encouraging, always, they were doing Macbeth, Joel Coen's The Tragedy of Macbeth, and Zach Vargas-Sullivan was like, 'I wonder, have you guys thought of Kathryn Hunter for this role? Because we just worked with her, and we think she could be kind of incredible.' And we saw Macbeth, and then suddenly we saw Solange in her voice and her physicality."
"And then we sent her the script, and somehow she liked it. She flipped out over it. And then we met in person, and she wanted to do it. And it was another kind of kismet thing, where she was into discussing uncomfortable things. And I think, of course, the physical aspect of the role really attracted her, too, because she's a very physical performer. And we were just very lucky that she understood what we were doing."
"Kathryn unlocked something for all of us, and her willingness to just go there was so inspiring to all of us," he added.
As for Brandy, it wasn't lost on the Eggers that the performer had dealt with a wicked mother-type in one of her most famous movies, Cinderella (1997).
"It's funny," Eggers began. "We were looking for our wicked stepmother, and then we found her, but what we always needed was a Cinderella. And yes, of course, Brandy is a scream queen. I Still Know What You Did Last Summer is in my unconscious. But Cinderella, certainly, we are theater kids, we've been in many productions of Cinderella, and you needed somebody that you wanted to root for immediately."
"And I think us telling this tale ... Who is that that comes to your mind? It's Brandy. And so, when she was willing to go through this kind of thing, because that was challenging. It wasn't so much the same thing about Solange, but finding somebody who'd be willing to go through that, who wanted to be stretched in that way. And she just was such a shining light for us when we actually got to work with her."
"And she was very committed to the role," Sam added. "And I think, just like with Kathryn's and Solange's wild behavior, you needed that foundation with Brandy in Belinda. And she's in every single scene, and she was willing to go there and do anything we asked of her. And you can't ask more from an actor."
The Front Room hits theaters on September 6th.
