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In Judd Apatow’s latest Netflix satire The Bubble, a bunch of narcissistic Hollywood actors grow to be unglued while quarantining at a elaborate British resort and capturing a big-budget dinosaur flick throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Elisha Cuthbert endured a model of that making her new horror movie for Shudder, The Cellar—minus the rampant intercourse, cocaine, and CGI dinosaurs, in fact.
Filming on Brandon Muldowney’s The Cellar—a couple of mom (Cuthbert) whose daughter (Tara Lee) disappears within the cellar of their spooky new Irish abode—happened in November 2020 in Roscommon, Eire. They shot in an precise home, and due to the pandemic, the solid and crew needed to quarantine for 2 weeks previous to capturing after which proceeded to dwell in separate cottages on the property.
“I haven’t seen The Bubble but, however my nanny noticed it and stated, ‘This film jogs my memory of you capturing that film in Eire!’” Cuthbert says.
After I point out that as a substitute of being always kidnapped on 24she’s now rescuing kids from being kidnapped, the 39-year-old chuckles.
“It’s in all probability good! I feel it’s come full-circle, and now it’s time to be the Jack Bauer a part of this at this level in my profession,” she affords.
Shortly after shifting to Los Angeles from her native Canada, an 18-year-old Cuthbert landed the position of Kim Bauer, counterterrorist knowledgeable Jack Bauer’s (Kiefer Sutherland) perpetually-in-peril daughter, on the favored Fox collection 24. Bit elements within the hit movies Outdated College and Love Truly adopted, in addition to main roles in films like The Lady Subsequent Door and Home of Wax. Round this time, Cuthbert was branded a “intercourse image” of kinds, showing in numerous spreads for males’s magazines like Maxim and FHM, earlier than segueing into extra attention-grabbing character-actor work on sitcoms Completely satisfied Endings and The Ranch.
We spoke about all that and extra over the course of our chat.
I do know Canada’s had very strict protocols throughout the pandemic that’s affected mobility. How have you ever managed to separate time between LA and your homeland?
It’s humorous: We had been in Canada for somewhat winter journey in February 2020 after which the pandemic hit, and so we stayed as a result of every thing shut down, and LA was actually badly hit at the beginning. So, we ended up staying in Canada for months till we obtained again in August or September, after which I went off to shoot this film on the finish of October. We ended up getting trapped up in Canada, nevertheless it was good being round household and all that.
And also you shot The Cellar in Eire, proper? Was it unusual to be quarantining with your loved ones in Canada for months and months after which go off to Eire to shoot this spooky haunted home movie the place members of your fictional household are being possessed and/or kidnapped?
[Laughs] It was shot in Roscommon, which is a county within the heart of the nation. It was attention-grabbing, as a result of I wasn’t capable of carry any of the household with me, so I used to be type of this lone soldier going over, hoping that we'd be capable of even get the film completed, as a result of within the pre-vaccine time there was a query of, “Are we going to get this performed?” As a result of if one individual obtained COVID we'd get shut down. There was somewhat of that looming over us, however we caught collectively as a crew. It was bizarre isolating for 2 weeks alone and going from the hustle-and-bustle of household life to finish seclusion. Part of me type of loved it, as a result of the mother duties I've are very time-consuming, so to be utterly alone—the peace and quiet of that—was fairly pleasing, however on the identical time I did miss everyone.
Elisha Cuthbert and Dillon Fitzmaurice Brady in The Cellar
Shudder
With everybody sequestered collectively on this property in Eire throughout the pandemic did something unusual occur throughout the making of this movie?
Everybody had their very own bizarre experiences however the one that actually obtained me was, I advised you we needed to quarantine for 2 weeks previous to capturing, and the final day of quarantine myself, the director, and Eoin Macken, who performs my husband within the movie—we had been all quarantining in our personal cottages, and all of us had an insane infestation of useless flies. I keep in mind going to set and producers had been saying, “Don’t fear! We’re getting an exterminator!” however I used to be pondering, what a bizarre factor to seem earlier than we begin capturing this horror movie? It was actually eerie. The dead-fly plague. Very weird.
Have you ever ever had a haunting or ghost expertise?
Yeah. After I first moved to California, I moved to the Oakwood Residences out within the Burbank space, proper by Warner Bros. I do know it’s a type of locations the place lots of people have come and gone, and it’s a spot you go to transition earlier than shifting into your personal place. I moved there in 2000, and I keep in mind waking up one night time and listening to a knocking on the pipes, which I assumed was actually weird, and it woke me. As I woke, I assumed I’d seen this silhouette—or shadow—of a person on the finish of my mattress. It didn’t really feel like anybody was really there—simply clear—and it froze me. I couldn’t actually transfer. I shut my eyes and thought, “I can’t be seeing ghosts!” after which I opened my eyes, and the determine was gone. I haven’t had an expertise after that, however might which were a ghost expertise? Perhaps! Or possibly I used to be overtired.
That’s the ghost that welcomes younger actors to LA.
[Laughs] Precisely. I didn’t do any analysis on it or discover out if that man actually lived in that condo or not, however I do know I skilled one thing weird—and I undoubtedly imagine in that. There’s a extremely nice docuseries referred to as Surviving Demise. That was unbelievable and I used to be all about it. I’m undoubtedly a believer, for certain.
I imagine I used to be in faculty when Home of Wax got here out, which was a enjoyable time to see a horror film with your folks, and one factor that’s fairly wild to look again on is the “See Paris Die” advert marketing campaign for the movie.
Was it? Oh, that’s hilarious.
I feel the concept was that should you didn’t like Paris Hilton you possibly can see her die on this film.
Wow. Yeah, that’s horrible. You realize what’s so humorous about that? It jogs my memory of going to the London premiere of Home of Wax with Paris, and when her loss of life scene got here up, she was so excited and had such a good time watching it. She all the time understands easy methods to take the enjoyable out of it and never take issues too severely. Most actresses would go, “Ugh, I don’t wish to watch this,” however she celebrated it. And that’s a part of her brilliance, I feel.
And I learn that you just actually superglued your mouth shut on the movie, is that proper?
I did, yeah. It wasn’t the hardware stuff—particular results had gotten one thing that was gonna be protected for my pores and skin, nevertheless it was undoubtedly glued shut. There was no approach to act my lips being caught collectively correctly so I stated, “Let’s simply go for it.” They'd remover and issues like that, so nothing was harm within the course of. However yeah, I used to be undoubtedly like, “Let’s glue these lips collectively.”
Is that the craziest factor you’ve ever performed on a movie?
That was undoubtedly loopy, for certain. I feel on 24 I used to be trapped within the trunk of a automotive and shot at. I obtained attacked by a mountain lion on that present—like, for actual—so I feel that is perhaps up there. We had a mountain lion that was within the scene and I used to be working on the outskirts of Los Angeles within the mountains, and the precise mountain lion that was on set ended up leaping me and attacking me, and I ended up getting bit within the hand and going to the hospital. So, I obtained attacked by a mountain lion. That was in all probability the craziest.
Talking of 24, how do you are feeling that present’s aged? It existed very a lot on this post-9/11 hysteria George W. Bush time interval and virtually felt like a “revenge for 9/11”-type present, containing quite a lot of torture.
I feel it very a lot coincided with issues that had been taking place within the early 2000s, and we had been forward of some issues that occurred. It aired earlier than September 11, and we had terrorist plotlines and airplane explosions that we needed to re-edit earlier than the present was launched. We additionally had Dennis Haysbert taking part in an African American president, which was fairly groundbreaking on the time earlier than Barack Obama, and Cherry Jones taking part in a feminine president in a while earlier than Hillary was working. I feel the writers had been actually forward of their time, so trying again on it now, it appeared prefer it was the place the politics had been on the time. However watching it now? I don’t know. I haven’t gone again to see any of the episodes. I'm wondering the way it holds up.
I’m curious what your ideas are about the entire Maxim/FHM tradition that existed with younger actresses once you had been developing within the 2000s. It looks as if quite a lot of younger actresses on the time had been being pushed into doing these bathing swimsuit photoshoots and being objectified, and it was a bizarre step that quite a lot of younger actresses breaking into the business felt compelled to take—or that publicists or business people had been pressuring them into doing.
Yeah… that’s an entire factor. It’s attention-grabbing. I undoubtedly was round for that point interval. It’s type of a bummer that I used to be. On the time, it’s not like I used to be the one one partaking in these males’s magazines—it felt like everybody was subjected to it. I keep in mind even Halle Berry after successful her Oscar was on the [hottest] lists and the covers. It was part of the tradition of magazines, and I keep in mind feeling like I didn’t have a lot of a alternative, as a result of hundreds of thousands of individuals had been shopping for these magazines and it was an enormous approach to publicize no matter you had been doing. And these magazines appeared to do voting methods on their very own, so it was out of my management. To do the magazines themselves, I personally felt extra stress not from my publicists however from the movies significantly, and the promoting for the movies—so from the studios, actually.
It will be the studio saying, “It's best to do this?”
Yeah. I keep in mind once we had been doing The Lady Subsequent Door, particularly due to the content material of the movie the place I used to be taking part in a porn star, these magazines felt much more related to be related to to promote this movie. Yeah, it was undoubtedly a push from the studios saying, “These are nice covers to get. They've hundreds of thousands of subscribers and a large attain. Go do them.” Fortunately, actresses now don’t actually should cope with that anymore. Loads of the Maxims and FHMs at the moment are performed, so fortunately that’s over with.
What kind of impact did all which have on you? As a result of on the time you had been only a 20-year-old who’d simply arrived from Canada attempting to make it in Hollywood.
Part of it felt liberating and I actually thought, on the time we had been doing them, that we had been doing a little fairly cool photoshoots. Trying again on them, I didn’t love doing them—particularly once they began to grow to be repetitive, and the dialogue grew to become about “Who’s the sexiest?” and “Who’s the prettiest?” in a aggressive approach, and feeling objectified and placing out this persona of, “That is what I signify.” As a result of that actually wasn’t the case. It wasn’t a real illustration of me as an artist, that’s for certain. It was one aspect. And sadly, lots of people simply went, “Oh, she’s the attractive woman.” We had been all much more than that.
Elisha Cuthbert and the solid of Completely satisfied Endings
ABC
Does the way in which Completely satisfied Endings ended nonetheless sting a bit? As a result of it’s uncommon to be part of a particular present like that, and which have the community not do a ok job of discovering it an viewers.
That was what actually felt just like the tug of warfare for us. It by no means had its correct time slot and was all the time getting moved round. And once you’re shifting round on community, individuals can’t discover you. After which we obtained caught at actually dangerous hours. It simply felt prefer it was by no means supported once we had been doing it, after which being cancelled felt prefer it was inevitable as a result of, how will you construct an viewers should you don’t have a time slot that’s constant for greater than two weeks at a time? That was my frustration over the entire state of affairs. However after it was performed, I used to be actually happy with the three seasons that we put collectively, and due to streaming, individuals can discover it and watch it.
You had one other present finish fairly abruptly, The Ranch, which was an enormous hit for Netflix. After which it appeared to finish due to the Danny Masterson allegations. What was it wish to be on one other widespread present after which have it finish prematurely—and be caught up in the course of that?
Nicely, it may very well be stated that it had one thing to do with Danny, nevertheless it additionally may very well be stated that it didn’t, as a result of we continued to do the present after he left. That was undoubtedly an uncommon situation, however one which was Danny’s enterprise and I stayed out of it and type of stored on with the present, as did everybody else. We ended up getting Dax Shepard on the present and my expertise on it was nice. I don’t know. Perhaps it was Netflix’s resolution to avoid any drama associated to [Masterson], or possibly we’d had 80 episodes and Netflix felt they’d already had sufficient content material from us. The world of streaming is so new that you just don’t know why these streaming companies do what they do.
You’ve been appearing because you had been a younger child and with The Ranch and The Cellar, it looks as if you’ve transitioned properly into extra grownup roles—and that’s a transition that Hollywood could make quite tough on actors.
For me, I’m excited for the following chapter. I really feel I’ve been ready for a very long time to get to a degree the place I can play characters which have extra depth, extra accountability, and inform tales about girls for girls my age. I’m embracing that. Even on The Cellar, to take a look at these two younger actors and assist lead them by the film was such a rewarding expertise. I’m trying ahead to the tales that I can inform.