ComingSoon Editor-in-Chief Tyler Treese spoke to The Curse of Bridge Hollow stars Marlon Wayans & Priah Ferguson about the family-friendly Netflix film, which is now streaming.
“A father (Marlon Wayans) and his teenage daughter (Priah Ferguson) are forced to team up and save their town after an ancient and mischievous spirit causes Halloween decorations to come to life and wreak havoc,” says the logline.
Tyler Treese: Marlon, a lot of the great humor early on is your character trying to apply science to all the wild stuff that’s going on. What did you like most about playing this very logical, sort of a square-ish character that really has to break out of his shell?
Marlon Wayans: It was nice to be contained. It was nice to work less in the physical and less on the edge, and work more of the character and more or less just be. My dad’s a Jehovah’s Witness, and so he never really celebrated or believed in Halloween, and so I tried to apply some of that to my character. But it was fun once I could actually break out and really see that things really existed that I didn’t think existed. I thought that the track for the character was dope.
Priah, your character is very into the supernatural, which is so great. During Halloween time, have you developed an interest in the supernatural yourself?
Priah Ferguson: A little bit. I mean, not really. Like, I know it’s not real, but then there’s another part of my brain that’s like, “I mean, it could be possible. Like, in some other world, it could be possible.” So I guess it really just depends on what it is.
Wayans: Stop lying, girl. I see you bought your ouija board to work just now!
Ferguson: I did not bring a ouija board!
Wayans: You came in and you had chicken blood on the green dress. I was like, “Yo, what is Priah into?”
Marlon, this is such a great role and you’ve mentioned bringing in some of your own father into your character here, but how has your own journey as a father yourself helped prepare your performance?
Wayans: I mean, I think in order to play a dad, it’s always good to be a dad. You know what I mean? And I had the experience of having a teenage daughter and dealing with some of those young hormones and those strong opinions. And, you know, my daughter kind of broke the mold in terms of what I was and what I thought applied to everything in life in general. And at a point, you learn that your kids soften you, and actually, they’re teaching you about how to break out of your old ways and become something new, even though you’re old. So, I think that was true for Howard and true for Marlon.
Priah, how would you compare Sydney to Erica Sinclair from Stranger Things? Because there’s some similarities, but they’re definitely different.
Ferguson: Yeah. They’re similar when it comes down to, I guess they both believe in the supernatural aspects of life. They both are very sassy or quick-witted, so they kind of have a mouth on them and are very opinionated, but they are living in a different era. Erica is more suburban because she’s from a small town and it’s in the eighties and with Sydney, she’s from a big city moving into a small town. So it’s kind of like an adjustment for her. She’s used to the fast pace of things, but she’s also living in the current times, so they’re different. And Sydney is definitely a teenager going through those normal teenager things, those hormones. And Erica is not.
Wayans: You know what’s crazy is I don’t care what anybody says, they look exactly alike.
Ferguson: Yeah. They look alike.
Wayans: Call me crazy!