Interviews: When the Bough Breaks Cast on the Thriller

The When the Bough Breaks cast is covered in bruises and blood.

Artfully applied blood courtesy of make-up artist Kellie Robinson (who flitters around Chestnut even as we speak touching him up) which bespeaks the climatic confrontation the central cast members – Morris Chestnut, Regina Hall and newcomer Jaz Sinclair, who have been filming on a scenic and sleepy bayou outside New Orleans for the last several days.

“I’m getting my ass kicked today,” Hall sums up succinctly.

Unfortunately the sugary dye which keeps the fake blood stuck to the skin turns out to be mana from heaven for the plentiful mosquitos living in the area and they regularly swarm the poor actors. A handful of production assistants have been put on permanent OFF duty, literally showering the actors with the mosquito repellant like crop dusters on a Kansas field. It’s amazing the cast can be as composed as they are in front of the cameras – literally the instant director Jon Cassar (“24”) yells cut they start slapping themselves all over.

All that aside, the real effort of making When the Bough Breaks has been the mental challenge of dealing with the emotional situation in the middle as the surrogate mother (Sinclair) hired to help a childless couple conceive attempts to subvert the matriarch (Hall) and take her place Morris’ side.

Regina Hall: I’ve never been so distraught in my life. I feel distraught! The movie takes place over the course of a year and you’ve kind of got to go through what the character goes through even if you don’t want to.

Morris Chestnut: It’s mentally challenging, because there’s so many different dynamics. In a lot of things I’m reacting to a lot of things. I’m reacting to a lot people around me. Sometimes not necessarily saying anything, but I just have to be thinking it.

Hall: You’ve got to be alert. It’s like hurdling in the Olympics.

Jaz Sinclair: It’s actually fun and we joke about it. I’m always smiling on the days when I’m watching him in the makeup trailer get all bloodied up. I love it. It makes it easier. It makes it better to have someone I can trust so when I turn a switch and become a different person and go a little crazy. It’s okay because we’re friends.

Chestnut: She took it to me a couple times. She’s pretty good, too. She’s a strong girl. She might could take me. One thing I love about Jazmine, she kind of reminds me of when I was starting out, just being on the set and kinda being amazed by everything. Just the innocence and just the learning and the newness of everything. I love watching her. She’s a great actress. Much greater than I was.

Q: Jon [Cassar] was telling us Jaz has a real ability to turn from good to evil at the blink of an eye.

Hall: What’s amazing, she brings an innocence but then a darkness and you go wow!

Sinclair: This girl just comes through me. She lives through me. It’s not me but I can see through her eyes very clearly when I need to see through her eyes clearly. I don’t know what happens. It’s kind of wonderful. I’ll be me one minute and then I’ll switch something in my brain and then I can see the whole world as her. I don’t really know how that works. I don’t think there’s any science to that. It’s just magical.

Q: By comparison, Morris and Regina have worked together many times before.

Hall: I don’t ever have this kind of time with him. I’m usually spending my time with Harold and he’s spending his time with Monica and the guys so this is a totally different thing, but the friendship you have those sets is the same.

Chestnut: The last movie that we worked together on, I don’t believe we talked in a scene. When I think about it, matter of fact, both of the movies we worked together on, I didn’t really talk to her character. Now we’re doing a lot of talking, a lot of touching… a lot of kissing. That’s the difference.

Hall: Morris’ wife was here the other day and I was like “I’m about to get on them lips, Pam!” (laughs) and she was like “Noo!” But they’re all sweet. It’s very generous to go “go be married to my husband.”

Q: Is that weird, working with someone you know really well but have never been in front of the camera with?

Chestnut: It’s not that weird, because even though our characters didn’t talk we were still talking off camera. So we were still in the same environment having conversations. And then just when they say “Get ready to go” and act, then we just get into our own little places. So it wasn’t that weird.

Hall: I’ve been lucky… Kevin and I are great, Morris has been great, but I’ve had wonderful male co-starts – Jemaine Clement, who I just met – they’re all different but they’re all great. Some of them you don’t know when you’re going to walk into a movie. I’ve been really fortunate.

Q: Was working with each other something which drew you to the film?

Chestnut: It was really the story. A character who is extremely conflicted and he has to make a lot of decisions. He makes some right decisions but the wrong decision make him look like this (points to makeup, laughs). He’s just a very conflicted character.

Sinclair: That was the biggest thing. When I first read the script, it’s action packed and there is a lot of stuff, a lot of exciting things that happens from this character and the main thing that I wanted to do was make her human. To ask questions. Why is she doing this thing? Instead of letting myself be shocked by the script and judging the character, I had to ask myself why and allowing her to unfold as a true human being versus an idea. Versus putting her in the crazy box. I built a person who is whole and broken who at the same evolves as the story evolves. That’s my favorite. You never quite know who this girl is because she changes as the story changes. It’s going to be fascinating to watch.

Hall: I love Laura [her character], she’s amazing. She goes through a lot and that is life… it makes you think about the lengths a mother really goes through for her children. I think Laura, though she’s not carrying the baby, the moment it has life she’s like “that’s my baby.” And [Jaz] has got the baby so it puts her and Morris’s character in a very difficult position.

Q: Did you do research into any real life cases like that?

Hall: No, I did research into fertility and into what Laura had gone through before, because she’s had miscarriages; they’ve done in vitro before. Emotionally what it does to a woman who goes through that, what it takes, how long that process is. Until the script I didn’t know legally it was the surrogate’s baby until it’s born and she resigns over the rights. Even if it’s your egg. Life doesn’t literally begin until it’s in the womb so until then it’s the carrier’s baby.

Chestnut: It took me back to the time when I wanted – I still want kids – when I didn’t have kids and I wanted kids, and what I envision when I had kids. So it took me back to that time.

Q: The script has changed quite a bit from its original version; one of those changes was moving it from California to Louisiana and making New Orleans really a character in the film.

Chestnut: I’m actually glad that it’s here instead of California because California is like the Mecca of the film industry. Everyone’s seen California. I like being here, the different aspects. You have the lake house. You have a huge, almost plantation-style house, so I like the different elements of the city and what the city has to offer and putting it on the screen.

Q: Have you had a chance to take in the city any?

Chestnut: Very limited time. Since I’ve been here this time, I haven’t really checked out too much. I’ve been working quite a bit. Been eating a lot of food, a lot of different restaurants. Just in travelling to different locations.

Hall: We’ve had a tough schedule. We did have Mardi Gras because we had four days off. We went to French Quarter, but on my weekends I’m just like “trying to make it, ya’ll!”

Sinclair: Mardi Gras was right outside my window and there was no avoiding that. It’s just there. It was just great. I saw some museums and swamp tours. It’s been good. Mostly, I have just been trying to sleep on my time off. New Orleans is a great city. My favorite part is the music. I love being able to walk on the street and dance with strangers. It’s really fun.

Hall: I was actually very happy we got to shoot here. I feel like it has its own character.

Sinclair: It has this thickness to the culture and I think that living in that thickness translates into the script and I like that.

Q: That wasn’t the only change in the script.

Hall: The script wasn’t written for any race in particular. It could have been white; actually it was because that was her original description.

Chestnut: Well, that was actually the difference when I read the script. I could tell it wasn’t written for black actors. As a matter a fact, they tried to do the movie two years ago and they offered the lead role to, I think it was, Jon Hamm. So when I read it that was one of the things that really appealed to me.

Hall: I liked it because it lent itself to what was at stake in the movie. Not because of the role but because what they do it makes everything in the movie make sense. What Morris ends up doing, legally what it costs him.

Q: Is that what made this project optimal for it to be your first one out as EP on it?

Chestnut: I’ve EP’d before but I was really excited about this one because I read the script. I just loved the script. The scale of this movie is bigger than any other movie I’ve EP’d before, most the other projects. I loved the script and the scale.

PA’s came over to pull the cast back to set to finish shooting the films epic conclusion (read more on that in the set visit).

READ OUR INTERVIEW WITH DIRECTOR JON CASSAR IN PART 3 OF THE SET VISIT >>