It<\/a>: Welcome to Derry.\u2018<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-rollingstone-2022\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\")
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\n\tYou were a Stephen King fan before you got cast in Welcome to Derry. How did you get introduced to his work?<\/strong>
My mother. There was always a Stephen King book between her two fingers and her thumb, and then it moved to Dean Koontz when she got older. Those were the books that were around the house.<\/p>\n\n\tHow old were you?\u00a0<\/strong>
Seven-ish, eight-ish for the first one. I didn\u2019t finish The Shining because I remember getting scared and then, maybe 11-ish, I started to get serious about reading in general. So somewhere in between those years I traumatized myself by reading Stephen King.<\/p>\n\n\tThat\u2019s shockingly young! What exactly was the first piece of horror that traumatized you?<\/strong>
Candyman! Reading Candyman terrified me, then watching it terrified me. He looked like me. Like, Freddy Krueger? I\u2019m good. He ain\u2019t getting in my hood. Jason [from Friday the 13th]? I\u2019m not going to Jersey, so I\u2019m good. But there was something about Candyman that properly undid me. The fact that you could call the entity by mistake from anywhere. I was 13 and then I took a big break from reading horror stuff.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\tWhat brought you back?\u00a0<\/strong>
It\u2019s just a part of me. We grew up going to horror movies, [especially] for Thanksgiving and Christmas. When other people would go see the big Christmas movie, we\u2019d watch terrible stuff \u2014 Bloody Birthday, Truth or Dare? I remember there was a scene where somebody put a grenade in their mouth in Truth or Dare? As an adult I\u2019m like, \u201cWhy did my mom let me watch this?\u201d<\/p>\n\t\tRelated Content<\/p>\n
\n\tDid you ever ask her why?\u00a0<\/strong>
No, because I know my mom was always doing her best, so I\u2019m careful what we discuss. And horror is not that big a deal to me.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\tRight, and look now.\u00a0<\/strong>
Yeah! Thanks, Mom!\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\tAfter you were cast as Dick Hallorann, did you get to meet Stephen King?\u00a0<\/strong>
No. It\u2019d be cool to meet him, just like it\u2019s always cool to meet people who are masters of their craft. But I didn\u2019t feel it was imperative for work. But I will tell you on the day I meet him, I\u2019m going to be pretty gassed up.<\/p>\n\n\tWhat would you ask him about?<\/strong>
Oh, I\u2019m so careful around celebrity people to not talk about work ever.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\tYou\u2019re like, \u201cHe\u2019s just a guy.\u201d<\/strong>
Well, they are just people. Some of us just happen to be on TV. What about the people that build roads? That\u2019s impressive, dude. I was good friends with Phil Hoffman when I was young in New York at the LAByrinth Theater Company. He was the artistic director for a while. I remember watching other actors come up to him and try to talk about acting and he would turn inwards.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\tThere is something cringe-inducing about that.<\/strong>
Yeah. It\u2019s like, are we really talking about it? If we\u2019re really talking about it, let\u2019s go sit up at the library and talk about the history of it, because I went to school for acting. I\u2019m not a casual actor.<\/p>\n\n\tYou teach as well, right?\u00a0<\/strong>
Yeah. I say \u201ccoach\u201d because I\u2019m in a phase where I\u2019m like, \u201cCan you teach acting?\u201d [Laughs.] Just a nerdy philosophy. I don\u2019t think I\u2019m teaching. I\u2019m revealing to people what they already have in themselves.<\/p>\n\n\tOn the theme of coaching, was there an experience you had with Phil that revealed something to you about acting?<\/strong>
Come on with these questions! Yes! When I was a reader, they were doing Our Lady of 121st Street. I\u2019m way too young for it, but I was like, \u201cCan I audition, Phil?\u201d And he was like [perfectly mimicking Hoffman\u2019s voice], \u201cYeah, yeah, sure, sure.\u201d It was a little dismissive. But I knew he had started to respect me. And when he was directing auditions, he gave every single person 20 minutes. Everybody that auditioned with him was better when they left.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\tI did my audition and he said, \u201cChris. That was brilliant. I don\u2019t use that word a lot, but I\u2019m really going to have to consider you now. And I wasn\u2019t going to before.\u201d Man, I felt over the moon! Because I wasn\u2019t working a lot. I was a reader, I was a stage manager, I was an assistant director. I don\u2019t think I had done any TV at that point. It was really affirming to have someone who was undeniably talented see me at all.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tHe\u2019s so right \u2014\u00a0 your performance in Welcome to Derry is stunning. Obviously we know how Dick\u2019s story goes, but you\u2019re getting this rare opportunity to play him at an early stage in life. What surprised you about where his story begins?<\/strong>
Everything was a surprise. I was surprised he wasn\u2019t nice because he\u2019s such a kind figure in everyone\u2019s brain. And everybody wants this \u2014 I don\u2019t want to say Magical Negro version [of Dick], but it is a Magical Negro version. That\u2019s not interesting to me at all. But I knew from the audition that it wasn\u2019t going to be that.<\/p>\n\n\tPeople have made the case that Dick is a kind of prototypical Magical Negro in King\u2019s oeuvre, but what\u2019s amazing about this adaptation is there are so many Black characters.<\/strong>
Yeah, it\u2019s hard to be a Magical Negro when you got 30 Black people!\u00a0<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\tI imagine for Black hardcore Stephen King fans, it has to be very cathartic. Was it cathartic for you?<\/strong>
It was nice. America\u2019s America, so the racists are going to let you know they don\u2019t want no niggas in their stuff. They\u2019re going to let you know. I don\u2019t read posts and shit like that, but [co-star] Jovan [Adepo] does. He would hit me up and be like, \u201cMan, they hate that we in this! They can\u2019t stand Black people!\u201d I said, \u201cBaby, don\u2019t worry about it. We\u2019re going to do good work. We\u2019re going to have a good time. Stay off the internet, bro.\u201d There is something cool about going to work on a Stephen King thing where I\u2019ve never traditionally seen very many Black people.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\tLet\u2019s dig into some episode-specific questions, starting with Episode Five, when your character goes into the tunnels to find the pillars that can destroy Pennywise. I imagine there\u2019s something uniquely grueling about being in a sewer set that\u2019s wet and dark and you\u2019re doing emotionally tricky stuff. And then you get in the dunk tank where Dick gets transported to his grandparents.\u00a0<\/strong>
That episode shot over lots and lots of days. I almost drowned once [prior to filming Derry], so I told Emmanuel [Osei-Kuffour], who was directing that episode, \u201cThis is cool and I\u2019m mentally sane, but I can\u2019t promise I\u2019m not going to freak out.\u201d I don\u2019t go into 10 feet of water in my daily life, but I\u2019m going to try. I\u2019m going to try until I lose it, until I snap, until I break. Luckily I didn\u2019t break, but I remember the day when Dick jumps through the threshold of reality and goes into the pool was intense. My wife was there. The awesome scuba cameras and underwater choreography were quite intense. To act while trying to survive requires very little effort [laughs].\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\tThe scene where you\u2019re trapped with the ghost of your abusive grandfather and he forces you to open the lockbox that traps the spirits that haunt you is really wrenching. And then it leads to Episode Six, where you\u2019re explaining the lore of the lockbox. It\u2019s a beautiful and haunting performance. Was it always the plan for you to just sit and deliver that monologue?\u00a0<\/strong>
After he opens that box, Dick\u2019s done. He\u2019s running on fumes and he\u2019s desperately trying to drink himself and drug himself into reality instead of being lost in seeing all the dead people. I always felt like he\u2019s too tired and scared to move. I tend to like to be still and quiet, and I was allowed to do so. I got some good trauma eyes because I got some good trauma [laughs]. Can I tell you about the other scene in that room? It\u2019s my favorite scene.<\/p>\n\n\tYeah, let\u2019s do it. You\u2019re talking about the scene that opens the final episode where Dick threatens to kill himself, and then almost kills Leroy.\u00a0<\/strong>
My favorite thing that has ever happened in my entire career. There\u2019s very few times I\u2019ve been asked to use my full emotional range. So I had to get into the space. I called Jason [Fuchs, showrunner] and said, \u201cHey, can we make sure the set is chill and that we\u2019re not going to be changing the script? Please? I\u2019m not trying to be that dude, but this has to be about what me and Jovan are doing.\u201d And he said, \u201cYeah, I got you.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\tIt was a three o\u2019clock [a.m.] call time. I got to work. Jason comes into the makeup trailer and goes, \u201cChris, Andy [Muschietti, the co-creator and episode director] changed the script.\u201d And I said, \u201cNo. I\u2019m not doing it.\u201d Because I was already broken a bit. I was in the place I needed to be. Every day can\u2019t be changing the scripts when we\u2019ve worked so incredibly hard on manifesting this reality. That was my stance, that was my soapbox. Then Jovan came in and said, \u201cDog, just read it.\u201d I said, \u201cNah.\u201d He said, \u201cChris \u2014 it\u2019s what we asked for two weeks ago.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tYou guys had asked for specific line changes?\u00a0<\/strong>
We had asked for it to become a little more human. It didn\u2019t feel as grounded as we eventually made it. I read it and it was good. Then I went to set. Andy was there. They were getting ready for rehearsal. Andy saw me sitting in my little corner getting ready and said, \u201cAre you OK, Chalko?\u201d That\u2019s what he calls me, Chalko. And I said, \u201cHonestly, Andy, man, I don\u2019t want to talk about this. I just want to do it.\u201d And he said OK. Oh my god, I could cry still. It really touched my heart. We never rehearsed a single thing. They shot the scene and let us play. And the crew whispered. We\u2019re not a whisper group. We laugh, we have a good time, but they whispered and supported us in a very real and uncommon way. When we finished shooting that scene, I wept. I just felt like, \u201cOh my gosh. I asked for what I wanted and got it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\tIt makes sense why the performance feels so raw to watch.<\/strong>
It was allowed to be raw, which is what I wanted. The barracks became my favorite place to work. I felt so well taken care of, so seen. And nobody took it personally. That was my fear, because we\u2019re such a good-time crew, but we all got to have boundaries for our artistic stuff.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\tLet\u2019s talk about the Black Spot episode, where their private club is firebombed. I was curious to see how it would be handled, and I was also fascinated to see [Oscar-winning screenwriter] Cord Jefferson listed as one of the co-writers and producers on that episode. That was a signal to me that it would be taken very seriously.\u00a0<\/strong>
We had been prepped for that episode because of the choreography and the number of departments having to work together. [In] my journal, I have pages of lighting notes, blocking notes. There were dancers, stuntees, fire units. Everything about that scene is wonderful to me because we all worked so well together.\u00a0<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\tFor Dick, the only thing he\u2019s looking for is peace. The Black Spot was supposed to be his peace. And then to have that happen there? Early in the show when they first get there, Dick kind of looks around. Did Dick know it was going to happen? When I see [that scene] now, it looks like this dude knows this shit is doomed. And in my interpretation of Dick, he feels like he brings all the trauma. He feels like it\u2019s his fault. He feels unlovable. He wonders if he can have a family. That\u2019s why he\u2019s so attached to Leroy and Charlotte and Will. So I think that\u2019s a culmination of all the things he loves falling apart in his fucking face. What a fun thing to get to play with.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tIf we were to get one more scene with Dick in the finale after the credits rolled, what would you want to see?\u00a0<\/strong>
I want a whole show. I don\u2019t think he\u2019s better at the end of Derry. I think he\u2019s just starting to realize how fucked up he is and how not in control of his power he is. By the time he gets to the Overlook [in The Shining], he\u2019s got to have proper control over that. This dude just opened the box. So I see a whole show. Maybe in New Orleans. Imagine the haunting, imagine the Blackness, imagine the music. It\u2019s like Treme, but add Stephen King on top of it. Or go to the U.K., or go to Paris. He\u2019s such a great person to navigate. How many times does he get screwed in order to become the person we know? What happens with the love of his life? In my imagination, he\u2019s called back somewhere by the love of his life and she dies and he blames himself. Dick is so toxic just by having that power. How can you love somebody? How can somebody love you if you can read their mind? How can somebody love you if you can\u2019t tell them you can read their mind? This dude is trapped.<\/p>\n\n\tThat\u2019s a perfect dilemma if we were to continue following Dick.\u00a0<\/strong>
Season Two is going back 27 years before Season One, so Dick\u2019s not there. But he could be, because he can travel on the psychic plane. The thing about Dick is he can be wherever in the Stephen King universe, because his brain can be in any reality.<\/p>\n\n\tDick could be present in Season Two.\u00a0<\/strong>
Could be. No one\u2019s told me that. This is just my thought. Well, maybe we did talk about that once. It\u2019s not likely, but it\u2019s possible. But I don\u2019t know if that\u2019s real or if I\u2019m imagining that conversation.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\tScatman Crothers, who played Dick in The Shining, was very casual about the fact that the movie ending is totally different from the book ending for Dick. He\u2019s killed in the movie and he lives in the book.\u00a0<\/strong>
Kubrick did whatever he wanted to do.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\tNow that you\u2019ve played him and you\u2019re deep in the lore, do you view the ending of The Shining film any differently?\u00a0<\/strong>
Oh, no. Not my business. When I read The Shining and saw that was the truth, I thought that\u2019s what they do. [Laughs.]<\/p>\n\n\tThey<\/strong>. [<\/strong>Laughs.<\/strong>]<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tThat\u2019s what I thought. But it didn\u2019t matter to me. It doesn\u2019t affect me or my job on It: Welcome to Derry<\/a> one bit. I got a whole life I got to take personally. I can\u2019t take that personally, too.<\/p>\n\n\tI wanted to go back to something you said earlier, in this interview and in other interviews. You\u2019ve jovially mentioned you have \u201cgood trauma\u201d and that is something that you use.\u00a0<\/strong>
Well, I don\u2019t use it, it\u2019s just part of me. I\u2019m really against acting as therapy. That\u2019s not our job. I went to school and worked with a lot of people who used it as therapy. You can hurt other people that way. I\u2019m not into my process affecting another human being or being irresponsible in that way, but I have been through a lot. I\u2019ve been raising my nephew since I was 11. My dad was not around. Everybody died. Everybody. My uncle at 25, [another] uncle at 30, my aunt at 40, my dad at 52.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\tI\u2019ve had a lot of adult experiences at a young age, and luckily, I can talk to you now about it because of healing and processing and the way my brain works. I think it\u2019s important to talk about, because I don\u2019t want anybody, in particular little Black boys, to think that it\u2019s their fault. That\u2019s just life. That\u2019s what happens. And you get help and you deal with it. But it\u2019s not our fault that people took advantage of us sweet little boys and little girls. As victims, why are we blaming ourselves? It has nothing to do with us.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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\n\tFirst of all, I\u2019m so sorry that any of those things happened to you, because nobody deserves any of those things.<\/strong>
Nobody deserves any of these things! But I do feel like I\u2019m the lucky one in that I have a job that requires me to fix myself. To be able to do this job well, in my opinion, one must know themselves and then know their characters as well as they know themselves. I\u2019m so grateful for my trauma. I know my people. I see the people that did things to me and what their lives look like and how they never talked about it and how they never opened up about it and how they never forgave themselves. And I can see what could have happened to me, which is become a fucking misogynist who abuses women, who hates himself, who drinks and does drugs. I come from very poor people in Asheville, North Carolina. You can see slavery on my people. We\u2019re not super educated. We\u2019re amazing, we\u2019re super smart, but just not traditionally educated. I\u2019m the anomaly of my family.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\tThe fact that your career is what helped you deal with your life \u2014 those two things going hand in hand is really rare.<\/strong>
Yeah. Building characters allowed me to take my life less personally.\u00a0<\/p>\n\t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n
\n\tI appreciate you talking about all of this. I wanted to open that door.<\/strong>
Oh yeah, I love it. I ain\u2019t got no secrets, girl!<\/p>\n\n\tThis interview has been edited for length and clarity.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I n It: Welcome to Derry, HBO\u2019s prequel series to Stephen King\u2019s epic about a demonic, shape-shifting clown,…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":448581,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[171,487,5037,104014,12757,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-448580","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-hbo-max","10":"tag-it","11":"tag-it-welcome-to-derry","12":"tag-stephen-king","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115723512810466404","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448580","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=448580"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448580\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/448581"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=448580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=448580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=448580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}