Interview: Jenna Ortega & Paul Rudd on ‘Death of a Unicorn’
Jenna Ortega and Paul Rudd play estranged daughter and father, Ridley and Elliot Kintner, on a business trip to the Canadian Rockies, when they accidentally strike and kill a unicorn on their way to a wilderness retreat, in Death of a Unicorn, the genre-bending debut feature from writer-director Alex Scharfman. The film, a wild, gory yet surprisingly heartfelt ride that thrilled audiences at its world premiere at SXSW a few weeks ago, mixes the creature feature with the corporate satire. But for all the chaos and mythical carnage, at the center is a story about a father and his daughter trying to fix the fractured relationship between them.
“It came naturally,” Ortega says about building the father-daughter dynamic with Rudd. “Paul is very talented and very experienced. I think when you’re playing family members, it’s really important that you guys do have chemistry and that you guys do have this kind of safe, comfortable environment—and he’s really good at curating that.”
She credits Scharfman’s writing for giving the emotional core a chance to sneak up on viewers. “Alex Scharfman wrote a beautiful script, and an incredibly nuanced—well, not necessarily nuanced—but it’s one of the storylines and plot lines that kind of sneaks up on you,” she elaborates. “I thought it was very tastefully done, and it was just fun.”
“It’s also really easier when you get to work with somebody as talented as Jenna, she’s just really good,” says Rudd of working with Ortega. “So I felt really lucky in all of those scenes to be working with her.”
The film doesn’t shy away from big swings. Rudd, who hasn’t appeared in a horror film since Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers 30 years ago, was drawn to the challenge. “It seemed like, ‘Oh, what kind of movie is this?’ Because it is scary, it is funny. It’s emotional,” he says. “It just seemed to be its own unique thing, so it was great. I loved working on it. Alex was so good at helping us understand what the tone of the film is. It was challenging and fun.”
That tone wasn’t always easy to pin down. Ortega remembers feeling slightly disoriented on set when she first started filming. “I was confused half of the time because [Alex] told me to play it as real and grounded as possible,” she recalls. “But then you get on set, and everybody is so funny in this film, but also just very big and animated, and absolutely extraordinary. I like to put trust in my directors, but I do remember going home a couple times and being like, ‘Am I in a completely different movie?’ But I think it really pays off at the end. It starts to makes sense, and he was very strategic about the way he did everything.”
“All the other actors, I mean, if you really look at it, those characters they’re playing, they are so extreme,” says Rudd. “Like you could read that and think they’re cartoons. But he’s such a good writer that he makes them real but absurd in all of these ways, whereas [Jenna’s] character and my character, we’re the people that the audience is watching these crazy people through. So it’s really a strange balance and it’s wild to see all of these different styles in one film but yeah, it all works together in a cool way.”
The chemistry clearly carried off-screen. “Everybody on this job, we became very tight and close-knit,” Ortega says. “We all really love and respect each other and I think that shows.”
Ortega says she just recently wrapped filming on Wednesday season 2 – but she’s still completing ADR for it ahead of a planned debut later this year. While the new season boasts a number of additional names joining the cast, including Billie Piper, Steve Buscemi, Evie Templeton, Owen Painter and Noah Taylor, one name in particular had fans even more excited for the new season: Lady Gaga.
“I just started listening [to her new album Mayhem] this morning when I was getting ready,” Ortega says. “She’s so unbelievably cool. How she still does it, I don’t know. Working with her, we couldn’t believe that she actually showed up, even on the day. I think it was a surreal feeling. But she is such a sweetheart, she’s so kind and just an absolutely lovely presence to be around. And obviously, she’s so immensely talented. Tim [Burton] and I really had a great time getting to know her. It kind of felt like a pipe dream. We didn’t really think that something like that could ever happen, so we were just very grateful and appreciative. We love her.”
As for which mythological creature should get their own horror film next?
“Splash, there’s your Mermaid movie! Leprechauns had Leprechaun,” says Rudd. “Has there been a Loch Ness [Monster] movie?”
“Who’s going in the water like that though? You gotta shoot it like Avatar,” replies Ortega. “That would be so difficult.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Rudd agrees. “Or [film it like] Jaws, Waterworld.”
“I think Will Poulter is a mythical creature,” Ortega deadpans. “And there’s a wonderful film to be made about him.”
A24 will release DEATH OF A UNICORN in theaters on March 28.