(INTERVIEW) Clarke Wolfe Talks To Macabre Daily About "TENANTS" (2024)
If you’re at all familiar with the online horror community, you’ve probably heard of Clarke Wolfe. She’s a podcaster, filmmaker, and host, and she recently won “Best Supporting Actress” at the Hollywood Blood Horror Film Festival for her role in this week’s anthology horror film, “Tenants.” Wolfe plays “Belinda,” a put-upon roommate in “Need Anything,” a hilariously bloody look at cohabitation.
“Tenants” features intersecting stories about residents in a haunted apartment building, written by Sean Mesler and husband and wife duo Mary O’Neil, and Buz Wallick. Wallick and Mesler directed segments along with Blake Reigle, Jonathan Louis Lewis, and O'Neil in the film’s wraparound segment. Wolfe made time to talk to me during the festival run of her short film “A Shining Example,” to talk about collaborating with her friends, the perils of roommates, and what it’s like to be covered in blood for twelve hours.
Lowell Greenblatt: I don’t mean to start off talking about the end of “Need Anything,” but I have to talk about that final bloody section. Was it all planned beforehand or did you get to improvise?
Clarke Wolfe: It was a heavily choreographed sequence, not just for safety reasons, but for special effects. The director, Buz Wallick, is a personal friend of mine and my co-star Fayna Sanchez. We’re all friends in real life. Buz was very smart in knowing that since it’s low budget, we won’t have a ton of time, we have to preserve our costumes, so how do we want to organize this? We shot mostly chronologically. Everything leading up to the fight we shot on day one, and on day two, we only focused on the fight. On the one hand, it allowed us to not be rushed, but on the other hand, we were covered in blood for twelve hours. I’m sure your audience has heard this, but it is very uncomfortable to be covered in fake blood [Laughs]. But it was super fun.
Buz, myself, Fayna, and the writer of this segment, Mary O’Neil all got together before the shoot at Buz and Mary’s apartment. We rehearsed and made sure we got all the blocking out and had plenty of time so everybody could be safe and we could get the best takes possible.
LG: The film feels very homegrown. Like you said, I pictured a group of friends getting together to make something. Did you get together to discuss which roles go to which person, or does someone say “Hey, you’re right for Belinda?”
CW: That’s a great question. In this case, Mary, Sean [Mesler], and Buz were the driving forces putting all of this together behind the scenes. Sean directed “The Photograph” and “Acting Rash.” Mary plays Joni, the main character in the wraparound, and Buz directed a handful of segments as well. They all put the story together, and when Mary and Buz were working on “Need Anything,” they had me and Fayna in mind. That was something they were really smart about. If they wanted to get the physicality right, they wanted actors who were ideally close to one another. Fayna and I joke that we’re “bunk buddies” because we always travel together and share the same room or bed or whatever [Laughs]. So we were in a great position to get so physical with one another. In this case, specifically, they came to us when it was written and they had financing to say they had us in mind.
LG: Who is the worst roommate you ever had? That you can legally talk about, of course.
CW: [Laughs] That was definitely one of the things they were so smart about. No matter what, everybody can relate to this. Everyone can relate to having someone living in their space at some point in their life. When I moved to Los Angeles, my best friend and I lived with this woman, who was a character. But I’m sure at the end of the day, I was also a crummy roommate when I was twenty-two! Who can say? But I love how universal these themes are. That was important to Buz and Mary. Yes, “Need Anything” is ridiculous. “Acting Rash” is ridiculous. There’s a lot of over-the-top stuff in this movie, but there’s a throughline, which Mary really thought about, where you get to a point as an adult where you go “I didn’t think my life was going to go this way.” If there was one thing that connects every segment on a thematic level, I think that’s it. It was definitely present on a thematic level. The roommate thing is a great way into that theme.
LG: Definitely. Although the answer I was looking for is Brea Grant. It’s fine. Just throw her right under the bus!
CW: [Laughs] I will not! I roomed with her before at a wedding and she is a wonderful roommate.
LG: Part of the ending goes unexplained, which I kind of loved. Were there any discussions about revealing more, or just leaving it as Sartre’s version of hell?
CW: Buz and Mary are big mythology nerds. They’re into lore and rules, and they’re big movie fans, so they know even if you don’t tell the audience exactly what’s going on, you as a filmmaker need to know what’s going on, and the audience can figure it out themselves. So we did have a handful of discussions about the ending, and I can’t speak for Fayna, but I never thought it was a heightened reality. I took it at face value, because I think if you were in an otherworldly situation, you wouldn’t quite understand what was happening and you’re not playing to how crazy things have gotten. There’s a moment where Fayna and I look at each other like “what…?” But then we go right back into it.
LG: You always seem so busy with various projects. Is there anything coming up on the horizon you want to talk about?
CW: I’d love to. I recently directed a short film called “A Shining Example,” which is on a festival run right now. It premiered last year at Fantastic Fest and the film is currently playing in the SoHo International Film Festival. The premise of the film is that it’s “The Shining” with a mom. It was a lot of fun to make and I’m hopeful it will be available to stream next year, especially as “The Shining” celebrates its 45th anniversary. For any of my “Freaks & Geeks” nerds out there, I can also tease my dear friend Samm Levine and I are coming together to work on a project in the genre space. I will be directing and we are going to be making announcements in November. So please stay tuned, because I think horror fans are going to be very excited about it.
“Tenants” is now available on Video on Demand.
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