WARNING: The following contains spoilers for SON, which is currently available in theaters, on demand and digital.
Andi Matichak is quickly making a name for herself as a scream queen. Not only does she play Allyson, Laurie Strode's granddaughter, in 2018's Halloween, she is now starring in SON as Laura, a mother desperate to save her young son David, who's plagued by a mysterious illness after strangers break into his room. As Laura, Matichak balances her character's deep love for her child with her disturbing backstory and her willingness to do whatever it takes, no matter how horrific, to save the boy. It's a challenging tightrope to walk that Matichak pulls off with relatable conviction.
In an interview with CBR, Matichak talked about her approach to her character in SON, working with Luke David Blumm, the young actor who plays David, and what's next for the Halloween franchise.
CBR: What attracted you to SON and the character of Laura?
Andi Matichak: One of the things that I loved so much about the script is just, although they're very extreme circumstances that you find Laura and her son David in, at the end of the day, she's a single mom who's doing the best she can with the knowledge and resources that she has. And that is just so simple. And that was really appealing, to see how far she's willing to go, and she's just trying to do her best to protect her kid. And I think that paring it down to the simplest form of just what the story's about, which is a love story between a mother and a son, was really extremely appealing to me.
Your character has an extremely disturbing backstory but we only get bits and pieces of it as they're doled out throughout the film. How did you include that in your character even though it wasn't really the focus of the movie's story?
I am really fortunate that I had Ivan Kavanagh as our leader on this film, as the writer and director. He is such a specific filmmaker and he has such a vision, which is really, really nice, to work with somebody like that. And he also has complete trust in his talent and the people that he cast. And there were a lot of conversations with Ivan, and he also sent me, I think it was a 10-page document that was just a character backstory and a history. And it gave me essentially, start to finish, what her life was up until you meet her in SON, and that was really, really helpful.
And that knowing her on a deeper level and just having so many conversations with Ivan about her and then bringing my own elements to it and bringing my own ideas to the table and that merging of the two was really the creation that you see. And then at that point it's just so kind of embedded in who you are that you almost throw it out the window and you just let it fly, and it comes through, hopefully, just based on the layering that was done previously.
When you meet her, Laura really comes across as your average mom, and she's very relatable because of that. How did you balance those relatable aspects of the character with the horrific things she does later for her son?
I think that you just needed to approach it like any mother would, and being along the journey, and every action, every decision she makes is as a reaction to something that happened, and she's just doing the logical thing to protect her son in that moment. And if you pare it down that simply, it makes it a lot easier to comprehend why these things happen, because normal people do incredible things, and they can also do atrocious things, especially in the name of love. And that was something that was really interesting and tough to toe the line between because at the end of the day, she is a normal mom. She's just put in these really extraordinary situations where she has to act in the best way she knows how, and she does that.
As the movie continues, Laura's way of approaching what's happening with her son changes. How did you approach her changing perspective?
It's tough, I think, to answer that question and not give anything away too deeply about the film for people who haven't seen it, but I think that she was acting in the best way that she could. And at a certain point, her son wasn't necessarily her son anymore, and that, I think, helped shift things in a different way.
How did you go about forming that mother-son bond with Luke David Blumm?
I was really fortunate that not only Luke was cast because he's a tremendous actor, but also he's a really wonderful human being. And the second we met, we just had instant chemistry and we have so much fun together, and that definitely really translated when we were on set. Even diving into the darkest of scenes that we had to film, in between takes, we were still giggling and laughing and making fun of each other and playing pranks on each other and doing things that 10-year-old boys would do, and it brought a lot of levity to the movie that helped, I think, tremendously when we're filming it, because it made it so much fun. And working with him was just pretty special. So I feel like it's partially luck that we had such a beautiful kind of relationship just as human beings on a personal level that translates into the film.
At the same time, though, the movie is really bloody and gory in a lot of places. What was it like working with those elements?
Luckily, I had some experience with previous films I did where there was a lot of blood, so blood, I'm not new to. [Laughs] But there's definitely a huge shock element to it. And seeing it, especially on this sweet little boy, is not ideal in any regard. But I think that our visual effects artists were just so unbelievable and they were able to really capture the horrific nature of what we were all going through with their designs.
As you mentioned, this is not your only recent foray into horror. You also play Laurie Strode's granddaughter in the Halloween franchise. What's it been like to be part of such an iconic film series?
I just am incredibly grateful and every day I wake up feeling like it's a dream. The horror community is a really special group and especially the love that people have for Halloween is truly incredible. And I feel like even if you're not a horror fan, everybody has a memory of the first time they saw the 1978 John Carpenter Halloween. And it's pretty iconic and epic to be a part of it in any regard, much less to play the lead heroine's granddaughter.
Can you tease anything about what's coming up for the sequels, Halloween Kills and Halloween Ends?
I can't say much, but it is bigger and badder and more violent than we've seen in past films. And I think fans are going to be really excited.
SON, written and directed by Ivan Kavanagh and starring Andi Matichak, Emile Hirsch and Luke David Blumm, is currently available in theaters, on demand and digital.
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