The new horror film from Justin P. Lange, The Seventh Day, delivers an exorcism story with a twist. An accomplished exorcist, Father Peter (Guy Pearce) teams up with Father Daniel (Vadhir Derbez), an inexperienced recruit assigned to him by the archbishop (Stephen Lang). Their mission is to stop the demonic possession of a young boy who killed his family, but once they're involved, they realize things aren't entirely what they seem.
Known for his roles in Avatar and Don't Breath, Stephen Lang adds another horror film to his resume with The Seventh Day. In an exclusive interview with CBR, Lang discusses his process for nailing the archbishop's look, working with Guy Pearce and whether anything creepy occurred on set.
CBR: What attracted you to this role?
Stephen Lang: Well, I like Guy Pearce. So, I’m not really addressing the role right now. There was nothing wrong with the role in the least. I’ve never played an archbishop, so I thought I can play a man of the cloth. I thought there are certain circumstances where I’d certainly leap to play it. The truth of the matter really is, the film isn’t about the archbishop in the least, right?
I think I came off of playing big roles, and it was nice to come in and do just a nice character piece – a very quick kind of portrait. I like doing that occasionally, and, as I said, I’ve always respected and admired Guy Pearce’s work. So, I thought that’ll be fun to work with a person, a colleague, who you really don’t know but would like to know.
Also, the company that made the film, I’d recently done a film for them VFW, which was an altogether good experience. I enjoyed doing that film. I like the way they were making the film out there in Dallas. I had a good experience with the company. So, I was inclined to be receptive to them because I thought I’d still be treated well.
So, the culmination of things just sort of… also it wasn’t a long commitment, and I’d never done an exorcism film. Yeah, it’s always the idea of just doing something you haven’t done before, big or small, and it was interesting to me.
When you found out you were going to be in The Seventh Day, was there anything you were nervous Justin Lange might ask you to do, considering the exorcism theme?
[Laughs] No, there’s nothing that made me nervous, but there is an immediate or sort of bargain that one comes with oneself that is: No matter how good the film you make is, it’s never going to be better than the second-best film made about exorcisms. That’s just the way it is. So, the benchmark is extraordinarily high. I don’t know. I think the mechanics of an exorcism film are every bit as interesting as the film itself in many ways. And I thought, “Okay, I can be part of that.”
You’ve dabbled in horror in the past, most recently with Don’t Breath. Are you a fan of the genre?
Well, I am. I would say I’m a fan without being an aficionado. My experience is that so many people involved in the genre world know a lot about it. Now, would I say that horror films are my favorite genre of films? No, I wouldn’t. But now that I’ve done a number of them, I enjoy doing them. I enjoy the challenge of approaching it, but it’s not so different from a lot of other approaches in a way. Maybe it’s more extreme sometimes, but you’re just striving for the same sort of authenticity and truth and everything. I don’t characterize Don’t Breath as a horror film even though it has horror elements in it. Yeah, I’m not daunted by the genre. I like to work in all genres if I can.
The church, exorcisms, it can all be a little complicated. Did you do any research for this role?
Not a lot [laughs]. I looked up the rites of exorcism. I looked it up. I Wikipediaed it. I did not do a tremendous amount of it. I wanted to create a look in the role where you would know who this fellow was just by seeing him, and I thought we were successful in doing that. He’s sharp and well-mannered and well put together. You can kind of see why he’s an archbishop, you know.
So, when you’re doing that, you’re working in – I wouldn’t say broad – but very fast strokes. You need to achieve a lot kind of quickly. With the look and the voice, I did that. Certainly, I went online, and I looked at a lot of art, a lot of paintings, a lot of photographs to look for inspiration for the look. Once I sort of decided on the look – we decided on the look – it fell into place. So, no, I don’t know a whole lot about exorcisms.
I know you mentioned it earlier, but do you want to talk a little about what it was like working with Guy Pearce?
Well, I enjoyed being with him. I could tell he’s just a total very creative pro with his film work, the diversity of it, the array of stuff he’s done. I felt I’d be going into scenes with a colleague of equal mind. And it was. I enjoyed working with him and being with him. It was very easy. I think that his job in this film was more difficult than mine was. So, I certainly gave him that kind of space and that kind of room necessary and required. But, yeah, we had a real good time working together. I’d work with him again anytime.
You have a Broadway background. How much of that theater experience do you apply when taking on a film role, like The Seventh Day?
You apply things without knowing you’re applying them. Maybe the application is automatic at this point. All the work that you do is in some way a culmination of all the work and experience you’ve done before and, hopefully, something completely new.
In this case, I think the quality of the way [the archbishop] speaks was important to me. I just watched the film the other day and listening to the difference in the voice I used for that character as compared to my voice – judging it fairly critically – what I’ll say is I was happy with the effort, and that’s theater -- that level of artifice.
There’s a lot of exorcism movies out there. What do you think sets The Seventh Day apart?
Well, I don’t know, not having seen so many of them. The main thing is that I’m in it and Guy Pearce [laughs]. The scene that struck me was when Guy Pearce and the young priest are in the car together, and he’s talking about demons and how they hide. I know he was talking about something very literal and something very concrete in terms of this film we’re making. But in many ways, you could feel those words as a metaphor for so much of the ills that we do have. I hadn’t ever really considered that at all, but I heard it in the words [Guy Pearce] was saying. I thought that was interesting, so I think that it’s something that separates this film from others because there’s kind of a metaphorical quality to it.
In the original Exorcist, as great, great, great film as it is, I don’t see it as sort of a metaphor. It’s sort of this is what it is, and this is what it’s about. [The Seventh Day] with all its secrets and sins and demons of society is what’s being alluded to here.
Do you want to talk about what it was like working with Justin Lange?
He was a good director. He was quite specific with me, and I liked it. We had a couple of good days together and what he wanted me to deliver was very much in line with the way I was thinking about things. He knows directing. He got it done, and it was good.
Is there are scene you’re most excited for the audiences to see?
Well, no. I just want them to experience the entire thing. If I told you a specific thing, I might not be in it. But I think the scene early on where he goes onto the highway, and they have an experience under there, that’s quite an alarming scene to me [laughs]. Again, that particular tent city that we see down there is something that we are just seeing on a daily basis now in a way we never did years ago. So, it’s all there. So much of the environment of this film feels kind of true. That sequence is very good.
There’s that superstition that comes with exorcism movies. Did anything creepy occur on set at all?
[Laughs] Oh, gosh. I don’t think so. No, nothing while I was there because, understand, I play one of the princes of the church, so whatever demonic spirits were at large, they weren’t going to mess around while I was there [laughs]. That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it.
Directed by Justin P. Lange and starring Guy Pearce, Vadhir Derbez, Stephen Lang and Brady Jenness, The Seventh Day is available March 26, 2021, in Select Theaters and VOD.
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