DeWanda Wise and Pyper Braun Talk Imaginary, Practical Never Ever Set, and Terrifying Pranks

In Blumhouse’s latest horror film Imaginary, Jessica is worried when her stepdaughter Alice’s behavior changes after they move back into her childhood home and finding a stuffed bear named Chauncey. It turns out Chauncey is much more than they imagine. Pop Culture Planet’s Kristen Maldonado spoke with actresses DeWanda Wise and Pyper Braun about their experience filming their first horror movie, the practical Never Ever set, and terrifying set pranks.

Both actresses could connect to Chauncey after growing up with their own comfort toys as kids. “I grew up with Teddy Ruxbin, but I also had Kid Sister, which was a really creepy, very 90s animatronic doll that was everywhere and had like a trillion commercials,” said Wise, while Braun shared she actually forgot her special stuffie at home on this press tour: “I still to this day have a stuffed cat. [It’s] not a stuffed animal, it is a purse. I actually forgot her on this trip sadly. I bring her with me everywhere I go.”

While special effects, like doors closing on their own, made a horror movie different from other projects they’ve worked on, Wise also called it “absolutely hilarious” to work on a horror movie set for the first time. “People don't realize that working on a horror movie set. I was really prepared. I was super spiritually prepared and very ready to be like, ‘Okay, it's a lot on the nervous system, I got to take care of myself,” she told me. “I didn't expect to laugh so much. I didn't expect for so many things to be absolutely hilarious.”

One of the funniest moments on set took place in the Never Ever, the imaginary world the Chauncey comes from. “I was actually fine until we were shooting in the Never Ever and they brought a dog onset,” Wise said “I'm not kidding you. I could not keep it together. That dog made me laugh so much. It was the moment where Jeff [Wadlow] turns to us and he was like, ‘Is this camp?’ and I was like, ‘You have Betty Buckley delivering a monologue when a dog runs across? Yes, this is camp, Jeff. We're giving… we're giving camp.’”

Speaking of the Never Ever, the practical 46 door set gave off Labyrinth energy. “We got lost a lot,” Wise laughed. “I started a game that was called ‘Where To?’ Like literally just open a door and you're just like I don't know if this going to lead me to the craft services table or makeup, but we're just gonna open the door and find out and see as we go. It was amazing.”

In the creepy birthday room of the Never Ever, Wise sinks through the floor in a terrifying scene. “I had way too much fun. That was one of the moments when you're making a horror movie where you're like, ‘I am scared. I am terrified. I am not just playing on the stage that is like sinking and fulfilling my childhood dream of what it would be like to fall through quicksand because we all thought that there would be a lot more quicksand in our adulthoods,” she revealed. “There's a moment where Jessica tries to move and Jeff was like, ‘Oh, we need to know that there's like this suction quality.’ As a nerdy actor acting that out physically, like what was required, it reminded me of clowning.”

Braun was even able to keep a mock up version of Chauncey. “I call him Fauncey for fake Chauncey and actually hid the bear around set with my wardrobe person CJ [Carver]. [You’d] sometimes find him in the elevator, in my seat,” she shared. “It’s like Chauncey’s cousin, I like to call him, because he looks like Chauncey just a couple grades down.”

Wised continued: “She's giving the PG-13 version of this game. This game was terrifying. Like legit. If you can imagine coming to work super early in the morning, okay? Makeup has not wiped the sleep from your eyes. You have not had your cup of coffee and you get on an elevator and there's a bear there with like a notes taped to him and you're working on a horror movie. This game between Pyper and CJ was terrifying. It really escalated over the course of [the film].”

Wise’s film Someone Great celebrates five years in April 2024, which inspired her when executive producing Imaginary. “That movie actually really set the tone. I wasn't a producer on that. Gina [Rodriguez], the homie, was an executive producer on that film. We had such a great time that we were just like, ‘Well, I hope other people like the movie because I enjoyed making it, so it's kind of inconsequential.’ That is the same energy and the same spirit that I brought as an executive producer to this project,” she shared. “It could just be fun, we can just have a good time, and I really think it shows up on screen. I obviously love a girl trio so between between me and Pyper and Taegen [Burns]. What you see on screen is very real and and that's something that I carried over from Someone Great.”

Through Jessica, Alice, and Taylor, we get to see a positive portrayal of a step mother and her step daughters. “I never realized how evil it was. It's always like Cinderella’s stepmom,” said Wise. “Someone else pointed that out to me and I was like, ‘Look at us! Didn't even try for that one!’”

While Alice and Jessica are up against Chauncey in Imaginary, how would they handle another Blumhouse horror? Wise chose Get Out as a parallel film. “When I first read the story, there's something about the Never Ever that was also giving Sunken Place. It's not villain-centric, but I would actually be so curious about the compilation of those two concepts and worlds, just because both of them feel like there was a limitlessness to both of the spaces,” she said. “Our phenomenal set designer Meghan Rogers was so brilliant and trying to make the Never Ever feel expansive and like you will be stuck here.”

Imaginary is playing in theaters.