John Gallagher Jr and Brianne Tju Talk Fear Of Death In Gone In The Night
Gone In The Night finds Winona Ryder as Kath, a woman who becomes obsessed with finding an explantation when her boyfriend disappears with a young woman after a vacation in a remote cabin in the woods. I spoke with actors John Gallagher Jr and Brianne Tju about what it was like joining the cast of this thriller.
Gallagher Jr shared that the icon Winona Ryder herself wanted him to be a part of the project. “I had an email from my agent and it was the script for this film. She said, ‘Take a look at this one. Winona Ryder is a big fan of yours and really wants you to play this role.’ I just about lost consciousness. I couldn't believe that Winona Ryder even knew who I was, I mean, she’s a legend and an icon with an unparalleled career in this industry,” he told me. “I’ve been such a fan of hers for ages so the fact that she wanted to work with me, I still kind of can’t believe my good fortune. I read the script and it hooked me. I hadn’t read anything quite like it. It was kind of this genre-bending strange mystery that kept me guessing and reading the whole time.”
Brianne Tju is no stranger to the thriller and horror genre with roles in Light as a Feather and I Know What You Did Last Summer. “The circumstances are so outside the realm of what's normal and I like to be able to use my imagination in that way and also have the challenge of making those unrealistic circumstances feel real and grounded and human,” she shared. “For me, it's like a puzzle and watching it I just have to know what the mystery is. I love guessing and I think that's what's great about Gone In The Night. It will leave you guessing after every scene.”
The film explores the complex themes of immortality and youth and just how far people will go to attain them. “The one thing that we all know to be true is that this doesn't last forever. We all are going to die someday and I think that it’s a tale as old as time. We all fear death,” said Tju. “We follow essentially four different generations of people all dealing with this same kind of fear of mortality and seeing how it's very universal. It doesn't really matter what generation you find yourself in because we're all going through that same struggle. A particular character that maybe seems like they have more wisdom, instead of finding that they have peace in their mortality, you see them do whatever it takes to achieve what they want. But also seeing someone young like Greta and Al trying to achieve it when you feel like you look at them you're like, wait you have so much life ahead of you, and it still never feels like enough. I think that's something a lot of people can relate to.”
Gallagher Jr continued: “Death is […] scary and uncertain and it's a part of life and we all know that we're all headed there. That's just a kind of insane thing to grapple with on a daily basis and some of us do and some of us don't. It's kind of a daily part of life, but it's just kind of an age-old story trope, isn't it? Like the fountain of youth. For years and years it's been a symbol in storytelling and […] people are always trying to find some kind of way to turn back time, whether it's through cosmetic surgery or aligning yourself with a younger group of people, which is something that all the characters in this film kind of do. It was such a fresh way to grapple with those themes the way that Eli [Horowitz] has structured this story. These characters are all just just struggling with what it means to age and what it means to let go of your past. It's kind of a stunning way to tell the tale.”
Gone In The Night hits digital and on demand August 2.
