‘F*ck It, I’m Just Crying’: ‘Bring Her Back’ Is a Monstrous Vision of Grief

How does it feel having this film come out after the success of Talk to Me, which was so successful and put you guys on the map? Do you feel like you have something to prove?  

Danny Philippou: We knew we wanted the tone of [Bring Her Back] to be different. When we went into production of this movie, it didn’t even feel like we’d shot Talk to Me; it just feels like you start from scratch all over again. The only thing that was different was there was an added pressure where it was more nerve-racking, whereas with Talk to Me, we weren’t sure where it would be shown or what would happen with it. But we wanted to challenge ourselves and commit to a different kind of energy. 

How was it building out the cast for this? You have Sally Hawkins, who is a legend, and then these incredible younger actors, Billy Barratt, Sora Wong, and Jonah Wren Phillips, who all give star turning performances.  

DP: It always comes down to the auditions. As soon as we saw Jonah’s audition, we knew he was right. It’s never between two actors. They’re already capable of doing this. It’s just about nurturing it in the best way possible and giving them the freedom to explore and collaborate and build the characters as well. That always is where the authenticity comes out, especially with Sora. [We said], “Put yourself into this character. Let’s make sure that you're comfortable with all the dialogue, and you can pick your costume. You can pick how you’re delivering these lines. I think that’s where that can feel the most real, when young actors can give their best performances, when they can put themselves in those roles.  

Michael Philippou: And try to relieve the pressure as much as possible and have them feel comfortable on set. Every actor works in a different way. They respond to things in a different way.  

DP: And there's no such thing as a bad take, either. Everything is a stepping stone towards something great.  

After casting, was there anything that changed the characters once you’d already written the script? 

DP: With Sally, she’s so in depth with the character, and she breaks every scene down. It was about sitting down with her and properly mapping out the character’s arc. And that’s the first thing that we do. Once the actors come, we sit down with them with the script, and we go through every single one of their scenes. I’m like, “This is what I’m trying to convey here. This is what I think is happening here. What are you getting out of the scene? What can you tap into?” Laura changed a little bit, especially once we cast Sally. Initially, in the script, she was bigger than the kids. She was stronger than the kids. And that shifted and changed because Andy’s bigger in the movie, which just tied into what we're trying to convey with Andy's character.  

MP: Psychologically, she's powerful in a different way, so that was great—sitting with her and working on the character and making it her own. It was incredible.  

How was it working with Sally? One of the film’s great strengths is that it turns what audiences know about her previous work, where she always plays kind of kooky characters, and this plays with that in a scary way.  

DP: One thing that we were so drawn to is that she is naturally maternal and comforting. She’s so beautiful and lovely, and that is a part of Laura as well. That’s who she was before any of this stuff happened to her. And so tapping into that was really incredible. It was just so exciting because she hadn’t done a full-out horror before. Looking at it from a character perspective, and just the idea that she was bringing everything that she’s so good at into building this character from the ground up. I love that she put that energy towards this.   

Billy and Sora’s performances are independently really incredible, but they also have such great chemistry and work together so well in establishing the sibling dynamic and relationship between them.  

DP: He was her big brother on set, and he was mentoring her. He was the exact same age that she was when he was in his first movie. He knows all about the things that she was struggling with, and they just really trusted each other.  

MP: And [we do] bonding exercises—taking them to games and out together, and they go as brother and sister, in character. That just creates this amazing relationship. So, as much as we can prepare beforehand with all the actors, it just gives it this extra sense of realism.  

What was the inspiration for Piper being partially sighted? Because that adds an interesting dimension to the brother-sister relationship and also allows for some really beautiful ways we see through Piper’s eyes.   

MP: Thematically, it all comes down to that. Our friend and his little sister [are] the biggest inspiration for [Piper] in that I was interested in following [our friend’s sister] in that she really wanted to catch the bus by herself and be independent. And it was this crossroads where the family was scared to allow her to do that. I just found that really interesting. And talking to her and basing her on the character of Piper, she inspired so much. I was asking her, “What do you think seeing is like?” And she ended up saying that she's glad that she couldn't because then she‘d have to see the bad things in the world. That sentence, that carried all the way throughout the film.  

You guys have become known for doing practical effects, and you had a bigger budget this time around. What was it like doing it on a larger scale, especially when it comes to the character of Oliver, who evolves in horrifying ways throughout the film? 

DP: There were two makeup teams, and one was dedicated just to Oliver and his effects. So that was a process with them creating this, speaking with them and creating a look for him, and then speaking with Jonah as well. There’s a lot of prosthetics, and he’s so tough. He’s 11. He’s an actor. He's also a Muay Thai fighter.  

MP: There was that option on the table where once it goes into the prosthetics, we could get a different actor, because your body’s changing. It’s shifting. We could get someone older to help do this stuff, but he really wanted to do it all himself. He’s a legend.  

How was it working with Jonah? Because his character is obviously such a linchpin to the plot of the film, especially in terms of his lack of dialogue.  

DP: What was so awesome is that both of his parents are actors, and his mom was on set, his dad was on set [Ed. note: Stephen Phillips, who plays the father in the film], and they would help build this character out and have exercises for him, which was a really important part of the process. It’s a fine line to walk that you don’t want to come off as overtly monster. To create that with him, it was interesting, and it turned out so terrifying.  

MP: Are we empathetic to him? Do we feel sorry for him, or are we scared of him? I like that it’s a bit ambiguous to begin with.  

This film heavily deals with grief. You mentioned that Talk to Me is a party film and Bring Her Back, which you both wrote at the same time, is more of a meditation on something that we all go through.  

DP: It's an expression of that. There’s a scene in the pool shed at the end where it just felt like we were all in there letting go of someone or something, and everyone in that pool shed was crying. Michael was crying giving direction. Sally was crying; our cinematographer [Aaron McLisky] was crying. There was an energy in there. And then dealing with loss at that time as well. It was a strange moment. The house was so small and there was nowhere to hide, and there were times where I had to have a cry. I remember going into one of the bedrooms, one of the scenes was reminding me of the person that we just lost, and then I tried to go somewhere else, and there’s just people everywhere that I'm like, “Fuck it, I’m just crying.”