This weekend, Rob Cohen’s psycho-sexy thriller, The Boy Next Door, arrives in theaters. It stars Jennifer Lopez as a middle-aged woman who gets entangled in a dangerous affair with her younger neighbor (Ryan Guzman) as she struggles to make her marriage work with her philandering husband (John Corbett). As you may expect, things take a dark and deadly turn once Lopez’s character realizes that escaping into the arms of a younger man isn’t going to solve any problems- it just ends up creating more.

During the recent press day for The Boy Next Door, we heard from Lopez, Cohen, Guzman and Corbett about their experiences working together on the project (which was also co-produced by Blumhouse Productions), the challenges they faced during their tight shooting schedule, how they dealt with the film’s climatic sex scene and more.

Look for The Boy Next Door in theaters on January 23, 2015.

Question: You came onto this project as a producer in addition to starring in it; what was it about The Boy Next Door that made you want to come on board in a behind-the-scenes capacity as well?

Jennifer Lopez: When it came to me, we were going to be producing it with Blumhouse. They were the ones who got us the financing for it. The character for me was something that felt like the perfect fit for right now. I can really relate- and I think a lot of people can relate too- to what she’s been through and what she goes through in the movie. For men and women, being at that point in your life where your relationship is falling apart and you’re left feeling this sense of worthlessness. I think that’s something at the base of Claire’s character that is very understandable to many people. They can understand making a mistake.

Question: And what was it about this project in particular that first caught your eye?

Jennifer Lopez: It was the script; actually, my producing partner and I had envisioned me taking on a role like this and I think she found it through our agency and thought it would be a good next project for me. So we just took it on and championed it and got it made. $4 million, 25 days, micro-budgeted film- I had never been a part of a movie like that in my career before.

But it was very liberating as an artist because it made me realize that I can make any movie that I want to like this. The material is what matters and it really is empowering to realize that as an artist.

Question: The audience I saw this film with last night seemed to be having a blast with it- they were cheering, they were laughing, and I think they applauded at one point. Considering the titillating subject matter, was that sort of the intent even though you guys do approach the story seriously?

Jennifer Lopez: Absolutely. We knew we were making a popcorn thriller. We knew that going in. What that means though is that audiences still want to watch a story that resonates with them because then you’re just making a bad movie. We wanted to make a movie that would have you rooting for the main character and I think we do just that. At the base of it, there’s a broken family and it’s about that family coming back together after this terrible thing that happens.

We all had a great time working on this- me, John, Ryan, Rob- we all had a lot of fun. Sometimes, when you’re making a movie like this so intensely where you’re looking at the call sheet and wondering just how in the hell we’re going to make our day, we had to all come together as a team.

Question: The finale is pretty intense and seemed very involved. I know you guys didn’t have a long shooting schedule so how did you guys manage to pull it off?

John Corbett: It was really cold; we were out in some town past Palmdale on the 14- Disneyland Ranch I think is what they call it- and we shot nights until the sun would come up.

Ryan Guzman: It was super cool the way we shot it though; we did it once and that was a crazy experience. Then we had to do some reshoots and it was luckily warmer then. But I remember at the point where I’m throwing gasoline everywhere, which was just cold water, and during the colder nights I ended up getting frostbite because I kept getting the water on me while we were shooting. It was pretty crazy.

Question: Ryan can you discuss working with Jennifer and having to develop a certain sense of trust between the two of you when it came time to shoot that very intense love scene that you share?

Ryan Guzman: It’s never anything but awkward when you’re shooting scenes like that, even when you prepare yourself to the fullest. But I met Jennifer a couple of times beforehand and we had worked together for about a week before we had to shoot that scene. It was still in the back of my mind though just because I was so nervous and so I finally had to come to her and tell her how nervous I was because it was my first time getting naked in front of a bunch of people.

But she pulled me to the side and said that we were just telling a story and it was part of our jobs so we had to do the very best we could because if we didn’t have that passionate scene, nothing else in the movie was going to sell it to the audience. We wanted to make it memorable and we did that, I think.

John Corbett: I remember in the script that all it really says about that scene was that they make love and that was it. The day after they shot it, I remember going up to you and asking how it all went and you said it went fine but didn’t say much more than that. So I didn’t think about it too much until we finally watched the movie and then I was blown away by how far that scene really went.

Question: Congratulations on the film; I noticed that in the press notes it was mentioned how when Jennifer came on board, some things were tailored around her. Did they also tailor it to your sensibilities as well?

Rob Cohen: Oh yeah. It wasn’t necessarily just the action scenes either. This is a story about sexual obsession and when I first came on, the script felt a bit asexual. The story was there but when I read it, I said if you’re going to do a movie about a middle-aged woman and a younger man there’s got to be a sex scene in it. And not just the kissy-kissy, rolling around in the sheets kind of scene either; you have to see the primal purpose of that moment. It was about that myth; the young man who was total perfection and this older woman who was at the fullness of her womanhood.

When I first moved out here to LA, I had an affair with an older woman who was an ABC Executive, who was also a mother in her 40’s, and she taught me a lot. It was sort of a magical mystery tour for me and she got out of it this rather active, eager guy so it worked out for both of us (laughs). But the thing that made me excited here was looking at the idea of sexual obsession and how it ends up being this kind of mixed-up love with two people coming at it from totally different perspectives.

Question: What was the biggest difference for you directing a film like The Boy Next Door versus something like The Fast and the Furious?

Rob Cohen: I did this movie because I had always wanted to work with Jennifer and I really liked this script. The thing about Hollywood is that you tend to get typecast and most people forget that I got started by directing dramas. So then I was working on Miami Vice and people realized that I knew how to shoot around cars so then suddenly, every movie I was doing featured cars and guns. So then I went out and did Dragon: A Bruce Lee Story which was a very male movie but also had a wonderful love story to it.

But once you do a movie like The Fast and the Furious and it’s three billion dollars later, that’s all that people remember. So the idea of doing a movie with a female lead who was the central focus was something I jumped at. You don’t want to keep doing the same thing over and over.

  • Heather Wixson
    About the Author - Heather Wixson

    Heather A. Wixson was born and raised in the Chicago suburbs, until she followed her dreams and moved to Los Angeles in 2009. A 14-year veteran in the world of horror entertainment journalism, Wixson fell in love with genre films at a very early age, and has spent more than a decade as a writer and supporter of preserving the history of horror and science fiction cinema. Throughout her career, Wixson has contributed to several notable websites, including Fangoria, Dread Central, Terror Tube, and FEARnet, and she currently serves as the Managing Editor for Daily Dead, which has been her home since 2013. She's also written for both Fangoria Magazine & ReMind Magazine, and her latest book project, Monsters, Makeup & Effects: Volume One will be released on October 20, 2021.